Yarns the Missionaries Tell 47

Charlotte Islands, ministers from Prince Rupert
and other places along the line of the C.N.R. carried
on our boats lend their aid and each week end from
twelve to twenty services are held at various points.
I believe that much was done this last year in this
way at Smith’s and Rivers Inlets also, but here the
workers were handicapped because of the lack of a
boat in which to get from point to point without
being dependent on the generosity of others and
having to go when a chance afforded and not at the
time most necessary. This cannery work is increas-
ing in importance for two reasons; first, the Indian
people, who are usually well looked after while on
their reserves during the winter, are being exposed
to the most powerful and the most injurious of in-
fluences during their sojourn at the canneries; drink
and immorality dog their footsteps at almost every
point. How foolish, if not criminal, to say nothing
of its being unchristian, to leave these people to their
fate. It used to be said that the Indian people
needed to be reconverted after their return from the
cannery work. I do not think this is true of all our
Indian brethren but small blame to them were it so,
and the greater blame to the Church which brought
them out into the larger light of the Gospel but
failed to help them during their time of greatest
need. In any case it can be well imagined how it
heartens these Indian folk to see their missionaries
among them during the cannery season. The
Marine Mission makes a fine contribution right here
in taking the missionaries from point to point, and