A 
 
 *V.V. - 
 
 >. B. I^NARD, D.D., 
 
 Corresponding Secre-tary. 
 
 ^ Printed by HUNT & EATON, 150 Fifth Avenue, New York.__ 
 
TO THE BOARD OF MANAGERS OF THE MIS¬ 
 SIONARY SOCIETY OF THE METHODbST 
 EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 
 
 In compliance witH your mstructions, I here- 
 with submit a brief Report upon our Missions 
 in JAPAN, k6rEA, and CHINA. _ 
 
 A. 3. Le:o?^ake), 
 
 * ' Corre,S4i3oncliiifi: Secretary. 
 
'JVIeTHODI^T JJpI^COPAL 'jVll^piON^ 
 
 IN 
 
 EASTERN ASIA. 
 
 Having been coininissioned by the Board of Managers 
 of the Missionary Society to accompany Bisliop Foster 
 upon his episcopal visitation to Japan, Korea, and China, 
 I left Hew York on May 17, 1893, and after a prosperous 
 journey landed in Yokohama, Japan, June 9. 
 
 JAPAN. 
 
 The Japan of the present, with the exception of changes 
 wrought mainly within a quarter of a century by Chris¬ 
 tianity, is tlie product morally of the joint influences of 
 Shintoism and Buddhism. These religions have had full 
 sway for centuries, but long ago they exhausted all their re¬ 
 sources for the advancem6nt of this people. For many cent¬ 
 uries they have made practically no progress except what 
 has occurred since the revolution of 1868, that being the 
 date that marks a new era in their history. Up to the 
 period of the revolution the education of the masses was 
 largely neglected, and it is not strange that now wide¬ 
 spread illiteracy prevails. A system of popular education 
 has been devised, but it is quite imperfect and probably 
 does not reach at the present time more than one half the 
 children and youth of school age. There has been im¬ 
 provement in many respects, and the stagnant sea of a 
 civilization produced by false religions is being stirred. 
 
2 
 
 aii'l tlic people are awaking from the slumber of cent¬ 
 uries. In 
 
 Yokohama, 
 
 the principal seaport of the empire, we have a self-support¬ 
 ing church. Several years ago the church edifice was de¬ 
 stroyed by a typhoon, since which time our services have 
 been held in what is known as the Gospel Society Hall. 
 Th is hall was designed as a jdace tbr conducting a night 
 school, the delivery of lectures to young men, and a read¬ 
 ing room. It but poorly provides fu* church services and 
 renders any considerable growth quite impracticable. 
 Several missions of other denominations have respectable 
 church edifices, which renders our destitution only the 
 more conspicuous. We have a lot centrally located and 
 paid for, and the native church has accumulated nearly 
 $1,000 (Japanese currency), to aid in the erection of a new . 
 house of worship. It is greatly to be l egretted that the 
 General Committee, at its recent session, could not see its 
 way clear to make a direct appro])riation for the erection 
 of this much-needed house of worship. The conditional 
 appropriation of $5,000 ought to be j aised, and the church 
 erected this year. 
 
 Our first Sabbath in Japan was Children’s Day. Learn- 
 ino; that the morninoj hour was to be devoted to the Chil- 
 dren’s Day services, BiJiop Foster and myself repaired to 
 the hall to be spectators of what might transpire. The 
 services were conducted by the native lady superintend¬ 
 ent of the school, and in a stvle that would have done 
 ciedit to a lady in America. It was rather an interesting 
 incident that the first addresses delivered in Japan by the 
 bishop and the writer should have been to children and 
 young people. On the bluff the Woman’s Foreign Mis¬ 
 sionary Society has a training school for Bible women. 
 These women are instructed in Christian doctrine and 
 drilled in methods of practical work which fit them for 
 
3 
 
 great nsefnlness among their sisters who are languishing in 
 the darkness of pagan night. 
 
