ST. MICHAEL'S INSTITUTE.

Press, Volume VII, Issue 795, 17 May 1865, Page 2

ST. MICHAEL'S INSTITUTE.

A general meeting of this Institute was held on Monday evening last, at seven o'clock, in the Town Hall, to listen to addresses delivered by the Right Reverends the Bishops of Melanesia and Waiapu, on the Melanesian and the early New Zealand Missions. The hall was crowded to excess with the members of the Institute and the general public. The Bishop of New Zealand was expected to take ths chair, but Synod business detained him from being present at the commencement of the mseting. The Bishop of Christchurch took the chair, and the proceedings commenced by the Choral Class singing the hymn—" God who rulest Earth and Heaven." The President briefly introduced The Right Reverend Bishop Patteson, who began his address by stating that the object he had in view that evening would be to attempt to give information about a part of the world in which a good deal of interest was now being felt, but about which he sup- . posed a great many present had heard but little, and who therefore could not be expected to know much. He hoped that any person present who wished to have any point explained during the course of his address would have no hesitation in interrupting him for that purpose, as he felt his object of imparting information to them on the subject would be more satisfactorily attained by that means. The real fact was, it was a great field he had to travel over on that occasion, and from long acquaintance with it, things might cease to i, become strange to him, but which to his audience, who might not have had their attention directed to it, would have all the appearance of novelty, and thus he might be led to leave out some points i altogether, and be tedious upon others. He should i wish to begin by saying a few words as to the geographical distribution of those islands, because he was aware that considerable ignorance prevailed concerning this point. What he knew from personal obser--1 vation of those seas was confined to the islands lying ■ to the westwards of New Zealand. Taking the Feejee Archipelago as his stand-point, it might be considered ■ as dividing the islands of the eastern Pacific from 1 those of the west, and it would be those of the latter to which he would confine his observations. All to the west of the Feejee Archipelago was well-known 1 to be inhabited by a race of men speaking dialects of • a common stock, while in those to the east of this Archipelago, they found dialects differing completely > from one another, a people of different habits and ■ customs living there, and in fact comparatively no--1 thing was known about them. It was only a few • years since that any missionary work had been going ' on there at all, and no one was prepared to speak ! positively as to the best method of carrying it on, for ' hitherto it had been only experimental, and they ■ could not speak of results obtained. To commence ' his description of those islands let them imagine ■ themselves sailing in his little mission vessel in a north-westerly direction. The first place they would ; arrive at would be Norfolk Island, about 600 miles f distant from Auckland. He generally staid there for ' a few days in his course, before proceeding on to the ' Loyalty group, consisting of several islands of coral I formation, very low, but containing no dense vegetation; islands suitable for the habitation of people born in an English climate, and inhabited by people speaking one language on each island. They were i very well acquainted with those islands, and had scholars from them for a long time past, and knew ' their language. However, they were not speci- ! ally concerned with that group at present, for missionaries of the London Missionary Society • were laboring there, to whom they went only for the ; purpose of paying friendly visits, and sending back the scholars taken thence. Then, steering to the 1 eastward and northward, they would come to the • New Hebrides group, consisting of some thirty ' islands or more, and which were the most beautiful islands on the face of those Beas ; fringed round with ; coral reefs; great volcanic masses of rock, densely, ' wooded to the height of 3000 feet; cascades leaping through the banyan trees; and in three cases, in 1 different parts of the group, they found not less than three active volcanoes. He had seen there on a calm night, the volcanoes' lurid light not less than 60 miles off. Having been so often in the habit of making their passage through those islands they knew their way well, and could easily avoid the few dangers that {existed. He had landed at one time or another on every one of those islands, and had had more or less intercourse withthe native people. They would bear in mind that this was the first group of islands with which they were specially Connected. He had no idea of the number of the population; but this he knew, that he saw no signs of that decrease among them which he saw among the natives of New Zealand, and in spite of many things tending to that end, on the whole it was rather increasing than diminishing. Going still further northwards, and separated by some 40 or 50 miles, the Banks's group, consisting of 16 or 18 islands, was reached—small