Niue

Niue is a lone island four hundred miles from any other land, the nearest groups being the Friendly Islands, in the west, and the Samoan, in the north. In 1849, after long opposition, a Samoan teacher was received in the island. In the course of time, amid his evangelistic labors, he translated the gospel of. Mark, which was sent to the missionaries of Samoa, and, after revision, printed by them. When, in 1861, the Reverend W.G. Lawes and his wife went to Niue as the first missionaries, taking with them the printed gospel, they found that the other three gospels and Acts had been translated by the native teachers. The translation was revised by the Reverend G. Pratt, of Samoa, and printed at Sydney, together with the epistle to the Philippians and John's epistles, in 1862, by the New South Wales Auxiliary. The New Test. was completed by Mr. Lawes and printed at Sydney in 1867. The book of Psalms, also translated by Mr. Lawes and revised by the Reverend Mr. Pratt, was printed in 1869 or 1870. The whole has been once more revised, and, together with the books of Genesis and Exodus, was printed in London in 1873, under the superintendence of Mr. Lawes. From the annual report of the British and Foreign Bible Society for the year 1882 we learn that the society has published, not only a new edition of five thousand copies of the New Test. and Psalms, but also three thousand copies of the Pentateuch as prepared by Mr. Lawes, who continues the translation of the other books of the Old Test. (B.P.)