MR. MODERATOR, Fathers and Brethren. It is with much pleasure that I stand here to give in verbally my report. It is nearly eight years since in this hall I was ordained as a Medical Missionary to the natives in Matabeleland in Southern Rhodesia. It is somewhat appropriate that I should now, in this place, give in my report. I begin by acknowledging the goodness of the Most High in bringing us safely to this country, and I also wish to record my deep appreciation of the welcome extended to us, to my wife and myself, by this Court, as expressed in the words of the Moderator, and we cannot fail to be touched by the kindness with which we were met and the sympathy from our people wherever we have been.
I would also like to refer to the change in the personnel of the Foreign Missions’ Committee since I went out to South Africa. I refer to the late Reverend Neil Cameron, who was the Convener of the Foreign Missions’ Committee from its beginning until his death. He was associated with the work of the Foreign Missions all along, and was greatly interested in it, and he also visited the Mission. Now, his praise is in all our churches at home, and it is also in our church in South Africa where his visit is well remembered still. He rests from his labours. He has entered into his rest.
Now, we are given a grand conception of the Christian Church on earth in its unity, the unity of the members with the head, and the members one with another. Thousands of miles separate us in this country from South Africa, and there are great differences, of race, of colour, of language, of ways of thinking, of ways of living between our people and those natives of Africa. I may say that between us as races there are few points of affinity. There are points that repel and from a natural point of view I may say that there are many things that do repel, and that the races, white and black, do repel one another. There is such a thing as the colour question, and it is an insidious question, although of no great consequence in our own country, but to all who look upon this from a Christian point of view we must believe like the Apostle Paul that there is neither Jew nor Greek, that there is neither Jew nor Gentile, and we may say neither black nor white, and that there is truth in this. Those who follow the teachings of the New Testament require no argument. It follows naturally from the teachings of the New Testament, and we expect such differences to fall away, but there is a challenge to those who may regard the doctrines of the New Testament as mere fantasies. There is a challenge in the fact that heathen natives in South Africa have been and are being converted to the Lord Jesus Christ, and that they show in their lives, in their conduct, in the whole transformation of their characters, the power of God unto salvation.
Now, as to your Foreign Mission in Matabeleland. It is a labour and it is a sowing and a reaping. The sowing has been going on as far as we are concerned as a Church since the Rev. J. B. Radasi began to labour there about a quarter of a century ago. It is carried on by the recognised diets of public worship. There have been going on regularly the Sabbath Services, the week-day services and so on.
The sowing goes on through the work of leaders who have been since going out to the various stations to preach the gospel, and it goes on also in the life and conversation of these people who have been obedient to the gospel, in the life and conversation of men and women who have been converted, and that this is a real thing can be seen by those who care to take notice, for at least many of those natives who are converted it is not too much to say that when they throw off the old things that they are really men and women with one idea, and with one thing to speak about, and that they do love in ordinary conversation to speak about the things of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. The sowing is also done in a less conspicuous way. I will give an instance of a girl who was baptised last year, a girl in her early teens who had come from a heathen kraal to the school at Ingwenya. No particular notice was taken of her, but she progressed and was learning just like all the others, but later she came forward to be baptised. Now, I may mention that when these people come forward to be baptised, that is adults, the examination is just the same as if they had come forward asking for full membership in the Church. It is because it is their own desire to be baptised, and the matter rests there. But the point I wish to make is this, that if they were all examined for full membership the examination is the same. This girl received baptism and it transpired later that quietly during her holidays she went home to her heathen kraal and there on her own initiative began family worship and insisted on reading the Bible to her parents. Well, that is a sowing, and how much of that quiet sowing there may be going on no one can tell.
It was the intention of the church that the medical work should be an aid in the sowing. This is our only justification in attempting medical work there, that we may by these means be enabled further to sow the seed of the Word. And the same applies to the educational work. But I would not like that the educational and medical and the ministerial work of the mission should be dissociated in your minds as if they were three separate things. There is a sowing, less regular, perhaps, but a real sowing through the educational work. There is a ministry, a sowing through the instrumentality of medical work as well as the more regular and organised ministerial work. One thing we must acknowledge, and I hope with reverence and in humility, and that is, that there has been a reaping also. The Lord has and is now graciously blessing the weak efforts of our church in the foreign field. The report of Mr. Tallach is before you, and I do not wish to encroach in any way upon his report. It corroborates what I now say, that there is a reaping for which we should be humble, because we are unworthy that God should so bless us as a Church, and I, and I am sure those associated with me in the foreign field, would like to retire into the background, that you might see the work of God alone in this, but of necessity we are forced into the foreground, and the whole Mission would appear to revolve round us, the Europeans, but this is to take an altogether wrong view of the matter. It is first of all a work of God as we must thankfully confess, a work which He is pleased in a measure to bless. The true picture is a harvest scene—the gospel and the grace of God going forth to conquer and conquering. In a small measure this is true, but in a real measure.
