--------------|----------------------------------------

-|------------
|  Races, Religious Castes, etc., whatever| Remarks
|             they may be.                |  And
|                                         |Conclusions.
--------------|-----------------------------------------|---

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In Population |                   ----                  |
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In Christian  |                   ----                  |
Constituency  |                                         |
--------------|-----------------------------------------|---

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5.  Concerning self-support, one table should, we think, suffice.  We cannot possibly adopt any estimated necessary expenditure such as we proposed in the table for the station district because in the province that estimate would be almost impossible to make.  Different missions have different ideas, and their estimates have for themselves some reality; but they have no reality for others, and a mere average of the estimates given for all the missions of the province would have still less reality.  It would be an absurd guess, meaning nothing.  If we want to judge progress in self-support we must have some definite key figure by which to judge it.  What figure then can we use?  The total cost of all the work carried on in the province is an impossible figure.[1] The mere contribution of the native Christians by itself means nothing.  That is the figure generally given.  The native Christian subscribed $6000 last year, $7000 this year.  Here is progress.  The progress is an addition of $1000.  But does that tell us their progress towards self-support unless we know what self-support implies?  In the year the Church ought to have increased in numbers, and the $7000 may represent exactly the same position as the $6000 represented last year.  Expenses may have increased:  the $7000 may be actually further removed from self-support than the $6000 last year.  We must have a proportion of which we can trace the variation if we want to see progress.  But is there any expense which we can use to strike the proportion?  Suppose then we suggest the pay of all evangelistic and pastoral workers and provision and upkeep of churches, chapels, and preaching rooms.  That would at least give us something to work by.  But it might be difficult to calculate.  We would propose then, as a secondary item, some easily calculable and known expense, something which every missionary accountant knows, such as the pay of all native pastors and evangelistic workers, and then compare with these the contributions of the Christians for Church and evangelistic work only, excluding all fees for education and medicine.  That would, we think, give us a standard which we could apply without having to consider complications introduced by such things as Government grants to schools or hospitals.  We propose then to judge progress in self-support thus:—­