Arriving at Hobart on Feb. 21, 1884, Bro. and Sister Maston and their little son, Harry (then 3 years old), were met by Brethren Smith and Poultney. The church was small, and, although at first Bro. Maston was very hopeful, he does not appear to have felt settled from the beginning, and his stay in Tasmania was not a long one, in fact, only a little over a year. During that time, however, he managed to visit almost all the churches in the island, conducting special services at several of them, with good results.

      It is possible that the great continent over the way had attractions for him from the beginning, for during that brief year he went to Australia twice, first to Melbourne and Sydney, and then to Melbourne only. On these occasions he met the prominent brethren, and preached in many of the churches.

      While in Tasmania, he conceived the idea of compiling a Manual of the Churches of Christ in Australasia, and with a view to this he issued circulars to all the Churches in the various colonies, asking them to supply statistics and other information. The Manual was published on Jan. 24, 1885, and contained a large amount of useful matter. It entailed a lot of work for one pair of hands, but was successfully issued, and met with a good reception among the brethren. [33]

      The attractions of Melbourne proving too strong for him, he accepted an engagement with the church at North Melbourne (or Hotham, as it was then called) and left Tasmania on March 15, 1885.

      The work in connection with the church at North Melbourne began on March 22, in the Chetwynd Street Chapel, with splendid audiences. At the welcome meeting, on the following Tuesday, Brethren Lewis, Dunn, Colbourne, and McGowan delivered addresses.

      He attended his first Conference on the Good Friday, and made several speeches during the sessions. From this time he became a notable figure and a force in all the Conferences, not only in Victoria, but also in the other States, seldom being absent from any of them.

      On June 28, the North Melbourne Town Hall was taken for the Sunday evening services, and large audiences gathered to hear him. At the close of several of these meetings, he states that he "had a stormy time with some of the parsons." The meetings continued in the Hall for about six months.

      Always a strong believer in the power of the humble and despised Tract, he began to lay plans for publishing and circulating tracts in connection with his own evangelistic work. With this object, during July of this year, he formed a tract society among the members of the North Melbourne church. This was the modest commencement of an enterprise which afterwards assumed large proportions. He soon saw the possibility of a much wider circulation, and began to invite the monetary [34] assistance of other brethren, to enable him to, print and distribute larger quantities of tracts. This fund he called "The Sower Tract Fund."

      In the first annual report of the "Fund," Aug. 3, 1886, A. B. Maston writes: "A year ago I commenced this work, having but little idea what it would come to, though with definite plans before me as to the lines on which I would move. From the beginning it has been with me largely a matter of faith, not of faith alone, but of real hard work and careful management as well. I started with nothing, but have now a few small debts, and a good supply of tracts, on which to begin the work of the second year . . Two million four hundred thousand pages of tracts have been printed, and have gone to all parts of the colonies. . . . Anyone can see that to send out this amount of printed matter has taken a lot of work; all this my wife and self have cheerfully done, without one penny's reward, and shall continue to do it if the brethren continue their support."

      A. B. Maston became known as the Tract Man, and his little unpretentious messengers became very popular. It would be impossible to estimate how many millions of tracts have been issued since that humble beginning. More than 180 different tracts have been written, dealing with almost every conceivable phase of the primitive gospel. All the leading writers among the Churches have been requisitioned for this department of literary effort, and to-day the Austral Publishing Co. always keeps on hand a stock of, at least, half a million tracts, which are being constantly sold and replenished. [35]

      No attempt can be made to tabulate the good accomplished by these silent preachers of the truth. [36]

[LABM 33-36]