N:O R T H E R ~ CHQ:R C HE S. THE SANTA t M ls S ION. FIFTY-SECOND AN NU l\.l,repojl.1l. FOIt THE YEAR OF THE

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1 I '.,,": ",'.,,.~ THE~' FIFTY-SECOND AN NU l\.l,repojl.1l, "!!.'.' ': :'.:,_j\.j.....,..."" ". " O!i'j. c. THE SANTA t M ls S ION ~ OF THE N:O R T H E R ~ CHQ:R C HE S FOIt THE YEAR , " ptn3lish'ed 'BY THE SANTAL MISSION,OF 'rre. NORTHERN CHURCHES.

2 Day Missions Ja:ar; THE FIFTY-SECOND ANNUAL REPORT OF THE SANTAL MISSION OF THlC NO'RTHERN C'HURCHES (THE INDIAN HOME MISSION TO THE SANTALS) FOR THE YEAR ~~~~----- DUMKA: l, :PUBLlSHED BY THE BANTAL MISSION OF THE NORTHERN CHURCHES.

3 PRINTED AT THE SANTAL MISSION PRESS, EENAGARU... rress ~RO~J.1lKTOR; THE.SAXTAL ~nssion OF THl1 N'OP.TITERN CllURClI~8., SECRETARY: REV. P. O. BODDI~G.

4 THE SANTAL MISSION OF THE NORTHERN CHURCHES ~e.ct.etat!2 anb ~tcltgurer. Rev. P. O. BODDING. D'umka, Santal Parfianas, Bihar. #i.gsionatits. MISS GEKDA BANG (arrived in India May 1919 ). Benagaria. REV. p, O. BODDING (arrived in India January 1890). Dumb. DR. B. B. BOGB (arrived in India December 1915), Benagaria. MISS NANCY DrESEN (arrived in India December 1911), onfurl. REV, & MRs. J. P. GAUSDAL (arrived in India November 1915 & Jan ). Assam Colony. MISS ANNA JENSEN (arrived in India March 1908), Maharo. REV. J. JENSEN (arrived in India December 1916), Kaerabani. REV. & MRS. M. JOHNE (arr. in India Dec. 1911), Benagaria. REV. & MRS. H. P. H. l{ampp (arr. in India Nov & March 1:nS). Tilabani. MISS HELGA KRIS;rIANSEN (arrh-ed in India January 1918). Maharo. MISS DR. C. LARSEN (arrived in India November 1915). Dtnnka. MR. & l\irs. H. J. MUSTON (joined the Mission Febr. 1878), Dumka. MRS. L. P. NIELSEN (arr. in India Novr. 1912), Benagaria. MR. & MRR. J. J. O~'STAD (arrived in India 1903 and 1907), Kaerabani. REY. & MRS. K. OFSrAD (arrived in India November 1915 & May 1917). Chondorpura. REV. & MRS. R. R03E~LUND (arrived in India Febr. 1910), o1l/url. REV. & MRS. F. W. STEINTHAL (joined the Mission 1913), Benagaria. REV. & MRS. H~ WINDING (arrived in India May 1917 & Decem ber 1916 ). Assam Colony. cmr.usicts. REV. P. O. BODDING, Dnmka.. THE VE:i..A.&CHDEACON GUSTAV JENSEN, Kristiania, Norwa.y. REV. COUNT VIGGO MOLTKE,,S(EBORG, per ESROM, Sjoolland, Denma.rk. PRO]!,. J. H. BLEGEN, Au.gsburg Seminary, Minneapolis, Minn., u. s. A..

5 ~ [. ~. ~ s t::joq rnr! t; ~ efts" ~ 11 "i' td g. (D ~ t-:) ~ ~ ;. o Ir~ i:~ ~ " t:s ~~ i g I:Q t4 ~ S. W# (D, "". 5"'. ~. ( ~ o a ~ M tt tt ~. go :!. ~. g. Q Q2 C'f- ~ ~ s- i' ~ ~, t::j ~. ~ W'Ot-:)ii t::j ~ ~ 'i S- S'. ~ (I) t: -~..(D --=.~ e 8... :=: """ e.1-bt-3 (D (D (D (I) g.. 0 S ~ mlo3=:rt-3e.t:r ~ (D (I) (I) (D (I)... sr~,.:...~ 3 nbhul JftlIolu-htbDurtxl1 (Ol-. 30 ~ept). Nankar EAstern Middle Western Assam 4 S~hOl" Fi~I<i. Field. Field. Colony~ Dinaj. pur & Total. Maida. -- P~tors '" S~tion leader$ & Elders, paid un- Day and evening paid. School teachers Bible women , (un"!' 3 90 pltid.) Bengali worker Native Doctor Compounders School Illspector Totq.l ' I.,.,,,.. -

6 III THE DANISH BOARD FOR THE SANTAL MISSfON- :.\fiss AS'l'ltID HrXME. REV. P OLDE:'-iHl'IW, H.EV. Df!;AN.J. U. CH}{ISTE':\!:iEX. l\'ev. DEAN K. HIOHTKJ EI.L REY. Oo1'x1'. Y :\IoI.TKE. YALBY, Copenhag-elJ, PreR/,feid. C.tu:un:\-SIniill'l', gsq. Secretarll: AAGE Kl~Uli~, E;)t.,!. Treasurer: A. ",VILli,IEL1Ir, ESQ CI<~I{E::; VEL -1:, Copeilltagcn V THE NORWEGIAN BOARD FOR THE SANTAL MISSION. HOn01'a1'Y liembers ;- H. HANSEN, ESQ., I-IA)IAI:. THE VEN. AIWIIDl~ACON Gun'AY JESSEN, Krjstiania. JOR. BAKLUND, Esq., LANGES GATE 6, KItI~:J']ANIA. S. EAr,Eo, ESQ., Advocate of the Hjgh Court. :MISS PETRINE ESSENDROP. HANS HOIW, ESQ., Presi(Zent. REV.T. ~:f. MJORUD, HOLBEIWS PLADS 7, Tl'eas'lt'rer. lviiss KRISTINE MUNCH, M. D. REV. PROF. KARL VOLD, KR. REIN, ESQ., Bergen. Vie8-P?'esident. REV. ]vi. A. WAALER,.A.asengate 20, Kriatiania. Secretary. AMERICAN COMMITTEE. Pn.OF. J. H. BLEGE~, Sec1'etar!l a1td Treasurer. Augsburg Seminary, Minneapolis, Minn. RBv.A. J. HUI~TENG, P1 esident. REV. E. JAASTAD, rice President. RIllV. N. G. PETERSON. REV. J. C. ROSELAND. REV. O. S. MELAND. Mr. O. M. ANDFRSON. PROF. ANDREAS HELLAND. REV. O. P. SV1NGEN (Honorary 1J7,ember). REV. K. C HOLTER. REV. L. HJ.~K~IXGSEN. lvln.. JENS DIXEN. REV. C. J. AABERG. ~IR, OTTO ROOD. REV. P PETERSEN.

7 THE FIFTY-SECOND ANNUAL REPORT FOR THE YEAR " He must increase, but I must decrease." (John III. 30.) W 6 all know when and why the words cited were spoken. According to the unimpeachable testimony, "Among them that are born of women there is none greater than J ohn.~' Not great according the common standards set up by men, but great according to the standards of real life, because none had been entrusted with so momentous a message or task up to that time, to be the forerunner of the Son. We have no difficulty in seeing that the attitude of John was the only right and possible one; just think what would have followed, if he had sought his own praise. When the King comes, the herald has no place any longer, efcept what may be given to him among the others. We know,. it was not always easy to him. The Master did not. come as generally e~ected, and John's personality and message imp.r~ssed people, so he to Buch becam~

8 2 SANTAL MISSION OF THE NORTHERN CHURCHES. something else than a herald. ae was te mpted to stand for something else than he knew himself to be. So far as we are told,-and in all. the sh~rtness' of the narratives nothing esser:ttial is left out,-j ohn never gave." way to the temptations. He vras always the messenger; he knew his position; his joy was to point to the Saviour. John is an example to us. We have in oth\3r forms the temptations which were put in his way. We may be tempted to think of ourselves as something else than being messengers, to put ourselves and our own ideas so much in the foreground as to obscure the view of Him who alone matters, to let anything else be essential then the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord. We pray for ourselves and for all our workers that we may always have grace to be messengers and be enabled to show 'Christ our Saviour to all with whom ;,i we come into contact, and that we may be saved from the temptations and dangers which mllst come to us. When we look back on the year now passed there is one matter which specially stands out in our memory. As a matter of fact there is no part of our work which has not to some extent been influenced by the famine conditions of last year in the Santal Parganas. When the rains suddenly ceased in the middle of September 1918 the prospects' of the paddy crops on which the people principally rely fortheirfood became gloomy. The average outturn was nowhere above a bad middle year. ~ In some villages they had absolutely nothing. In others they had a little. Some parts of the oountry were better off than others. The lack of rain in many plaoes. further 'prevented the

9 FIFTY SECOND ANNUAL REPORT. people from cultivating their cold season crops. This failure of the crops and other conditions due to the effects of.the war caused the prices of food and other commodities- to run up to a height which has been practically unknown in former years. The price of rice has been 'below 4 seers for a rupee. The price of clothes has been about.three times of what it used to be in former days. Now a person requires for his daily food about half a seer of rice, besides pulse, oil, salt, etc. If a man earns, say, 3 annas a day, it is not difficult to figure out that such a person will not be able to get all be needs. A single man in good health may just manage to pull through; but if he has got a family to support and has to buy clothes for himself and those dependent on him, it is evident that people thus situated will have to face starvation. If this is the fact of the co~mon day-labourer, how will it go with those who have no crops and no opportunity of ge ting work? The. Santals are perhaps not quite so badly off. as other races living in the same country. They are hardy and have during their jungle life learnt to use as food many kinds of r09ts and leaves of the forest, not to mention a large number of animals which the other races have not been able to touch. The failure of last year's crops has influenced the people of these parts in different ways. Those who have had crops or something over from former years have, of course, not suffered to any great extant. In years of famine those with means thrive exceedingly well. They are the golden years of the mahajons (i. "e., the money-lenders). Those who have been able to work and to g~t work locally hav~ got along somehow. Others have either starved or gone elsewhere in quest of food. In some parts of the country most of the able-bodied

10 4 SANTAL MISSION OF THE NORTHERN CHURCHES. men and a good many women have gone away to the Bengal Districts or other parts where they have managed to get food and to earn a little m~ney. Very many have emigrated. We ourselves have sent a fair number to our Colony in Assam. O;E course, the bulk of the population has remained here in the country. It may be 'difficult to say how the state of matters during last year should be characterized. The name of famine may mean a state mu~h worse than what we had here. Thel'e was food in the country, if people only had the nioney to.buy with. That it was a very severe scarcity, in places bordering on actual famine, there is no dou bt. ~ It is not the place here to enter further on these matters. I shall only give a few facts such as they have met 11S in the course of.our work. We have had people coming to us in the very!ast stages of starvation. Any one who has once seen the look in the eyes of p'ersons who have been starving for a long time will neyer forget such. It is haunting. We have seen such. We have seen or heard of a number of persons who have actually died from absolute lack of food. Some of these which we heard. of had. been to one 01' other of the ruahajons to borrow food grain; they were refused, and on their way back they fell down, had not the strength to reach home and died on the road side. These cases were not so very many, but such cases occurring is evidence of the state of thp country. We have in a small way tried to do what we have been able to, more specially for our Ohristians. We have as our accounts will partly show, spent a fairly large sum: in direct relief, in small loans to Ohristians, in sending people off to our Colony bqth from here and romthe

11 FIFTY SECOND ANNUAL REPORT. 5 Dinajpur DistrIct, and in giving work to such people as have been able to work. We have felt we have a special duty towards our Christian workers. We have not as yet, whatever ~future needs may lead us to, thought 'it wise to raise their pay temporarily; former experience has shown that when such a thing is done, it is not without much heartburning possible to reduce the pay again. The temporary enhancell)ent would very likely prove to be permanent. We have therefore tried to meet the-as we hope-temporary difficulty by giving,one month's pay extra; in the case of the lower paid workers this has been done twice. A year of scarcity and distress is always a difficult time for evangelistic work among people like the Santals. They believe in a God who is the Creator and Supporter of all; they believe He is good. So long as nothing untoward happens, they have a kind of idea that God is fairly satisfied with the Santals, and do not think it necessary to trouble about Him. But when the rain ceases and there are no erops, it is evident to them that He who gives the rain and crops must be displeased with them. Now the Santals do not doubt that the God of their ancestors and the Christian God is the same. It is itherefore not strange that during periods of famine lots of people should come and try to l~ake God pleased with them by turning Christians. One would be much mistaken, if one would think that all such people are insincere. The question is, how deeply they have been moved. It depends on whether they have got their eyes opened to see further than the immediate need and to see themselves as they really are. Time only will show what such people really are. Some of them prove to be

12 6 SANTALMISSION OF THE NORTHERN CHURCHES. like the seed sown on the rocky ground. As soon as the famine conditions are over, nothing more is found d~veloping. On the other hand we min b,ear testimony, that there are many good and earnest Christians who were converted during years of famine; through distress they first realized ~hat there was something wrong in their attitude towards God. It,would not have been difficult for us this year to baptize a much larger number of people than we have admitted. We have, however, ev:.erywhere tried to follow the policy of helping people the litt~ we have been able to; we have invited them to participate in the instruction given to catechumens; but except where we have meant we 'had a sure basis for estimating their motives, we have kept people back from baptism, until the new crops ri pened, to make sure so far as we co aid that craving for food -had ceased to be a motive. As the statistics show very many have during the last twelve month been received into the Church. Nearly all of these have been people of the same kind as those which we have.been receiving in ordruary years. As a matter of fact, many of them a~e people who,have been known to be on the point of becoming Christians for years. It will be seen that a large, number of baptisms have taken place in that part of our field where our Santal brethren are in charge of the work, specially in the part known as. Sultana bad. We were last year very glad to be able- to tell our friends that matters had altered very much to the better in this benighted par~ of the. country. ' he movement seems to have continued and gained strength during the wildie year under review. Even tha barren field of Ranga has this year shown rich fruit. Further detaiis with regard to our evangelis-

13 FIFTY SECOND ANNUAL REPORT. '7 tic work will be found later on under the usual headings. Our stations and working centres are pr~cti cally the same as those l'eported last year. We feel, however, the need of getting sollle llew out-stations or working centres started on account of the growth of our work. It should in this connection be mentioned that we have through the generosity of Mr. & Mrs. M.uston got as gift a fairly large compound in the Bengalee village of N aranpur, a place about midway between Sapadoha and Rampurhat, on the north side of the Brahmini river. It was here that the late Mr. Muston startett an indigo factory a couple of years before he joined the Mission. The place has been unoccupied ever since this happened, that is for more than forty years. Consequently no buildings are to be found; we trust the place may be suitable for a Mission station. The place is just inside the border of the Birbhum District. In connection with the Congregational life of the Santals there is one matter deserving to be mentioned. Our goal is, it is unnecessaty to say, that the Santal Church should become independent and self-supporting. The Santals have in this respect still a long way ahead of them. A. little has been done, and therel is in reality much more of congregational self goverdilent among the Santal Ohristians than we. are always aware of. During the last year an attempt has been made to, revi,-e something which was mentioned a few years ago. The Santals have their own social institutions which they all know and which serv-e them well. We have in certain respects tried to make use of these for the congregational life.of {lui' Christians. In a Santal village a head-ma.n ~ith

