Page 47 - The Diary of A. H. W. Behrens

18
1870
The school fees paid by the parents of the English boys made the operation of the school possible because the missionaries and colonialists could contribute only little, very little because the Hermannsburg Mission was run according to Communist principles until 1870: everything for everybody, everyone
got what they needed from what was available. Nobody was supposed to have any property. No salaries were paid. Invoices for everything had to be filed and if you wanted something from the depot, you had to apply for it and prove that you needed it! And everything happened according to the old idiom, “He who has the cross blesses himself first”, that is, when the Kandaze came with the many things from Germany, then the dear brothers and sisters living in Hermannsburg took or got the best and the remote stations only got what was left! This only started changing when every man got a salary allocated to him so that he could buy what he wanted but
had to manage with what he had received! According to records kept by my father in 1870, a missionary received a salary of ₤ 60 per annum, ₤ 4 for a child per year, ₤ 5 for the maintenance of the station buildings, ₤ 6 for wagon repairs and oxen. The foreman for his office ₤ 5. The colonialists left the Hermannsburg Mission in 1870 and most of them moved to Lüneburg.