The chief educational center is at Avondale, Cooranbong, New South Wales, where a college has been established. Educational institutions of growing importance are also found in New Zealand and West Australia. Schools for native workers have been established in the different island groups.

In connection with the college at Avondale, there has been built up a large and successful health food factory.

The New Zealand health food factory, at Christchurch, erected in 1921, was enlarged in 1923, and is running to its full capacity. At Wahroonga we have a large sanitarium, which is a training center for nurses.

South America

The South American Division, as organized in 1916, includes eight republics and the Falkland Islands, all lying south of the equator except portions of Brazil and Ecuador. The field is naturally divided into two language areas. Seven of the eight republics, with a population of 26,000,000, speak the Spanish language, while Portuguese is the prevailing language of Brazil with her 30,000,000. The four unions comprising the division are subdivided into six conferences and eighteen missions.

F. H. Westphal, our first ordained minister to South America, began his work in the Argentine Republic in 1894. F. W. Spies answered a call to Brazil in 1896, and all these years has labored as minister and executive. He is still doing aggressive work as president of the East Brazil Union. In 1901 J. W. Westphal went to the field. He settled in Argentina, and for years stood at the head of the entire field as president of the South American Union. He became the outstanding figure as administrator in the early development of our work there.

At the time of the reorganization of the field, in 1916, O. Montgomery was chosen vice-president. The plans and policies put into operation, beginning with this period, proved, under God, a blessing, bringing to our work financial strength and considerable increases in membership. When Elder Montgomery was called to be vice-president for North America in 1922, Charles Thompson took over the work in South America for a time, till failing health made it necessary for him to return to the United States. In 1924 P. E. Brodersen became vicepresident of the General Conference for South America. W. H. Williams has served as secretary-treasurer and auditor of the division since 1916.

At the close of 1923 the number of organized churches was 148, and the total membership 12,505. Of this number 4,155

were gained during the first twenty years, and 8,350 during the last nine years. The membership gain in 1923 amounted to 1,501, which is the highest net increase in any year of our work in South America.

The two missionary magazines, O Atalaia (Portuguese) and El Atalaya (Spanish), have become a power in the field. Our Spanish magazine (30,000 circulation) is self-sustaining.

In 1908 a sanitarium was established in the province of Entre Rios, Argentina. Dr. G. B. Replogle joined the staff in 1909. Several classes of nurses have been graduated from the institution, and workers have been supplied for the Lake Titicaca Mission. Since Dr. Habenicht returned to the United States in 1923, due to failing health, Dr. Carlos Westphal has taken the superintendency of the institution. In the Inca Union we are operating seventeen dispensaries, besides a small hospital conducted by Dr. Theron Johnston in Juliaca, Peru.

Our five training schools, ever keeping before them the objective of winning souls, are developing our young people for service. The Brazil Training School, eight years old, graduated in 1922 its first class of eight bright young people, all of whom immediately entered the work. The River Plate Training School in 1923 graduated twelve from its academic course. These also were placed in active service.

During the school year (1923-24) there were enrolled in our training schools 536, and in our church and mission schools 4,588 students, or a total of 5,124.

Our first Indian mission was established by F. A. Stahl at Plateria, Bolivia, in 1911. He worked among them ten years, but was compelled to leave the high altitude, and E. H. Wilcox was chosen superintendent of the work in the Lake Titicaca Mission. In 1920 Orley Ford was chosen to pioneer the work in Ecuador, and Reid Shepard was called to open up the work among the Aymara Indians of Bolivia. The latter established a mission station at Rosario.

There are four points from which we are directing the Indian work. More than five thousand believers have been baptized, the greater number being from the Aymara tribe. In connection with the mission stations, seventeen medical dispensaries and seventy-five schools are being operated, with a combined enrolment of 3,929 students.

