Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 86.djvu/460

456 wood carving of the Maoris might have been preserved and modified to find a profit-producing market for the natives. The embroidered mats of the Marshall Islanders were the admiration of all who beheld them, so beautiful were their designs and soft their texture. Even so low a race as that of Australia can produce basket-work of superior quality which if honestly encouraged could provide a means of attaining affluence from the native standpoint. The salvation of their very souls lies in the maintenance of their respect as self-supporting men and women, yet even while we preach morality, we permit their only hope of maintaining it to dwindle through our own neglect to find a market for the fruits of their labor and invention. Yet, happily, a ray of hope has come, and on the island of Badu in Torres Straits a laudable attempt is being made

by an incorporated English company under the direction of the Reverend E. W. Walker to teach the natives money-making arts and trades and, above all, to procure and develop a market for their wares. No surer road to the attainment of civilization and Christianity could be found and there is a most significant contrast between the industrious, happy natives of Badu, whose faces are alive with intelligence, and hope, and their listless cousins of other islands in Torres Straits.

Perhaps it was but natural that these early Tahitian missionaries grew too greatly to fear mistakes upon the part of the natives, forgetting that the teacher must not do the reading for the child.

A semblance of order and rectitude fell over the stultified life of the natives, while hidden beneath the surface vile things survived concealed. Such a vision of "righteousness" one sees among that most "orderly,