| Show A VOICE FROM NEW ZEALAND wic WE have been permitted to peruse ruse a letter recently received from rider elder J H burton em ton of the sixth ward this city who is now laboring as a mission aay in new zealand the communication is addressed to brother arnold giauque supt bupt of the sunday school of the ward named and is in response to a substantial token of esteem received from that institution the introductory part of the correspondence pon dence is devoted to an exhortation to the youth of the church at home to prepare themselves by appropriate study for future missionary work among the nations if time is not in this respect taken by the forelock those who thus neglect golden opportunities will when jailed called to the ministry have occasion occa bion to regret their carelessness the writer also gives some desert description p of sunday schools among the maoria they constitute an agency for the attain attainment of much good the bible book of mormon and articles of faith are the leading means of in tic n there are no seats in those schools it being a custom of the natives to squat upon the floor on mats at a recent quarterly conference held in the district Waira rapa in which elder burton labors seats were provided instead of the natives regarding this stature in the light of a luxury many of them during service forsook the benches and took up positions on the floor after going into some details of maori cooking a description of which has heretofore appeared in these columns the writer of the letter states that their primitive practice aln evin that regard do not seem to have an impairing effect upon the health of these people they being as a rule finely developed specimens of manhood As an instance of the attainment of unusual proportions elder burton cites the fact that he had recently attended the funeral of a chief who had tipped the beam at twenty six stone pounds and who had bad lived to the advanced ago of years this centenarian leaves a son of almost equally mammoth proportions as he turns the esat twenty five stone pounds elder burton encloses in his letter the following clipping from the Waira rapa standard a paper which is evidently conducted by a levelheaded level headed editor MORMONISM AMONG THE MAORIS it is well known that mormon missionaries sion aries have been laboring among the laoris maoris for a considerable time with great sua suo ess cesa the government native agent has reported to the government that mormonism is almost the only religion professed by the natives of the and king county and from what we know of t the h Waira rapa it may be said that the same prevails recalls here these missionaries have lived eved a life of self denial among the natives they have zealously taught and expounded the scriptures they take up no collections save what is given voluntarily they purchase no land they do not meddle with politics or other questions but confine themselves solely to tb the e preaching of the gospel some of the missionaries are men who were won well to do in salt take lake city but who have forsaken all to carry on the work of evanel among the maoris laoris they have been working for a good purpose while other churches have been slumbering and leaving the laoris maoris to drift whither they would 11 |