 Hakodate 
 
 is a city of 40,000 inliabitants, and the metropolis of Hok¬ 
 kaido, an island in the northern part of the empire, con¬ 
 stituting a presiding elder’s district and containing 35,000 
 square miles, with a population of 400,000. Here we have 
 two good dwellings and a comfortable frame church which 
 will accommodate 250 people, the membership of which is 
 175. This church has been for several years self-supporting. 
 Here the Woman’s Foreign Missionai\v Society has a flour¬ 
 ishing school for young ladies, well equipped and well 
 housed. The ladies connected with this school carry on 
 six Sunday schools, some of which will doubtless develop 
 into church organizations. Crossing the Tsurugu Straits 
 to Aomori I visited 
 
 Hirosaki, 
 
 a city in the extreme northern part of the main island. 
 Ours is the only Christian mission in the city, and the 
 whole valley in which it is located, thickly dotted with 
 towns and villages, is open to the preaching of the Gospel. 
 In this city we have a church of seventy members, wor¬ 
 shiping in an inferior chapel. Here I spent the Sabbath, 
 preaching twice and administering baptism to four adults, 
 one of whom was the wife of a member of the Imperial 
 Diet. Returning to Aomori, wdiere we have a comfort¬ 
 able chapel with a church organization having before it 
 good prospects of success, we continued our journey south¬ 
 ward to Morioko, a city of 30,000 inhabitants, wdiere we 
 have a society worshiping in a house occupied by the native 
 pastor, and where a church edifice is much needed. Here 
 a special religious seivice w’as held in a theater, and ad¬ 
 dresses w^ere made by Bishop Foster and the writer. Pro¬ 
 ceeding still southward, wm visited Sendai, a city of 60,000 
 
4 
 
 inhabitants, where we have a native se]f-snp])orting church 
 of 300 menibers, and wliere the evangelistic work is great¬ 
 ly aided by Bible women under the directi4>n of the 
 Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society. Our church edi¬ 
 fice is commodious and the attendance upon worship 
 excellent. The 
 
 Japan Conference 
 
 opened its tenth annual session, under the presidency of 
 Bishop Foster, in our school edifice at Aoyama, Tokyo, 
 Thursday morning, July 6. The Conference contains 
 21 missionaries and 34 native ordained and 21 unordained 
 ministers, and, including probationers, 4,034 lay members. 
 Here are missionaries who may be properly called 
 ‘•fathers,” as they were present twenty years ago when the 
 Mission was founded—Soper, Davison, and Correll. Here 
 are others who have rendered service for a series of years, 
 who may be ranked as veterans—Bishop, Yail, Draper, 
 Miss Yail, the two Spencers, H. W. Swartz, Worden, 
 Fulkerson, Cleveland, Johnson, Wier, Wadman, Belknap, 
 and Chappell. There is one novice—H. B. Schwartz—who 
 has just entered the Mission, but he has in him the right 
 material and needs only time to prove his excellent qual¬ 
 ities. Among the natives there are men of sterling worth 
 and ability, two of whom should receive special mention— 
 S. Ogata and Y. Honda. The former was educated at As- 
 bury (now De Pauw) Universit}^ was sent out as a mission¬ 
 ary in the year 1885, and is an able preacher. The latter 
 spent some time pursuing a special course at Drew Theo¬ 
 logical Seminary, and is a man of marked executive abil¬ 
 ity. The several departments of our work were thoroughly 
 investigated and found to be in a good degree prosperous. 
 The importance of our 
 
 Publicihing- Agency 
 
 can scarcely be overestimated. If we are to have in this 
 empire a great Church, we must have, as a means of its 
 
O 
 
 creation in part, tliefree circulation of Christian li erature. 
 We now have the germ of what will grow into a Japanese 
 Methodist Book Concern in due time, and it should be 
 carefully nurtured and developed as I’apidly as means will 
 allow. Missiouaiy money is certainly well and effectively 
 used when it is put into the production of religions tracts, 
 periodicals, and books. Our 
 