islands, and inhabited by people speaking fragments of what was once one common language, having the same customs, and some of them very peculiar. He had been in the habit of living among them for sime time, and he could therefore speak with greater certainty. Going still in the same direction they came to the archipelago of Santa Cruz, consisting of one fine large island visited by the Spaniards 300 years ago, and many small, low islands, very dangerous to navigators, and which did inofe even appear on our Admiralty charts-i-ihe best was that constructed by the Bishop of New Zealand. <He believed that this year Commodore Sir William Wiseman intended to make a visitation of those islands* when this defect would be supplied. To the .cast, about 300 miles, they reached the great Solomon's Group, consisting of islands sixty'or seventy miles long, inhabited by different races of men, having i little intercourse with one another, and speaking i 1 many different dialects. The island of Ysabel; dis- | tant about 2400 miles, was the most distant point i they had reached with their vessel; and the 'whole i number of islands touched at might be estimated-at i eighty or ninety. He would not trouble them with i a long account of the languages spoken, suffice it to ( say, that he never landed yet and found the same- i language spoken in any two of them. Very frev - quently the people inhabiting the north of an island t had intercourse with the people on the south of the c neighboring island, and consequently might be able i to communicate with one another; but those living t inland had none of those advantages, in feet they 1

durst not go to tho coast at all, for tho mh.ibih„f. there .vere certain to bo at war with the people lir!n» in the bush, and they therefore remained isolate! and broken up mto mere fragments ; this would end in what he would term the provincialisms of the h QI -u_~ becoming the staple of tho language. If they* book the cases of a Yorkshiremau and a Corniahman they would find they could not discourse on all Bu b jects without difliculty, and if there were no inter" course between them, it would bo dear that in few generations they would be utterly unable to under" stand one another at all. In Banks's island they had worked their way back to what was theoriginal language just iv the same way in which a child constructing a puzzle worked, and by fitting one piece here and another there, managed to construct it. Some years ago it did appear almost an insupe-able difficulty for there seemed nothing for it but to acquire' the language of each island as the only means of beinir able to communicate with the people, and they must remember in that case they would been compelled to' acquire 70 or SO dialects. But now, he was thankful to say, he found a different means of overcoming this difliculty, and it was this : Taking any one group 0 f islands they decided as to the language to be adopted in teaching the youths from that group. For instance in the case of Banks's Archipelago, there were at present in the central Bchool natives from those islands. They were taught all one language, and tho experiment proved a success; for although the natives on leaving their native islands were only able to speak their own dialect, yet their mode of thought being tho same, and tho structural parts of the language being the same, they found there was no difficulty in getting them to learn the original language of the whole group. He communicated with them, and he was able to teach them in this language, and then when ho was satisfied that they were able to interpret to their own countrymen what he taught them, they were able to do so in their own particular dialect. Therefore in the islands he was more particularly alluding to, instead of its being necessary to learn 50 languages, he thought it was possible to learn only from five or six of these languages really well, to communicate through those native teachers with tho whole number of the various minds which constituted those archipelagoes. Lately when he took a visit to those islands, he set some of his advanced scholars from that group to give an exact equivalent in their own dialects for words iv this language common both to thorn and himself, and they not only had no difliculty in doing it, but they entered upon the work with great zest and earnestness, criticising one another's papers, and doing the work of comparative grammarians very well. In a few years more, with sufficient instruction, they could have some confidence in feeling that those youths could retail to their own peoplo what they had ' been taught at the school. So much for the geography and the languages of these islands. With respect to tho scenery he did not know how to give his audience any adequate idea of it. He of course spoke as one who "went to those islands with the desire to be favorably impressed with what he saw, but still it did not need .that to make one charmed and delighted with the beauty displayed there 5 suoh variety of foliage, such vegetation, and such beautiful scenery meeting one on every side ; even the very huts of the people, and the canoes themselves imparted a charm to the eye. The great natural features, of those islands were very good; fine lofty mountains towering peak on