400 Missionaries Per

Million

Rev. J. W. Burton’s Survey of Pacific

A useful and interesting missionary survey of the Pacific Islands has been written by Rev. J. W. Burton, secre tary of the Methodist Missionary Soc iety of Australia. It is published in book form by the World Dominion Press as one of its series of surveys.

In a foreword, the Survey Editor points out that nearly a million and a half of the total population of the South Seas are still unreached by the Christian Church, even in a region which has been popularly considered as a most successful missionary field.

In the face of figures like these, the question as to whether missionaries are still required takes on a new signific ance. Too often, successes and conse quent commitments in one part of the field have been allowed to obscure the vision of the needs of those parts still untouched.

Nevertheless a striking lesson of this survey is that relatively the Pacific Islands are numerously occupied, with 400 missionaries to every million of the population. India has only 17 and China to-day only 11 per million.

Mr. Burton thoroughly surveys the position of the missions in the partly evangelised and wholly evangelised areas. The present missionary situa tion is discussed and problems and dif ficulties exhaustively surveyed. Many valuable statistical facts are given.