# The Lutheran Pioneer_St. Louis_1913_S70 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) 70 The Lutheran Pioneer. Items of General Missionary Interest. Missourr Sxnop Mission 1N Inpra.— Three new workers will enter the field this fall. A superintendent for the mountain home is also to go out in the near future; he will have charge of the home and of the education of the foreign workers’ children. A medical mission is to be begun as soon as possible, and a capable physician and surgeon has already offered himself for the service. The medical missionary will be accompa- nied by an educated nurse, whose salary for the first year of her service is deposited with the treasurer, having been gathered by the endeavors of Mrs. Zucker, the wife of Prof. Zucker, of Fort Wayne. A nurse with the necessary qualifications has also been procured. ‘The Mission Board has further de- cided to send ont a well-educated female teacher to found a girls’ school, the schools up to this time having all been boys’ schools. A lady qualified to fill this important position has volunteered her serv- ices. Finally, it has been decided to find a young minister who, after taking a thorough course at some teachers’ college in this country, is to go to India to take full charge of all the schools of the Mission. Every friend of foreign missions must rejoice to hear all these things, since the execution of these plans will mean 50 much for the success of the work. OruerR Facrs Concennine Inp1a.— From 1901 to 1911 the native Christians of India have increased from 2,923,241 to 3,876,196, or by 33 per cent. This great increase was largely in the extréme South, where in Travancore and Cochin more than one-fourth of the total population are now Christians, the rate of increase in these two native states during the decade -having been 30 per cent. ‘This large rate of increase was, however, exceeded elsewhere, though the numbers were not so large. In the United Provinces of Agra and Qudh the Christians increased from 68,841 to 136,469; in the Punjab, from 37,980 to 163,220. The rate of increase in Assan was 90 per cent.; in Burma, 45 per cent.; in Bihar, 33 per cent.; and in the Mohaminedan state of Hyderabad, 300 per cent. Some of the Protestant denominations show extra- ordinary figures. ‘The Baptists, mainly in Madras and Burma, have multiplied from 221,040 to 336,596; the Lutherans, in Madras and Bihar, ‘from 155,455 to 218,499; the Presbyterians, in the Punjab and Assam, inne 53,931 to 181,128; the Methodists, mostly in the United Provinces of Neel and Oudh, from 76,907 to 171,754; and the Con- gregationalists, in Madras and ‘Travancore, from 37,874 to 135,264. ‘The Salvationisis now number 52,407, mostly in the Punjab, Travancore, Bombay, and Madras. ‘The Catholic increase from 1901 to 1911 was 22 per cent. — 'l'ravancore, where the mis- sionaries of the Missouri Synod have been working with such signal success for several years, has a population of 3,428,975, an increase of 16 per cent. in the last decade, which follows upon an increase of 15 per cent. during the previous ten years. ‘Chis gieat increase in the population of this native state shows its prosperity. Its prosperity is also shown by its comparatively ‘high standard of education. ‘he native Christians have here inereased faster than the general population, and now number more than one quarter of the total. ‘Travancore seems to be white for the harvest. May God help us that we may gather in many sheaves in this field! Fist Istanps.— The Wesleyans have 1,002 mission schools on these islands, attended by 16.525 pupils. Jaran.—In Japan, 931 foreign laborers and 563 native workers are spreading the Christian re- ligion; there are 1,132 Christian houses of worship in the empire and 75,608 Protestant Christian natives. forty-five years ago there were but four Protestant natives. Basuronand, Sourm AFrica.— Education is quite’ general in this native kingdom. At the va- rious mission schools in this state no less than 17,400 scholars were in attendance in 1912, the majority of whom were girls. — News comes from Basutoland that Lord Gladstone, the governor of South Africa, has declared Griffith king of Basuto- land, the first Christian king the country has had. Up to a year ago Griffith was more conspicuous be- cause of his vices than for his virtues. About that time, however, he suddenly changed his life, gave up his drinking, dismissed his inferior wives, and gave other evidences of a changed heart. Griffith if said to be a man of about forty and is possessed of considerable independence, energy, and adminis- trative ability. If Griffith of Basutoland should prove to be what Khama of Bamangwato developed into, his reign will help the spread of the cross throughout South Africa. A LivincstoNe MemorraL Sraion. — “The directors of the society which had the honor of sending Livingstone to Africa as a medical mis- sionary are appealing to the public for a sum of at