EARLY WESLEYANISM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 260, 2 November 1935, Page 12 (Supplement)

EARLY WESLEYANISM.

LAWRY AND LEIGH. SHARP DIFFERENCES OF OPINION. JOURNAL .DISCOVERED." (By ERIC RAMSDEN.) The Rev. Samuel Leigh, pioneer of Methodism in New Zealand, never dominated the evangel'.jal stage as did his better known contemporary, the Rev. Samuel Marsden, son of the forge and a Wesleyan household. Not only did Samuel Leigh not possess MarsdenV assertive personality, but Marsden's rugged health and powers of physical endurance were denied" him. Much' new light is thrown upon Leigh's character by the recent discovery in Sydney of the journal of his young assistant, the Rev. Walter Lawry.

Mr. Leigh held the fort for Wesleyanism in a community that was, at least officially, in sympathy with the Established Church (if, indeed, New South Wales had any particular religious leanings in the early part of last century), until Lawry's arrival in May', 1818. Walter Lawry, a capable, energetic young man, with what the Scots call a "guid conceit of himself," did not feel particularly at home in the new land; he was accustomed, as a" popular preacher, to certain adulation" which he sadly missed in- New. South Wales. Nevertheless, after .being in the colony a year and twelve days, he noted in the diary: "I have preached 124 sermons in .Sydney, rode round the settlements once a month; ,niy feelings have been

much upon the rack . . .We have begun three new chapels, one of which is finished, and our congregations are much increased. . ." On reflecting over the past year, he declared: ". . . And perhaps I am already the most popular preacher in New Holland!" .. « Bitter Attack on Marsden. The journal not only provides us with new material concerning Lawry's relations with his superior, Mr. Leigh, but it contains valuable information concerning the Bay of Islands in 1822, where the young missionary-touched in the St. MiCael on his way to establish the Wesleyan mission in Tonga. The fall of the Rev. Thomas Kendall was then the principal topic of conversation. Lawry, who had met Kendall in Sydney when returning with Hongi and Waikato on June 28, 1821, characterised him as' "a very wicked man." The journal records the fact, too, that Lawry was withdrawn from Tonga the following and severely censured' by the Wesleyan committee in London for not having accompanied Samuel Leigh to New Zealand. References to both Leigh and Marsden are exceedingly bitter. The quarrel with the latter was due to the fact that Lawry had established a Wesleyan Sunday school in Parramatta. As to deolining the New Zealand post, he declared: "If blame attaches anywhere it.must.be ,to Mr. General Superintendent Leigh, by whose official advice I refrained from going, to New Zealand with Him, ■' but proceeded to Tonga by the same authority."

In after years t"he name of La wry was a household Word in/New Zealand. The "dear little Henry," who accompanied his father to Tonga, became the Rev. H. H. Lawry, well-known missionar;- to the Maoris. Walter Lawry himself returned to New Zealand in 1544 as general superintendent of his mission. Indeed, the Tawry family has given more-"than a century; of useful

service to the Methodist Church in the Southern Hemisphere. In more recent years his grandson, the Rev. A. C. Lawry, was one of the best-known figures in New Zealand Methodist circles. Because of the historic parts Lawry •and Leigh played in the early religious life of New Zealand I shall confine myself in particular to their efforts to work peacefully together. The first mention of Leigh in the diary (a copy of which is now in the Mitchell Library) is on September 4, 1818, when he accompanied the 6enior clergyman on a visit to Governor Macquarie. One morning in the following month he breakfasted with the Rev. Samuel Marsden and "conversed much on the subject of missions—particularly New Zealand, to which lie (Mr. Marsden) Bays he will pay a second visit ..." In December he received a letter from Mr. Marsden which quite cheered up his "drooping spirits." . The, next reference to Leigh is a few days later on the return of his superior from the country. Mr. Lawry thought the minister was in "rather a poor temper."—"lt has long been puzzling to me to find out what kind of a man he is," confided the younger man. "Sometimes I have thought I have seen the promise of greatness in him, but as in many a castle the great beginning was never finished—he has about him many things very far from the ignoble crowd, yet in some he is exceedingly deficient. Perhaps Pope hits the mark just right:— A being placed on the isthmus of a middle state ■ , Darkly wise and rudely great." A Missionary in Love. By that time "Walter Lawry was very much in love with Mary, the daughter of Rowland Hassall, one of the "Duff" missionaries who had settled in Parramatta. Mary's brother. Thomas later became the husband of Anne Marsden.

