VETERAN PRIEST

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 272, 17 November 1941, Page 6

VETERAN PRIEST

LONG SERVICE ENDS

WORK FOR MAORI PEOPLE

Affectionately known as the "Old Master" of Roman Catholic missions to the Maoris, the Rev. Father John Baptist Becker, of the Mill Hill Fathers, has died at Wellington at the age of 85. Born in Westphalia, Father Becker made his preparatory studies in the junioj- diocesan seminary of Paderborn. Rather than enter military barracks for enforced training he left the country of his birth in his late twenties to pursue his theological course at Ushaw College, Manchester. Early in 1882 he was ordained priest for the diocese of Salford, Manchester, his first appointment being to a secondary school.

About three years later he noticed in a church newspaper Bishop Luck's appeal for a priest to work among the Maoris at Auckland. After some delay he managed to obtain the permission of Bishop (late Cardinal) Vaughan to join the newly-founded missionary society of St- Joseph, Mill Hill. A year later, in 1886, he arrived in Auckland with another missionary Priest, Father Madden. Established by the Bishop at Matata they learned the Maori language and customs and began mission work in the district and as far south as Lake Taupo.

Father Becker went north in 1890, his new mission extending from the Kaipara and Otamatea to the North Cape, his home being at Purakau. Many were the thrilling experiences of his long travels by bush track, on horseback and up rivers. His influence with the Maoris can be reckoned from the manner in which he saved th e young members of the Auckland Volunteers who were sent in the early 'nineties to suppress the rebellion that had broken out in the Hokianga district against the newly imposed dog tax. Finding his way to the hidden camp of the rebels he succeeded, after long koreros, to dissuade the natives from making use of their well-nrepared snare to trap the pakeha soldiers.

The churches he built all over the district number nearly twelve. His crowning work was a translation of the New Testament Into Maori, and several prayer books and pamphlets are also proofs of his deep scholarship. In 1915 he moved to Whangape and about 1921 to Rawene.

Whilst his confreres were making arrangements to celebrate the golden jubilee of their kaumatua, the humble dwelling at Rawene caught fire and left the missioner homeless and penniless—his rare Maori books and papers, Maori curios and his one hobby in philately lost in the flames. A new house was built, where he lived until February last year, when age compelled him to retire to the Home of Compassion, Wellington.

Regarded with the greatest veneration by the Maori people of North Auckland, Father Becker during the Catholic centenery celebrations at Hokianga in March, 1938, was presented to the Apostolic Delegate, Archbishop Panico, and was given a special seat of honour in the sanctuary during the celebration of Solemn Mass on the site of Bishop Pompallier's first Mass in New Zealand. Father Becker was one of the most noteworthy personalities at the Maori celebrations on that occasion, as he was a link with the earliest pioneer missionaries, such as the famous Dr. James Mac Donald, who devoted his life to the natives.

The body of the late Father Becker is to be brought to Auckland to-morrow morning. The coffin will rest before the high altar in St. Patrick's Cathedral. A Solemn Mass of Requiem will be sung in the cathedral at 9.30 to-morrow morning. Later the interment will take place at Motukaraka.