Document: W. C. White, December 21, 1892 letter to O. A. Olsen. HTML, PDF. Courtesy of the Ellen G. White Estate, Inc.
Contents: W. C. White’s request to O. A. Olsen for division and union conferences.
Highlighted text is W. C. White’s request.
North Fitzroy, Victoria, Australia
Dec. 21st, 1892
Eld. O. A. Olsen
Battle Creek, Michigan
My Dear Brother:—
I received your welcome letter of Nov. 1 about ten days ago. It is the one you wrote while on the way from Chicago to Walla Walla. It came with thirteen others to myself and about as many more to mother. Many of my letters were short and unimportant this time; yours contained more information and business than all the rest put together.
One week ago yesterday mother returned to Melbourne after an absence of 11 weeks. She spent about ten days at Ballarat and enjoyed it very much. She spoke once on each Sabbath in our little hall, and once each Sunday afternoon in the Mechanic’s Institute to a large and appreciative audience. She likes the people at Ballarat real well; but we are somewhat surprised that this place was so highly recommended as a place suitable for her to settle, for although it is only about 2000 feet altitude, it has a cold, chilly, and very foggy atmosphere during one-half or two-thirds of the year. It is quite a mining place and while there I went down in one of the mines about 1200 feet under ground.
The next day after mother’s return our school closed. It was Tuesday Dec. 13. The recitations and examinations had been finished up on Monday, and the forenoon was spent in reports from the committee, the faculty, and the students, with some remarks from mother. An excellent spirit was in the meeting and all went away encouraged. At nine P.M. the next day six of our students took the excursion train for Sydney, and after a short trip there proceeded north to their canvassing fields. May Israel and Susie Goodison go to Newcastle, a sea port of considerable importance about 100 miles north of Sydney, while Harry Camp and wife, and Philip Reekie proceeded to their field near the border of Queensland, and John Reekie went still further to his field in S.E. Queensland.
The next afternoon a company of eight started for Adelaide. One or two will work in the city while others work in country districts north and south. This company was composed of Bro. J. Collins and wife, A. H. Rogers, Farley Masters, Arthur Currow, Bro. C. P. Michaels our general agent, and one or two others whose names I do not now recall.
The same day Elds. Rousseau and Baker started for Tasmania accompanied by Bro. and Sr. Steele who expect to canvass on the N.W. coast.
Early on the same day Bro. W. D. Salisbury and wife arrived from London, which place they left Nov. 4. Next Thursday Eld. Daniells goes to Adelaide and I to Sydney and Eld. Starr to Ballarat to spend the week of prayer. In all of the churches except Melbourne it is held from Dec. 24 to Jan. 1; but in Melbourne it is one week later, and this will enable Elds. Starr and Daniells to be present.
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The readings came in the last American mail and I can assure you we are heartily glad to have them. We had planned to provide matter here so as to go ahead if nothing came, but the arrival of the readings from America will save us much time and expense. Eld. Daniells has prepared a letter of instruction making suggestions as to how we can best use the time during the week of prayer in holding meetings with church officers, in visiting, etc., and we all expect that this will be a season of much blessing for our brethren and sisters in Australia.
I will send you with this a copy of my last letter to Eld. Tenney which gives some facts about our office work and the perplexities of the Board at the present time, therefore I need not dwell upon this feature of the work. I hope that by next month I shall have something encouraging to say, and then I will try to write more fully. I hardly think it is best for me to burden you with a detailed account of our perplexities, because I know that you have enough of that at home; therefore matters which will probably be settled within a month or two, I will reserve hoping that time will enable us to give you a better report.
Since her return from Adelaide I can see that mother made great improvement while over there. She moves about quite freely, although she is still weak and cannot be long upon her feet, but she is working vigorously to regain her strength. She takes a walk every morning before breakfast; sometimes 20 rods, and sometimes twice as far. She has moved up stairs and climbs up and down six or eight times a day. We help her a little in getting up and she gets down all alone by leaning on the banister; sometimes she climbs up without any help. Her power of endurance is rather limited, and if she speaks more than twice a week it seems to be too much. It is remarkable, however, that she is able to turn off so much writing. Lately she has been writing considerable for various members of the Echo Board and of the Melbourne church. She is now preparing for the Conference, and I suppose her letters to America will not be so many this month as heretofore. She is of good courage regarding the New Zealand trip; but has been firm in her request that Eld. Starr should accompany her there.
