Samuel went back this morning, and I am to go to Tasmouri on Friday for a week. He gives a very good account of his work there and I am anxious to see and judge for myself. The whole Community there are Baptized, and most exemplary Christians they are. They are very nice lively good-natured people too, but are not very numerous. Indeed these Maewo villages have dwindled down to very few inhabitants, from one cause and another, and a large measure of the decrease is owing to the wide spread practice of infanticide. Now in this district that practice, thank God, is checked and the population is again on the increase. Moses who was here with Samuel to-day asked me to Baptize while at Tasmouri his fourth child, three boys of his are already Baptized, and such mothers as his wife are a blessing to the race. Here two mothers have three children apiece, and several have two. I wish however the mothers would bring up their children a little better, they are the perfect slaves of their offspring, and give into them in everything. Talk about spoilt children, I have to roar every day of my life to some little urchin, screaming his lungs out because his mother does not do at once what he wants. The mother beats at one moment and coaxes at another, and the child grows up anyhow, a burden to himself and a nuisance to his neighbours. I want a good superior minded and well educated mother here to give some practical advice. Arthur’s wife is but a child herself, and as devoid of gumption as the rest of them. Poor people, they do not know what trouble and misery they entail upon themselves and their children from a want of a little firmness, and well timed correction. It has been a most glorious day, and this morning I accepted an invitation from the boys to go to ‘Kerepei.’ The tide was very low and many of the people had preceded us, and were busy searching the reef and rocks for the much prized products of the sea shore. The little fellows got me most deliciously sweet green cocoanuts, and while I was bathing caught me a nice lot of prawns for my tea. Days spent in this way are very pleasant, for we get to know each other all the better, and I can exercise a continual supervision over their actions. I generally carry a paper or portable volume with me, and to-day the Church Times was my companion. The evening was most glorious and peaceful, but when the sun went down peculiarly cold. Now as I write I have a blazing fire in my house, and I feel the comfort of it. The poor ill clad people are shivering all around, and are off to their several domiciles to try and get some heat. The attendance at school to-night was worse than I have known it yet, and the cold was said to be the reason of it.