Now, there are also in the foreground other questions of a more practical nature. Our Convener, Mr. MacIntyre, has already referred to the question of water. Now, the whole work of the Mission revolves round this water question. You will understand what I mean. We have one well sunk within the ground of the mission. It is 100 feet deep, but is a very poor source of water. As Mr. MacIntyre has said, this may have something to do with the bad years that Southern Rhodesia has been experiencing as far as rainfall is concerned, and the underground water-level in the country is appreciably sinking, so that all wells throughout the country have to be deepened, but the mission is unfortunately so placed in this, that the formation of the ground where it is makes it difficult to find water at a reasonable level. Now, the well itself does not give sufficient supply of water. Towards September, October and November, it is with the greatest care that we can have water even for the most essential purposes, and many things must be held over through the lack of water.
Mention has been made of a pump; this pump is a hand-pump. There was a pipe leading down the well and there was a pump worked by hand. The pump gave in, because the strain on it was too great, and pumps are not made to stand the strain of pumping water at that depth, and so it could not bear the strain and was giving trouble from time to time until at last it has been laid aside. The advantage of having a pump at all was that it raised water much quicker. There is now, as you have heard, on the well an ordinary windlass; that is just a wooden drum with an iron rope round it to which is attached a bucket which is let down into the well. It has the disadvantage of this, that it is very hard labour pulling up 180 feet of wire rope and a bucket at the end. It is also a very slow business and a lot of water is lost in bumping against the sides of the well in coming up. It is a slow business, too slow, in fact, when there is a community of nearly 100 people waiting on this source of supply. The convener has mentioned that I suggested that a storage chamber be made at the foot of the well. This would give a storage at the bottom of the well, but it would in no way increase the amount of water in the well. It is not a satisfactory solution of the question. There is only one satisfactory solution, to my mind, to this question, and that is to try and find a place where a new well could be sunk. Now, it is usually estimated out there that the cost of sinking a well is, roughly, about £1 a foot. That is for the mere digging of the well, the headgear, whether windlass or pump or engine or whatever it is, and the piping and all that are over and above, and would depend on the nature of the machinery or the gear and so on.
I would also like to mention a matter concerning the native Church as considered from a self-supporting point of view; that is, it is legitimate for our Church at home to expect a time when the Church in South Africa shall not be only self-supporting but itself be a missionary Church, and the question may arise in your minds as to when that can possibly be. Now, our people out there are extremely poor. It is not too much to say that they are as poor as they could possibly be. They depend on the economic conditions of the country as a whole, and Southern Rhodesia has come through a depression and suffered like all other countries, and the natives generally throughout the country have suffered also, and are still suffering. The average wage of a native is only about £12 a year. They buy the same quality of stuff that Europeans buy. They pay the same price for it. It is always argued that their standard of living is lower than that of Europeans, and that therefore, they do not require high wages, but it is absolutely impossible for them to have anything else but a low standard of living. Then, although a heathen native wears nothing save a kind of loin cloth, and never washes himself, and is at no great expense to live, when these people became Christian they then wish to be clean, they wish their children to be clean and be clothed, and immediately there comes upon them an added burden to provide and buy clothing. They will no longer be happy to see their children going about stark naked and washed only when it happens to rain. It will be a long time before these people can be in any real sense self-supporting. The economic conditions of the country are against it. The conditions in the country itself are against it, and while it may be a country easy to exist in because it is warm and things grow with a fair measure of success, that is, the maize, which is the staple diet, to master the climatic conditions and other adverse circumstances in that country in an agricultural way requires not only immense capital but courage and scientific knowledge, which the natives do not possess.
I wish to associate myself with Mr. Tallach and Miss Nicolson in thanking all those who have from time to time sent out useful articles to the Mission, and, my own self, to those who have sent out surgical dressings and so on. These are always welcome and always useful.