GEORGE BROWN, PIONEER MISSIONARY AND EXPLORER.
George Brown, Pioneer Missionary and Explorer : an Auto- biography. (Hodder and Stoughton. 16s. net.)—George Brown, born at Barnard Castle in 1835, after trying various employ- ments, of which the seaman's was the chief, in 1855 emigrated to New Zealand, because, as he tells us, "it was furthest from England." On his voyage he had for fellow-passengers Bishop. Selwyn, from whom he learnt something of the Maori tongue, and J. C. Patteson, whose Bible-class he joined. The impressions thus gained were deepened as time went on. In 1860 he was accepted as a missionary by the Wesleyan Quarterly Meeting of Auckland. His first station was Samoa. "I have always con- sidered the Samoans to be amongst the nicest and most lovable. people with whom I have ever lived," he writes. From Samoa, after fourteen years of work, he went to New Britain, a field of work which was entered upon by the Australian branch of the Wesleyan Missions chiefly at Mr. Brown's instance. He has every reason to rejoice in the result of the impulse which he thus gave- to evangelising work. In 1875 absolutely nothing had been done ;. by the end of 1907 there wore more than three thousand church members and nearly twenty thousand attendants at worship. In 1891 he began to work in New Guinea. Here, too, figures show an encouraging progress, though it is noticeable that while the attendance at worship is nearly the same, the membership has not reached a thousand. We have Dr. Brown's simple and unpretending narrative of his work, work carried on, it is scarcely necessary to say, under conditions which make a very severe
demand on the worker's courage and patience. A significant- illustration of the character of his life may be found in the fact- that the one occasion when Dr. Brown came into collision with. the civil authorities was when he organised a punitive expedition, against a tribe which had murdered and eaten some native teachers. He was acquitted ; as a matter of fact he was never- tried. He seems to have acted as a man of sense and courage. We are reminded of tho active part which Bishop Macdougall of Labuan took in beating off an attack of pirates in a neighbour- ing region. The volume is handsomely illustrated with soma. very interesting photographs.
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