14 8' SANTAL MIS SION OF THE NORTHERN CHURCHES. his several assistants is essential to Santal social life. When living in villages where a non-santa.l is headman or where there is no headman at all, the Santals will always elect for themselves a man which they call Handi Ma'l1:jlli, a beer-headman (as the title means literally trans- 'l~ted), whose office is to be their social leader and the Santal representative of the village. We have been trying to introduce among out.' Santal Christians in the villages what we have called Dlw1'om.J.lJ.anihi (that' is translated, religion-headman or faith-headman) whose office is to be the Christian leader of the village f'kcommunity. In order to get this as genuine as possible we have intentionally kept very much in the background, and only urged the people to act in the matter. It has been remar'kable to observe how the people in one of our best congregations have appointed for themselves not only Dlw'f'om M'anihis, but also Dhm'om Pa'l'aniks (the pa'j'allik is the vice-headman) and on the top of all this also a.dhorom Pa'l'gana (i. e., a faith-overchief); they have further taxed t~emselves to pay these congregational officials yearly a small amount in kind, and also a little money. This development on Santal lines has been a great encouragement to see. As regards our Schools there is very little to add to what was w~itten last year. We have about the sarn"e number of village and congregational schools as we had last year. Our two Training Schools for boys and girls have been progressing as previotlsly under the superintendence of respectively Mr. Ofstad arid Miss Jensen. The conditions mentioned as prevailing in the country" and also the fact that the Santal Christians have got their eyes opened to the advantage of,getting their -. ~ -.0;

15 FIFTY SECOND ANNUAL REPORT. 9 children somewhat educated, have worked together to make the Santals bring to our Boarding Schools more children than in any previous year. We have in both schools more boarders than we really ought to have; I but it is very difficult when the parents come with their children to turn them away; still we have had to do so in many cases and have our long lists of expectants who want to get admission to our schools. Many of the children are orphans which we have felt it our duty to take in, specially orphan children of Ohristian parents. Several destitute children have been brought to us with a request that we should take care of the~, some of them. by the local police. We have managed to do this, and have partly taken them into our boarding schools, partly arranged for them with Christian families. 'Ve feel, however, very much the need of an orphanage where children might be brought up. Training schools have a special object in view, and should have only such boarders as are deemed suitable for being trained to become leaders within their communities. Weare very glad to know that Danish friends have collected a substantial sum of money towards starting an orphanage or a "Children's Home," as we prefer to call it. It might be mentioned that we are expecting some lady missionaries out from home which may eventually take this work up. We have also in our Conference decided to make use of Koroya for the purpose of this future branch of o~r work. In connection with the Boys' School at Kaerabani we have a training class, the object of which is to train teachers for our village schools. We also have there as a part of the education of the boys an Industrial class ~

16 10 SANTAL 'MISSION OF THE NORTHERN CHURCHES. ~here Santal you~hs learn carpentry. In the Maharo Girl's School also we have a small Industrial department where girls are taught sewing, embroidery and lace work, in a practical class as it is called. In Benagaria we have, as a separ~te institution, an Industrial School of larger dimensions than what we p.ave elsewhere. Mr. Johne who is in charge of. this School writes about.it in another place. There have been many difficulties to eontend with here. Many of these were coincidental to the starting of a new work, specially also new to the people which at first did not quite grasp what this institution was meant for. People like the Santals are in certain respects critical and very slow to recognize what is beneficial to them. It must necessarily take some time to make the people understand anything new. One result of this attitude was that it took some time, before the class of pupils wanted offered themselves. I believe this institution has now by the Santals been weighed and not found wanting. There is still certainly much left to be done, but}t seems that certain branches of this school will not have any great difficulty in progressing. At the same place as the Industrial School we have, as our friends know our Divinity School under the charge of Mr. Steinthal.. We are very glad and thankful that this for our wqrk so much needed institution is making good progress. Before nex~ Christmas the second batch of students will have finished their course. We are deeply indebted to the authorities for the liberal way in which they have been helping our different educational institutions, We have also this year. received

17 FIll'TY SECO~D ANNUAL REPORT. 11 from Government monthly grants-in-aid towards our training institutions. Through the Inspectress of Schools we are for the Maharo,;, Girls' School receiving monthly Rs. 150/- plus Rs. 40/- for the Hostels. Through the District Oom.m.ittee of the Santal Parganas we.are receiving for our Kaerabani Boys' School the same monthly amount, only that we here get-rs. 60/- for Hostels. Through the same rjommittee we are also receiving Rs. 35/- monthly for certain village schools; we have also received in a lump sum Rs. 2800/- for the Industrial School at Benagaria. Whether this last mentioned grant-in-aid will be continued is doubtful. Our medical department has continued very much on the same lines as in previous years, and full particulars will be found later on in the report given by our two doctors themselves. Only one or two remarks shall be made here. Both our doctors have more work to do than any single man or woman ought to have. We are sorry that we have not as yet been able to provide the hospital accommodation so very necessary for a doctor's work. This has to a large extent been due to the now happily ended war. As told before, Dl:. Bogh in Benagaria has great plans for making the old girls' school compound into a large hospital. We, intend starting the necessary work as soon as possible. We have got some bricks made, but that, of course, is only a very small beginning. Dr. Bogh has during the last months of the year under review been away from his sphere of work. f His medical degree or license is Danish, and although, no hindra:uces are put in the way of his prosecuting his work here, it has been thought wise that he should take an Indian Medioal degree" so as to make it possible t'or

18 12 SAN TAL MISSION OF THE NORTHERN CHURCHES. him to be registered as a recognized doctor in India. He has now been away for sometime to prepare for this, at the same time using the thereby given oppertunity to make himself ac<plainted with the treatment of tropical diseases. The authorities have arranged that a doctor holding a medicc;l.1 degree from any recognized nen-british institution may appear at an examination for an L. M. P. 4egree without previously attending a regular course of study. We,expect Dr. Bogh to be back at hi~ work by the end of November. Here in Dumka we have built a small house additional to the one which is being used for a dispensary. All the rooms available in these two buildings are generally occu pied by several patients and the need of a proper hospital is very much feit. When we have not as yet been able to start anything, the cause, besides the hindrances already mentioned due to the war, is that we have not up to this succeeded in getting a ground which we like for building the hospital on. We hope to be able to do so during the coming cold season. As our friends know, we have during the last years had very consjderahle building opetations iu hand in several places. On accoupt of the war we have not been able to carry these on as we would otherwise have done. Ou the one hand the uncertainties all over the world caused by the state of war made it necessary for us to be as careful as we could with the money we had in hand. It was necessary to husband our means so as to do what we could to keep. the work. going in case of need. The times have been very hard. It was for some time not possible to get money sent through from one of our home lands. Even up to the time of writing, it is very

19 l!'if~'y SECOND ANNUAL REPORT. 13 difficult to get mon,ey through the usual channels. Practically all the money we last year got from Norway was sent out by the kind help of the British Government. While monetary considerations thus compelled us to be careful, it was on the other hand for a long time not possible to get certain materials which we are anxiouf:i to use in building. It is easy enough to build with the materials to be htld on the spot; but experience has shown that this is nap economical in the long run. Such buildings stand for a time, but very soon constant and I, often extensive repairs become necessary, all costing money and above all taking away time and thought from our proper work. It is a great pity that the best season fdr evangelistic work, when the people are more at leisure than at any other time, has very often to be used for the annual house repairs. Some of the materials essential for more permanent structures were not to be had at all during the last part of the war. After the cessation of the war materials have commenced to be obtainable. The prices, however, have been so high that we have thought it right to wait, anyhow for some time, to see whether "the prices would come down. As a matter of fact they have commenced to rio so, and with the tremendous rise in exchange we may hope that the prices will come down before 10~gJ that is, when competition will commence to make its influence felt in the market. In spite of the conditions just mentioned we have not entirely ceased building operations. In Kaerabani we have built a fairly large structure intended to give accommodation for a Kindergarten hall, also to be used by the boys to take their food in. This is not quite ready as yet; but the materials have been indented for. B~ides

20 14 SANTAL MISSION OF THE NORTHERN CHURCHES. this the foundation of a second boal'ding house for the boys has been built. In Maharo we have been working and we have been abl~ to finish the foundation of the new large school house j we are glad that this very substantial bit of work is done. This has given work to a great many people during the hard times. Besides. this we have made a large number of bricks; lime-stone and other stone has been collected. The masons have commenced to put up the walls of the southern wing of the building. We hope soon to be able to commence the building of the Church, for which we have got all the necessary money, here in Dumka. A few words only will be necessal'y with regard to our Zemindary property. As will be seen from the accounts the income from the Zemindary has last year been very Sill all. One reason is that the Gomosta has not been up to the mark; principally, however, the small amount of rent collected has been directly due to the famine. People getting no crops ha,d no money to pay their rent, and we could not this year take any steps to enforce payment. In several previous reports mention has been made of the difficulties we have had in connection with the paying of the road cess; we have this year reached a new stage. I shall Dot trouble our friends with any details regarding this matter. It would take altogether too much space to explain the whole in a way intelligible to anyone not acquainted with the Indian Zemin.dary system and its many intricacies, apparently enjoyed by. the Indians. ~ t present a law-suit is pending which migbt m~ke an end to the difficulties we ~ave hitherto had ~ The casejn 'question, has been decided according to what we.

21 FIFTY SECOND ANNUAL BEFORT. 15 think right in a lower Court, but it has now been appealed. How long this will take no one can tell, the delays of law-suits not being less in India than elsewhere. Our tea-gardens have continued in charge of 1\1 essrs. Lyall Marshall & Co. as Managing agents as in previous years. Thanks are due to the Firm for t.he able manner in which they have managed the gardens for us. The decease last year of Mr. Nielsen was a very great loss to the gardens. Mr. Nielsen w~s a whole-hearted IDlsslOl1;ary who did his- work to serve God. Weare expbcting out as soon as passages from England may be secured :LvIr. Eli Bugh, a brother of onr medical missionary at Benagaria, a fully qualified engineer, who has offered himself as a missionary working in the, same- way as Mr. Nielsen. It will, of course, t:ske some time for a new man to become sufficiently trained to take over the local management; but we are very glad that we have this prospect before us. As our friends will already know, our missionary staff has suffered a great loss through the decease of Mr. Muston on the 30th September 1919, the last day of our finan~ial year. Harington James Muston was born 11th July 1846 in Midnapur, where his father was stationed as salt commissioner at the time. He was educated at home being trained for business. A.fter a stay of six months in Altona he got an appointment with an East India merchant in London and was 20 years old sent to Calcutta where he landed just before Christmas Except for a few months furlough in England in 1888 he spent the w hole rest of his life in India.

22 16 SANTAL MISSION,OF THE NORTHERN CHURCHES. Whilst still in Calcutta he with a friend engagea to lend out money to the Santals, encouraged to do this by the missionaries. This was his first contact with the peopl~ among whom he Sp811t his life. In 1874 he came to Benagaria in connection with the matter mentioned. Mr. Boerresen was at the time occupied helping the people which were in the troes of a great famine, and ::\'Ir. l\-iuston stayed on to assist Mr. Boerresen,. having in the mean time resigned his post in Calcutta. Shortly after this he acquired a plot of land ~t a villag.e called Naranpur, some eight miles to the north east of Benagaria, and starte~ a small indigo factory here. It is this plot of land which he, as previously mentioned, a couple of months before his death gave to the Mission. During his stay at N atanpur he was a l'egular visitor to the Mission, hblping the missionaries in many ways, specially with businf'ss and correspondence. After a couple of years at ~aranpur he decided to give up indigo and join the Mission. This happened in February He and his wife spent their first years at Benagaria, where he worked as a kind of private' secretary to the late Mr. Boerresen pesides teaching in the Boys' school. When he in 1888 came back from his shor~ furlough to England~ he was stationed at Tilabani where he was in charge of the station rip to 1893, when he went to Assam to officiate as Superintendent of our Colony. After his return he was in Tilabani for a few months and came then in 1896 to Benagaria where he stayed 01' the next ten years. He was then again sent up to the Colony and stayed here and in our Tea-garden up to January After his return he lived for a short time at Tilabani, then moved into his old house in Benagaria where he l'emah:ed up to June 1914, when h~ moved to Dumka. With his wife he has since up to the time of his death

23 FIFTY SECOND ANNUAL REPORT. 17 been living here in the -old mission bungalow. Since his return from Assam in 1909 he was the accountant of the Mission, besides doing whatever else might be met with. Mr. Muston was not trained for Mission work; he, however, always took part in the work,. preaching and exhorting, when he had occasion. Specially in one respect Mr. Muston had considerable gifts. He was a fine linguist. His mother-tongue was, of course, English, and he had an easy command of an elegant language. Besides he had of European languages mastered French and German and also Spanish. He learnt enough N orwegian to be able to follow a conversation or a, discussion in this language or in Danish; he read our magazines in these languages, and could also express himself in Norwegian. Of Indian languages he spoke Bengali and Hindustani, besides, of course, 8antali. I do not believe any of our missionaries has ever had such a large 8antali vocabulary as Mr. Muston had. ~e had another quality which made him eminently fit for the work he had. He was the soul of accuracy and punctuality and neatness; his handwriting 'Yas like copperplate, every single letter being written out in full, nothing slurred over. It is easy to see that a man with such gilts was very valuable in our mission office. It was unnecessary to translate non-english matters to hirr;t. In former years he used to translate parts of this annual report into English from Danish or Norwegian. He was born to be an officeman, and did everything excellently so long a.s he was permitted to f9110w his own methods. He was' conscientious and discreet. Personally the writer feels his loss very keenly. He was o

24 18 SANTAL MISSION OF THE NORTHERN CHURCHES. \f a loyal frien~. When he was here and in the office, we had a.comfortable :feeling? that all would go smoothly. M.r. Muston died from cancer of the stomach. He had felt.somewhat below par since some time during the hot weather; none of us, however, suspected the serious nature of what he was suffering from. Some of the most common symptoms were absent,.and he had no acute pain. He continued his usual wor k up to J uiy ; since that time he stayed at home endeavouring to do some work there. One of the first days in September he sent the books over with a note that he was unable to do anything. It was at about the same time that the nature of his disease was ascertained by Dr. Larsen. When he was told, as he was at once, it did not seem to effect him at all. He had had his span of life, and more, he said, he had only to wait in patience for the Lord's call. It was all as it should be; he ~ad no fear, it was n~thing to make any fuss about. He knew in Whom to trust, and was glad that he should soon move to the better place~ The end came rather sooner than expected. The doctor warned us, that it might ~me at any time, but rather expected the course might be protra~ted for any time up toa mon~h. The writer saw him and had prayers with him. at about ten in the forenoon of the 30th September. He was fully conscious and managed to say a few words. A short time afterwards one, tot the servants came and told that Muston Saheb was no more. He died, as previously told,- on the last day o our financial year and was buried the,inext day in the European cemetery of Dumka, followed to the grave by as many as could manage to, come. Mr. Muston has gone to his reward. It will be difficult to find ~nyone who, will -combine the qualities which