peak, in one instance in the Solomon's group to the height of 8000 feet. He remembered on one occasion being particularly im* pressed by the beauty of the scene, on being becalmed between two promontories jutting out from one of those islands to a distance of 50 or GO miles on both sides, the lofty mountains towering around, reflected in the clear mirror beneath, the brilliant sky above, and the gorgeous variety displayed in the foliage, and the vegetation on every side, contributed to form a scone, which for grandeur and beauty combined, wM seldom to be seen. On approaching the shore in the boat, the variety of trees and shrubs that successively opened to the view was magnificent, cocoanuts, bananas, banyans, flower-bearing trees, and hundreds, of others, the beauty of which combined could hardly be conceived, much less With regard to the inhabitants themselves, he could not profess to go into their origin, and he oould not undertake to say whether they came from the east or from the west, and the only real and satisfactory way to solve tin's problem was by going into a careful analysis of their language; but until they had travelled over the whole field, and formed an in* duction from the whole class of languages spoken, it would not be easy to speak with certainty on this point. The more they worked to the north-west, the more they found the Polynesian language occupying a large portion ofthe country. In the extreme north* western part the language was more like that spoken in the eastern Pacific, such as the Maori, than that, in the New Hebrides and Banka's Islands. When the Bishop of New Zealand went there' many years ago in a little vessel of twenty-two tons, he found in every island none but wild savage people, but when he (the speaker) went there nine years ago, the' people were quite peaceable and friendly, even in . An<tttum, where two Presbyterians- were laboring, and in Erromango also; but since then ,the inhabitants there had murdered Mr. and Mrs. Gordon? He would explain this as he received' it from- MJV Gordon's brother, who was now come out to take his place. In his zeal to induce people to adopt; Christianity he might have spoken-aometimea^rnW 1 fervently—and who could blame'him-—than had &**&-, wise, about the- judgment which would be- susar.pj ~ come upon them if they did not adopt difteMßt customs and habits. By and bye a vessel from Syd* -', ney going there introduced the measles-among, tjb«V.. people, who died off very fast. There was alM'ty white man living there a wild profligate life, to whom* of course it was no pleasure to see missionaries going there. The people began to suspect, tho missionary of having brought down the disease, and Mr. Gordon went among them for four months in the perfiMp? consciousness of his life beiog in danger; and mately they determined to get rid of thediseajeM, killing the person who, as they thought, mfrodaeWit. What a change now the island presentedJ (the speaker) was there recently, and he foundTraftw. one hundred yards of the place where-Mr.* wruon was buried three hundred people living peaceably,and their native teacher Mane spoke more hopefoUythan, he had ever done before of their state. He mentioned the above case because it was his duty to try to gin v the true causes which led to-those unfortunate old* breaks which were so often looked upon as t Q *- B ****;'_ vindictiveness of the black man. In theltofptyl;* group of islands there were two or three men belonging to the London Missionary Society in Anatioffl,, and the same number in. Erromango. -".AtioperV island,' Tanna, discovered by Captain Cook, and wejjl,, known to sailors, was for a time occupied ; by three Presbyterian missionaries j bat, partly iromjM' unhealthiness of the climate, and partly .froftt'W, savage nature of the people, they *ere oW **£|? leave ; but not before they had suffered Una. this, all those islands stretching away west were not without a missionary, for there *#» there some native teachers ; but what were «"%_ . among so, many ? He could not profess * •*** amount of confidence in their steadfastness, was forced to leave them more hastfly than be flow > wish, owing to a disaster which occurred, and nowjaf \ was obliged to think of them left . there. «-"QP. their companions, and losing hold of the little t&jPJ; had been taught them; living among eomaa their wild, savage state ; and, alas at present the only people trying to evangeUie aTB wished he oould lay before his audience wm«.*WS : v * scheme of action for the purpose of e^ t |____*l?£:, > sympathies; they had none, but had been ocataSj%m.\ go on quietly, and feeling that they "',- making experiments, and might be forced -;■• - again on some other plan. What they * ac ?'?^^g. i : ldesired was, that they could have some central where he could live the whole year, except <M *"*^;^: occasions when ne went in his vessel through the islands, and where he eoifla scholars without ever leaving tbe tropics at "V^jjf. therefore, being able to visit the islands quehily. In this place there should be men carrying on a good central iwbtatKH. training unlmen who should hQmeiMdMJnmutDWcmtofo&QirnjpvS*** **T V,