It has been our desire that Eld. Starr should spend the vacation in Melbourne, and with the assistance of Eld. Baker and two or three Bible workers endeavor to raise up a strong church in the southern part of the city. With this in view we planned that Eld. Rousseau should go with us to New Zealand; but we have felt all the time that there were serious disadvantages in this plan because at the N.Z. Conf. and at the churches in Auckland and Kaeo, and other places there are perplexities to be met, and it has seemed to us that some one should be with us when we visit these places who is accustomed to working with mother and who understands the work to be done. There is much work to be attended to in the Australian conference, and it would seem unreasonable to ask Eld. Daniells to go again to New Zealand; it seems imperative that he should remain to carry on the work in Australia, and therefore mother has urged that Eld. Starr should go with us to [p. 3] New Zealand, because he is somewhat acquainted with matters there, and because he knows how to work in harmony with her in the general meetings and in those churches which we shall visit. Therefore about ten days ago we re-arranged all our plans and they now stand as follows.—
Eld. Starr will go with mother and me to New Zealand. Mother will probably take May Walling to look after her food and give her treatment, and Emily Campbell to write for her and to care for her on the boat where May is almost perfectly helpless. I am glad to tell you that there is at present war between the steamer companies, so that the trip is not likely to cost us more than £12 each; last year it was about £18. A few days ago the fare was quoted at £11 10s, and we hope that the rates will continue the same till our tickets are bought. This is for a round trip from Melbourne to Sydney by way of New Zealand. There will be of course additional expenses, such as railway fares in N.Z. etc.
I suppose that Eld. Starr’s time and expenses on this trip as well as mother’s and mine will be paid by the Mission Board the same as last year. I certainly think that it should be so because they are having a hard time financially and will be sorely perplexed to meet the expenses of the laoorers whom they now employ.
I have advised mother to so shape her work here that she can look back upon it with satisfaction in case she should feel it her duty to return to America at the close of the N.Z. Conference; and she has endeavored to so labor in each place that she has visited as if she might never return there again, and yet mother is not anticipating to return to America at present. She begins to talk hopefully about going from here to S. Africa and from there to England and the Continent before returning to the United States. But she has no thought of leaving this field till about a year from this time. Matters are in such a peculiar state here that it will take time to do the work that she has come here to do, and she now expects to spend the coning winter in or near Sydney. I do not think that she will attempt to spend another winter in Melbourne.
The decision that Eld. Starr should go with us to N.Z. breaks up our plans for aggressive work in Melbourne. Eld. Rousseau will probably remain here and put in a portion of the time in labor for the North Fitzroy church, visiting from house to house and becoming acquainted with the people and ascertaining what can be done for the 50 or 60 young people who need schooling very much. They need education in a special sense; they need the advantages of our school that they may learn how to be Christians; they need another conversion; they need to have their ambition aroused, and to have a purpose in life beyond earning enough to furnish food and clothing or to have a good time. We do not know as yet what can be done, but we feel that an earnest effort should be made to bring some of them within the influence of the school. Thus far there seems to be less interest in the school in the North Fitzroy church than in any other portion of the Conference, and we believe that it will be time well spent if he should make an earnest effort to become well acquainted with the people, to learn their wants, their wishes, their ability, and thus be prepared to plan for them. This will also give him a little better [p. 4] opportunity to prepare for the next year’s work than if he was to spend the summer in N.Z.
I presume that Eld. Daniells has written you in behalf of the Conf. Com. asking that another teacher be sent to us in time to begin work in May 1893, and expressing our preference for Herbert Lacey. We think, other things being equal, that he would be of more use to us than an American with the same amount of education. The fact that he is a colonial and that he knows the “English as she is spoke”, will be greatly in his favor, and he will be supposed to comprehend better the methods of thought and the purposes of the colonial students. If I remember correctly he is the most efficient in language studies and this is where we most need help. I have been much worried by a report that has come to us that his health has failed and that he has the consumption. I hope that this is not so.
