John Hunt laboured with apostolic zeal, and died
breathing the prayer, "God, for Christ's sake, bless Fiji, save
Fiji." The prayer is already answered. All these islands have been
won for Christ, and are trophies of Wesleyan missionary toil. There
are 3,100 native preachers under the care of nine white missionaries;
1,322 chapels, 43,339 members and catechumens, and more than 42,000
scholars. Fiji has become almost a nation of Methodists. But it were
vain to look for traces of this vast achievement in the "Minutes of
Conference" of 1896; for a special feature of our missionary policy
is the establishment of affiliated Conferences, which in course of
time become self-supporting. In 1883 all the branches of the Canadian
Methodists united to form one Canadian Conference. The first French
Conference met in 1852. In 1855 the Conference of Eastern British
America was formed. The same year the first Australian Conference
met, and took charge of the Missions in Fiji, the Friendly Isles, and
New Zealand. The first South African Conference met in 1882, and the
two West Indian Conferences in 1884. Although more or less
independent of the mother Conference, they still retain the
characteristics of Methodism.
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