* _!___ft»tbedone for this reason. Much as he consi- :""■ they found ""■- d_tAsie islands were so unhealthy, that it would -" ___\_ mrfat, with a due regard to the economy of " ' \_)l_. gfe to do so. The climate of those islands did -SiSemhle the..hot climate of India, but was more " -{jfliwnfin Indian jungle, covered with a dense mass * '• _?2_«t__ion, and productive of fever and ague, to :jtiA^ even the natives were subject. He never ■ y_3 people on these islands, and returned six £_haßerwards, but he was certain to meet some of op; and more than once he had just taken itßffSOßieof them in time to spare their lives. They itoefi** f° r •"** rc 3Boll could not carry out the ob_£saer desired, but the time might soon come, Mie«r, when, if they could clear away some few __\\olaorne island, and have their little hut exposed tafia south-west wind, they might be able to carry __tt object out. But he did not look forward to be- - off able to effect this for some time to come. In the _Weiaxat, therefore, they brought to New Zealand jtoif the party of scholars whom he should prefer to ___ to some central island, where though they should _& indeed be brought in contact with the civilized fife of New Zealand, yet access to their own country . -ffalA he more easily obtained. The other-day he fswen the coast of Australia a place suitable for thoir ' : -Carttß Island—from which there would be -'' __Tffl*gnlty in reaching the islands, as they would jwretbe advantage of a soldier's wind, but returning - mold not be so easy, as they would have to beat lack all the way, and although their vessel was a one, it would be a weary time for their new .- t£-Jsra. But still they did go with them, and in- -" - jged very often the difficulty was not in persuading ~ so, but in having to refuse some of them, ~ loth on account of the smallness of the vessel, and _fco from their want of funds. Still, however, he flwoght the work was going on favorably, and f Hough they had many disappointments and failures, he thought no other plan would suit so well, he hoped that by it Christianity would -V if introduced largely among the people, ~ which could not be so readily done in any after way. With regard to the docility of those i?_Mp)o> he thought that any person going to his - ' •enool could testify to their tractableness; in fact,

' he*l» of opinion that they gave less trouble than boys generally gave, and for his part he would " j_*exebange them. However, they must remember those youths were 1500 miles from home, which £k fight make a difference, and it did not follow that ; ?rftey were were always equally ready to return when get home, though generally speaking, when they !%■ k« enly tlieir own wishes to consult they were ready. Sftjfj-'woukl give an instance of this. On his way back f|po_i the islands recently, he called at Motu, where, &ais_H»bng on the beach he found a large party of waiting to meet him. Two, however, were IglUbent; one of them, the most promising of all, who filial fallen back to his heathenish practices. On IpieeDunfe of one of his (the speaker's) party lying Ipjiarah/ wounded in the vessel he could not wait to go §§Jto6ogh the island in search of him, and so he had to Eout him. The other was a boy about 10 who, he was told, was in the village, as bis t was a great warrior, and one with whom not be safe totake liberties—(laughter)— permit him to go on beard. He (Bishop want to see him, but could not persuade him go. As the boat was in the act of IF, a boy came running down, and told him pupil was crying. He accordingly went found him so. He said to the father, " I ber in New Zealand, and you are his father .The father at last gave him permission to By, and now that same boy did not wish to ne. It would not do, however, to keep him eat the father might give him (the speaker) prard salutation on returning. (Laughter.) »uths found their new life a great to their old one. With no watch for enemies, and no weapon to r oould walk about without fear of risk «, and this change of life was a great to them, for they soon grew into a habit md trusting people instead of distrusting Then that was the kind of feeling those re beginning to understand, he wished to ar as possible his influence over them; and irpose he was now thankful to say that they ut to try the experiment of keeping a 00l in New Zealand. Recently he hud this efore his scholars, and no less than eleven olunteered to remain. One of them who baptised, and had been with him for four una, gave him a good reason for wishing to Ie wanted to go back and see his wife who md to whom he was strongly attached. ad, of about 17 or 18 years of age, wanted for two reasons; one of which was that he „, be married, and the other that he wanted Rlftfee afi t_M lands to which he (the speaker) went. K& however was persuaded to remain, and with him ten or twelve others. This was a very IlljriSying thing to the mission*; just at the very time llfeljfcimthey were beginning to think of returning to homes, laden at that time of the year li|lpp|be choicest fruits, they stopped; and he hoped that their remaining for two seasons would |pf|jfci»Bsiely result in their becoming weaned from all EBfiaVeld desires and habits, and desiring to remain or seven yean longer, until they should be KfisghtwelL His object waajnot to depend upon casual from other quarters, but, upon the Native KSf BB *_ r - He well remembered