[Sidenote: The Destruction of the Native Australians.] Originally the continent of Australia was occupied by Papuans, who have been gradually exterminated or driven into reservations. The history of the Australian native affords a record of injustice and almost incredible cruelty. The first foreign settlers were a band of criminals quartered there by England; then as the richness of the country became known, there arrived other settlers who with almost unthinkable barbarity dispossessed and murdered the natives, shooting them down like beasts, poisoning them in crowds, so that to-day the great expanse of Australia has within it not more than fifty-five thousand Papuans. This little remnant is cared for by the government and to it go missionaries of various denominations, among them those of the _Neuendettelsau Mission_ which has two stations, one at Elim-Hope in Queensland and another at Bethesda in South Australia. The Australian Immanuel Synod which is composed of Germans living in Australia has a station at New Hermannsburg in South Australia. NEW GUINEA. [Sidenote: Success Amid Danger.] In 1886 the _Neuendettelsau Society_ began to work in New Guinea. There in Kaiser Wilhelm’s Land, which is a German protectorate, it has four stations. The climate is dangerous, the language difficult to learn, and the various tribes at enmity with one another. Nevertheless the first fruits have been gathered, so that in 1909, three thousand six hundred Christians were reported. Thirty-five missionaries are on the field. To the work of this mission the _Lutheran Synod of Iowa_ contributes. In _Kaiser Wilhelm’s Land_ there is also a mission of the Rhenish Society, which has three stations round Astrolabe Bay. LUTHERANS IN THE NEAR EAST. [Sidenote: An Untilled Field.] “The Mohammedan world, which extends over the whole of North Africa, part of southeast Europe, and from Arabia and Asia Minor, through Persia as far as China and the Dutch East Indies, and which numbers one hundred and ninety-six million five thousand adherents, is still almost entirely closed against the Gospel. This is true not only where there is Mohammedan rule, and where conversion to Christianity is by direction of the Koran punished with death, but also in the Christian colonial dominions of British and Dutch India. Missions to Mohammedans are carried on by societies and individuals, but considerable congregations have nowhere yet been formed from the confessors of Islam with the single exception of those in Java and Sumatra.... Besides Mohammedan fanaticism, a special hindrance which has to be reckoned with is the unfortunate connection of religion with politics. Not only are the Mohammedan governments inspired with the greatest distrust towards evangelical missionaries, as if they were the instigators of sedition, but missions are also impeded by the political jealousy of the Christian powers.”