TWO years have gone since Rev. Joseph Wate passed into rest, and since his death nothing has been written about him except a short obituary notice. I therefore have ventured to write this notice of him and his work.

By his death another characteristic figure of the Mission has passed away, and another of the old links that bind us to the Mission of Bishop Patteson's time has been severed.

Joe's life was a very chequered one, and was full both of bright promise and success, as well as of bitter trials, disappointments and failures. As a scholar, his brilliant intelligence seemed to promise an exceptional career for him, but later years showed a lack of determination in him, and early domestic trials caused a lapse that carried dreadful consequences with it. Dr. Codrington has said that of all the scholars whom he taught in the early days, Joe was by far the quickest, most receptive, and most intelligent. Of his intelligence, I myself had a good opportunity of judging, and I found that Joe was endowed with all those gifts that prove a man to be a linguist. His knowledge of Mota was excellent, and he spoke it idiomatically, as he had learnt it from his teachers, and he knew his own tongue, Saa, so well, that all the Saa people regarded him as perfect, and quoted his authority as final.

A good test of a person's knowledge of a language is to be able to render theological terms into it, e.g., in the case of our teachers, the test would be for each one to be able to turn into his own tongue the religious ideas which are imparted to him at Norfolk Island through the medium of Mota. Joe's brain was quick, and his faculty of comparison at once enabled him in all cases to render phrase for phrase and idea for idea. When [8/9] translating with his help into Saa, if I desired to find some term more exact than the ordinary superficial one, I had only to explain the idea at the root of the word and I seldom failed to get the equivalent in Saa from him. And when he translated from Mota into Saa, all his renderings were idiomatic and .crisp, and though all might not perhaps be the best possible, yet all were perfectly legitimate and would bear criticism. He never made "dog" translations and he never wrote anything but what was good "Saa." Those who have employed native help in translations will understand what such praise means.

The Saa Prayer Book is in the main his compilation, and the Gospel of S. Matthew as it is now being printed is also his. In the other three Gospels and the Acts, the form and moulding of the sentences and phrases follows the turn of Joe's own ways of expression. I
Joseph Wate-ae-pule was probably born about 1854, so that he would be twelve yews old when Bishop Patteson got him at Saa in '66. He had run away when he saw the boat coming in with its rowers turning their backs in their destinations, for he thought that it was some "akolo," some ghost (natives all paddle facing the bows). However, on Bishop Patteson's asking for a boy, Wate's father sent for him and he was given up to the Bishop. Sapibuana was also on board and made his first voyage to school in Wate's company. They went through the school together, and were baptized in '69 and confirmed two years later, and they both rowed in the boat that went ashore at Nukapu to get the Bishop's body. Wate's sponsor in baptism was Rev. J. Atkin, and Miss Atkin never ceased to care both for Joe and for his family.

In '77 Joe returned to Saa with his wife Lydia to begin a school amongst his own people. The following year he was able to further the Mission's cause by saving the second Reef Islander, Akau, whom he found wandering in the bush near Saa, having run away from Port Adam to try and get to Joe at Saa. In '79 he had a severe domestic trial, through his wife haying listened to the solicitations of the young chief. Joe took her back, but later on in the year he himself had a grievous fall, and next year when the Missionaries called then found that the school was broken up, and that Joe's wrong-doing had wrecked all present hopes of Saa becoming Christian. In '81 Dr. Codrington paid a flying visit to Saa, and then for the next two years none of the Missionaries visited Saa at all. It seems that either the place was adjudged hopeless, or that other interests crowded out the thought of Saa, but GOD and Clement Marau brought Joe back to his allegiance.

At Christmas, 1883, Joe went to Ulawa with a party from Saa, and Clement asked for his help in school. Joe had to teach them the opening versicles in the Prayer Book in Ulawa. "Na anai tae, na anai elihoi takoia amaku,"--"I will arise and go to my father." He came afterwards and said to Clement, "Nou alaalahu eku," I [9/10] compared him to myself,--and then he burst into tears. Dear Clement comforted him and Joe returned, and the next year the ship called again at Saa, and the school was revived, but only to die again two years later when Dorawewe cursed it, and no one would attend prayers for fear of being fined. Joe then went to Norfolk Island, having been married to Waikeni on Lydia's death. He returned two years later and took Clement's place at Ulawa, and when Dorawewe died in 1890, and on his death-bed ordered that Joe should return, once more Joe began the Saa school. But the next year the heathen from Laloisu persecuted them terribly as a return for punitive measures taken on Howard's murderers, since some Saa men had acted as guides to the man-of-war, and the heathen wanted reparation. A man and his wife were speared at Saa by these heathen but Joe's' firmness saved the school from a third breakdown. He and his dogs used to keep watch by night, and for weeks all work was suspended while the armed parties hovered near. Surely Joe's conduct at that time atoned for his previous fall!

In '93, Archdeacon Comins held the first baptism in Mala at Hulu, the village next to Saa, and in '96 I myself held the first baptism. at Saa. Since then two hundred of the Saa people have been baptized and forty confirmed, while the advance has been as great in the villages near, there being a thousand Christians now in that part of Mala.

In '96, Joe went to Norfolk Island for ordination, and while there he experienced a dreadful trial, for both his youngest children died within a week of each other. Two years later he had another grievous affliction: for the same man who had wronged his first wife also wronged the second. Bitterly did Joe atone for his own early sin! In 1902 he went to Norfolk Island for medical treatment, his jaw being diseased; but no cure could be effected, and he returned home and died within a few months of his landing.

His work is worthy of all honour, and his name will live in the churches of his part of Mala, and the words that he wrote will be read for the honour and glory of GOD, to the children of those who, under GOD, owe their Christianity to him.

W. G. IVENS.

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