25 FIFTY SECOND ANNUAL REPORT. 19 I he had. His work is temporarily I'esting on the present writer, a state which obviously cannot go on for any leng~h of time. Our Missionary staff has during the year under review been very much what it was last year with two additions and two alterations which will be mentioned here below. The wr iter of this has been staying here in Dumka during the past year except for a month's holiday to the hills and other short absences from home in pursuit of his work. Nlr. and Mrs. J. J. Ofstad have continued at Kaerabani. He is, 'as our fribllds know, in charge of our training school for boys there. He is always willing and glad to do all he can find time for among the people of the field round Kaerabani. Miss Anna Jensen has continued at Maharo, in charge of our training school for girls. Miss Jensen's health has not been quite all that we might desire, specially during the first months of the year. We are very glad to be able to tell that she at present evidently has got back her usual health. Besides being responsible for the school and its inmates, she also takes a practical interest In the evangelistic work which centres round Maharo. She has been alone with her work most of the time. Miss Kristiansen has been st~ying at Maharo since her arrival, but being a new comer she has had practically her whole time occupied making herself acquainted with the language. :M:r. and Mrs. Rosenlund continued at Kaerabani up to March when they with their two daughters left for their homeland to have the first furlough they have had

26 20 SANTAL MISSION OF THE NORTHERN CHURCHES. out Qf India since their arrival. They were all somewhat run down; but we hope their present stay in Denmark ~l fully set them up again and bring them ont here to the work which is waiting for them. Mr~ and Mrs. Johne have continued at Benagaria in their old sphere of work. They have, we are sorry to say, also this year been somewhat ailing, although we think they are in better health now than they were some time ago. They had the great joy of getting a daughter about Christmas time. Mr. and Mrs. J ohne are preparing to leave India next spring to take their first furlough to' Europe.. Miss Nancy Di~sen is on furlough in Norway. We are very glad to be able to tell our friends, that her health whioh was causing us some anxiety has been restored to bar, and we look forward to see har back again among us ne~t oold weather. Mr. and Mrs. Steinthal have continued at Benagaria. As elsewhere stated, he, is in charge of our -Divinity School. Mrs. Steinthal has been assisting her husband in looking after the wives of his pupils, besides which she has been giving much time to reading proofs fo~ the press thereby relieving the present writer very much indeed. Miss Dr. Chri~tine Larsen has continued in Dumka in charge of the Missio.n's medical work here, and also at Maharo. Mr. and Mrs. Kampp have continued at Tilabani. They hl\d the great joy of gptting their first child, a daug-hter, one of the first days of January. Mr. and Mrs. Kr. Ofstad have continued at Chondorpura. They have also had the great joy of getting their firstborn, a boy.

27 FIFTY SECOND ANNUAL REPORT. 21 Mr. Gausaal has continued in charge of our Santa] Colony in Assam. In January his bride, Miss Ingrid Nes, arrived in lndia. A few weeks later at our annual conferenoe here in Dumka we had the joy of seeing them married. Dr. B. B. Bogh has oontinued at 13enagaria in charge 'of the medioal mission work there. As elsewhere told he has been away the last months of the financial year, the first part in Calcutta, the last month in Patna, where the examinations are held for Bihar. Mr. Jensen stayed the first -part of the year at Koroya in oharge of the work there and at Majdiha. When the Rosenlunds left for Denmark, he was given oharge of Kaerabani and has stayed there since. Miss Andresen stayed at Maharo up to the beginning of March when she was joined in:wedlock to Mr. Winding ana followed him up to Assam. Mr. Winding stayed the fir~t half of the year at Grahampur in our Assam Colony, studying the language and working. After his marriage he and his wife removed to the Tea garden, where they have been occupying the manager's bungalow. This is, of course, only a temporary arrangement. Mr. Winding's work is specially outside the Colony among the numerous Santal and other population settled in those parts. Miss Kristiansen who came in January has, as already mentioned, been staying at Maharo, principally ocoupied studying the language. Miss Gerda Bang, a trained Danish nurse, arrived at the beginning of May. After a short stay at Chondorpura she went to Benagaria where she has been living with Mrs. Nielsen. Weare sorry she ha s not been quite welj; she has had to undergo a serious

28 \ 22 SANTAL MISSION OF 'l're NORTHERN CHURCHES. operation in <?alcutta. We trust she will regain a perfect health. She is now studying the language, but will as soon as possible commence to take up work 01' -w:hich she is trained. It might be mentioned, that at the time oigoing to,press we have had the' joy to bid Mr. Eli Boghand Miss Agnes Laursen welcome. The first named is at present living wit!! his brother at Benagacia, learning the langriage,"the last named. has been. married to the Rev. J. Jensen. We are expecting some more out; we 'believe they are on the way and should be in India shortly; but we have not as yet received any definite information as to their embarkation. We had tbis year our annual conference in Dumka during the days from ~he 26th February to the 2nd March. We.discussed the usual matters, budget, placing of missionaries and several pther subjeots. We had. some interesting papers read and, had some discussions. in connection with these ;:Lnd' other matters o,interest to us. The last day of our meeting we had in the forenoon divine service with the Lord's Supper. Mr. and Mrs. Kampp's little daughter was also baptized at the same time. In the aifternoon we solemnized the marriages of Mr. Gausdal and Miss Ingrid Nes, and of Mr. Winding apd Miss Esther Andresen. It was a joyful termination to our conference. Below comes under.the usual he~dings some details of our different ope'rations. We' shah first hear about the evangt?listic and congregational work. SAPADQHA continued during the. whole yea,r under the 9harge o

29 FIFTY SECOND ANNUAL REPORT. 23 Dlta1'ma assisted by five preachers. The work has been carried on as usual j the preachers have gone about. faithfully and the people have on the whole been listening attentively to the ~ord. Dharma re'ports that it is seldom to hear any direct e:nmity towards Christianity. People generally ~ckngwledge, their old spirit worship to he worthless; what keeps them back is the opportunity which heathendom gives for 'unrestricted license to drink and sexual excesses. The work has, born rich fruit in these parts. One hundred and six souls, 93 from amo~g the heathen and 13 children of Christian p,atents have been baptized during the year. HARIPUR has also this year been in charge of Mohon, assisted by part1y two, partly three preachers. Also here the work has advan~ed well, twenty three from aid?ng the heathen and four children of Christian parents, in all 27, having been added to the congregation in the course of the- I year. B'esides, many were at the end of the year ready,for baptism. A church house has been built during the year and is' now ready for being taken into use. CHANDPUR has been under the charge of Pastor Dhilnu assisted by partly two, partly three preacher!, One of the preachers died during the year; he was an elderly man who had been in the work for many years and departed this life ip great peace. N ow 'his son who has got some education ha~ commenced. to take up his father's work. During his "

30 24 SAN TAL MISSION, OF THE NORTHERN CHURCHES. father's lifetime he frequently followed the workers on their tours, so he is not quite new. The work has been g,oing steadily on and also this year a number have been added to the congregation, in all,forty three, two of these being children of Christian parents,.the rest all coming from among the heathen. Nearly half of the converts, viz., 19, were people from villages round the working centre 9f8irampur; which was mentioned last year. The preacher in charge here, n. Santal called L'lfbai, works in connection with the Chandpur people. KAKJOL continued under the charge of the same catechist as last year, Ramu, assisted by two preachers and one teacher. The field is not an easy one.. It is on the border of a B~ngal distr ict and the Santal popuiation has acquired many of the characteristics peculiar to Santals similarly situated. They are difficult to reach or rather to make any impression on. The endeavours of our workers here have also this year born fruit, 34 having been baptized, all from among the heathen. BASETKUNDI has now for anum ber of years been under the charge of Pastor j{u8ui assisted by four preachers. The work has been steadily progressing and we have had the great joy of seeing 29 souls baptized during, the year. Two of these, were children, of Christian parents, the rest from among the heathen. At the close of the year the workers had a number of people under instruction. We are g1ad to see the way in which Musui is carrying on.

31 FIFTY SEC OND ANNUAL REPORT. 25 He is a quiet sort which makes himse1f felt as a Christi~n by. his life and word. SIMOLDOHI is very close to Basetkundi, only some three miles away. 8am has been here also this year. He is a good man, but per haps not so very strong. His position is not so very easy. We have here several families which have been causing us sorrow. It s~ems, however, as if some of the yo unger members of these fa.milies have commenced to right themselves. We have here had some sore cases of fallen Christians, one so far gone that we dld not think it possible for such a one to com~ back. We were wond ering, when we heard that this one wanted to be taken back again. We thanked God when we \ understood that He had given him repentance. Sam has been assisted by two preachers. We have besides two day-schools for Christian children here. The baptisms have been thirteen, 3 children of Christians and 10 from among the heathen. HATlMARA. As our friends know we had many years ago,a station "I. here with a catechist and preachers. As the work was without fruit for a number of years the workers were taken away and only a caretaker kept here. We are very glad to be able to tell, thahmatters have altered. We have ",seen the word bear fruit and are in hopes that people will turn to the. Lord. We have therefore now placed a - catechist assisted by one preacher here. The catechist, a man ;named Pitho, was formerly one o,f the -Simoldohiworkers. In the course of the year. nine from p

32 26 8ANTAL MISSION OF THE NORTHERN CHURCHES. the heathen and two children of Christians have been baptized. BAROMASIA continued during the year in charge of Ra8ka assisted by partly two and partly three preachers. What was written last year might be repeated this year. As Raska is getting old, he has at the end of the year been transferred to the neighbouring station Ranga, where -he is working now as a preacher as much as he is able to. The workers have been' changed somewhat during the year, circumstances making it desirable to do so. In spite of all dimoulties the work has not been without fruit, eleven having been baptized, all from among the hed!then, and we have several under instruction. RANGA has been in charge of Hadu assisted by one preacher and from the last month of the year by two. Ranga has during the year given us much joy. For many years 'tris place seemed to be perhaps the m~st hopeless in our whole field. N ow this seems' to have become something of -the past. During the year no less than thirty souls have been added to the Church here, 25 of these being from among the heathen, the rest children of those who were baptized in the early part of the year. This is not our only joy. The station leader was' formerly of the less satisfactory class; now he is doing good work. He has got something which he lacked. It should be mentioned also that we have got a. small church erected at Ranga. GAD I APANI has also this year been under the charge of Bhaero assistedbjt one preacher. The workers have, however, as

33 FIFTY SECOND ANNUAL REPORT. 27 told in our last annual report had assistance from the Chirapathor Christians. A young man from ODe of the villages in the vicinity has also been acting as a helper. We have had 14 baptisms here, all except one child from among the heathen. TARNI has continued under the charge of Baj'lzat assisted by five preachers. The work here has been progressing; we have here one of our strongest congregations with a well developed congregational life. The village of Ohirapath or has been mentioned in many previous reports. The people there are something outside the common.. We ask our friends that they will specially remember this village in their prayel's, that our brethren there may be kept. The Adversary also knows abollt God's children here. During the year seventy six have been baptized, 72 being from among the heathen and 4 children of Christian parents. A church building has been erected at Tarni during last year. ; " CHONDORPURA Mr. Kr. Ofstad writes :- o sing unto the Lord a new song, for He has done marvellous things.. Here in Chondorpul'a we are very glad' to say that God has helped us in all things; many from the heathen have been baptized.. In the year from October 1918 to September 1919 there have been baptized in the district that is looked after from Chondorpura (Saldoha and Majdiha included). I

34 28 SANTAL MISSION OF THE NORTHERN CHURCHES. 68 heathen and 12 children of Christian parents; 6 Christians have died. We thank God for these souls. May they stand fast in Christ. Here in Chondorpura are 8 elders, 2 teachers and 4 Bible women. In the_ village schools are 30 children. The Lord's Supper w:e have generally once monthly; about thirty take part. I~ Saldoha there are 2 elders and 2 teachers and one Bible-woman. Some of the Christians there have gone -to.assam last year. In l\iajdiha there are 4 elders and 1 teacher. Majdiha was an out-station under Koroya; but when' Mr. Jensen went to Kaerabani Mr. Bodding gave Majdiha over to us. MAJDIHA was the first months of the year under Mr. Jensen, then st'!'tioned at Koroya. When he. moved to Kaerabani, M 1'. Kr. Ofstad of Chondorpura was asked to look after the work here, and he has done so, as mentioned above. KOROYA was the first half of the year under the charge of Mr. Jensen. When he 01\ ~r.robenlund's proceeding on furlough left this place for. Kaerabani, the work here w~s again, joined to the work carried on in connection with. Dumka. We have had several baptisms here lately, and we trust the work will progress. At Koroya itself we have at present only one young man living besicies a gardener. The preachers living at Pipra, a working centre some three miles off, work in connection with the young man stationed here.r

35 FIFTY SECOND ANNUAL REPORT. 29 We have at Koroya a nice bungalow, and we have in our conference decided, ~ha t Koroya should be the station where we shall have our "Children's Home." The roof of the bungalow will,,however, require to be renewed. We had hoped to have. this done last year, but did not succeed, the necessary materials not being proourable within the time needed. DUMK~ and the near WEST. Under this heading oomes the work centred round several stations, round Dumka itself, round Maharo, now also, as mentioned above, round Koroya and round Dhorompur. The work has been carried on very much as in former years, so far as our evangelistic efforts are concerned. The workers are about the same in number as last ye,ar. In Dumka itself we have one preacher living, besides Gulu's son Joseph who is a kino of station overseer. In outlying villages we have several workers, thus in Ranga and other villages on the west side of the More river six preaohers, and to the east of Dumka three. In Maharo we pave two and in villages in the vicinity to the west of this place six preachers; in working centres to the north and eaat from Mabaro we have also had six. At ~Ol'oya we have had two, besides one living in his village. In Dhorompur we have had three and later on four preachers, besides two iiving in Amgaohi. We have sev:eral small day-schools. We have also a number of women workers, most of them rather uneducated, but still doing some work round in the villages among the women in an unpretentious way. As' was told in last annual report we had at the commenoement of our financial year (that is, in N ovem

36 30 SANTAL MISSION or THE NORTHERN OHURCHES. ber). the great sorrow to lose Sona. She stood out ainollg her people as an example of what a Sautal may develop into, a fine and true Christian character with many gifts which she used to serve the Lord. She was cnlled "t-oher heavenly home on a Sunday morning just as,the first church bell was rung, ready and. glad to go, trusting her Saviour. The work has been going steadily forward and very many have been gathered in. No less 'than 223 bve been baptized; of these 171 were from among the heathen and 52 children.of Christian parents. A considerable number among these were from a village some four miles to the east of Dumka in a part of the field where we ~ve never had any Christians before. Here the leading men of the village were converted, and many have followed them, and we are in hopes that still many more will come. It is very encouraging to see, how these people are eager to get instruction both for themselves and for their children. In Dhorompur Dhano has been the actual leader, although he did not take up his residence at the station until after the close of the year; he lived in his home in the same village. Our friends will be glad to know that we also in thi~ field have.pad a considerable number of converts, also here in a part where we have never before had any, specially in a. village lying a few miles to the west of Dhorompur. I IJ? the northern parts of the field here mentioned we have, this year had considerable increase, more specially in villages where we had Christians before. Church services are held regularly on Sunda.ys a.t Dumb, Maharo, Dhorompur and Koroya. Dnril;lg the rainy ~ason when the rivers may be difficult to pass..

