Page:Williams and Calvert, Fiji and the Fijians, New York, 1860.djvu/586

54:8 FIJI ANT> THE FIJIANS. judgment, and faults into which all unfurnished minds are likely to fall, hinder and destroy the good work in which they are engaged. This difficulty will, of course, diminish as the benefits of religious education and training are conferred upon the men employed. From the beginning of the Mission, the Missionaries have addressed themselves to the task of instructing the Native Teachers. At first it required but little knowledge to raise them above the rest of the people ; but it is evident that, in proportion as education spreads among the people, so greater attainments will be necessary on the part of those who are set up in the office of Teacher. When it is remembered how short a time since the whole of Fiji was lost in uttermost ignorance, and how recently the dawn of truth has broken over those beautiful islands, it is a thing to wonder at, that natives are now to be found discharging with ability the functions of the Christian Teacher, having their minds stored with a considerable amount of scriptural knowledge, which they are able to reproduce with clearness and power. And this would be more than a wonder, if it were not known that the Holy Spirit, who has changed the hearts and lives of these men, has also quickened and directed their understandings, and stored their minds. The necessity for a complete and efficient machinery for the training of Native Agents, has thus been felt to be more and more pressing. Hitherto each Missionary has attended to this matter, as best he could, for those immediately under his own charge. But the Mission work has grown so vast, and it has become so evident that the spiritual wants of Fiji must be chiefiy supplied by means of agents raised up on the spot, that the time has come when one Missionary must be wholly set apart for the superintendence of a Native Training Establishment, in the working of which he shall be assisted by a qualified Schoolmaster. Perplexed, harassed, and overworked, for want of more help, the Missionaries could no longer refuse to attend to this most necessary business, and therefore set apart one from their slender staff to take charge of a central Institution and School for the training of Native Agents, and the education of senior and promising youths. In the Rewa Bay, there now stands a Teacher's house with ten dwellings for native students : — this is the beginning of the Training Institution, which is under the care of the Eev. J H. Royce. Unless the number of Mis- sionaries is kept up, and increased, it is doubtful whether one of them can be spared permanently for this indispensable work, in which, for its efficient discharge, he must have the help of a trained Schoolmaster. The letters of Professor Harvey, of the Dublin University, during his visit to Fiji, brought good help to the educational, as well as the