ployed as teachers, class -leaders, cxhorters, and local ]ircachcrs, the people learning to read with aviditv, and the missionaries' wives teaching the art of cutting out clothes and sewing, as well as other domestic and use- ful arts. The news of these conversions spread far and wide, and canoes laden with inquirers came a distance of three hundred miles to see what Christianity had done, and these returned themselves to spread the tidings of the new religion. So the work went on till July, 1834, when there broke out on several islands a great spirit- ual revival. Men, women, and children, chiefs and peo- ple, all shared in the outpouring of the Spirit, and on one day (July 27) Jlr. Turner records that " not fewer than one thousand souls were converted, not only from dumb idols, but from Satan to God." A little later he records, " Within the past six weeks the number of converts is 2262." For a week they held prayer-meet- ings six times daily, and as manj^ as a thousand persons were on their knees at the same time, seeking, some crying earnestly, for deliverance from the bondage of sin. Such earnest crying for mercy was, perhaps, never before witnessed on earth.
King George became first a class-leader, then a local preacher, and his whole life was now devoted to the elevation of his people. He released all his slaves, and had a mission church erected in the Friendly Islands, a thousand of his people being employed in its erection. The king had the spears of his ancestors fixed as the rails for the communion-table, and two clubs formerly adored as deities were placed as pillars to the pulpit- stairs. The king himself preached the opening sermon, and thousands of people attended the opening. Such were some of the results of one of the greatest revivals ever known. In no other portion of the mission field have so many native laborers been raised up, and schools, chapels, and parsonages adorn most of the isl- ands. The whole population has embraced Christian- ity.
The Rev. Robert Young in 1853 visited those islands, New Zealand, and Australia as a deputation from the English Conference to make the arrangements for the union of all the churches in the Eastern Archipelago. That union was satisfactorily arranged, and has worked admirably for over a quarter of a century. At the time the Australian Conference was founded it included near- ly 200 preachers and some 40,000 communicants; the societies were nearly all self-supporting, and £10,000 was annually given for missions alone. Since that pe- riod every department has advanced. In 1880 there were reported in that conference 433 ministers and 09,297 church members. The Methodist membership of the Australian churches is now just equal to the total membership in Great Britain at the time of Mr. Wes- ley's death. In another half- century the Australian churches will probably sum up as many members as the parent society.
When the Jubilee of the Wesleyan Missionary Soci- ety was celebrated in 1804, a large meeting was held in Australia in that connection, and a fund was then opened which soon reached £12,000, the money being spent in the erection of a Wesleyan college. About the same time another institution came into existence at Melbourne, the erection of the Wesleyan Emigrants' Home at the cost of £3500, towards which the colonial government voted £1000, from a conviction of its phil- anthropic character. That temporary home has been a blessing to multitudes on their arrival in the colony without friends to greet them.
II. Church Orr/anizatum and Polity. — In these re- spects the Australian Conference is in accordance with the parent society. Ministers and laymen unite in con- ducting the annual conferences; and occasionally min- isterial deputations are sent to the outlying churches to report upon and encourage them. The Kev. Messrs. Rathbone and Watkins went over the missions in the South Seas in 1869, and reported most encouragingly of their advancement.
WESLEYAN CONF., AUSTRAL. 921 WESLEYAN CONF., FRENCH
III. Ausi)-aliaii Methodist Statistics.- table will exhibit these :
-The following
Year.
Ministers.
Members.
Year.
Ministers.
Members.
1816...
1
20
1849...
64
16,409
ISIT...
1
30
1850. . .
67
17,4.53
181S...
2
70
1851...
70
18,137
1S19...
3
70
1852...
S3
18,938
1S20...
5
83
1853...
91
19,135
1S21...
8
90
1854...
102
18,956
1822...
9
141
1855...
116
19,897
1823...
9
178
1850...
131
21,168
1824...
12
168
1857...
142
21,247
1825...
12
112
1858...
154
24,461
1826...
11
160
1859...
174
28,138
1827...
12
102
1860...
153
32,180
1828. . .
12
i(;2
1861...
159
33,964
1S29...
10
164
1862...
204
36,307
1S30...
13
341
1863...
213
33,075
1831...
14
736
1864. . .
215
39,695
1832...
16
892
1865. . .
243
42,042
1833...
15
2,702
1860. . .
281
47,095
1S34...
19
4,311
1867...
3(03
49,433
1835...
24
7,929
1863...
302
50,674
1S36...
27
8,579
1S09...
319
52,222
1837...
32
9,313
1870. . .
323
55,550
1S3S. ..
40
9,188
1871...
347
59,334
1839...
53
10,980
1872...
3.52
59,649
1840...
51
10,921
1873...
383
59,819
1841 . . .
52
11,656
1874. . .
383
00,571
1842...
52
12,136
1875...
888
60,165
1843...
53
13,140
1876...
391
52,692
1844...
54
12,667
1877...
392
54,200
1845...
54
13,236
1878...
394
62,033
1846...
56
14,040
1879...
423
00,905
1847...
60
15,353
ISSO...