I fear that you will be shocked when you see our balance sheet for the last half-year of 1892. It will probably show a loss of several hundred pounds. There are a number of things which have helped to bring about this result. The organization of the school called many canvassers from the field; thus our principal source of profit has been largely cut off. The general financial depression has been so universal that a large proportion of the printing houses in Melbourne are employing some of their hands but half time, while many others are laid off entirely. We have suffered with the rest. Our job printing, which in former years was a source of some profit, has this year been done at quite a loss because we have been maintaining a city office at expense of about £5 a week; this office we have now decided to close. Another thing which has cost us considerable is our reluctance to discontinue the Australian edition of Good Health, and Our Young Friend. We have known for some time that these were a source of continual expense, but we have been leaving the discontinuing of them as long as there was any hope that we could some time make them pay. We have at last given up this hope and shall let these enterprises die with the year. Another important item is losses we have incurred in trying to do first class work which we were not really prepared for; but this item is overshadowed by what we must write off on account of bad debts. We have been doing work for individuals and societies that appeared to be prosperous, but who have succumbed during the financial depression and who are unable to pay their bills. It would seem that these things were enough, but the Board of Directors have decided that it is best to reduce the valuation of our real estate £200 in consideration of the general fall in property. But since they have gone so far I have decided to act in harmony with them in taking the inventory of machinery and material, so we shall cut it down to its actual value, on the principle that it is as well to die for an old sheep as for a lamb, and it will take but little more time to apologize for a loss of £600 than a loss of £500. I hope that these steps will make it no more difficult for my successor in the management to make the business pay, than if we had left everything at the former figures.
I hope to get time next month to write you quite fully regarding the financial outlook of this institution. We shall do our [p. 5] best to bring everything to an economical basis: and as we cut off those enterprises which do not pay we shall decrease our work so that the manufacturing department cannot pay unless we can effect quite a reduction in our clerical force. Of course this is a very delicate matter, and one which perplexes us sorely just now. There is a matter of primary importance which I wish to lay before the Mission Board while Eld. Tenney is with you, and that is the financial history of the Bible Echo. It is now published at a loss of about 2000 dollars a year, and this you can see is a very heavy drain upon an institution of this magnitude. Heretofore we have leaned heavily upon the profits of the subscription book department; but as we investigate the matter and find that the high prices charged for our books is giving the denomination a unsavory reputation, we have felt that it might be our duty to reduce prices. We also find that in some cases we must increase commissions, and each one of these steps will decrease our profits.
We have undertaken to do some publishing and I earnestly hope that this branch of the business may be developed; but I can see plainly that we are surrounded by difficulties in this enterprise and that it will oe almost impossible to make this department show any profit. For these reasons it seems to me that we must take decided steps to put the Echo on a footing where it will not cost the Company so much as it does at present; and I am so glad that Eld. Tenney is to be with you and that these matters can be considered by the Board while he is present to give you information and to receive the benefit of your experience and your counsels.
We are all thankful to you for the information you gave us regarding the work in New England and in the Provinces. It is very encouraging to know that the other conferences in district No.1 have decided to put their shoulders to the wheel and assist New England in the support of the S. Lancaster academy. I wish I could see a statement of their present financial standing. How will they be affected if Bro. Caviness is taken away? Who will take his place? What influence will the change have upon their financial standing?
I am heartily glad that you were able to visit Walla Walla. I think I can appreciate the situation there and the importance of the encouragement which your visit would give them. It is a pity that they have continually to fight the influences centered at Milton. I hope there will be a change by and by.
I shall look with much interest for your next letter hoping to hear about your committee meeting in Oakland and your plans for the Pitcairn, and for the work in Polynesia. Bro. Spicer wrote me that you were contemplating the advisability of appointing Bro. Read and wife to go with the ship on her next cruise as superintendent, and of making Gates general superintendent of the Polynesian work with headquarters wherever he might be. I can readily see that it would be natural for your Board which has not seen Gates since his departure while pressed with other work and perplexities most to death and not knowing what to do; to give a hasty consent to plans of this character but I cannot believe that you will adopt them without giving the matter deliberate consideration.
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Gates is a very feeble man just on the brink of the grave and located at one of the most inaccessible points in the world; thus it is absolutely impossible for him to act as superintendent of the Polynesian work.
Read and wife have undertaken a very important work in Tahiti in behalf of the Society Islands and neighboring groups. They need all their time and powers to carry that work forward and will need assistants. I hear that you are sending them a printing press, road wagon and other things essential to their work. I hope also that you will be able to send them a suitable assistant or assistants. I presume that you have considered the case of Herbert Dexter who has been some years at Healdsburg. He came from Tahiti and has had in mind to return to labor in that field.
