196 MELANESIA AND ITS PEOPLE. 
CULTIVATION OF RESPONSIBILITY AND INDEPENDENCE IN THE 
NATIVE CHURCH. 
The native church in Melanesia has never really been asked as yet 
to undertake the support of its own clergy and teachers. Bishop 
Wood’s charge in 1915 was the first official acknowledgment of the 
need for the Melanesians to look to themselves rather than to the 
Mission for funds to pay the teachers. In 1914 the amount contributed 
for the support of the Mission by the native church was £31. ‘This 
amount certainly seems out of all proportion, since at the same time 
the island stations cost £1,300 and most of this was for teachers’ pay. 
Nor is it that an excessive wage is paid to the teachers. No native 
priest receives more than £25 a year, and some of the junior teachers 
are rated at only £1 a year. In old days these salaries were always 
paid in kind, with now and then a demand for a little cash, but nowa- 
days a good deal of payment is done in cash, since traders and stores are 
found in almost every place. 
There has never been any attempt made to organize a system of local 
contributions. Ifa village wanted to buy timber or iron for the build- 
ing of its church, copra was made and was sold for the purpose, the 
Mission ship occasionally carrying the copra to market, or curios were 
made and were sold abroad. At various times during Bishop Wilson’s 
episcopate several villages gave contributions in curios and these were 
taken and were sold for the benefit of the Mission. But this never 
became a regular thing. “There seems to be no reason why the support 
of the native teachers in the well-established Christian villages should 
not be laid as a duty on the native church, with moreover the certainty 
of success. Until the time of Bishop Wilson no such thing was thought 
of, and one looks in vain for any hint of it in the lives of the first two 
bishops. In their time the making of copra was far from being estab- 
lished as an industry in Melanesia, and with the exception of food 
and curios there was practically nothing that could serve as a means of 
raising money. ‘The native money (shell money or the teeth of por- 
poises or dogs) was valueless, since there was no means of changing it, 
as no traders would take it as a means of exchange. 
THE QUESTION OF MAKING A RETURN FOR SPIRITUAL GIFTS. 
In himself the Melanesian knows but little, if anything at all, of 
gratitude, and he sees nothing incongruous in allowing the Mission to 
pay his teachers. Bishop Wilson tried to inculcate the idea that it 
was the duty of the natives to convey their Mission priests about in 
boats, acting as crews for them and receiving no pay. ‘The missionaries 
are often at heavy expense in obtaining boats’ crews (every man pays 
his own travelling expenses), and in the Banks Group Mr. Cullwick con- 
stantly had a crew of six men with him for three months at a stretch. 