 Ang-lo-Japanese College 
 
 is located at Aoyarna, Tokyo. In 1883 the Bev. J. F. 
 Goncher, D.D., of Baltimore, was impressed with the im- 
 ])orta?ice of having an educational institution planted at the 
 capital of the empire. With that foresight, wisdom, and 
 generosity which have so often characterized his conduct? 
 he contributed the money for the purchase of a plot of 
 ground, consisting of twenty-five acres, as a college site, and 
 then donated a handsome sum for the erection of a building 
 that has been appropriately named Goucher Hall. The 
 generous gift of Mrs. Philander Smith and her son-in-law? 
 Mr. W. E. Blackstone, added a commodious building which 
 now houses the Philander Smith Biblical Institute. Upon 
 the same grounds the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society 
 has a school for young ladies and has just completed a 
 s)»acious building for an industrial department. The 
 grounds are laid out with artistic taste and skill and present 
 a very attractive appearance. After having visited the 
 sites of schools of other missionary societies, I can testify 
 that for spaciousness and sightliness ours excels them all. 
 Indeed, it is conceded that our school property is the most 
 desirable owned by any denomination carrying on mission 
 work at the capital. The buildings consist of Goucher 
 Hall, a three-story brick edifice; the Philander Smith 
 theological building, also three stories high ; and dormi¬ 
 tory, of two stories, furnishing sleeping apartments for one 
 hundred and twenty students. These buildings are all 
 substantially constructed of brick, are of symmetrical pro- 
 
6 
 
 portions, and well adapted to the purpose for which they 
 were designed. Four departments, the collegiate, normal, 
 theological, and industrial, are in successful operation. 
 Already a considerable number of graduates of our theo¬ 
 logical school have entered the ministry of our Church. 
 At the Conference nine promising men were admitted 
 to the travelino^ connection, seven of whom but a 
 few days previous had received their certificates of gradu¬ 
 ation. The great importance of our schools here cannot be 
 overestimated. This will always be our main educational 
 center, and should be managed with that fact in view. 
 While speaking of our educational work mention should 
 be made of our school (Chinzei Gakkwan) at 
 
 Nagasaki, 
 
 which is successfully carrying forward literary and theo¬ 
 logical instruction. We have all the schools in Japan that 
 we can support for the present. Those that are above 
 mentioned, and the several schools under the management 
 of the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society, afford facilities 
 for all the school work that should be attempted at the 
 present stage of our work. The question of 
 
 Pastoral Support 
 
 in Japan is of the utmost importance and demands the 
 most careful consideration. Methods that were wise and 
 successful in the beginning have been outgrown and are 
 now an obstruction. The existing method of making 
 appropriations of missionary money to the work in Japan 
 was what was needed in the earlier years, when native 
 agencies were few, but are notoriously defective at the 
 present time, when nativ^e agencies are in the ascendency. 
 Careful investigation shows that while in other lines of de- 
 
 ij 
 
 velopment there has been encouraging progress, in the 
 matter of pastoral sup])ort there has been for several years 
 constant relative falling off. Both missionaries and native 
 
7 
 
 preachers see and deprecate this fact and are anxious ihat 
 the evil shall be leinedied. The cure must be found in a 
 change of financial administration, and it is believed that 
 the needed change can be readily effected. The following- 
 plan for the financial administration of the native evangel¬ 
 istic work was recommended to the General Committee 
 at its recent annual session and was referred to this Board 
 for special consideration. It is as follows : * 
 
 1. That the appi'opriations for the support of native pas¬ 
 tors and evangelists be made for the Conference year in 
 place of the calendar year, so that the money may be dis¬ 
 tributed among the preachers and charges at the session of 
 the Annual Conference with special reference to the needs 
 of both. 
 
 2. The sum appropriated for a given Conference year 
 shall be in some proportion to the amount raised by the 
 churches for pastoral support (exclusive of contributions 
 for other purposes) during the previous Conference year; 
 said proportion to be determined by the General Com¬ 
 mittee from year to year. For the Conference year begin¬ 
 ning July, 1891, we estimate that the sum should be $ 
 
 The sum required from the churches shall be increased 
 from year to year as ability for self-support shall warrant. 
 
 3. An additional sum shall be appropriated each year 
 for new work, equal to three times the amount contributed 
 by the churches in Japan to the treasury of the Missionary 
 Society. 
 