It seems to me that it would be folly for us to let Read and wife undertake the work in the Society Islands, and just when they begin to approach a point where their labors will count to take them away and send them out upon a ship. I think it would be much better to let the ship lie idle for awhile than to tear to pieces such important enterprises as these.
It seems to me that it will be necessary for the Mission Board to deal separately with Read and his associates in the Society Islands, with Gates in his work in Pitcairn, and also with the ship. If it is necessary that you have a point in the Pacific Ocean which you call headquarters, and if you are dissatisfied with the decision made sometime back that Sydney should eventually be the headquarters of the “Pitcairn,” I think it would be better to name Tahiti as the headquarters and to give Read your instructions and let him communicate with Gates and with the ship from that point. As regards the ship 1 think you will find Bro. J. R. McCoy a man of broad ideas and of sound judgment. He is a man who would be of great service to any missionaries that you might send out with the vessel, and I think it would be an excellent plan for you to arrange for him to continue with it during its next cruise. He knows a lot about the islands, and about the way in which Eld. Read and Eld. Gates have labored, and he would be a splendid adviser with reference to missionary work, and business matters, and also the management of the ship. If you should send out the ship with a good captain and crew, with two or three ministers and their wives with instructions that they shall labor together till they find suitable places to locate, and with full liberty to locate when they find the proper place, Bro. McCoy would be an admirable advisor if not a suitable director of the enterprise, and he could complete the work of the ship by returning to various islands visited and gathering up those persons who have been selected to be taken to Pitcairn to receive the benefit of the school conducted by Eld. Gates, and to follow those instructions till they have communicated with you and received new instructions from you regarding the remainder of the cruise. This could be managed by Bro. McCoy and your captain without taking either Eld. Read or Eld. Gates from their work. We read with the deepest interest what you have written regarding the progress of the work and the questions that are coming up for consideration at the next Gen. Conf. and we shall wait with intense interest [p. 7] to hear what you do at that meeting.
I am fully satisfied that the time has come for the Gen. Conf. to take the management of the publishing work in London. I am deeply interested in the various plans which are being considered by others and yourself, regarding the proper management of our international denominational printing. I have thought in the past that the matter could be managed in this way. That the Gen. Conf. could elect seven trustees, the majority of whom to be located in London, who should organize and conduct the printing and publishing enterprise. I have supposed that the money necessary to carry forward this business would be mostly furnished from the United States by direct loans from brethren to the British corporation, and by funds borrowed by the G.C.A. for this purpose. I had thought that the G.C.A. would bear a similar relation to the Board of Trustees located in England, and that existing between the Board of Directors in London and the Board of Directors in Melbourne or Sydney, which have the management of our colonial banks. The London Directors give general direction to the work and policy of the institution, and the Melbourne Directors carry these into execution.
I have, however, thought that there would be some marked advantages if provision could be made at this Gen. Conf. for some ecclesiastical organization in Europe which would bear in a large degree the same relation to the conferences in Europe that the G.C. does to the conferences in America. I hardly know what it could be called or just how its relation to our G.C. could be adjusted; but I do believe that there would be great advantages to our work if there could be once in two years a general council made up of delegates from the various conferences which would meet in the alternate year between the meetings of the G.C. The appointment of trustees for such a body as this would in some respects be more satisfactory to the people than if appointed by the G.C. convened in America.
In this connection I would like to propose another matter for your consideration, and that is the organization of some ecclesiastical body to stand midway between state and colonial conferences, and the G. Conf. In our work here in Australasia we have at present two conferences, and I hope the time is not far distant when there will be three, and later on five. All of these conferences will be interested in the maintenance of publishing, educational, and health institutions. Would it not be well for the Gen. Conf. to take this matter into consideration now, and see if some plans cannot be devised for Europe which could afterward be adopted by us here? If we should some day have five conferences each meeting annually, it would be desirable for us to have an Australasian General Conference once in two years, which would receive delegates from the local conferences and which should send once in two years a delegate to the Gen. Conf, who would represent this whole field. This same Australasian council could appoint the trustees of our various institutions and take general control of the work here. Please consider these in connection with your other plans. Hoping that I may find time to write you a little more while on the way to Sydney, I will close this letter with best wishes for your health and for the prosperity of the work in which you are engaged.
Yours truly,
W.C. White