"CHINA AND ITS PEOPLES."

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13210, 17 February 1905, Page 5

"CHINA AND ITS PEOPLES."

Miss Malcolm, of the China Inland Mision, who with her sister is at present visitng Dunedin, having recently as the result )f an accident returned from active nissionary service in Chinn, last evening lelivered a lecture entitled " China and Its ,'eoples" in the T.W.C.A. Econis. Speakng for an hour and a-half, Miss Malcolm vho exhibited a whole-hearted zeal in the ■oiling of Iter story, justified her advertised cputafcion as a racy and impressive- speaker, ler address being presented with fluency md animation, tempered with a keen sense )f humour.. Opening wiHi a brief historical iketch of the nation which alone had stood strong.whilst others rose- and.sau'k again, Miss Malcolm proceeded to a strongly-' worded indictment against the British nation's enforcement of "the little brown package" upon China nolens volciis. Her picture of one of the opium dens she visited—a three-storey building full of emaciated men with faces ghastly white, fighting and using the language of hell—was lurid, and supplied the reason of her bitterness asainst those who introduced tho drag. In the capacity of guide, tho sneaker, by means of wordpictures of tho life and habits of the people, conducted her hearers through various phases of the missionaries' sphere of labour. The home in which those rescued by the hand of young men who spend tlieir lives preaching in the foetid atmosphere of the opium dens was visited, and tho contrast between the enslaved and liberated smoker depicted. Tho waste land of China, tire speaker stated, was all Imrial ground, coffins—a luxury—being visible everywhere, whilst the resting-places of the poor wero marked by njoundr of earth raised round the body, which was merely placed on tho surface. No wonder that the result, with a million a month being disposed of in those ways, was that smallpox victims with tlieir distinguishing red hoods were seen everywhere, and that cholera and leprosy held sway. Tho work of the Bible-seller was dwelt npoil. All over the country theso men trdavel, selling their Bibles on the streets, in boats, even in the temples in the midst of myriads of idols: being refused entrance to the villages sometimes; sleeping in the open fields; derided and ridiculed by the mob at times; yet persevering anil spreading the Word most surely and thoroughly (hrouah the Whole country. "Baity- towers," Miss Malcolm explained, Were. spSbf dotted all round avury village, at which undesirable babies by the score were thrriwh into deep pits. The duties of some of th? lady missionaries who kept a school for girls was to visit theso pits every (lay, and with bamboo poles, to which were attached hoofcCto rescue (he helpless infants. It was only those babes—perhaps one out of 10—round whom had been fastened by their parents some garment upon whie 1, the hook hiisht "obtain hold that could be recovered. The "box station" missionary, whoso duty was to remain at an appointed station to assist on the travelling missionaries; the woman who visits the sick and poor; the nativo .pastors—by whom, and not by foreigners, China was. the speakftr asserted, to l>s evangelised: the missionary lady who trains and develops the rescued babes into helpmeets for these native pastors—all these helpers in'tho missionary cause, with their deeds of self-sacrifice, were placed before the audience, whose interest, prayers, and sympathy .wero in conclusion bespoken by the lectuer. Tho lecture was full of interest, and though lengthy, Miss Malcolm's earnestness and her manner of placing tier matter before her bearers saved it from anything approaching wearisonieness. At the speaker's request, a vote of thanks was dispensed with. Miss 8011, secretary of the Y.W.0.A., announced that Miss Malcolm, who leaves Dunedin next week, may give another lecture before her departure for Victoria.