The jubilee year of the mission finds it in good condition. In South Africa, among the Zulus and Bechuanas, there are 27 stations manned by 46 missionaries, and in India, among the Telugus, there are 9 stations and 10 missionaries. There are also 402 native assistants at work, and the whole number of communicants in the mission churches is about 24,000.
In the homeland two training schools, known respectively as the Old and New Mission House, are in active operation. The number of students is now so large that only a part of them are needed to supply the mission fields. All, however, are sent to foreign lands. Some are serving as pastors in Australia, America, and other fields remote from the fatherland. Besides these training schools, there is a boarding school for the children of missionaries in India, who are sent home to be educated. No such provision is made for children of missionaries to Africa. On account of the good climate and excellent school facilities, they remain with their parents in the field.
The historic old Peter-Paul's Church has not been used by the congregation for many years. They now worship in the Church of the Lord's Cross, a large and commodious edifice, erected when the Free Church separated from the State Church in 1878. The Candace no longer makes her yearly trips, "moving to and fro as a shuttle weaving a closer bond " between the home church and the mission field. When steamers began to ply the waters between Europe and the Tropics, it was found cheaper to send the missionaries by means of them, and the Candace was sold to a mercantile house for coasting traffic. A few years ago she was sold again, and soon after broken up. Rev. Egmont Harms is now in Africa. Early in 1896, with his wife and two youngest children, he took up his residence for a term of five years in New Hermannsburg. This removal of the director to the field is a new departure, and was undertaken in order that the conditions existing in the field might be better understood. The scheme, so far, has been productive of much good.
This year, to mark the passing of the half century milestone, a new station, to be known as "Jubilee Station," will be opened in Puttur, India, and a great effort is being made to pay off a debt of about $23,000 with which, unfortunately, the society is at present encumbered. Such has been the record of fifty years in Hermannsburg mission. Christians everywhere join in extending congratulations to these noble workers, and in expressing the hope that their labors during the coming years may continue to be crowned with blessing and success.—Belle Brain