But the young minister had two years to" serve of his probation before he could marry. "And I am afraid Miss Hassall will not wait that long," he complained. Besides, Wesleyanism was not allowing much'progress: "There is nothing particularly encouraging in our prospects of success in the mission at present. This is also a cause of grief to my heart. ..." In July Mr. Lawry found himself so much in love that he decided "courtship is by no means profitable for the soul." "I am so deep in love," he confessed, "as to be quite unfit for almost any other thing!" The following month he added: "The maid I dearly love, but I dread the consequence of marriage!" Eolations with Mr. Leigh were anything but harmonious on the latter's return., from New Zealand that year. The former was of such "a curious and eccentric manner" that Walter Lawry found it most difficult to labour in harmony with him. "His preaching talent appears to be all dwindled away," he declared. "He is a most miserable speaker." The same month he refers to the older man as being sulky, and added: "Mr. Leigh is evidently ill disposed towards my plans and my peace. He cuts out work for me which I am sure my body will not stand, and which I believe will not be for the good of God's cause in this land. Disunion with a senior colleague! What a grief, especially on a foreign mission!! . . ." Early in September the two missionaries dined with Governor and Mrs. MacMacquarie at Parramatta. "Mrs. Macquarie talked much with me," remarked Mr. Lawry, "and in a few instances seemed friendly." Nevertheless, the Governor would not permit the Wesleyans to preach to the prisoners in barracks, a decision he attributed to the work of the Anglican clergy. "I believe the parsons would hang us if they had their way!" was young Lawry's heated comment.

Mutters came to a head in October. Lawry opened his heart to Leigh upon

"the melanchollyness" of their "disunion." "We searched everything to the bottom," the former declared, "and got a fair and good understanding again: shook hands, prayed together, and felt as though we were each risen from the dead and restored to one another. I felt deeply affected as though a new missionary had come to my bosom!" The marriage to Miss Hassall took place on November 22, 1819; her brothers Samuel and Jonathan were wedded a< the same time. A week later the young clergyman confided to his journal: "I would not be unmarried again for all the world calls great and glorious!" Curiously enough, the Mitchell Library has preserved a letter written by Lawry to his brother-in.-law, Rev. Thomas Hassall (then in Wales), just a fortnight later, in which he'wrote: "My worthy colleague, Mr. Lejgh, has been ill nearly one year, and has been for the recovery of his health to New Zealand. ... I believe he is consumptive, and it is probable he will return to England by the ship 'Admiral Cockburn,' in which this comes to you. ..." Following the death of his infant child in August,'lß2o, and that of his father-in-law, Rowland Hassall, there are few references of interest in the journal until September 17, 1822, when Mr. .Lawry wrote: "Mr Leigh (who had returned to Sydney from England) brings me my appointment from the committee for New Zealand. This I did not expect, but I hope Providence will order it for good." But Lawry decided in favour of Tonga rather than go to New Zealand. On June 18, 1822, he was at sea on the St. Michael, heavy in heart, and heavier in debt. After touching at the Bay of Islands he landed in Tonga in August. Declined to go to N.Z.

It was not until the following July (1823), on the vessel's return, that he received the bombshell from the London committee: he was censured for not

having gone to New Zealand, he was ordered at once to Tasmania. It was then that he so bitterly attacked both Leigh and Marsden. The former he held solely responsible for him (Lawry) not going to New Zealand to serve at Whangaroa. The latter, he knew full well, had brought his powerful influence to bear upon the Wesleyan committee in London over the Sunday school issue. Worldliness and little concern in "the vital part of Christianity" were characteristic, he said, of Samuel Marsden. As to Samuel Leigh, lie did not hesitate to accuse him of downright lying. Furthermore, he considered he (Leigh) had no capacity for learning the Maori tongue. "Our mission in New Zealand has been begun in the dark," he said. "Much expense and mission property have been there misapplied. . . .' Against each of us (Lawry and his two colleagues in Sydney) he (Leigh) has to our knowledge written things which lie must have known to be untrue. Poor man! I sincerely pity him! ..." • Walter Lawry returned to Sydney— fortunately just in time for the birth of his daughter. The journal is not taken up again seriously until he was.on his way to England the following year to face his accusers. From fhat ordeal he emerged with such credit that he served his Church in England for nineteen years before returning to New Zealand. Mr. Lawry died in Parramatta in 1859. He is buried in the Wesleyan cemetery there. Mrs. Leigh, the wife of his old superior, rests in the church graveyard— indeed, only a few yards distant from her friends, the Marsdens. The last entry was on February 28, 1824, after a missionary meeting in his native Cornwall, "which," he declared, "has done me very little good, how'ever it may have affected others. My body has been seriously afflicted and my mind frequently disturbed, but by the mercy of God I am come back in peace and iind my dear family well,"