 4. The whole sum a])propriated for the purposes above 
 specified shall be administered by the Japan Conference in 
 substantially the same manner as missionary money is ad¬ 
 ministered by the Annual Conferences in the United States, 
 namely, the presiding elders shall be a Committee on Mis¬ 
 sions, and shall divide the whole sum a))propriated for na¬ 
 tive evangelistic and pastoral su])port among the districts, 
 
 * The plan here given is equally applicable and nect-ssary in the Foochow and North 
 China Conferences. 
 
8 
 
 pastoral cliargcs, and new points to be opened, and report 
 the same to the Annual Conference, which shall have 
 power to amend said report, the final result to be approved 
 hj^ the ])residing bishop. 
 
 5. The several sums appropriated shall be paid to the 
 preachers by the treasurer of the Mission in monthly in¬ 
 stallments. Should any preacher I’efuse to serve the charge 
 to which he is appointed, or should he absent himself, to 
 the neglect of his woik, from his charge without the con¬ 
 sent of his presiding elder, the treasurer shall on notifica¬ 
 tion of the presiding elder withhold the whole or any part 
 of the sum appropriated, in proportion to the time said 
 preacher has failed to render service. 
 
 It will he observed that this plan proposes to change the 
 financial administration of this department of work from 
 the calendar to the Conference year. This is absolutely 
 necessarv to secure an intelligent and fair distribution of 
 missionary money. According to the plan that is now 
 oj)erated, the appropriations are made to men according to 
 their respective positions as supplies, probationers, deacons, 
 and elders, and with little, if any, regard to the numher in 
 the preacher’s family or to what the church to which he is 
 assigned may be able to pay. If at the session of the Con¬ 
 ference the bishop finds it necessary to remove a man from 
 one charge to another, as is fi ccpiently the case, the salary 
 goes with the man, tliough the charge to which he goes 
 may be abundantly able to pay a ])art or even the whole 
 of his salary. Tlie natural and inevitable result of this plan 
 has been to weaken and keep down effort on the part of 
 the church to support their own pastors. It also makes 
 the pastors entirely independent of their people, so far as 
 ])ersonal support is concerned, and so eliminates a whole¬ 
 some sense of dependence which with most mortals is nec¬ 
 essary to })roduce sustained activity. It is not strange 
 that such a system of pastoral support during the year 
 which closed July, 1898, should have yielded but $1 to $10 
 
9 
 
 furnished by the Missionary Society. An important result 
 of the proposed method of administration will be a more 
 careful scrutiny of the men who are admitted to member¬ 
 ship in the Conference. Under the plan now in operation 
 when a man is admitted he goes upon the list to be sup¬ 
 ported by missionary money, and the number admitted in 
 no way affects the salaries of those who vote for admission. 
 Wlien it is knovvn that each new man admitted will share 
 in the lump sum at the disposal of the Conference, the 
 door of admission will be more carefully guarded—a thing 
 that is greatly needed. 
 
 Enlargement of the work and loyalty to the Missionary 
 Society are provided for in the proposed plan by the an¬ 
 nual appropriation of a certain sum bearing a given ]iro- 
 portion to the amount contributed the previous year by the 
 charges to the missionary treasury, said sum to be used 
 only for opening new points. This new plan places a 
 proper responsibility upon, and gives a needed dignity to, 
 the native ministers. They now largely outnumber the 
 foreigners, and yet they have no voice in the financial ad¬ 
 ministration of the Church. They are simply on the pay¬ 
 roll, and the presiding elders are frequently spoken of as 
 paymasters. These native brethren are sometimes twitted 
 by their heathen neighbors as being only employees of 
 presiding elders, of whom they receive their pay, and they 
 feel such taunts keenly. They ask to share the respon¬ 
 sibility of administering the funds appropriated for their 
 own support, and the request is reasonable. The ability 
 and tact for self-government can be developed only by 
 sharing responsibility. These preachers, some of whom are 
 now past middle age, and who have spent a goodly num¬ 
 ber of years in the service of the Church, can be trusted to 
 share in the financial administration of the work in which 
 they are engaged, and their influence will tend to promote 
 effectiveness and economy. 
 
 It should be added that this plan has been unanimombj 
 
10 
 
 approved by both the missionaries and the native bretliren 
 by separate votes, after the most thorough discussion, and 
 it is the earnest desire of all that it may meet with favor 
 at the hands of the managers of the Missionary Society 
 and the General Committee. 
 