37 FIFTY SECOND ANNUAL REPORT. 31 Sunday services are held also at other places. Evening prayer meetings are general in the villages. The Church collections have- been very good. Miss Dr. Larsen writes about her work elsewhere; here should only be mentioned, that we have daily preaching at the dispensary, sometimes in San tali and sometimes in Bengali. The patients having another language than Santali usually being in the majority, we feel strongly the need of getting a suitable Bengali or Hindi worker for the place and are SOITY we have not as yet succeeded in getting such a one. The Bengali pre.acher we had for some years has resigned. KAERABANI and the further 'V EST. As our friends know, Mr. Rosenlund was in charge of the work centring I'ound Kae rabani. His.furlough was due in 1918, but owing to the dangers and difficulties caused by the war he had to wait, and even this year it wal'nea~ly impossible for them to get a passage to Europe. On their leaving Mr. Jensen took charge of the work. Mr. Jensen writes:- "At our conference in March this year it was decided that I should go to Kaerabani when M.r. Rosenlund went home on furlough. As this took place in the begining of April, I have only been here the hal part of the year for which I should give a report; and so far I am not able to give a full and detailed report, but shah try to write something in a general way of what has happened here and how the work has been. done. During the two months of August and Septem.ber the direct mission work was practically at a standstill. Elsewhere has been written of the great sufferings of the poor people in this country on account ~ of the famine

38 32 SANTAL MISSION OF THE NORTHERN CHURCHES. this year. I shall here only mention a little about the effect this has had on our work. Perhaps the situation was worse here in Kaerabani than in any other part of our mission field. We got help for the distressed both from our mission '" funds and from the Governmellt, and we had full up of work in utilizing the help we got. Many of the elders and the village teachers were employed as overseers at' the relief-work. But we believe that what we were made able to do in itself was,mission work. It has always been the privilege of the Christian Churoh to help the poor and distressed. Ma~y spoke of becoming Christians, and several people were being prepared for baptism at the end of the year, but we would let them wait until better times arrived in order that we might be more sure of their motives. It has been a bad time in one way. It is terrible to see people who are dying 01' have died from starvation, nne can never forget it. But in anothei' way it has been a time with many experiences of the Lord's help in which we have had cause to give thanks for what we we~~ enabled to do for those who sufiered.apart from the above stated the work has gone on as usual The Christians of the' community number about 1000 (children included), and about 60 are taking part in the Lord's Supper; the numbers mentioned are only approximate. To prove something about the eoonomical state among the Christianftl, 'I shali only mention that there are 58 widows and 20 orphans and 63 fatherless ohildren. This tells of the. great need we have for an infant-asylum. There are 33 Christian Santal workers 'here in tlie distriot; of those 18 have worked as elders, 8 as village teachers and 7 as bible-women. Our village sohools are

39 ,.\1 Missions librmj FIFTY SECOND ANNUAL REPORT. 33 in want of more help and inspection than it is within our power to give. The village schools are a p~oblem to us not yet satisfactorily solved. All our Christian Santal workers gather here. once a, week for a Bible lesson and for talking about the work. In the rainy season those who were n6t too far away' began to gather three times a week for Bible study, but then we were stopped in this by the work of helping the poor and distressed. Every Sunday we have divine service in four places here in the district, and the first Sunday in each month we have Holy Communion here in Kaerabani. In viewing the time that has passed we find reason to be sorry and reason to r.ejoice. In seeing how much we f~iled and what we left undone we find that we need to ask God for forgiveness and forbearance. In seeing what was worked by Him, we see it in the light of' His promises; may they always in times to come be enough for us. Baptisms in the course of the year:- From the.heathen 6 Children of Christian parents 25 Died. 30 DUM. This small station is pr.actically. only ~n outstation under Dumka. We have the same two workers living here as we had last year ; bup the work ;has been without visible fruits. There have been a couple ot enquirers, but nothing has come of it. KARlKADOR conti.nued the first months of the year in charge of Bll.ado, a good and upright Christmu...As mentioned last ~

40 ,34 SAN TAL MISSION OF THE NO~THE~N CBU~CHE8. (, year, he was suffering ~rom tuberculosis, and shortly after new year it became evident, that 'he would have to be relieved. He was then sent to Chand pur in the vicinity. of which he had his native village. He had some agricultural land here, but no house to live in. It was many yeats since he had lived in his home, and the hou~es had tumbled down. So he was given a place on the station and did what work he could until the end of the year':.- We are very sorry to have lost a faithful worker in him. He has been called home now. In Bhado's place we sent a man called Libi (that is, Levi). He is a fairly well educated man, but perhaps not strong enongh to stand as a leader.0 a difficult place like Karikadol'. He and his family have also suffered a good deal from fever in Ka,rikador. We haye therefore b~en obliged after the close of the year to send him back to Chandpur from where. he came. Besides those mentioned. we have had two preachers at Karikador. The work has not been entirely without fruit, 13 having been baptized in the course of the year, six of t~ese having come from among the heathen, seven being children of Q!lristian parents. TILABANI. Mr. Kampp writes :- "The' yea,t: under revie~ had in many. way.s the character of hard times. Cholera, influenza and famine were among the visitors to the district and worst of.all the last named' was felt. Village touring in ordinary circumstances is a daily source of recreation, although at times physically straining, but while the scarcity was at its height, the tours became more like a daily torture and had partly to be susfended, as ~t became intolerable to see the poor

41 FIFTY SECOND ANNUAL REIJOR'l'. 35 people suffering and wasting away from long continued hunger, while standing helpless without any means to relieve.their sufferings. Here at the station too a considerable number came to beg for help, but generally speaking it was indeed most surprising how comparatively few came for t~at purpose, and on the whole we should say, it is admirable how quiet and with how little lamentation the people have endured their afflictions. During such a time the two small village "Banks" or co-operative soqieties of the district have proved of great advantage to the members, but they are stili too young and their capital too small adequately to meet a famine year. Still the desire to have similar banks organized is now being given expression to in surrounding places. From Government no famine aid was given to the district here, as other places were considered to be still worse off. From the Mission we received a little, partly to help some of the Ohristians directly and partly to provide work for a few of them in the compound where some long needed draining and repairs were undertaken. But our main aid we received in 900 Kr. from a workman in Kolding. By this money two village school houses were 'built, at Baromasia. and Khurijol, both includjng teachers'~ quarters and rest-room for the missionary during visits; also a well at each place. The rest of the money was mostly given to the congregation as a fund from which to lend out through the banks. This capital and othel' congregational funds and receipts have now been entirely ~handed over to the Indian leaders of the congregation for administration, as a first small step,towards self-government. From the-beginning of next year they hope to be able to undertake responsibility for the pay of two evening school teachers, from the interest gained.

42 ,36 SANTAL MISSION OF THE NORTHERN CHURCHES. Our work was thus hampered by much distress. Still we had the encouragement to see the progress, slightly ma.nifested the previous year, continue and develop. Also the hardness of the times has probably served to soften the hearts of men. Many have placed themselves under instruction for baptism, many also went back when halfway through, but others have carried on faithfully, so we have been privileged to baptize 45 from the heathens and have still some under instruction. In addition 7 children of Christian parents have been baptized. The inward progr~ss is not so ea~y to measure. Still our impression is that spiritual inward progress has taken place a.mong our Christians, although hardly to the degree we might wish for. For instance we have not as we w()uld fain, seen a great increase in the number of communicants. To advance in this direction and generally' to teach new!!lnd old Christians elementary Christian knowledge we have commenced every Sunday after service to conduct a kind of confirmation class or Sunday School for all who desire to partake. So far it has been well attended. For the elders the gro~h of the congregation has meant inspiration and stimulation. Outside their terms of disease they have worked with zeal and devotion and like the teachers with real self-sacrifice, f~r none of them have been able to Jive by the pay they get from the mission during the scarcity, but they have all without murmuring contracted debts,to live and carryon their work. Khudia has taken ohatge of the out-station at Lotaboni, but Salkhan -who was to have been his assistant died from, consumption. At Baromasia Ragda and N arsing.h~ve been preparing for and partly have begun

43 FIFTY SECOND ANNUAL REPOR1'. 37 work as elders. At Tilabani we have the same three as before, but Alma lost his young wife during the season of disease. Opposition and hostility we have also had to experience. One outstanding example may be mentioned from Lotaboni. A poor Christian of that place died last year. Some months later a heathen Santal of the village opened the grave, cut off the head of the corpse and had. It burned after the fashion of the heathen, as far as we can make out, mainly to insult the Christians and their religion. A law-suit followed, but the culprit was assist ed by both Hindus and Mohammedans, and he was at last acquitted by means of false ~tnesses. The other heathen Santals at LotabaDl, however, thought that this was too bad. Shortly after t~e misdeed they excommunicated the culprit from the village community. and this act of theirs was confirmed by a meeting of surrounding village headmen. But after the court acquittal he appealed to another and greater assembly of head-men, whom he himself had selected. But they,.like the first ones, found him guilty, in spite of the acquittal of the law-court, and he was not readmitted to the village community. A short time afterwards the spokesman of this last assembly expressed his wish to become a Christian; he has n~w been baptized and our hope is that others in those 'parts will follow him. At Bagjobda, south of the river More, we had a small church many years ago and some Christians; now we hav~ repeatedly been asked to begin wor k again at that vi!lage, firstly schoolwork, for which they are ready to assist in building a school house. We have not as yet been able to ~nd a teacher for them, but hope to succeed and then later also to have two elders stationed there

44 38 SANTAL MISSION OF '.the NORTHERN CHURCHES. for work in \ those parts. So also for work in the south eastern quarter of the district our desire is to have two elders stationed at or n~ar Mahmud-Bazar. To begin the work among Hindus and Mohammedans we need at present one Bengali worker and a European Lady ~issionary for the zenana work, preferably one with some training as ~,_~rse. Of a more material nature we may name as our primary wants: a Church bell, a small harmonium and some means of conveyance. At the end of -September 1919 here are 4 elders and 2 young men preparjng for. that wor k, 5 teachers, 2 evening school teachers and 2 Bible women. In the rainy seas~n we had courses for teachers and elders. Other activities mentioned in the last Annual Report have been contin,ued as previously. MOHULP AHARI continued the first half of the year under the charge of J asai assisted by six preachers, besides several school teachers. Jasai is \ a good man, but n.ay be somewhat short tempered sometimes. The last half of the year we have given over charge to Laell,u who came here with his wife from Maha.ro. Jasai has continued at Mohulpahari and has shared the burdens with Lachu; they seem to go well together. The whole was something in the way of a~ experiment,and we are glad that it has turned out so well. The two men pull well together, and the same is the case with the two wives; _ they have entered the work with their whole heart, it seems. Mohulpahari.is niy old place where I have had my home for about twenty years. It is therefore only natural that I follow the development at this.place with a special interest. It has been a source of.deep thank.

45 FIFTY SECOND ANNUAL REPORT..39 miness to see, how' the work has been progressing. In the course of the year 51 souls have been baptized; of these 7 were children of" Christian parents and 44 from among the heath~n. At the close of the year they had a large number under instruction for baptism. The new converts are very eager to get instruction. The old church in Mohulpahari became practicalfy a ruin last year. The poles carrying the veranda roo~gave way and the roof of the building itself came down. We had to rebuild the whole roof and make new pillars for the veranda. It has cost some money. When the repaired house should be used for the first time, the writer had, of course, to go there. The church was full and the verandas were full. I do not think, I hav~ ever seen so many Christiahs in that church. God be praised for _all. At the commencement of the year under review we had th~ -great sorrow to lose Sido Sirdar of Ambajora. His was a strange life. He was undoubtedly one of the most prominent among the Santals. I remember when I first came to' Mobulp~hari, how Sido Desmanjhi's name met me everywhere. He was alyvays polite. and willing to assist when called upon to do so; but he was a determiri~d heathen and used his influence against Christianity whenever he could. So thing~ went on for more than ten years. Then it happened that I came in urgent need of a Santal ~ssistant for the translation work. Skrefsrud and myself discussed all possible candidates; no one seemed to have all the qualities needed. Then Sjdo' was mentioned, ~nd we.both agreed that he would stand all tests, except that he was' not a Christian. We, however, decided to try him. Shortly afterwards I met him' one evening

46 40 SANTAL MISSION 0' '1'HE NORTHEIm CHURCHES. when I was ont for a stroll outside, the station, and asked him whether he would come. He agreed at once, the only, stipulation. from my side being that he should not drink whilst with me. I did not think it wise to speak directly to him about Christianity to start with, and I warned our Christians to leave him alone and only pray for him. I heard they had not followed my advice with the result,,that he had routed them. He was intellectually their absolute superior. Now, he was sitting with me,' and we were at the time,going through the Acts and the Epistl~ to the Romans. After some time Bido commenced to ask questions; it was apparent, that he had commenced to seek the truth, and we had many talks together. Then he asked to be taken. into instruction f9r baptism with his family. He had many who wanted to prevent him from, taking the decisive step. Santals, Hindus and J.\IIohammedans tried tj:teir utmost, b~t he was firm. Then his own old mother' came and implored him with tears to give it up. His answer was, that he had found the truth and would not p~rmit anybody to 'prevent him following the right way. He would on t'he other hand do al~ he could to make others follow him. Then a day was fixed for the baptism, and Bido sent word round and had it announced by beating of drums on all the market places in the. vicinity, that on such and such a date he was to be baptiz~d~ Come and see! And a very large crowd collected. ~p.o was a large and powerful man and had much to fight against. He had as a heathen been accustomed to much which. he ha'd to give up, and it was not easy-. But he 'fought manfully. To mention one thing, he had formerly eften been drunk. It happened sometimes,

