SAMUEL MARSDEN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 1, 2 January 1937, Page 2 (Supplement)

SAMUEL MARSDEN.

THE MAN AND HIS WORK. -, VALUABLE NEW SURVEY. Samuel Marsden, with whose name the beginning of mission work in the Dominion will be forever associated, has been the subject of several books. The latest is Eric Ramsden's '"Marsden and the Missions" (Reed), which will be welcomed by those who are interested in the early colonisation of New Zealand, and by serious students of its history for jt deals with the development of the missionary work inaugurated by the earnest, assertive, "bull-necked" chaplain from Sydney. Mr. Ramsden does not exaggerate in saying that, despite the faults that are to be expected in a character as strong as hie, Marsden is now recognised as undoubtedly a great man. What, however, he means by the qualifying words —"though a product of his time," is not clear. He does well, too, in giving the testimony of competent and trustworthy observers to Marsden's humanity, for it has more than once been called in question. Marsden's first visit to Xew Zealand was in 1814. It was followed up at intervals by several other visits, the last shortly before bis death in 18.38. By that time he had established, by authority of the Church Missionary Society, several mission stations in the North Island, whilst the Wesleyan Methodists, and, later, the Roman Catholics, had also established missionary stations. It is the eight or nine years before Marsden's death, on to the year after, with which the book deals. Referring to its scope, Mr. Ramsden is careful to tell us that it is not to be understood as a critical study, either of the period, or of the man, both fields having already been well covered by other writers. He is also careful to make it clear that he must not be thought of as attacking the mission system. This, however, no thoughtful reader of the book would be likely to suppose, for, though it is a frankly revealing book, and two of the missionaries— Yate the Anglican, and White the Methodist—appear in a sorry light, the author, if faithful to his facts, is as dispassionate in his statement of them. What he has done, as he says, is to give us a survey of these years from new material now available and supplementary to what had previously been placed on record. Missionaries' Difficulties. The survey is most interesting and informing. It gives us new light on Marsden and the Marsden family, stories showing how handicapped and sorely tried Busby, the Resident at Waitangi, was, and bringing out his fine qualities of mind and heart, stories and correspondence bearing on another excellent man, the Cornish Wesleyan Hawke, who later became the father of the fruit industry in New South Wales, and stories and correspondence regarding the leading missionaries, the work they did, the differences here and there between them, and the difficulties, and, for a time, the opposition they met with. One of the greatest hindrances .to their evangelical and social work was the shameless immorality of the time. Mr. Ramsden lays stress on this, and sheets home the cause of it to the unprincipled character of masters and crews $f whalers putting in at the Bay Of Islands, and to the cupidity and desire for drink of certain of the Maori chiefs, who made no scruple of selling their female slaves, and even their daughters and sisters. He points out that the traffic that took place was an incidental cause of the war that broke out during Marsden's last visit. In spite of it all. however, Christianity and education gradually took root among the Maoris and this Mr. Ramsden makes clear. It is all skilfully done, and is lit up by touches of humour, and by a number of apt and amusing stories. The various portraits and illustrations given add to the interest of the story. In addition to a note by the author, there is an introduction by Professor Peter H. Buck (Te Rangi Hiroa), and a foreword by Mrs. Elizabeth Betts, of Sydney. Marsden's granddaughter. Mr. Ramsden brings the book to a close with a full and intimate appendix regarding Marsden's children, the copious bibliography from which he lias drawn, ami an index, which, though good, might have been made fuller.