CHINA INLAND MISSION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13846, 4 September 1908, Page 7

CHINA INLAND MISSION.

'■*»» ANNUAL MEETING. The annual meeting of the Auckland auxiliary of the China Inland Mission was held at the Auckland Tabernacle schoolroom last night, the Rev. Knowles Kempton presiding. In addition to the speakers of the evening: there were also on the platform the Revs. W. Gray Dixon and G. B. Mktioro. Mrs. A. C. Brown, hon. secretary of the Auckland auxiliary, reporting upon the work of the mission for the year 1907, referred to the activity in China during, the period. There had been great reform movements and religious revivals, and a great increase in educational power u.nd opportunities, as well as in armaments and military force. The amount contributed to the famine fund by the China Inland Mission was £7700, and of this £600 vent through the Auckland treasurer. Mucfi more was sent from the South Island. She spoke of the desperate poverty which these funds had relieved, stating that many of those succoured had been subsisting on carrots, In connection with the anti-oDinai movement Mrs. Brown stated that Jhina was, losing £6,000,000 of revenue per year in order to abolish- that awful -curse. -The mission now had 900 workers on its roil, and since the Boxer rising there had been 15,000 baptisms of Christian converts by the mission. Of the workers in the field, 108 were Australians and a few New Zealandere. The treasurer of the branch (Mr. A. C. Brown) reported that in 190? the total funds received by the mission in England amounted to £53,401 8s 4d, and in China and from Australasia and America £20,8)0 4c 3d, a total of £72,231 12s 7d. This was an increase on the previous vear of £6030 19s 7d on the English receipt;-, and £7365 2s lid on those received in China and from Australasia and America. I lie total amount contributed by the North Island of New Zealand was £1109 19s 4d, of which £591 c vgrthmhuk& 9d was towards the famine fund. The South Island's contribution to the latter was £555 Is sd, out of a total of £1767 14s Bd. The working expenses for the vear for the North Island amounted to £11 lis 3d. The total sum received in England since the bo<rinnin2 of the work, 42 years ago, was £1,003,083. The Chairman commented upon the tine work being done bv the mission. . There was great need of more missionaries in China. There were to-day for ?very church member in the countrv 2000 heathens, and of the 30 00C who died every day not more than 30 were Christians. An address was given by Mr. Wm S. Strong, a missionor of several years' experience in China. He stated that ovcrvwhere in that land the people were ready to listen to the preacher*- of the Christian religion, and there was great need of more helpers in the work of the mission. As slfowing the paucity of workers and the difficulties that they have, in consequence, to labour under in China, Mr. Strong mentioned that his own former district was 3000 square miles in extent, and in it there were only two miesioners wife and himself. Mr. A. L. Cameron, who shortly proceeds to China as missioner, also addressed the meeting, and /it the close of the proceedings interesting literature, bearing on mission work in China, was distributed.