47 FIFTY SECOND ANNUAL REPORT. 41 that he succumbed even after his baptism. He was very much ashamed of it and tried all he could to hide it I I from me. He asked some of our older Christians how they managed. Then I had a talk with him and assured him that I should do all I could to help him and told him to come to me whenever he felt the temptation come. The strong man cried. He got strength where it is :to be had, and conquered. So long as I continued with my literary work, Sido sat da~ly with me. He also followed on many of the tours which I at ~hat time made to nearly all parts of our mission field. With his common sense, his intelligence,his cheerful disposition and his ac.knowledged authority he was a real help. He was interested in all social matters and a natural leader where he was. When.other duties made it necessary to leave off the ~aily literary work, he took his share of the congregational work and was a constant witness to the non-christians. One of his great sorrows was th e share he had in his former days bad in making people abjure Christianity. There were some four or five examples of this, and he went to such people and.told them how he repented of his former doings. Sido was in his earlier days an honorary magistrate, sitting as an assessor with the judge. During his last years he was what is called a Sir dar. He was a loyal subject and did his best during the war to recruit San... tals for service. He died from tuberculosis. He was of such a strong build that one would not think of such a disease getting hold of a man like.him. We first obr;;erved the symptoms some ten ye3j's ago. I took him with me down to Calcutta to have him examined there. The doctor then gave good hopes of recovery, and he seemed to b.e fairly well, when I left for Europe li'

48 42 SANTAL MISSION OF THE 'NORTHERN CHUR,CHES. in 1916.,On my return next year it was evident, that the disease had taken a serious turn. He died on the 21st December EBENEZER with JITIDA, BELBUNI 'and SOHOR. Mr. Johne writes :- Be it said in deep gratitude: God has been very good to us in Benagaria this year. Not that big things have happened, neither is the number of baptized especially large, even if somewhat larger than in previous years, no~ are there other large visible results. But th~re _ is amongst our ~reachers an outlook full or hope and expectation and they often say: "There is a great change -somehow." Perhaps it might be expressed so: the young people are coming. Amongst the baptized there has been a remarkably large numbe:r of quite young people and I can hardly remember amongst.them anyone passed his O! her best years.' Partly it has been quite young ones, who have broken tht:'0ugh the obstacles of a heathen home. That is not easily done, and we have several young men, who want to be baptized, but SQ far have been' unable to pay t~at high price. "But we are coming," they:say, "only wait and see." The people's attitude 'towards the mission is very friendly, to which the medical mission has attributed much; but to some degree the Industrial School has helped to draw the attention of the young 111en. Considered as a part of the mission w<?rk, it has not been in vain, not only that a few have been' won during this their training; but rather that it has in som.e degree I

49 FIFTY SECON)) AN~UAL REPoRT. 43 awakened young men's interest in getting out of the heathen indolence and into regular habits bodily and. spiritually.. Our preaching elders have done there work on the average f~ithfuny and not without results; even in places barren for years, as Jithia and Belbuni, we have had some convefts. The scarcity we have passed through was not so severely felt in this district, as in other places, as we are near the Railway line, where some work always can be had. Still we were gla<l to be able to give some hele. both to our poor Christians and to surrounding heathens in advances of one rupee a week during transplantation time. Orphans and widows belonging to the congregation had a small weekly allowance fl'om -/1/- to -/8/- each; they were all exceedingly thankful for what they received. The new harvest is by God's mercy excellent, and people have no difficulty in returning the money borrowed. The hard times brought many as enquirers which called for especial attentio~ in trying the motives, and several more than the statistics show might have been.bapti?,ed. We "fixed a.t once the rule: none to be baptized till the new harvest was in. The village schools have not succeeded very well this year. When the parents go away as coolies for any length o~time, they have to take their children along with them, and' the schools have suffered in consequence. The Industrial school may now be said to h~ve passed its elementary stage and is progressing regularly. We have now got as teachers Santals. previously sent for training in Government Institutions, and they are working very well. Pupils are coming from all the surrounding districts. The regular course in Bible instruction has been heidi

50 44 SANTAL MISSION 01!' THE NORTHERN CHURCHES. and I hope, given result in better understanding an~ desire for knowledge, even if not everybody says as a young dear catechist: "Now I have got an understanding,of what Christianity really is." As in previous years Pastor F. W. Stei~thal has given his valuable assistance, which I thankfully acknowledge. Our native Pastor Kambo Murmu has been a very good helper in the work, and it is a great pieasure to me to express my appreciation of his sterling character and unabait~g zeal. This year closes our first term in the mission field; i~ has been a time of many difficulties and much-i.llness, but "He drew me out of many waters", PSI Soli Deo Gloria. Statist ice. Baptized: Fl'om among the heathen... Children of Christian parents. Married couples:, Deaths (Influenza epidemic) Chatai mission contributions....church collections.~. DINAJPUR and MALDA Rs. 179-] ",The Dinajpur field has continued under the charge of Pastor JaZpa and has developed very well. One gets the impression that it is not always realized that this branch of our work is really a work.by Santals for Santals and to a c rtain extent carrie~ on by Santal money. It would perhaps be out of place just at present to enter on details as to the inception

51 FIFTY SECOND ANNUAL REPOR'r. 45 and continuation of this work. It has had much to contend with and has had to suffer much. The work of our "brethren here has been sign,ally blessed. ThAy have had to stand much alone without the constant help of a resident European missionary- ; but they have in a wonderful way been guided and led forward step by step by Him who is better than all. The result is I that we have a strong and living Christian congregation, constantly spreading... Santals come to our workers over there from places never visited and ask to get instruction and be baptized. It is the result of the -testimony of other Santals who are Christians. During the year under review one hundred and sixtysix have been added to the congregation, 135 being from among the heathen and 31 children of Christian pat:ents. The Christians are rather eagel' to get their children instructed. We have got 6 schools with 162 pupils of which 33 are girls. At Narayanpur, our headquarters here, we have an Upper Primary school, which they are very eager to get raised to a Middle Vernacular one. We hope that we shall this year be able to realize this. Pastor Jalpa has got 18 preachers to assist him, and there are 2 women workers and 8 sc,hool masters. They have also this year had considerable trouble from the side of the Roman Catholics. The high 'prices made it very difficult for' our workers to make both erids meet, and we had to as~ist them to some extent. A fairly large number also emigrated from these parts to our Assam colony. The MaIda field continued under the charge. of Pastor 8.urai. The work has progressed ~lso here, but not

52 46 SANT.A.L MISSION OF THE NORTHERN CHURCHES. to the same exteht as in the field where Jalpa is the leader. They have here had many and manifold difficulties to contend with. Some of our earlier converts have been drawn over to the Ro~an Catholics and try all they can to prevent others from becoming Christians by joining us. It is a pity to hear of th.e behaviour of these poor people. \ During the year 20 from among the heathen and 12 children of Christian parents have been baptized, in all 32 souls.. The state among the Christians seems to be good, a' comparatively large number of the Christians partaking regularly of the Lord's Supper. We have here three schools with 78 pupils, of 'which. also here some are girls. Surai has been assisted by 16 preachers. There al'e four school masters and one woman worker. It might be mentioned, that in both fields much sickness has occurred from time to time. The influenza was very Bevere last year, an epidemic of small-pox also occurring -with much distress and many deaths. Among our brethren in Dinajpur and. MaIda in all 46 died, some deaths being due to the epidemics mentioned. It has been a great relief to hear of the victoriojls departure of' many of these. They had a full assurance of salvation, 'llhe ASSAM COLONY. Mr. Gausdal and Mr. Winding continued their work in and outside the Colony. They have divided the work among the~selves, so that Mr. Gausdal is Superintendent of the Colony, whilst Mr. Winding has charge of the work, among the many thousands of Santals and

53 FIFTY SECOND ANNUAL REPORT. 47, others that have settled outside the Oolony, besides which he also looks after the Christian 'work in our teagarden, where Mr. and Mrs. Winding temporarily are residing, having been given the use of the new bungalow set up for the garden manager. Mr. Gausdal writes:- "The year under review will probably be remembered as one enough outsanding for fixing the time according to the rough way of the Santals. When writing the last report the Influenza was on the increase, it culminated in November with 74 cases of death, in our small area and lingered on for months. In fact the death-rate has been abnormally high throug_hout the whole year. The rayots had a good outturn of the winter rice; but on account of the epidemy it was at places difficult to get the crops harvested. The prosperous year up here together with the scarcity in the Santal Parganas and floods in some parts of Bengal caused a great immigration during the year. At Mission expenditure about 550 persons came from S. P. and about 200 from Dinajpur and Maida. Some came from these places at their own expense too, and so~e came 'from other places. The population was 5,426 in June, when we had a census for the proposed Chowkidari Union. The Colony Loan fund has been in a position to enable the greater part of the new-comers to start their own work as settlers. In spite of this they have suffered ~ardship from the inevitable attacks of fever, from the high prices of food and the prohibitive prices of cloth. There are many, who cannot stand the strain of the first year, and th~t means considerable expense to the Mission.

54 48 SANTAL MISSION OF THE NORTHERN CHURCHES. We had during the year two important visits. The then Oommissioner of ~he Assam Valley Districts, the Hon'ble Lt P;R. Gurdon paid a visit,to this part of the E~tern Duars at the end of March, and honoured us by a ride through the Colony and a night's stay here. W e ~ad got the information before hand and conss'quent- 1y a good nu'mber of Santals turned out. In the Church we sang a Santal Hymn and the Santal version of "God save the King." Afterwards we g~thered at the headmen's place and had a talk a:bout the daily affairs. In the beginning of April our new Deputy Commissioner, Lt. Col, A. P1ayfair, I. A., came up to these parts of his district from Dhubri, and gave us the~lea~ure of a short stay.with us too. We took a trip into the Colony and saw some of the lands. In one village they offered each of us three hard-boiled eggs with parched, rice and a drink they call tea (though it d~es not 'look very much like it). As a result of this visit we.have got a proposed new road 'surveyed from Tamarhat to Haraputa just passing the Grahampur compound. It will be a great help to have a bridged and cared for road through the Colony. We have furt~er got the Chowkidari law brought into force in the Oolony., When the new Indian reforms are brought into operation it is proposed to base the franchise in t.his district on the payment of a certain chowk"idari' tax. As we had neither chowkidars nor chowkidari taxes, we had to chose betwaen preparing for these or to be left outside. After mpnths of consideration we have at the end o.f September got appointed a Panchayet of 5 members and 22 c~owkidars. At the D. C.'s proposal the Oolony with the Mornai Tea garden is inade one Chowkidari Union.

55 FIFTY SECOND ANNUAL REPORT. 49 When we now turn to the ordina.ry mission work we have first to offer our Lord our humble thanksfor what He, hath done amongst us. The immigration has brought many new people into the Colony. The greater part of these had been in contact with Christianity at other places; but for reasons unknown had not beoomechris- ' tians.;here, however, facing an organized Christian settlement many of them asked to be baptized, and so they were in due time. It will be nbticed that very many are baptized in the middle and north of the Colony, where the greater part of the new ones got land. It is, how.. ev~r, strange to see that where the old settlers are good Christians there the new settlers have be~jl oonverted. But where the old are lukewarm the new remain heathen. The work of our unpaid Elders and Bible-women is of the greatest importance in winning the new-comers. GTahampU1' CongTegation:- Somae Murmu has had the brunt of the burden of the congregational work, to visit the villages, to prepare for-baptism and to take the services when I have been away. Communion and baptism by me. The attendance at Sunday S~rvices has been good throughout, the year. But the population is at places heavy, and I think, it would be a help for this congregation to get their own pastor. Rantzaupu'Y' Oongregatwl'l :-, Pastor Laloa' with Saona as helper qas been carrying on the work. Neither of them is iij. any way much above the ordinary type of Santals; but they try to do their work faithfully and they have had the joy to see G

56 50 SA NTAL KISSrON 0]11 THE NORTHERN CHURCHE8. it blessed. There are some difficult places in the congregation,and one case of heathen worship ooourred in connection with the Influenza epidemy in Jakobpur amongst the Kamars (i. e., the blaoksmiths). Laloa is a little of a practical linguist and has therefore to attend to other races sometimes. Haraputa Oongr,egatio~:- Pastor Ratia has continued to lead this, which is our biggest congregation,. and he has not only been able' to keep his flock together, but also to win many new oonverts. It was in this part of the Colony thst most of the new people got land. There are, however, ~everal plaoes with a rather heavy population. During th.e Influenza one case of heathen worship occured in Kaerabani village. JlanJ,adabri Oongregation:~ Khela Murmtt has done well this year too. His literary qualifications are very moderate; but he.has a good hold on,the people, and there has been a good spirit in this our smallest Santal congregation. Edelghutu is a difficult. place. Communion and baptism by Pastor Ratio.. B(Jro (Meek) work:- Dorkanto,the late.rev. Skrefsrud's old teacher in the Mech language, has been alone in the work for the' greater part of the year. Lukhikanto was transferred to the work outside the Colony~ Dorkanto is old now; but he has taken the ordinary Sunday servioes, tried to teaohme some of their language sometimes and looked after h~ kinsmen generally. He h~s also been busy with trying to make up a new hymn-book in Boro. Communion and baptism by Pastor Laloa.

57 Bengali work:- FIFTY SECOND ANNUAL REPORT, 51 Grahampur is situated in the south-west extremity of the Colony. Consequently to the South and West we,have a Hindu and Mohammedan population close to the station here. The "Mission has had some work carried on amongst them from the very beginning, I believe, but the progress has been small. The old preacher had to be excommunicated in When I returned here in ]918 a new man had been appointed, Satsoron Baidya. He is a Bengali. We have some.bengali talking Christians settled close to Dingdinga, and we hope one day to be able to build a small church for worship in this language, and we hope that this work then lday spread to those outside the Colony area. We cannot entertain such a," hope if we do not take the work effectively up in their own language. School work :- You may get t~e Santals e~sily along in many ways; but it is not easy to get tl~em to send their children to school. In N ovem ber almost every school had to close on account of Influenza, one school master died and several children. By and by we have been a"ble to reopen them again; but the whole system is not as it oug-ht to be. There should have been paid some special interest to this work, and that has not heen possible this year. The Boarding School at Grahampur has had an average a.ttenda~ce of about 30. The boarding had to be closed in September as the food became so scarce that w~ did not get any gifts, and it would be out of the way to buy it.