 Nag-oya 
 
 is a city of great importance located in the central-south¬ 
 ern part of the main island, and one of the great Bud¬ 
 dhistic centers of the empire. Here we have the largest 
 Christian church edifice in the city, and the largest and 
 best of our denomination in the country. It is a substan¬ 
 tial wooden structure with a well-proportioned steeple, and 
 will accommodate about six hundred people. Adjoining 
 the church we have a comfortable house for a foreign mis¬ 
 sionary and a parsonage for a native pastor. The Woman’s 
 Foreign Missionary Society has a prosperous girls’ school 
 held in rented quarters. They need, and probably will 
 have in the not distant future, a building of their own. 
 
 Kiu-Siu 
 
 is the southernmost of the three principal islands of the em¬ 
 pire, of which Nagasaki is the principal seaport of south¬ 
 ern Japan. Here our Chinzei Gakkwan Seminary, already 
 mentioned, is located, and the Woman’s Foreign Mission¬ 
 ary Society has an excellent girls’ boarding school. Our 
 mission property as a whole is splendidly situated on a hill¬ 
 side overlooking the harbor, and consists of four good resi¬ 
 dences and the school buildings already mentioned. At 
 Fukuoka and Kumamoto, important cities, we have work 
 established. At the former there is a membership of one 
 hundred, with a rather inferior chapel as a place of wor¬ 
 ship, while the Woman’s Society has a flourishing girls’ 
 school well housed. At the latter place, where there is a 
 membership of one hundred, a new church and parsonage 
 have just been completed. All through this island the 
 
 I 
 
11 
 
 ])eople arenas a rule, tavorabl}' disposed toward Christianity, 
 and oiir prospects for success are very encouraging. 
 
 Property Titles. 
 
 All our church property in Japan is held by a very 
 uncertain and precarious title. The laws of the empire 
 prevent any foreigner or foreign corporation from ob¬ 
 taining a title for real estate that will stand a legal test. 
 Recently there has been before the ^N^ational Diet a very 
 drastic hill providing severe penalties for any native who 
 would in any way abet the securing of real estate by 
 foreigners. 
 
 The bill did not pass, as the Diet was dissolved by the em¬ 
 peror while the bill was under consideration. It is 
 believed that the intense antiforeign spirit that has pre¬ 
 vailed for several years is becoming somewhat modified, 
 and it is hoped that the bill proposed will not be enacted 
 into a law. As it now is, foreigners and foreign corpora¬ 
 tions are prevented from holding property, so that there 
 seems to be no way but to deed our property formally to 
 native boards of trustees. This seems to be necessary in 
 order to save missionary property from the possibility of 
 confiscation. 
 
 KOREA. 
 
 Our mission in Korea was opened in 1885. In complet¬ 
 ing our treaty relations with the hing, our minister, Gen. 
 Lucius H. Foote, secured a promise that religious tolera¬ 
 tion should be proclaimed, and though such proclamation 
 has not been publicly made, the policy pursued has been 
 of a tolerant character. The king is understood to look 
 with favor upon the presence of our missionaries, and has 
 given countenance to their work by giving names to our 
 schools and hospitals. 
 
 Our compound, including the property of the Missionary 
 Society and of the Woman’s Society, contains about four 
 acres and is splendidly located near the west gate of the 
 
