FIFTY YEARS OF CHURCH WORK.

Bush Advocate, Volume XXI, Issue 288, 9 June 1909, Page 7

FIFTY YEARS OF CHURCH WORK.

BISHOP WILLIAMS RETIRING. STORIES OF EARLY DATS. LIFE AMONG THE MAOiITK. Bishop Williams, of W»i;i|i ;. who held an ordination service at >.)-,\ .nicvirke. on Sunday, will rotirc I-,. : .ictivo work in tho Church at i.ie (-.id of this month. Ho 1 m - iiv d :v strenuous life, and lias onw.ihtrred discomforts a.nd hardships of a ;-haractor that New Zealand does not now produce. In" a few weeks ho will attain his 80t-h birthday. Ho is a Now Zeala.nder by birth, having been born in the Bay of Islands. ! It is 56 years since Bishop AVilliams entered the Church, after he j had finished his education in England. His life, work has been done in the. Poverty Bay and Hawke's Bay districts. Ho went there a .young man to help his -father, the first Bishop of Waiapii, in missionary work amongst the Maoris, and. he has a clear recollection of that part of the dominion as it. was before settlement began. The first European to lire amongst the Maoris there, it seems, "was a man named Harris, who came over from Sydney to represent a. firm engaged in the flax trade. He was taken into, one of the tribes, and became its "pakeha." It was the ambition of every tribe in those days to have a. "pakeha." That tribal official carried on. negotiations with European traders for flax produced by the Maoris, and in return he was given all that the Maoris had it in 'their power to give. Practically the only thing ho had to fear was the infringement of established custom. That was an almost unpardonable of- j fence, and it occasionally went close to costing the "pakeha' 3 his life. The. loss of a "pakcha" was regarded as so; disastrous, however, that the offender was usually pardoned. On one occasion, for instance, a "pakeha'' j told Bishop "Williams that, while j ■strolling through the pah, he saw the young son of a chief take up a stick and belabour his mother. ' The woman made an outcry, there was a slight distitrbance, and the "pakeha" stepped up to the young fellow and gave him a resounding box on the ear. Ho was astonished, at the hubbub that immediately arose. The woman, the son, and the, chief himself joined in it, and the angry faces that gathered around the astonished "pakeha" showed him that in striking the sacred person of. the son of a chief he had raised a storm which it would not be easy to quell . The old chief at length induced the tribes-people- to attribute the action to gross ignorance, and to overlook it on condition that it shuld not be ■repeated. Another early arrival in that part was a man named Burns. In Dr Hocken's library of New Zealand works, in Dunedin, there is a photograph of this man, whose descendants still live in the Poverty Bay district. Ho became so intimate with the Maoris, and adopted their customs so willingly, apparently, that he allowed them to tattoo his face wren all the curves and spirals that form the principal features of the ancient Maori's decorative art. He told a ; stovy , that .he was captured by the Maoris, was kept d close prisoner by them, and was compelled to adopt their customs, but this was discredited by those who know the Maoris of the district. He lived with them for a time and then disappeared. ' After those isolated and adventurou Europeans thero came the whalers, who were the forerunners of civilisation. They established whaling stations at points along the coast of both Poverty Bay and Hawke's 'Bay, notably at the Mahia Peninsula, where sperm whales wore plentiful. Some old maps of New Zoaland bear the words, on the coastline representing the country between Cape Kidnappers and Cape' Pallisor, "N<\ natives along this coast as far as Ahuriri." It is explained that at that time, aboxtt 1843, Rauparaha, one of the most famous warriors of New Zealand, had armed his tribesmen Avith rifles, and was devastating the west coast of the North Island, advancing east as far as 'the Wairarapa. The Maoris on the East Coast dreaded his approach, and, fearing his further advance, had gathered in the strongest fortifications, deserting aIL their coastal ■territories. A fairly large tr,ade with Auckland sprang up, vessels being sent down the coast. At the time of tho "rush" in Australia, in the early fifties, when, wheat Avas at a very high price, the Maoris grow large quantities of that cereal all along the coast. After that, settlers began to take up land, the extraordinary fertility of the soil was discovered, and the foundation for progress and civilisation was laid. Poverty Bay is tho scene of two encounters between .the Europeans and the Maoris. The Hauhau movement, whie.h began on the west coast, was transferred to tho east coast by Patara. He- is described by Bishop Williams as a wily, clever, and scheming man, who exercised n remarkable control over the Maoris,? which amounted almost to a kind of

hypnotism. He introduced a, new fanaticism ji.fc Opotiki and it spread down the roast until it reached Poverty Bay. An engagement took placo at Waercnga-a-luka. in 1860. •"■ Tlio Hauhaus were, defeated. Somo of them ■wore, taken prisoners, 'their lands were confiscated, and it was decided that they should bo deported to the Chatham Islands. It was intendod that they should bo kept there for only a short- period, until a Confiscation Act could be passed to settle the. disposition of their lands and make reserves for them. Owing to some bitngling, the first two Confiscation Acts, passed in 1866 and 1867, were unworkable, and the question was not satisfactorily dealt with until 1868, the prisoners being detained at the islands all that time. This fact, Bishop Williams believes, was the Teal cause of the massacre which took place in Poverty Bay at .tho end of 1868. Ho was in the' district during those troublesome times, and, as ho came into contact with both. Europeans and Maoris, ho had good opportunities, for ascertaining the ciircunistanees. There was engaged amongst the, friendly Maoris at Waei'enga-a-hika. the man Te Kooti, who afterwards became iiotorioxts as tho leader . and iiistigator of tho massacres. Bishop' Williams know him well before he turned rebel. 1 . To Kooti regarded himself as a rangitira, and, in fact, had a good deal of influence amongst the Maoris of tho Gisborhe district. the prisoners wero being sent to the Chathams, somebody suggested that it wxrald bo a, gqbd idea to get rid of To Kooti also by sending him off with tho others. The" word was. as good as tho deed, and he jiv as bundled iirto -the boat and taken on boaafcl with the Hauh'au prisoners. The injustice rankled in his breast, and late in 1868 he returned to New Zealaoid in tho schooner Rifleman, which ho had captured, and raided the Poverty Bay district, massacring a number of ■ settlers " and their families. — Exchange. (