58 52 SANTAL MISSION OF THE NORTHERN CHURCHES. DUpema"Y :- The dispensary here at Grahampur is not satisfactory, as it is. A more substantial building is wanted, and it ought to be better staffed. However, as it is, I think that really relief, has been given in not a few cases. Raya Soren, the compounder, keeps a journal, and from this it appears that during the year under, review he has given out drugs 2037 times to in all 1372 different persons. The majority. of these are Colonists, but some have come frqm, places outside too. Btatutic8 :- In closing and referring to the statistics, I thank all thol;je friends who by their prayers have carried Ulii through this yea.r. You have your reward waiting: But do not -forget the work here in the coming days either. Continue to carry it on in your love and prayers. General Statistics :- Population June ]919 Births during the year' Dea~hs during year: Christialls., Heathens

59 Population June COLONY CONGREGATIONAL STATISTlCS Workers. I Baptisms. i Church Collections. Educa. tional. ~. Work and '.,'. '5~ ~ Q~ ~. get! Place. - cd :9 ~8 ~... 0 ~ et! 8.~ Total s:i r:1 a~ ~'.s m cp~ CI.~ fg ci m ~ e \l to CI) ~. J.4- ~~. ~'! e ~.~ '; ~ Rs.,.CI..0...CI CI) A~ P. :g' ~ 0 0 '"' ~.. ~..Cl et!..ci CI) 0: ~l,~ :a 0 E-4 Eo! 0 ~ fi1 p i8 ~ '. 0 < rz ". Santals ts Grabampur : 5 60 Raotzaupur ~.: Hara'puta '93 ManJooabri ' Boro (Mach) Samaguri Bengali Grahampur 208 I!Ill ~- - Total tgifts in kind etc. from the whole Colony;

60 54 SANTAL MISSION 011' THE NORTHEBN CHURCHES. AIr. Winding writes.- The work outside the Santal Colony. This work has been carried on for many years, b,ut the missionary in charg.e of the Colony has had 80 much to do inside, that he has not been able to attend,to the work outside the Colo~y, as he would have liked to. When I came up here; it was decided that I' besides the 'Christian. work inside the teagarden should look after the work outside the Colony. I have done much camping this year and 4,ave been impressed with the great need for more effec~ive work among the Santals and Meches. We have been able to extend the work among the' Santals. Before we had preachers only in Bodiaguri and Mandaria. Now we have two preachers in Gosaigaon, two in. Bodiaguri, two in Mandaria, one in Kochugaon, and have got a teaoher with a well attended sohool in Mandaria, and another te,aoher has recently begun a Bohoql in Kolabari, just on the other side of the :Hel river, where we this year have got several new Christians. God has given' us the great joy to see several heathen beoome Christians. In Balzre.hasa, as the field outside the. Colony is oalled by the Santals, many Christian Santals are living who have lett the Colony or have oome from other places and now live as heathens. They have be,en as sheep without their shepherd. Among them several have returned, and we are 8.ure many more will return, if we work in the right spirit. Some Christians have come from far,away plaoes and asked us to help them. J was very glad to visit them. One of the Christians had held services on Suqda.ys and in the evenings' daily for the others, and amongst the heathens in this village some have asked for baptism.

61 PIFTY BECOND ANNUAL REPORT. 55 In another village Christians baptized in an~ther Missi,on have ~ked us to look after' them and after oonsultations with the worker of the Mission oonoerned in Goalpara distriot, it was agreed that the people should belong to our Mission. I tried to persuade them not to leave their own Mission and asked the worker mentioned to visit them, but he refused. Every Sunday we have servioes in the following places: Gosaigaon, Bodiaguri, Mandaria, Kochugaon, Kolahari, Gurubasa and Galajhora. Still our work leaves muoh to be desired as to further development. The work. among the Meches is our weakest point. At th e beginning of the year we had two Mech _preaohers not very far from Galajhora. The one was found to be not at all fit for the work and was dismissed. He shortly afterwards left the Christian oommunity. His fellow worker became so downhearted that he asked for leave. He has, however, been working among the Meches on his own account, and I hope he will be willing to be a regular agent again. From the Colony I got Lukhikanto, w~o is a good pious man. He has tried his best; but on account of illness he has been, somewhat hindered in his work. The Meches have asked us to bring them the Gospel and some have asked for baptism and have been taught. We earnestly hope and pray that we may get some good Mech workers. Almost every Sunday Lukhikanto has held servioes for some Christian }feches, living in a village just outside the Colony, and in this village some have asked for baptism. We ha ve been able to sell several hundred Gospel portions in the Mech language, and we do not doubt,

62 56 SANTAL MISSION OF THE NORTHERN CHURCHES if we erlendthe work among the Meches, that God will. give us fruit. Owing to the long distances and the bad roads, it has not been possible to assemble the workers so often. as at other mission centres. Twice we.have had a sort of Bible course lasting five days; the workers have then stayed here in Mornai and we have all been thankful for these days. There are great possibilities in Bahre Hasa, and we feel it a necessity to build a mission. station here. Otherwise it will be impossible to carryon in the right way. Now the missionary is living 10 miles away from where his district begins. Statistics.. Baptisms: Heathens... "Children of Christian parents :Married couplei I cannot.tell how many Christians have died in the past year, as the work still is so new, 1-and we do not know where all the Christians live. The Holy Communion has been a4ministered in Bodiaguri and Mandaria about six. times each plaoe4 I have not been able "to state how much the Church collections run to, as some of the people are 'living so far away in places difficult to reach during the ra.iny season. We have used the colleotions for repairs and fittings etc. for our churches, and it is our intention, if p()ssible, to buil«;l churches and schools out of this money. Furthermore we have discussed the possibility of keeping a congregational worker out of the oollections. Finally I thank all our mends l who have remembered

63 FIPTY SECOND ANNUAL :KlIIPOBT. 57 this work ih their prayers. It IS a. great thing to know that. people at home are working together with us. We need your intercessions. The Ohristian work in MOr11,ai and Tarnai tea-gardens. When I came here, the garden Christians came to me and said "We have felt like orphans since Mr.. Nielsen died and }\rirs. Nielsen left.us," Now a year has passed and the work has been carried on, but has not always been easy owing to many. things, not least to the deplorable fact that the manager, who 'had to take charge after the late Mr. Nielsen apparently does not un'derstand the need of Christian, work. We are looking forward to the day when' one of our missionaries will be able to. take charge of the tea-gardens. We are happy to know that Mr. Bogh is on his way out. In Mornai v we have had our services in the evening every Sunday,.and the attendance,has been ~ood, b<?th Christians and heathen have been present. The first Sunday in 'the month we have had communion service in the forenoon, and the Christians have been thankful for it. One time we tried to have Bengali services on Sunday forenoon; but as it was.'. found that almost all attendants w~re Santals, we gave it up. We have started with a confirmatiqn class, who gather on our veranda Sunday afternoon. Both boys and girls are, present, and we have generally been ab~ut Just before Christmas we had confirmation of 22. The church was decorated, and I am sure we all felt thankful to God for that day. In February Khetro Babu, the head clerk of. the garden,.suddenly died. It was a great loss to our teagarden.. He has been, Hi faithfnlworker f~r.. many 'yeara,.", " - f... ';.0 I"

64 58 SANTAL M.ISSION OF THE NORTHERN CHURCHES. Every '~unday one was sure to bave Khetro Babu in the church. We have tried with school work, but have not been very successful. We got a young -teacher for the boys and a girl to teach the girls, but neither of them were efficient" 'and the school was closed, when the rains set ~n. However, we hope to get a good teacher soon. My wife ha~ given medicine 'to several.children and women from 'the garden, a,nd sometimes ill the morning there has been a whole crowd on our veranda. In Tamai the Christian work has been done by Jakob Babu who looks after the garden. He has been faithful in his work, and there have been services in his house every Sunday. I try to go there as often as possible and have had services there several times. We have collected materials for building' a Church and hope it shall be ready for use before Christmas. In both gardens there has been much illness, especially influenza. Statistics : B.P.ptism: Heathens ;, Children of Christian parents Del).ths of Christians Married coup1es Communicants about Church collections Rs: 130/- THE TRAINING SCHOOLS. A. The BOY8. Mr. Ofstad. writes :- The Middle and Training Schools. On the first October J 918 we had 190 pupils enrolle l1 and on the 30th

65 2 " 1st" i 3 ClasB VIII 4 "VII' 5 "VI 6 " V 7 " IV 8 " TIl 9 " II ]0, 11 " IA " IB The examinations.lvo. Olas8. 1 Training 2nd year '2 VIII class :N'TY SECO~D ANNtr AL R:EPOR1'. 59 Septem bel' ) 919 there were 2] 6, but the average monthly! number during the whole year has been 228, thus: ~yo. Class. Ave'fage on rolt Average dail!! attendance. 1 Trail1ing 2nd year 3, S '~ at the end of the year resulted t,llui :- Appeared Pa8seti. for e[t~ami1latioll. 2 2 ]2 9 The promotion examinations at the end of the year resulted'thus :' No. Ola88. Appe.a l'ed Passed. j'o'l' e:l:am1:natiou. 1 Training hlt year.') D :3 2 Class VII VI " V " 5 IV : " III " II " I 41 a1 "

66 60 SANTAL MISSION 0)1' TRR NORTHERN CBtJRCHES. Wh.en I re.f!ect on the yeal" which has now passed ai~vay, it is a consolation and encouragement for me to remember the words of Jesus in Joh "'Ye are my friends if ye do the things which I command you. No longer ~o I call you sel"vants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth; but 1 have called y~u. friends; for all things, that I heard of my Father, 'I have made known unto you. y e ~d not chose me, bilt I chose you, and appointed you, that ye should. go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide: and that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. These things I co~mand you, that ye may' love one another." It is always good to have Jesus as friend; else there were many: things,. which would be unbeatable; but with Jesus as leader we can certainly endure. I shall briefly mention a fe~ things which specially concern the school. rfhe last two three months of last year the Influenza epidemic was raging very badly also in this district, though for a long time it did not ent~r our school, so we thought, that we might be free from it altogether. But just as we were preparing in earnest for our annual examination in O,ctober and November, we got it. In a very shor~ time about one hundred hoys were down with it; but I am thankful to say, that only one boy died of that disease. Another boy has since then died from dysentery.. The boys wlio should appear at the public examination in Dumka remained well, and I sent them to Dnmka one or two days before the examination commenced, so that th~y might have a little rest before the examination. The evening before the d~y of examination I went to Dumka and found all the boys down with

67 rifty SECOND ANN'tJAL REl'ORT. 61 Influenza. The next morning, some of them had from 101 to 104 fever and also headache; so I consulted Dr. Larsen and Rev. Bodding what to do, and we all came to the conclusion, that it would be impossible for them to appear at the examination. But the boys thought otherwise, they would absolutely have a go for it. So according to the boys' wishes I drove them 111 my bullock cart to the examination hall half a mile off. Our best boy Lodo had very high ever~ Having seated himself at a writing desk, I asked him how he was getting on. He said "It will be most difficult with the writing, as my hand is rather shaky, and I cannot see the letters clearly, as they seem to be dancing round before me." When the examination wbi,ch took four days was over, one of the boys had become so weak, that he was unable to stand on his legs, so we had to drive him home (he is allright now). When the Gazette came four weeks afterwards, we found that nine opt of twelve boys had passed, and that two of them had passed with distinction. This, of course, was a great joy to me., not so much for the examination result as for the courage with which they met the situation. With that kind of perseverance the Santals may once be able to reach up to equality, with other nations which atpresellt are their superiors. The examination of the Middle schools is now more difficult than it used to be. Before we had to send one 01' two of the best boys to compete for the Government Scholarship. But now the whole class must appear at the same examination;. then add to this, that the Santal boys have to pass all the:ir examinations in a foreign language (Hindi); then you will readily see that this result gives a hopeful future concerning the SantaI

68 62 SANTAL MISSION OF THE NORTHERN CHURCHES. schools Rnd. the p,ducation of the Santals as a whole. From our new traiuhlg school ~e sent up for examination two candidates. Both of them passed, one Gupinath in the 2nd division, and the other Pandu in the 3rd division. As this was our first experiment, the result is not to be complained Gf..As you will see from the list of promotion' examinations compared with the list over, those enrolled, you will find that many did not appear. Influenza was the cause of this; those who suffered from Influenza were, of course, not examined here, but were afterwards promoted or not promoted according to the result of their quartel'ly examinations. You will also from the promotion table see, that we this year have a grea~er perc~ntage that did not get promotion, than in last year; the reason for this, is, that in former years we used to promote all who anyhow got passable marks. N ow as the influx to this school is greater than we can accomodate, we are able to ciear out those slackers, th~t are only a nuisance both to the teachers and the classes; by doing this we will get better material to work with. Still as a rule we keep those impossibles until they are able to read u.nd write, so that they may be able to read their Bible, aljd else learll a few other things, which may be useful to them in th eir future life. We have also a Carpentry school here, aud those who are not fit for school are allqwed to go in there if they desire to do so. It very often happens that those who are uufit for "tile books" lday do very well in practical work. What is essential for us is toget useful people out of them. One of the teachers who has helped me mosy during this year, is Jakob Sorell. He has besides his class work;

69 FIFTY SECOND ANNUAL REPORT. 63 al so been tutor in singing and music. He has among other things begun with choral singing, and the result is better than could have been expected in so short a time. By doi ng this he has relieved me very much. The,same teachet' is a good man in fwery respect. He is son of Malti (an old school girl) from the ~chool of the late ~{rs. Boerresen. Gupinath has bee~ 'drill-master and has done good work, besides also being a class teacher... All the tea,., chers have" worked well with good results this year. Some of the big hoy~ h::tve left school for practical work. Bonko (Mohulpahari \ went to our Assam Colon~Y. Ann (Chand pur) " " " )Iaharaj (Kaerp,bani) will work in the Kaerahani " " congregation. Chatur (Dumburia) is here for the present. Sakla (Benagaria) gone to Benagaria. Galu (Benagaria) gone to Bena,garia. As regards discipline I have nothing to complain of, and the behaviour of the boys has been most satisfactory. We have during the yeap had two batches of village teachers from Benagaria her~, who went through a short course of training. I hope that h,ey have been benefited by it. We were very glad to have them, although, of course, it, gave us some more work. Our carpentry school has made much furniture for our school, such as desks (to seat two each), school, tables and almirahs, chairs, etc. 'They are doing quite useful work. When we this year have had proportiona.lly little sickness amongst the boys, I' ~,believe that the use of ~c'loo1 desks accoqnts for this. The boys used before

70 64: SANTAL }fission OF THE NORTHERN CHUROHES. to sit on mats spread on the floor. It is obvious that was not good for their health. N ow we have left to build only one dormitory; the foundation has been laid; when that house is built, the whole school'" compound will be finished and I hope al1 will. be done, till I,shall have my furlough in 1921, 80 that I may not have all this buhding work to attend to, when I, God willing, return to my work. here again. All this work, the schools and the building have sometimes been too much for one man. God and good friend~ shall have my sincere thanks that we have been able to cojdplete this task as far as I we have done ; the satisfaction for me i:m this work is, that I and many with me believe that the school win play a~ essential part in the development and -education of the Santals in the right direction. Of course, this s«hool work is not always easy,; but when we 'consider that we live in a heathen country,' it seems to me, that there is no reason for complaint, but that we have much more reason for thanks and praise to our Heavenly Father, who has given us great joy and encouragement in.his work.. Then I ask all freinds of thi.s Mission to accept my sincere than ksfor faithful help in the year, which we now have left behind. May God help all of us to do, what is right for Him. Hearty Gre~tings. B. The Girls. Miss Jensen writes : We are at the end of a year again. Wheh thinking of the passed events, brig,ht ones and dark ones, every thing that 11as happened;,gathers in deep hearty thanks to our faithful Lord and Saviour" who has been carry-