12 
 
 city. The site is composed of two knolls divided by a 
 narrow vale with graceful slopes. Upon one of these 
 knolls stands the school building, printing house, and one 
 residence belonging to the Missionary Society, and on the 
 other the school building and home of the Woman’s So¬ 
 ciety. In the vale between are three missionary residences 
 and two hospitals, one for men and the other for women. 
 Besides the buildings already indicated, there are on the 
 compound one missionary residence and two small chapels. 
 At the south gate of the city, where the hospital is to be 
 erected, one wing of which is finished, we have a site in 
 every way as commanding as the one already described, 
 containino^ about one half acre. Our missionaries have 
 certainly exercised excellent judgment in selecting loca¬ 
 tions for church institutions in the city of Seoul. It is 
 proposed at as early a day as possible to erect a new hos¬ 
 pital building and concentrate our medical work at the 
 south gate of the city. This is the next important work to 
 be accomplished. Our present hospital is too small by 
 more than one half and is dangerously near our mission¬ 
 ary residences, particularly in view of the numerous con¬ 
 tagious diseases that must be treated. In the heart of 
 this heathen city of 250,000 inhabitants, on the widest and 
 best street, we own a lot fifty feet square, upon which a 
 chapel with a seating capacity of five hundred at least 
 should be erected. Up to this time our work has been on 
 the rim of the city, but the time has come to plant our 
 banner at its center. Less than a square away we own a 
 lot, which with the addition of another which can be read¬ 
 ily secured, will make a site for a bookstore and printing 
 press. We also own jointly with the Woman’s Society a 
 plot of ground at the east gate of the city, where a medical 
 dispensary has been established and a cliapel erected. The 
 property now owned by the two societies in this city is es¬ 
 timated to be worth at least $50,000, and could not be re¬ 
 placed for that sum. We also own property at Chemulpo, 
 
13 
 
 Wonsan, Yang, and Eiii-jn, wliere we liave opened 
 
 work on a small scale. The membership of the church, 
 including probationers, is about two hundred and fift 3 \ In 
 no Asiatic mission have we achieved as great results in the 
 same length of time. 
 
 CHINA. 
 
 The territory of our North China Mission lies in the 
 northeastern part of China proper, extending a little be¬ 
 yond the great wall, and contains more than twelve thou¬ 
 sand square miles. In the greater ])art of this territory the 
 ])opulation is very dense, and as a rule kindly disposed 
 toward foreigners and the Christian I’eligion. Our growth 
 in this field has been steady fi'om the beginning, and we 
 now have a membership, including probationers, of 2,856. 
 At the annual session of the Mission, held last September, 
 the work was organized into an Annual Conference. 
 
 The principal centers of operation are Peking, Tientsin, 
 and Tsunhua. In these cities we have property aggregat¬ 
 ing in value $136,970. In Peking our compound consists 
 of five dwellings, the university building, intermediate and 
 primary schoolliouse, hospital, and one chapel. The uni¬ 
 versity edifice is two stories high and sufficiently spacious 
 f»r present needs. The dwellings are modest, comfortable? 
 and plainly furnished, but the hospital is altogether inad¬ 
 equate to the needs of the work, and its accommodation 
 should be enlarged. Excellent judgment has been exer¬ 
 cised in the purchase of real estate. In other parts of the 
 city there are two chapels well located, one of which is 
 old and dilapidated and should be replaced and its grounds 
 enlarged. Here also the Woman’s Society has a woman’s 
 training school, girls’ boarding school, and ladies’ home. 
 At Tientsin we have two comfortable dwellino^s and two 
 good chapels, one of which has but recently been dedicated. 
 Here the Woman’s Society has a missionary home, girls’ 
 school, and a first-class \Voman’s hospital. At Tsunhua, 
 
11 
 
 near the gieat wall, there are three residences, all in good 
 condition ; two good chapels, one ol which has just been 
 completed; and a first-class hospital. The Woman’s So¬ 
 ciety also has a home and girls’ boarding school and 
 woman’s hospital. In seventeen other towns in the bounds 
 of the Missioti we own chapels, and in many more chapels 
 are rented. The work in North China is in excellent con¬ 
 dition and is steadily moving forward. 
 
 Central China. 
 
 In Central China we have four jnincipal points. Four 
 hundred and fifty miles up the Yangtse is 
 
 Kiukiang-, 
 
 with 200,000 inhabitants. In this city we have lour 
 excellent residences, plainly and substantially furnished. 
 Here the Kiukiang Institute and school for boys is 
 located. It is supplied with good substantial buildings, 
 appropriately furnished, and contains a commodious chapel, 
 which affords excellent accommodations for church services. 
 A dormitory provides for about eighty students, all of 
 which were occupied. In connection with the school there 
 is the be^dnning of an industrial department, consisting of 
 furniture and carpenter shops, and a printing press, all ot 
 which were doing creditable work. On what is known as 
 the Foreign Concession, which occupies a considerable space 
 outside the city walls and along the river ti'ont, stands St. 
 Paul Chapel, in which an English service is held every 
 Sabbath morning for the accommodation ot the families of 
 the consular and customs officers and such other English- 
 speaking people as may be in the city. On Sabbath even¬ 
 ings a native service is held, upon which there is always a 
 large attendance. There are two street chapels located in 
 different parts of the cify, in wliicli daily preaching serv¬ 
 ices are held and in connection with one of which there is 
 a day school for boys. In this city the Woman’s Society 
 
