He was very happy to receive the Samoan and Tongan pamphlets. However restricted in size, such pamphlets as these are a great asset to the literature of the Faith, and enable the teaching work to progress more rapidly. He hopes that the pioneers will bear this in mind; and if they find any languages that would be of real use to their teaching work, and can get a small pamphlet translated into them, they will endeavour to do so.
As he already cabled you, of the extra 3,000 Dollars which you had left over in the Hazíratu’l-Quds Fund for New Zealand, he wishes you to keep half for the teaching activities carried out under your jurisdiction, and forward the other half to England for the work there, as they are in need of assistance in carrying forward the many important tasks allotted to the British National Spiritual Assembly.
The purchase of the Temple site—reasonable in sum, reasonable in area, and excellent in position—brought great joy to his heart.
He is indeed proud of the achievements of the believers of Australia and New Zealand, and the well-balanced, intelligent and persevering manner in which they go about their business.
He hopes that the private bill you are planning to have passed in the Upper House, and which will give the Bahá’ís legal recognition, will go through successfully. In view of the precedent of the Canadian Parliament when a special Act was passed, legalizing the status of the Bahá’ís in that country, he feels that you should not have much difficulty in Australia.
He is hoping that, after the Ridván elections, good news will reach him of the formation of many more new Spiritual Assemblies in both Australia and New Zealand. The multiplication of Bahá’í Centers is, at the present stage of the development of the Cause, of the greatest importance. In the first place, it means that news of the coming of Bahá’u’lláh is being made available to a greater number of the population; and in the second place, it broadens the foundation of the national institutions which must elect the International House of Justice. Believers in centres that possess a relatively large voting list should bear in mind that at this time it is highly important and acceptable in the sight of God to disperse and carry the Message to new Centres, both outside the country and within it.
Your Assembly should bear in mind the necessity, in the future at any rate, of having firmly grounded local Assemblies in all of the States of Australia and New Zealand; and also the importance of increasing the representation of the minority races, such as the Aborigines and the Maoris, within the Bahá’í Community. Special effort should be made to contact these people and to teach them; and the Bahá’ís in Australia and New Zealand should consider that every one of them that can be won to the Faith is a precious acquisition.
As he surveys the progress being made throughout the Bahá’í world, he is particularly pleased with that achieved in the Antipodes. The soundness, healthiness and vigour of the Bahá’í Community “down under” is a source of great joy to him, and he feels is an example to the Bahá’ís in other continents of the globe.
He remembers the members of your Assembly and all the dear Bahá’í pioneers and those labouring at home in his prayers in the holy Shrines, and supplicates that you all may be richly blessed, and render the Faith devoted services.
With warm Bahá’í love.