ay become self-eliminating. Until that time arrives I am
satisfied that the Mission has great opportunities before it. I am an
optimist, and feel certain that God will provide the means to continue
as long as the need exists.

Some believe that the future of this population depends solely on the
attention paid to the development of the resources of the coast. Not
only are its raw products more needed than ever, but even supposing
that unscientific handling of them has depleted the supply, still
there is ample to maintain a larger population than at present. This
can only be when science and capital are introduced here, combined
with an educated manhood fired by the spirit of cooperation.

In large parts of China a famine to wipe out surplus population is
apparently a periodical necessity. An orphanage in India for similar
reasons does not seem to be as rationally economic as one for the
Labrador children. I never see a cliff face from which an avalanche
has removed the supersoil and herbage without thinking in pity of the
crowded sections of China, where tearing up even the roots of trees
for fuel has permitted so much arable land to be denuded by rains
that the food supply gets smaller while the population grows larger.

The future of all medical work depends on whether people want it and
can arrange to get it paid for. If all the world become Christian
Scientists, scientific--which we believe to be also Christian--healing
will everywhere die a natural death--and possibly the people also. But
history suggests that the healing art is one of considerable vitality.
My own belief is that in the apparently approaching socialistic age,
medicine will be communized and provided by the State free to all. If
education for the mind is, why not education for the body?

Certain subtle and very vital psychic influences are probably the best
stock in trade of the "Doctor of the old school." These qualities
appear at present less likely to be "had for hire" in a Government
official. The Chinese may yet return the missionary compliment by
teaching us to adopt their method of paying the doctor only when and
as long as the patient is cured.

Out of the taxes, the major part of which is paid by the people of the
outport districts in this Colony, the Government provides free medical
aid in the Capital, presumably because those who have the spending of
the money mostly reside there. The Mission provides it in the farthest
off and poore