 4 
 
15 
 
 has an excellent ladies’ home and flonrishin«: iiirls’ board- 
 in^ school. From this center two laro-e circuits extendincr 
 into the country are worked by the missionaries and native 
 preachers. Descending: the river two hundred miles we 
 come to 
 
 Wuhu, 
 
 a city of 200,000 inhabitants. Our compound is locate'd 
 on a bluff overlooking!: the river, and can be seen from the 
 deck of a steamer from a distance of about eij^ht miles. 
 The property consists of two residences, a well-appointed 
 hospital, a school building, and a chapel, erected by the 
 Woman’s Society, but now opened by the Missionary So¬ 
 ciety. This school building is unoccupied, except during 
 a few weeks in the winter, when a training school for na¬ 
 tive helpers is carried forward. It was thought at one 
 time that this building might be converted into a deacon¬ 
 ess home, but that idea has been abandoned. It would 
 afford excellent accommodations for a school for the chil¬ 
 dren of missionaries and other foreigners, and it is believed 
 such a school wt)uld be self-supporiing from the beginning. 
 Besides, it would save much expense by rendering it 
 unnecessary to bring missionary families to the United 
 States for educational advantages. These buildings are 
 all well located so far as healthfulness is concerned, but, 
 being two miles from the city, the site is rather inconven¬ 
 ient for missionary operations. There is in the city a 
 chapel in which daily preaching services are held, and in 
 connection with which there is a boys’ school. Sixty miles 
 farther down the Tangtse we come to 
 
 Nanking, 
 
 once the capital of the empire, containing a population of 
 500,000. It is now the most important city in Central 
 China Mission. Onr property consists of six excellent 
 residences, a first-class hospital, and the Nanking Univer¬ 
 sity buildings, consistini*; of Fowler theological edilic(‘, 
 
16 
 
 Sleeper Memorial Chapel, Collins Doniiitorj, and a pre¬ 
 paratory building. The first was erected and named by 
 Mrs. Philander Smith ; the second by the heirs of the dis¬ 
 tinguished layman whose name it bears; the third by Mr. 
 Collins, of Pennsylvania; and the last by the Missionary 
 Society. These buildings are all of excellent architectural 
 design, splendidly located, and well adapted to the pur¬ 
 poses for which they were erected. Within less than five 
 minutes’ walk is the compound of the Woman’s Society, 
 upon which are a ladies’ home and a girls’ boarding school 
 building of beautiful design and excellent furnishing. In 
 the southern part of the city, in a rented building, a most 
 hopeful evangelistic movement has been inaugurated, in 
 connection with which there is a boys’ school. Medical 
 dispensaries have been established in several neighboring 
 towns, in connection with which regular evangelistic work 
 is carried forward. Fifty miles fai ther and we reach 
 
 Chinkiang', 
 
 with 200,000 inhabitants. Here there are two good resi¬ 
 dences, a school building of beautiful design erected by 
 special gifts made by German Methodists in America, and 
 a commodious native chapel. The Woman’s Society have 
 a ladies’ home, girls’ boarding school, hospital, and an or¬ 
 phanage. Within the past year a residence has been 
 erected and work opened at Yangchow, a large city fifteen 
 miles north of Ohinkiang, and one of the best built and 
 cleanliest cities to be found in China. The membership 
 of the Central China Mission, including probationers, is 
 586. Passing on down the river one hundred and fifty 
 miles we come to 
 
 Shanghai, 
 
 the great commercial emporium of China. It seems 
 strange, in view of the relation of Shanghai to the whole 
 of the Yangtse valley, that our Society has not planted a 
 mission in that city. All missionaries and missionary sup- 
 
