LECTURE ON FIJI.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 34, 9 July 1874, Page 3

LECTURE ON FIJI.

A lecture entitled “ My mission to Thakambau, King of Fiji,” was delivered in the Durham street church last evening by the Rev J; Waterhouse, who had been a missionary for a number of years in Fiji. There was a very good attendance. The Rev J. Buller presided, and in a few remarks introduced the lecturer, who stated that during the evening be would have to speak of a good deal of what he had done, for which, however, he would only take credit as a servant and instrument of God. For fifteen years attempts had been made to convert Thakambau without success, as he was a sworn foe to Christianity. The missionaries and officers in the navy had asked the king as a great favor that he would prevent the strangulation of widows on the occasion of his father’s death, but the request was not acceded to and five were strangled. The ceremony was a religious one and conducted in an orderly manner. Revolts subsequently took place in Bau, and as the number of Thakambau’s enemies were he began to reflect, and he also found that the people were secretly embracing Christianity and were giving up the practice of strangulation of widows. After describing the difficulties placed in the way of a missionary establishing himself in Thakambau’s country, the lecturer stated that when he went to live at Bau there was not a man or woman there who had not stood upon a dead man or had not killed a child, and a practice obtained of rubbing the lips of children with the flesh of people who had been slaughtered in the principal streets of the town. The male inhabitants of Bau were held to be the aristocracy of Fiji. At that time Thakambau had four queens and one hundred wives, and everything he (the lecturer) said could only be spoken in the presence of two of the King’s messengers, who reported everything to the King. " He should not attempt to tell them what he had seen during the first few months he had lived there, and had never mentioned it to any human being. The lecturer then gave an account of the first prisoner of war whose life had been saved in Bau through an interview he (the lecturer) had had with Thakambau Mr Waterhouse related an amusing anecdote, showing that the only disgrace attached to thieving at that time in Fiji, was the misfortune of being found out. The natives made a practice of pelting him with stones every night when he left his house, and told him that it was the gods who did it; but when he got permission from Thakambau to fire duck-shot at those deities if they molested him again, the fact that he had borrowed a gun for this purpose soon became known, and the gods ceased their stone throwing. The lecturer described the stand he had taken against cannibalism. A chief, after a great cannibal feast, came and asked him for bread and a cup of tea, he had never refused him or any other chief bread and tea before, but he told him he would not allow the lips of any one to touch his cup who had partaken of human flesh. The King sent him a plum pudding, but he refused to take it on the sameoccount, though the refusal was according to Fijian laws a matter of life and death. He told the King’s messenger why he had refused, not because he did not love the King, but because it has been prepared by people who had eaten human flesh. Having first taken the precaution to send his wife away, he followed the messenger to Thakambau, who told him that he was in his power. He sought a private interview with Thakambau, and before it was terminated he promised that no more human flesh should be eaten in Bau from that day, and he kept his word. (Loud applause.) Ten days after that Thakambau became a Christian, and the congregation of Christians soon rose to 1000. The lecturer then related the conspiracies set on foot among Thakambau’s people, aided by other chiefs, to slay Thakambau for becoming a Christian, it being also their intention to kill himself. The murders were to be committed on a Sunday in church during the service, but such was the effect of the solemnity of the service on them, that they went away afraid to accomplish the purpose for which they had gone to the church. When it was found out that the report that they had been killed was untrue, Christianity received an impetus. The lecturer then described the difficulty he had in induced Thakambau to renounce polygamy, who only wept silently each time he was spoken to on this subject. At last he announced his intention to give up polygamy, and marry his chief queen. The drums were beaten that morning to muster his wives, for the purpose of making this known, but only 78 could bo found—(great laughter)— and when he told them they might marry anyone they desired, there was much weeping among them, some no doubt from real

sorrow, but others doubtless from joy, for wbat woman would desire to possess only the hundredth part of a man. (Renewed laughter.) Since Thakatnbau had been converted to Christianity, the mission had prospered. There were now 100,000 Christians in Fiji, who would compare favourably with a like number in the colonies, and out of those 25,000 were communicants. It was ten years since he was last in Fiji, and he was now returning to resume missionary work; and he had no doubt ere long Fiji would be added to the list of British dependencies. The lecturer concluded an interesting lecture, which had been attentively listened 10, and received with applause, by appealing to the young men present to become missionaries; and he hoped that Christchurch would yet send some of her young men to labor in the missionary cause, and contribute to the good work that Cod has so abundantly blessed with success, but in large fields, such as China, much yet remained to be done.

A collection amounting to £l2 l()s id was made on behalf of the mission fund.

A lecture on the same subject was delivered by Mr Waterhouse on the previous evening at the Kaiapoi Wesleyan Chapel. There was a large attendance, the Rev R. Bavin presiding. At the termination of the lecture, a collection amounting to £i was made in aid of the Fiji mission.