A RECORD OUTPUT OF SCRIPTURES. SIX MILLION VOLUMES IN ONE YEAR.

Evening Post, Volume LXXI, Issue 141, 15 June 1906, Page 2

A RECORD OUTPUT OF SCRIPTURES. SIX MILLION VOLUMES IN ONE YEAR.

A remarkable year's record was announced ■ at the Bible Society's annual meetiugat Exetnr Hall on Wednesday, 2nd May. During tho yuar ending March, lyO6, nearly six mi.lion copies of the Scriptures were ciiculated. (the actual figuies being 5,977,453 books), which exceeded the society's previous high water mark by 33,000 copies, and this is the moro remaikable in face of the disturbed conditions which have prevailed in Russia, China, and Japan, v. here so;i.e of the society's heaviest e.ik-a take place. Tho pulyylot natuie of the Bible Society's work is instanced in the fact that at Wiunipeg, for example, fecriptures were supplied in forty-three different language*, while at Johannesburg versions in fifty-two lan-giwg-eti were suld at the depot in that city, and a fifty-third was jisked for by a newcomer,, who demanded a Bible in Icelandic, which the agent had not there on the &pot. During the past year eleven new languages have been added to the society's list of versions. The Bible Society hat> now promoted the translation, piiiitiny, or distribution of some part of God's ! Word in 400 different languages. The new tongues are Ladakhi, Singpho, Kuliviu, Mech (or Kachari), Zigula, Lao-* tian, fiaa, Bemba, Colloquial Arabic, East Santo, and Bri-Bri. How many of our readers can say off-hand where any one of these is spoken? Ladakhi is spoken on tho Tibet frontier. ' Singpho is a I language spoken by a people residing among the hills in the far oast of Aasara. Kuliviu is a language spoken on one of the islands in the New Hebrides; the people will pay for these books in arrowroot. Mech is a dialect spoken by about a quarter of a million people living on the plains of Noith Assam. Zigula is spoken by .ho Wa-Zigulas, who cover a largo area in Gerimtu East Africa. Laotian i 3 spoken by the Laos tribes, who live in the interior of Annum, ' French Indo-Uhina j j,nd in order to I print, this, special lypu will have to ' be cast, from desiyiiij thut have been I s/ipplied by native flcribes. Saa is epok- j en on the island of Mwa-la, one of the British Solomon Islands which havo become Christianised. Bemba is spokpu by the tribes living in Central Africa, to tho north of Liiko Bangweolo. Colloquial Arabic is being prepared for tho unlearned in Egypt, who do not understand classical Arnbio. East Santo is another of the many languages spoken in the New Hebrides. Bii-Bii is the knguagu of Indians near Panama. The Bible Society has supported 900 Colporteus, who sold during tho year nearly 2\ million volumes. It also supported 670 native Christum Bible-women employed in connection with about forty different missionary organisations in the Eust, and it helped to muintuin 100 European Bible-women, most of whom ar« working in London back streets. An excellent example of the scale on which the society conducts its business was evidenced at the last monthly meeting of tho cornmUtoe, when orders to be placed with various printing firms were sanctioned, amounting to no less thun 653,000 volume*.