Show SANDWICH ISLANDS MISSION the following letter to president taylor will be of general interest LAM LAIE oahu babu sandwich island october 20 isso 1880 president john taylor dear brother our co inference conference which commenced on the ath of october and continued until sunday noon of the loth was of sunn sufficient lelent interest and importance I 1 think to justify me in reporting to you we expected quite an influx of visitors from this and other islands to attend conference hence we erected a lanai on one side of our meeting house to accommodate and shelter those who could not gain an entrance to our old style savle of or schoolhouse meetinghouse meeting house aliouse such aseere as were built in the them early days daya of utah a building very inadequate adequate 10 to the present importance and wants of our church on these islands the thirteen meetings held during our conference ce were well attend ed and all spoke in high terms of the spirit and e good feelings that prevailed both by the speakers and hearers bearers and our visitors returned to their homes with a higher appreciation of the cause progress and labors on lale laie and throughout the mission than that which they previously possessed one sister came from the island of maui maul on a schooner and then walked from honolulu to lale laie a distance of 32 miles we gave her a dress pattern and furnished her a horse borse to ride to honolulu on her return she is a convert of elder geo Q cannon and was also baptized by him a bit of history she prides herself very much in relating at our last april conference we called the attention of the tile people to the law jaw of tithing and since that time up to the conference just closed we have received four hundred and forty one iti dollars from tile the saints in this mission our statistics as shown at conference en ce give the membership of the mission as follows elders from home 7 number of their families 9 native elders priests IS 2 teachers deacons male members female members 1275 new baptisms during the last six months children under 8 years of age total off omm mecis lecis cers ceis and members including children childre tinder eight the distribution of foreign elders to labor in the mission during 0 the tile next six months is as follows elder carl anderson with four natives to labor on the island of hawaii sidney coray with two natives on the islands of maui blaul molokai and I 1 janai lanai J G knell with two natives native on the island of kanai kanal benjamin cluff jr with two natives on this island and joseph H dean and VV D alexander in consequence of or family circumstances will remain at lale laie and assist me in the labors on the plantation we have arranged to hold a conference in honolulu on the and 31 at which time and place all the elders meet previous to sailing off to their fields of labor we are making quite an effort to collect means to build a new meeting house at this place with the hope of obtaining your consent to use for that purpose a part of the tithing already paid in we think a suitable house for this place will cost about 30 0 2003 of that amount we hope to collect from the people by april next we feel confident that in erechin erecting such a building as we now have in contemplation it will give our cause anew a new impetus and start afresh the spirit of gathering to this tills land during this year nine new frame buildings s for dwellings have been erected by residents on this land and several more are in contemplation bain rain has fallen frequently ly of late which gives everything a fresh appearance and revives within us new chopo for the future we are now planting out 21 2009 coffee corfee trees having started an orchard of oranges ilme and mangoes manghes of several hundred trees to which we are adding other varieties of fruit trees the affairs of our government which has been trembling for some time past are now settling into quietude the ring king made a wonderful blunder when he took gibson as a member of the privy council but having seen his folly lie has dismissed him and gibson retires leaving a bad record during the short time he was in office his notorious effi efficiency clency in flattery brought him up by the side of the king and it is to be re regretted retted that he did not continue longer so as to leave a deeper deeper and more lasting shame upon his Is character in the eyes of the hawaiian race t eaith generally prevails in our colony except mrs cluff who has lias been quite poorly for two months and we all feel earnest in our labors to promote good with kind regards to the quorum of apostles in which the brethren join I 1 am as ever your brother in tb the e gospel H H CLUFF |