71 FIFTY SECOND ANNUAL REPORT. 65 ing our~elves and on r work in His strong, blessed hands, in spite of all our neglect and unfaithfulness. And the thanks a~e succeeded by this prayer: "Lord, increase our faith." In my last annual report I mentioned, that the work on the school house had not begun. But now I have the great joy to teu our friends that the foundations have been finished and one part of the house is under work. It will surely take a long time before the whble building will be ready, as they are working in a slow teqlpo, but nevertheless, it is such a joy every day to see stone put upon stone, and to know: once it will stand there. It is difficult in a big s~hool to have to run about to different places to 100k after teachers and classes. It is worst in the rainy season and. in the hot season; hut a s mentioned. above: the aspects brighten, and for this reason we think our Lord with a full heart. We have too many children in the school, but until we get an orphanage, we have to kef:'p so many here. At the end of September 1918 we had 163 girls in the sohool. Now we have 189. Many many more wanted to come, and many were;; also brought to Maharo by their parents, who begged us to take them; but there was nothing to be done. It was with great sorrow the ;parents had to take their children home again. The only solaoe we oould give them was that we wrote their names on an expeota.ncy-list for the next year. The work in the school has been going on wit~ satisfaotion, and the behaviour of the girls has with one or two exceptions been excellent. Three of our. pupils have got Government Soholarships" ~

72 :(f6 SANTAL lfi8bionof TIlE NORTRERN OHUROHES.,one from each of the three departments of the sehool, the Middle Verna.onlar~ :the Upper, and the Lower Primary :departments. This is a great joy. It is also the' first' time we have got scholarships in each of the thl'se departments' at onatim.e. "Sugi,,who got,a. scholarship in the Middle Vernacular claas,has. together with two other girls gone to Deoghur to a Normal-Training-SchQ(}l, belonging to the English Church Missionary Society. I myself took them to, Deoghur. I think. it is a very good school, but it is r:a.~he~diffioult for our girls:, as Hindi is, the language 'flf the, school. 1 am longing so very mucll for a. Normal Training School here in Maharo, and as soon as the new sohool ~ouse is ready" W~,shall start. We will need villagef1chools round about, and for those we need good teachers. I think many young people, will come to Christ ~hrough good schools. This ye~r' has been a delightf~l one, as we have ~een signs of spring hoth in 'Maharo, and round about. Many he~th,~n people have joined our congregatioll in tp.e year. passed. Amongst them we have four school girls. T~y themselves had asked to. be put in,school. They were very; fon.d of h.earing about Jes:us Christ, ~h() died t() save,them. And they were' IQngingto belcome O;hristiaJls and' follow Jesus. I~ 'was a great day the Sunday they were baptized 1>1 }dr. Bodding. All pi them have since' behav~d very well and are wor king hard in school. The third of November was aj.so a very great day. ~~nty oneschool-gittls were ~ori:6.rmed. The same day they. got admission to the Holy Communion. ~heir panents had,paille and saveq.). of ~ir families and friends,

73 FIFTY SECOND ANNUAL It)CPO-a'l'. 87 That Sunday was ill every aspect,a, solemn day. We were about 150 adults joining in the Holy CC:)mmunion ibat day. I read with them half a year In order to prepare them f()r this holy act. We drew,so near to eaoh other a.nd had many a blessed hollr togeth~r. To have 'a look into souls, who are wishing to draw nearer to the Lord, is the same as -to enter the most holy place. You get so much for your own soul and feel so humble at the ~ame time. My dear friends, in such hours and times the hope of life is growing in the heart of. a missionary. We have had several meetings with.the teachers a.nd have alsp tried to do s?mething for the people of t'he compound. We have invited them to our schoolprayer.;.meetirigs, Sunday. afternoon-gatherings and festivals. Many times we have visited heathen villages near by ; our school.. girls have been singing for them, and we have taught them about our Saviour. Every o~her Saturday the Bible women come to get a little help in their work. We have Bible reading together and talk about how to help our heathen sisters. Just after Christmas we had the great joy to welcome Miss Helga Kristiansen to Maharo. Miss Andresen (now M.rs. Winding) married in March. She has many fr~ends at Maharo. All of us will rernem ber her with thanks. 'The Lord is,faithful who sent H. K. just at the right time. Now, when I am writing thi,s, she is able to speak a "good deal with the people. Here is so much to do, that we gladly collld be 3 ladies at this place. As you have already heard, we have had real fa,mine many places this year. I have not since I came to India. seen such suffering. Many people died in our neighbmrrhood, -and crowds ef miserable looking

74 68 8,ANTAL MIssION OF THl!l ~ORTHE1l.N CHURCHES. people -passed our place daily and begged for food. We tried to help as much as we could. Several small children we have adopted - from that time, and they will stay here till we g~t the Qrphanage. The health of the children has been satisfactory, of course we have had some sickness, but all will under~ stand that in a large Hock now and again sickness will arise. We are living 275 people in Maharo. Our doctor, Miss Larsen- has her fixed day in Maharo every Saturday. Many outside people are also comipg to get help, and if needed, ~he visits them also in their villages. We have only had one death in the school. J am looking cheerfully and hopefully on the school work. And therefore I feel it a great bless~ng to work amongst children. The children are the future of the Santal,Parganas. In -trust and confidence i~ our Heavenly Father our work will succeed. I - have the whole year kept in splendid health. God be praised and thanked for his great mercies. 'Our prayer is that the Lord and Saviour also will bless the year for us, and carry us and our work. We know, He will show us the way and permit us to be used by Him. At last I will thank most, heartily all our friend~ in our home lands,--~ who are praying and working for our school and children, not to forget all the Ladies' and Children's Associatious. Our hearts are getting war~, when we are reading about all j~ur love. The Lord bless and reward you all. THE DIVINITY SCHOOL. Mr. Steinth~l writes:- What appears most prominent and important to the outsider in school life, will- usually be the examination

75 FIFT'f SECONll ANNUAL REPORT. 69 result, while to the teacher and, we, hope, to many of the students the chief aim and interest lies in the actual training of the mind, 'the assimilation of new thoughts and insight into new spheres or life and thought. This applies very specially to all religious teaching. If this year we have come somewhat short of the prescribed course we have at le.ast tried to make the living Ohrist more real and the in~elligent fellowship in His life and work more practical and precious to all. This year, it will be remembered, we have had two classes going. The annual examination after our first year's work was held in December 191~; the result was on the whole satisfactory, th()ugh in no way brilliant. As was to be expected the youngar B class, who had very scanty previous -training did, not reach very high marks; one of them, Tika, made an exception heading the whole school with 70 p.ct. Two of the others were promoted on sufferance only; one of these, Anta, has improved considerably.during the year j the other, Pitho, left the school on his own account in March due to death all d illness in his family and constant headaches. Another of. the B class, Bahadur Mech, from Assam who had made quite satisfactory progress, failed to return after the. summsr holidays and thus lost his chance of finishing his course. The eldsr class have all good prospects of passing their final examination at the end of the year. The subjects taught have been as usual, New and Old Test. history and introduction, Biblical Theology, Biblical geography, Church history, other tleligions (Hinduism and Islam), singing and, fol' the B class" general Geography, Essay writing and Arithmetic. In practical work the weekiy ' homil~tic exercises and theda,ily morning prayers have proved very useful. The

76 70 SANTAL MISslON o:r 'l're NOB:raERN UHUECH.ES. small Sunday School was kept up during school tsl'ms (20-30 children on the roll, with an average attendance of 13); since the summer vacation Mrs. Nielsen bas kindly. gathered the girls. The weekly evangelistic. tour to' the villages continued until the rains; -the Sunday evening village servioes for Christians went on most of the year, though sometimes with little success, as many villagers had to leave.their homes to seek food and work else. where. A twelve days' preaching tour in Fehruarywith most of the students was both refreshing. and fruitful; we went to Dimbadoha andsapadoha.,preaching in tne villages and g~thering the Christians; it, was a pleasure to visit our old student, Dharma Murmu, illsapadoha and see the good work he is doing there. Moni Babu Has rendered his usual.kind and m,ithful a.ssistance in teaching Biblical Geogl'apby and secular subjects and in the Sunday Sohool. Ram Kisku, my secretary, has,this year ueen, responsible for' Old Test., his tory and introduction i~ the B class, besides revising other subjects. Mrs. Steinthal has gathered the wives three days in the week for Bible study;' sewing, reading and writing lessons; she has been. v.ery please~ with the. attention and spirit of the wome!!; Mrs. Nielsen has kindly ta.ken a weekly singing class with them. Saturday afternoon has been utilized for prayer llleetings (a.lways. before communion Sunday), the monthly family meetings, where we have heard about war and peace and the early days of ou t' mission, and for our 8opolha 80bha (discussion meeting) where many subjects have been dealt with; the various ph8ises. of the work, among ohildren and women,and,the young) various Jifework6~ how to 'help the. Santal nation,oomp8lrjeon ~between ~an. tala ani BengalIS; ',etc! Thili.B we. htvf3,tri~ <to WIcien

77 JlIF7Y SECOND ANNUAli REPORT. 11 the horizon in various ways. A small oollection of 100 books and booklets in 8antali, Bengali and English has been sparingly used. The health of the students has on the whole been goo.d apart from an epidemic of influenza last October, fortunately not' very violent. To free the students from financial cares in the time of scarcity the Mission ad 'v1mced mon~y to lay in a 's:uflicient supply of rice for the whole year at a moderate price at harvest time. Two special grants of' extra salary proved welcome help to the cost of clothes, now almost doubled. Thus all onr needs for body and soul have been provided for and we are able to give thanks for all things in Jesus' name. MEDICAL WORK. Dr. Bogh writes :- The past year has been disturbed and in many ways unsatisfactory. It was found to be necessary for me to go in for an Indian me'dieal examination. in order to be sure to be allowed to practice undisturbed in the future, :in order to enable me to get the necessary medicine~ '(morphia, cocaine and other poisonous drugs) and in order to get the advantage for my future work that medical "registration may give. Therefore I left my work after a holiday in the hil1s in the begining of May and spent first four months in Calcutta and after that two months in Patna to prepare for the examination mentioned, in?~ which the examination is held in English, therefore besides a refreshing of my medical' knowledge this com -pe1led me to get some more knowledge of that language. In the half year before! left, the work was continued 'on the same. lines as OOfol'e, only with a 'l'apidly in-

78 7~ SANTAt MISSION OF THE NORTHERN CHURCHES. creasing number of pltients; the bn~iest day 217 'patients. During my absence my first assistant Bhnju has kept the work going helped by Harma; the 2 other compounders Haron and Nim bai have been about 3 months in the l\hssion hospital in Kalna (Dr. Muir), in order to see how the work is carried on in an old, big ana well organized Hospital. It is- with great joy' I have seen how fa~thfully and ably Bhuju and Harma have done the work and kept the confidence of the patients, who have come in great crowds to seek their help; and therefore when I came home again I found the' work in full swing and very soon we got the same number as before I left. Altogether I cannot repeat too often that God has given me a great gift in my 4 9QIDpounders; 'they are, my friends and are fully felow ~orkers; not hired men, b.ut take their full share willingly and cheerfully even when we are hard up in busy days. The localities are not good and anything but satisfactory with the increasing numbers of patients ; but as it is to be hoped that it is only a question of a short time, I shall not begin to' complain, but with joy look forward to the- great day, when I can begin to build and the still greater day, when we hrve got a good and up to date hospital full of patients, who are listening to the word of God. It is extremly sad to have to refuse patients, who have no other places to go to, only, because we are wanting the proper conditions. The preaching to the waiting patients, in Bengali also, has been continued by our interested and good helper Sirish Babu. In the "Wards" there have b~en regular evening prayers in Santali when there have,been Santal patients. In-this and in- much other wotk with

79 FIT'l'Y SECOND ANNr AL report. 73 the patients, especially with the women who are not willing to be helped by a man, ~irs. D. Nielsen has been a great help to me and to Bhuju in my absence. Where' Mrs. Nielsen comes there is always song and a kind helping hand, and the patients are not long in appreciating that. At last a few statistical notes:- ~",' Total number of new cases Total num ber of treatments Operations Heathen Santals ChristIan Santals Hindus Mohammedans.J.tlen 11 p. c. 4 " 39 n 13 J; Women 3 p. c. 3 " 20 " 7 " Total. 14 p. c. 7 " " " Miss ~r. Larsen writes :- Another year has passed and h~w quickly it has gone. I have a feelings now, when I let the thoughts run back over the passed year, that I have managed to do very ljttle j mistakes have been made of different kinds, many patients have been here whom I have beeu' unabl~ to help, partly because their illness has been too far advanced, and partly because it has not been possible to treat them without Hospital and all the necessary equipment. And perhaps now and again I have not had sufficient experience to deal with special tropical and difficult cases. But ~ore than all this I feel, that the spiritual side of the work has not been, what I should have liked it to be. Medical work' is a practical work, nnq very often there are Dot a great many oppertuni~ ties to bear witness about Chl'jst in words" especially is this the case, when ODe has to. do with patjent~, :with ~

80 74 BANTAL MISBION OF THE NORTHERN CHURCHES. whom one can communicate only through an interpreter or at the most one can speak only a few words of,their languag'e and understand, only a few sentences, of what they have to say. But then one would like so much to bear,witness about Christ with one's life and work; live Christ. And"here it is, that the difficulty comes in, one does not show enough patience and love, and one can only pray to God for more help and strength. The greatest event dliring the year was when, in March last, we could begin work in t'he new building, which we in the meantime are using as a Dispensary. In. tha.t there are two nice large roo~s, besides a large good verandah, where preaching to the patients is held, ana. where I have consultations. In the former Dispensary one room is used for operations and one as godown. The res~ <?f th~ rooms, 4 in' number, are used for inpatients, and these as well as th~ veranda outside are as a :rule full up, at least in the hot Ind rainy season. In the co!d weather I can not ~eep so many in-patients, as it is too cold for' them to sleep on the veranda. Preaching has as before been carried on twice weekly in Bengali and otherwise in Santali. The patients as well as other relatives listen as a rule attentively 'to the word's, which are spoken, and although we as yet have seen no visible fruit, I trust that we may rest in the belief, tha~ a.lso regards our work it is trne, that "the word of God shall not return void nnto Him.)' Besides my three compounders, Udai, Rupai an~, Upen, about w~om I have' written before, I have this year got a. new one" Some He, is quite young and is a son of Jo!wa, who has served first Mrs. Boerresen, later the Skat 'P":eterien&,- 'and now is with me. They are ~n of

81 l!'ift!" SECOND ~NUAL REPORT. 75 them good young men, they take interest in the work, and it is a pleasure to me to work with,the~. I have this year since the rainy season, tried to teach them some of the Pharmacopoeia, and they are now busy revising, as we are: going to have an examination soon. As before I hav~ once weekly been up to Maharo, partly to see those of the children wllo may be ill, partly to give consultations t~ the surrounding village people. Statistics :- Consultations 12,201 New patients 6,017 Operations 207 Of these major ones 38 Inc1uding Cataract 23 And gynaecological 10 The patients belonged to the different races and commt:nities in the following proportions :- Christian Santals 16'8 per cent Heathen Santals 20"" total Santals : 36-S p. c Hindus 57'6 " " MohammedaliS 5'6 H " 60'6 per cent were men, 39'4 per cent women. With my heartiest thanks for all intercessions during the past year. LITERATURE. Very little n~w has he en done during the year under reviow in the way of literature. We are getting out a new edition of the New Testament. We are also bringing out 3. new edition of our Hymn book which like its predecessors will be enlarged with new hymns. There are appar,ently a good many hymn writer~,. also among the. Santals. :it might also be mentioned that W~

82 76 SANTAL MISSION OP THE NORTHERN CHURCHES. have in the press what is to he called" "Materials for a Santali Grammar" Up to the time of writing some seventy pages of this have been" printed, but witi! the time of the disposal of the writer this work cannot otherwise than proceed very slowly. It might be mentioned that the writer has, with the very kine! assistance of Captain Shorten, I: M. s., who is in charge of the X-ray departmeiit of the M.edical College Hospital in Calputta, succeeded getting X-ray photographs of the San tal tong~e when pronouncing nine of their vowels. This has ~een a very interesting experiment. It is not, however, the place here to enter into further. details with regard to this kind of work. THE PRINTING PRESS. The printing pres~ has during the year been fully occupied. \Ve have printed a great number of forms for public bodied and also dijne some job work; besides all that we have had. to print for the Miision, viz., our Annual RepOJ:t, Daily Bible Readings, Calendars and for IDS. As alrea,dy mentioned, we have colnmenced reprinting the N e\v,rr~stau1ent and also the Hymn Book. We have last yea.r added c0113iderably. to the equipment of tue press, liavijlg li(.ught a c0usidth'a'.,}e amount o.f type, and specially a large printing pre::;s with w;lich we are able to turn out work many times quick~r than could be done before. W ~ bought '" this press second hand. We were in need of it, as the newest press we had before was an oldfashioned handpress 30 years old. \Ve should much like. to get the printing press established on a more business like basis than we have been ahle to have it up to this. Our workers are fair.ly efficient and can turn out very nice work, but the speed is Indian.

