Take a case.

In a newly opened outstation the converts subscribed $5 Mexican, a head, per annum.

The missionary in charge of the district estimated that $500 per annum would pay the rent and upkeep of the chapel, and the salary of the pastor.

Therefore he calculated that when the membership of the chapel reached 100, the congregation would be self-supporting.
But if a school were founded and fees paid, then the day of self-support would be very far off.
Hence it is obvious that self-support is an arbitrary standard fixed on no certain grounds; and progress towards self-support is simply a progress towards a line which the foreigner prescribes.

Just as each father among us here in England, according to his class and standard of living, fixes a standard for his son, saying, "When he earns so much he will be able to maintain himself," so the society, or the individual missionary, fixes the standard for converts.