 
17 
 
 plies destined for onr work in the Yangtse valley, extend¬ 
 ing to Chungking 'in West China, must not only pass 
 through Slunighai, but be reshipped at that point. It is 
 true that the Methodist Episcoj)al Church, South, has made 
 that city their headquarters,-but it is also true that they do 
 not and cannot fully occupy the held. There is an im¬ 
 mense population that is not reached by any missionary 
 agency and that needs the Gospel as badly as any people 
 in China. What is most needed is a })rinting house at 
 that halfway point between North China and the Foochow 
 Conference. Such an institution would be from the outset 
 self-supporting, and would constitute a much-needed bond 
 of union between our four missions and furnish a Christian 
 literature for all the Methodisms of the empire. 
 
 Foochow Conference. 
 
 Foochow is the headquarters of our oldest mission in 
 China, the work having been opened in 1847. Our mis¬ 
 sion premises are finely located upon a large island in the 
 Minn River, at an elevation of about three hundred feet, 
 the whole city being plainly in view. Our property con¬ 
 sists of six excellent dwellings, plainly but comfortably 
 furnished; the Anglo-Chinese College edifice, a substantial 
 building well constructed and ample for present necessities; 
 the press building, which also provides, though inade¬ 
 quately, for our theological school; and a chapel which, 
 though it accommodates 400 people, is too small often for 
 the congregation worshiping in it. The schools are pros¬ 
 perous, the college having an attendance of about 120, and 
 the theological school of about 30. The latter school 
 greatly needs a building of its own adapted to the work it 
 is doing. The press has been from the beginning self-sup¬ 
 porting, and is steadily growing. In this city the Woman’s 
 Society has three good residences well furnished, a girls’ 
 boarding school, woman’s training school, two hospitals, 
 and an orphanage. 
 
18 
 
 Hinghua 
 
 is tlie center ot* a large and growing evangelistic inoveinent. 
 For three years a revival has prevailed which constantly 
 widens in scope and increases in power. The Hinghna 
 dialect being very different from that spoken in Foochow 
 it has been found necessary to open a theological training 
 school for the education of preachers to preach the Gospel 
 to the sixty millions of people in that region of country. 
 There is here also a boys’ school, and the Woman’s Society 
 has a ffirls’ boarding school and woman’s training 
 school. At 
 
 Kucheng 
 
 we have a boys’ boarding scdiool, a well-appointed hospital, 
 also a woman’s training school, under the management of 
 the Woman’s Society. A growing evangelistic work is 
 moving forward with promise of large results. 
 
 Hokchiang 
 
 is another center of growing importance. For many years 
 great difficulties have beset our work in that city and sur¬ 
 rounding country, and there have been times when the 
 most hopeful desj)aired of success. Eecently eight fam¬ 
 ilies of the literati have been reached, and the work among 
 that class promises to be of great importance. There is 
 here an excellent chapel with residence for native pastor, 
 and an excellent boys’ school, also a woman s training 
 school. Still another center is at 
 
 Ingchung, 
 
 but having had little supervision by missionaries the suc¬ 
 cess heretofore has not been encouraging. Eecently there 
 has been encouraging success, and it is regarded now as a 
 hopeful field. The boys’ boarding school and woman’s 
 training school are doing a good work. In many places in 
 the Conference there are day schools for boys and girls^ 
 always separately conducted (the latter under the manage- 
 
11 ) 
 
 inent of ilio Woman’s Society), in wliicli lai’ge numbers are 
 being instructed in the doctrines of Christianity. Our 
 success in tliis Conference during tlie past year has been 
 unusual, there having been an increase in the membership 
 of tlie Churcli of 1,175, tlie entire membership, including 
 probationers, being 7,134. 
 
 Property Interests. 
 
 At all the points visited I investigated carefully the con¬ 
 dition of our property, and found it, as a rule, in good 
 condition. I am prepared at any time to give to the Board 
 information in detail concernino: the residences of mission- 
 aries, school jiroperty, chapels, etc. 
 
 Respectfully submitted, 
 
 A. B. LEONARD. 
 
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