83 FI:tTY SECOND ANNUAL REPoBT. 77 STATISTICS. NIlDlber of Christians on 30th September ,982 Baptized during the ~'par, from the heathen 1339 H " children of Christian parents Deduct deaths 557 Net increase during the year 1191 N urn ber of Christians on 30th September ,173 Before closing this report mention should be made of the decease of the Rev. Otto Skat Petersen, a co-worker of ours here for about J 5 years. Mr. Skat Petersen was born' in 1877, a son of Professor Schat Petersen of the Copenhagen University. After having finished his university education, he was ordained in the Danish Church in 1902 and came out here at the end of the same year. After having been in charge of the 'filabani station for some years he went in November 1907 up to our Assam Colony of which he was Superintendent up to the end of 1915, except for a furlough home Ilis and his wife's health being un~atisfactory they at the end of 1915 came down to D umka intending to leave for Denmark. As the writer of 'this had at the time to proceed to Europe,: Mr. Skat Petersen consented to stay on and officiate for me during my absence. After my return to India he with his family l~ft for Europe in May He was suffering much and had after his return home to undergo a se~ious operation. He never completely recovered and passed away on the 12th ~lat'clt 191}J in perfect pea ce

84 78 SANTAL MisSION OF THE NORTHERN CIlURCIlES. and trust. Mr. Skat Petersen's decease has been felt by all' his friends here as a great loss to the work and also personally. He was a gentlenlan. He was a pure minded, devoted and unselfish Christian character serving his Lord und Saviour with an undivided heart and mind. He was an example to everybody, both Europeans and Indians, and his faithful devoted work has born 'and will continue to bear fruit His best days out here in India he spent in our -Assam Colony where he did much to lead the congregational life on sound lines. It was at his initiative :that the new church in Grahampur was built and also the one 'in Haraputa. ~he pulpit and parts of the railing in the Grahampur church he carved wjt~ his own hands. We thank God that we have had Otto Skat Petersen with us. He is now at rest from his labours. We pray the Lord to let us all meet where he is now. We tender our grateful thanks to the Government of Bihar and Orissa for the continued liberal grant-in-aid to our Training schools and the Hostels connected with them, to the village schools and industrial school. On behalf of the whole Mission I most heartily thank all our supporting friends in many lands, in India, England, Scotland, Denmark; Norway and Sweden, ill the United States of America and New Zealand, both single individuals and Associations, specially the Ladies' Associations, for their faithful work, their 'gifts and above all for their continued prayers. We have been passing through 'very difficult timesmore difficult than perhaps any of us now understand. The difficulties are not by any means passed. We do not despair. We know whom we serve and are fully

85 FIFTY SECOND ANNUAL REPORT. 79 assured that the Lord will -carry His work through all difficulties in spite of our sh,ortcomings and fears. We wish to tender our grateful thanks to our friends that have been standing with us and for us and will con- tinue to do s~ serving our one Lord. We thank all those in our home lands which have given so much 'time and labour to the cause of the Santal PrIission. I beg specially also to thank those who have given so much time and labour in connection with the collection of funds for special purposes. Our special thanks ar.e due to the executors of Sven Foyn's Fund in Norway. It is our constant prayer that our Heavenly Father will bless and reward both here and hereafter everyone who has done anything for Jesus Christ in connection with the Santal Mission. P. O. BODDING.

86 ST ATE MEN T 0 F Ace 0 U NT.

87 82 SANTAL MISSION OF THE NORTHERN CHURCHES. Dr. Genwal Mission Account RECEIPTS. Rs. A P. To Bala.nce in band on 30th September " Norwegian Board, ~r J. BaJdund, Esq. " Danish Board, per A. Wilhjelm, Esq.... " American Committee, per Prof. J. H. Blegen, 31, " The Danish Church in America, per Rev. L. Henningsen, Solvang,.C& , " Bev. J. N. Christensen, P&1merston North, New Ze&l&nd : s. A.I P. 58, , , I 35, " The Misses Grimond, Blairgowrie, Scotland I! 4: : 0 " Miss Chalmers. Edinburgh, : ij 10 " John Boxbl11'gh, Esq., per E. A. Thomas, Esq., Liverpool, " An old friend " Tea sold " Interest on War Bonds " Printing for others " Books sold... " Thatching grass, fruit &C. sold " Medical fees and medicines sold... ".Ad vanoes repaid " From Inspectress of Schools for quinine fdr Girls' School " Bent of Benagaria Post Office... " Govt. Grant-in-aid for Training schools "" " "Hostels "" " " Village schools "" " "Industrial school... " " " Scholarships " Famine Relief, received through the Bishop of Chota N~ur " Agriculture, paddy sold " Zemindary, net income " Interest from Bank On current account " Do on Treasury Eills " Received on behalf of Scandinavian Bea. men's Mission, Oalcutta,from And. Nfl. / sen, Askov, Denmark , ill ,600 1, , ,786 4: 0 1,906 6 O ~ , ,035 1,200 o o 3, , o o o 688' 10 0 Carried forward Rs.

88 FIFTY-SECOND ANNUAL REPORT. from, 1st Octobe'l' 1918 to 30th 8eptember EXPENDITURE. By Missionaries Il Ebenezer Station (including charges for other parts of the field) '"... "N'ankar and Sohor Elders and Bible women.... " Congrega.tional and village schools " Ea.stern Field: Elders and Bible women in 8 stations... " " " Yearly upkeep and repairs of san,e....,. Middle " " - " " " " ~'ield : Elders and Bible women in 15 stations.. :, Yearly upkeep, rep'irs &c. of ditto. including S Eu ropean stations, materials for re:pa:irs & build ing, Chnstmas expen ses &c. " DUmka, Bengali work... " Municipal taxes. " Maharo Station.. " Western Field : Elders and Bible women in Kaerabani and 6 sta- Bs. I A. P. 5, , , , , , , u o tions.. 3, " " t, Yearly upkeep and repairs I of same , "Uhondorpura Station: Elders and Bible ---- women... 1, Yearly upkeep and " " repairs " Koroya & Majdiha Stations (part): Elders & Bible women,t \Yearly up " keep and repairs... " TiIaba.ni Station : Elders " \" Yearly upkeep and repairs " Divinity School '" " Benagaria Industrial School H Kaerabani " ~!', Dioajpur and Maida Mission... \ Carried forward Rt;l ' 0 0 1, , ' ,526 2, o o '0, j.0. Rs. 40,268 10,264 6,819 18,675 5,335 A o 6 8 2,4: ,650 4,874 7, , Cr. P. 3 3 o o o o o o 9 3

89 84 SANTAL; MISSION OF THE NORTHERN CaURCH}1S. Dr..- '( BE OEI PTS--t1tmtin1U!d, Rs, A. P. Brought forward , f' e I I 1 "....f t '".. i. '" { ~ 1 I - - Carried forwal'd Rs , t

90 FIFTY SECOND ANNUAL REPO~T. 85 Cr. EXPENDITUBE-continuea. Rs. A. P. 'Rs. Brought forw&l'd By Training schools : Teachers " " " Children's maintena.nce... " " "Native doctor, compoud- " " " " " " ders&c..... Quinine for Girls' school Building at Kaera.baDi... " i, Maharo... " SundryexpeJU!eS in connection with adminis tration and supervision, travel &c.... " Special -.vorkers " Tea meetings at an stations and tea bought for BaIne " Cutting Thatching.grass "Hone with harness for Ma.ha.ro and for Damka doctor " Printing Press: Establishment " " " Materials... " " " New Press... " BeD:t of Mission Stations... " Missionari.es'Income Tax (additional) " New missionaries setting up household... " Materials (timber & tools)... " Medicines and Chemicals bought ~..!, Dumka, Maharo and Benagaria Dispeusaries " Legal expenses... '"... " Inland Telegrams " Foreign " '" " Books (mostly Scriptures), office necessa,lies ~ and Postage " Conference expenses, in part " Passages from and to Europe and America... " Missionaries'vacatiop al!owance... " Auditors' fee for last year " MiSSionary Unions... " Advances... " Agrioulture (part)... " Communion wine... " Bank's charges for stamps Carried, :forward Hs: ,273 6,1) , , , ' o o , ,752 3!l 2, S ~gg ~ I g ,582 1,734: : o 9 28,36B , ,422 o 8, o 11, , , , , ,

91 86 SANTAL MISSION O~, 'rhe NORTH:ERN OHURCHES. Dr. RECEIPTS-conclutkd. Rs: A. P c' Brought forwtrd , ,Total Rs 1292, Mercantile Bank: Interest to 26th Janua.ry 1919 BANK 35, ,; I. Renewed for 9 months at 5 p. c. p. a. (Pens~on Pund) 37, On depositat 5 p. c. p. a. ' 20, Interest for one year to 29th August , Renewed for 1 jea.r at 5. p. c. p. a. (Pension Fund) 21, _ Hongltong and,shanghai Ba~ : 32, Interest.to 11th April , '...

92 2,881 FIFTY SECOND.ANNUAL REPORT. 87 I Cr. EXPENDITUBE-concZuaea. &S. A. P. &S. A. P. Brought. forward... " By Assam Colony, remitted Superintendent.. 10, " Expended locally recruiting etc.. 2, , , ,45,7 7 0 " Tea Gardens, reoruiting (to. be refunded) " " " other expenditure... ] , " Placed in Bank on Fixed De pos it , " Outfit of new missionaries " Refunded Miss Bang " Money sent from Denml\rk for Mr. Kampp " FlU'Diture (Benagaria.)... loo 0 0,. Towards Church land in Sohor " Material& for Hospital building, Benagaria Dumka " " " " " " Famine Relief (exclusive of sending people to Assam Colony and what is included in station expenses) spent in work, ---- ~ gifts and otherwise in our whole field ,509 B 6 " Missionaries Pension Fund, placed on Fixed i Deposit , " Scandinavia.n Seamen's Mission, Calcutta I I (to be refunded) I.. 3,439 0 I 01 " Balance in hand on 30th September , DEPOSiTS.,. Tota.l Re l 292,10sr9" wi Renewed for 1 year a.t 5 p. c. p. a. (pension Fund.) 33, On deposit a.t 5 p. c. p. a.. 14, Interest for 1 year to MIt July Benewed for 1 year at 5 p. c. p. a. 14, \ On deposit a.t :> p. c. p. a. 13, Interest for 9 months to' 5th Oot. 4! p. c

93 ,88 SANTAL MISSION OF THE NORTHERN CHURCHES Renewed for 1 year at 5 p. c. p. a. la, o -J On deposit at 5 p. c. p. a. 13,421 9 Interest for 1 y~ar to 5th January Renewed for 1 year at 5 p. c. p. a. 14, On deposit at 5 p. c. p. a. 10, Interest for 1 year to 27th,June Renewed for 1 year at 5 p. c. p. a. (Tea Garden Fund) 11, Ohartered Bank: Deposited 2nd Oct. 18 for 1 year at 5 p. c. 19, On deposit at 5 p. c. p. a. 10, Interest for 1 year to 29th Nov Renewed for 1 year at 5 p. c. p. a. On deposit 'at 5 p. c. p. a. Interest for 1 year to 3rd March ,031.1, , , Renewed for 1 year at 5 p. c' p. R. On deposit at 5 p. c. p. a. 6, Interest for 1 year to 8th April , Renewed for 1 year at 5 p. c. p. a. 7, On deposit at 5 p. c. p. a. 40,000 0 Interest for 1 year to 27th May ,000 0 Renewed for 1 year at 5 p. c. p. a. (Building Fund) 42,000 0 Hospital Fund now invested in 2 Indian} War Loan Bonds of 1928 at 5-j p. c. p. a. 15, Deposited on 16th Sept. 19 for 1 year at 5 p. c. (Pension Fund) 1, , P. O. BODDING. Secretary and TrBaBUrer. Oertified that we have checked the books of the Santal Misaion of the Northern Ohurches for the yea.r to the 30th September 1919 as fohows ;-

94 FIFrY-SECOND ANNUAL REPORT. :rhe Gmeral Otuk Book has beeu exa.mined with the subsidiary books nnd vouchers ami found correct. The Hank.Pass Book ha.s been checked and agreed as.8ot lvth tieplembel 19HI, also the Cash Ba.lance in hand was counted and the Ba.nk Deposit.t.{eccipts were exa.mined a.s on. 30th September 19HI. The Tea Garden A.ccount: will be aud.ited and certified separa.tely. The Oolon.g OtUk Book has been checked as follows:- Such vouchers as are- a.vailable h&' e been checke-.l a.ni a.ll remitta.nces from the Missbn have beeu seen to be duly ent.ered. All postlogs of the L1an Books ha.ve been checked, and the tota.l bj.l"nce of Lo:ms and Deposits ol.ltstandiugs has been agl'eed therewith..i Zem,iJuiar!/. We have checked the total rent receipts with the GODWJta.'a detailed returns, a.nd agreed the receipts sbown in the General Cash B~ok therewith, (Sd) LO" ELOCK and LEWES. Chartered AccQuntants. Calcutta, 29th October 1919.

95 YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY ~11111~111I1~1~1~111I~111I11I1~