The Inter-American Division

The Inter-American Division was organized as a separate unit in 1922, E. E. Andross being elected vice-president of the

General Conference for the division. The territory extends from Rio Grande River along the northern boundary of Mexico to the northern boundary of Brazil and Ecuador in South America. It also reaches across the Caribbean Sea, and includes the West India Islands and the Bahamas.

The division includes three unions, the Antillean, the Aztec, and the Caribbean. In these unions there are three organized conferences and eleven organized mission fields. The total number of organized churches is 211, and the membership 8,532. During 1923 there were 1,098 baptisms. The total offerings for church purposes amounted to $155,469.76.

In the division there are seven training schools, all industrial. Four are Spanish, two English, and one French. The West Caribbean Training School is conducting a Spanish department. The West Indian Training School in Jamaica is carrying its students through thirteen grades. This is the largest, and in some ways the best equipped, school in the field.

The publishing house at Cristobal, Canal Zone, is supplying our field with Spanish as well as English literature. The year 1923 was the best in its history, the total literature sales amounting to $156,425.40.

Our 342 Sabbath schools had 10,920 members in 1923. These schools are training centers for our entire church membership and the children. There is great love for the Sabbath school in this field. Some of the members hold a perfect attendance record for five years.

The Present Work in Africa

At present there are in the southern half of Africa, excluding Tanganyika and Kenya, seventy-nine Adventist church organizations, scattered from Cape Town to the heart of the great Belgian Congo. These churches are organized into twelve local conferences and mission fields, three union organizations, with another rapidly developing in the north, and a General Conference Division. The South African Union comprises the political union of South Africa, and the Bechuanaland Protectorate; the Zambesi Union Mission includes the two Rhodesias and Nyasaland; while the South Atlantic United Missions comprise the territories of Portuguese West Africa and (German) Southwest Africa. The Congo has its own union mission organization.

The membership of this division stands today at just over 5,000, although the total number of Sabbath keepers is 9,245. It is the policy of the field to require the native people who accept the truth to wait one or two years, and sometimes longer,

before being baptized, in order that they may have opportunity to prove themselves; for this reason the number of Sabbath keepers always greatly exceeds the number of church members. There were 635 baptisms reported for the last quarter of 1923.

The fourth quarter's report of 1923 shows a total of 274 Sabbath schools in this field, with a membership of 12,058. The believers contributed more than $100,000 during 1923 in tithes and mission offerings, besides several thousand dollars for home missionary and church work. Of this amount, $10,654 was given by our native churches, and the rest by the European believers.

The mission offerings alone for the entire field in 1923 amounted to $44,355. This shows an increase over 1920 of $24,272. The European membership reached its goal of 60 cents. a week for the first time in 1923. Thus the believers in South Africa have taken their place beside their brethren in other lands, sharing equally in the burdens and responsibilities of speeding the message on to the heathen world.

The literature sales now amount to about $50,000 annually. The publishing work has become one of the strongest factors in disseminating the truth throughout the entire field.

The institutions of the African Division consist of a sanitarium at Plumstead, Cape; a publishing house at Kenilworth; a training college at Ladysmith; five mission training schools, nine mission stations, and one medical mission. Several new missions are being established this year, and a number of medical dispensaries are being opened. Besides these, there are several self-supporting medical institutions, situated in some of the cities of South Africa, which have been doing good work for years, and exerting an influence in favor of the truth.

One thing to remember about the situation in Africa is that these poor, ignorant natives are pleading with us to let them come to our schools. They tell us they have heard rumors that God is with this people, and that we are teaching His Word and they feel that they must come and learn more. A worker in Northern Rhodesia writes:

"It is certainly hard for us to keep pace with the work. We have more openings than we can fill. . . . They [natives] build schoolhouses and homes for the teachers, and then come to the mission and say, 'We have the schoolhouses and the homes. You cannot deny us a teacher now.' And no less than twenty times in that one field during this year have we had to send them back and say, 'We are sorry, but we have no more money to pay teachers. You will have to go back and wait.' I know of places where they have been waiting for years, with the promise every year that perhaps by another year we could send them help."