METHODIST REPORTS WILLAMETTE MISSION 355
Brother Hines having returned to this country, the Sup- erintendent has found it necessary to employ additional aid in the Willamette Valley. For this work he has selected Brother J. L. Parish, a local preacher, who was formerly connected with the mission. This arrangement adds only a little rising $250 to the general expenses of the mission, and, we are happy to learn, gives general satisfaction. We are also informed that there are other brethren who may be acceptably and usefully employed in the mission, should the state of the work demand their services. From these favorable conditions, your Board indulge the hope that the day is not distant when this important field will be supplied with faithful and efficient laborers raised up in its midst.
But to secure permanently the undivided and efficient labors of these brethren, it is judged that some new ar- rangement will be found necessary. As a general thing, brethren will hardly be willing to give up their business concerns and abandon their worldly prospects, with only the hope of temporary employment in the ranks of our itinerancy. If they consent to make the sacrifices and endure the lot of an itinerant ministry, they will expect an equality of standing and to share in their immunities. To secure these, they must be recommended to and re- ceived by some Annual Conference in the States, or a Conference must be established in Oregon. The former course, as might easily be shown, would be attended with almost insuperable difficulties. It is, therefore, recom- mended to the next General Conference, as a matter of grave consideration, whether it would not be conducive to the interests of our missionary work in Oregon, to provide forthwith for the organization of an Annual Con- ference in that country.
By the Resolutions of the Board, published in our last Annual Report, it will be seen that in the appointment of Brother Gary, as the Superintendent of the Mission, special objects were contemplated. He was accordingly