a saying of the Bishop Zealand, which was exactly what he meant. Sp|B»>aaid—"We want a set of Native teachers to ||||§Bfcele those islands, to be buoyed up here and from home to act as floats." |||||** vat what was wanted, but still he felt they IgiiW'depend upon the Native agency for the great |pp*ef tie work. With respect to the intellectual theracehehadno doubt of their being l||pmi with the ordinary amount. He had lived more sfg«la»aißong them for the last nine years, and he ©•Md say ao without hesitation. If he had a few Brfa» pupils there that evening, they might appear ifidsJl md stupid, just in the same way as Englishg|jia» would among a party of foreigners, whose gfihagaage hadid not understand. If they, however, plijui see those lads sitting with him in his little jg~syw_ laughing, chatting, and telling stories, they HJjPSaH at once say they bad no lack of intellectual p.r«Maeily.' There might be some present who had g| laminlha school and oould testify to that, and to j!|aft_jpptpvMs they made. As to their ready adoption habits generally, from the very first time ||ptti|jea*Be on board bis little vessel they used their and forks as if they had been accustomed to Hikisa, and their powers of imitation were very great. g.; Jjlßaneaian onys learned to write very soon, for that paw imitation, but learning to read took them gplißfar. from the regular structure of the language Illy could learn however even quicker than English they learned to do so in three or piw months be oould not afford to bring them |||«a-A-agam to schooL With reference to the alleged |? ? raoe, he would say that an ordinary English peasant used a vocabof only 800 words, he knew no Mehuipsninn I c* lt *S n *g«in which there were less than 4000 words in fe'jf?* m *ny of then- exercises in school, those lads IjpgJJ"** c* o ** powers of observation, and evinced no jky-,_Pfe power of reasoning - thus giving evidence of tow natinlness whan they returned to their own ; *&* winds. It was difficult to say what amount of supwould be needed when they returned. The gffi_y* *hmg would be, to get tnght or ten promising mm * eot to any one island, to live together, would thaa be a little support to one and from that nucleus they would try to It ;£_* upwards to the rest of the island. Some of - : scholars were gradually drawing others of w ™eh* own relations to tbe school, and there were now -t if*"**three sets of brothers there, three or four in ;/ **&tmSty, and he always encouraged that. When *C gffeafc went ashore on a strange island, of course not J ~_°** B eT *°* PO°P** he could not choose out the mat {mousing, and so they were content to get '-*_____• oest *"*? eo °3d, but gradually, as they h-^__ mmm *•*«**• aemiainted with them, he could ». : l~*y ,no * e ***■* seemed the most promising The great difficulty was to influence the ' iwpnlataon of those islands. As long as he , twnajned amongst them they did grfeupflomeof

their fighting practices, but when he left they returned to their old habits. He could not say that any great impression had been made in any island at large. In Banks's Island some years ago he never met a man or a boy who was not fully armed, but lately he round the island, and did not meet an armed man. That was greatly owing to his being there, and it was something to knovr that when a Christian happened to be present it had such an effect upon them. Moreover they saw their relations going away and returning with good news of how they had been treated, and so their mistrust grew weaker and weaker. This gave them hopes that before long the time might come when the results would be more promising still. He, however, regarded the central school as the great thing to aim at now, and it was there that the English missionary was to learn those things which were essential for carrying on the great work. He had no doubt he omitted many things that might be interesting, but he did not like to talk of their wild savage customs, for he did not think it would do good to do so, as it was apt to suggest erroneous ideas of the state in which those people lived. Perhaps the horrors that could be related of any large English city, like Manchester and Liverpool, might not be worse than many scenes he had witnessed ; but this he knew, that he would run greater risk of his life in the low haunts of those towns than in any island of the Southern Seas. He thought it would be well to try to destroy the conventional notions men had of those things. He would add that, whenever he had heard of eny outbreak among the Islanders, on close inquiry into the matter he was always able to follow up the origin of it to a white man. He did not like to hear it said that those Melanesian people were more vindictive than other races. If they were irritated in any way their passions would be roused, and they only required to be traded with in a kindly way to ensure a kindly reception on every occasion. Ho could give many instances of this friendly feeling of the people, even where outrages had been committed ; and where no white man had ever been he could go without any risk whatever. His Lordship concluded his address by giving an instance illustrative of this, as showing the ready manner in which they can discriminate between friends and foes; and resumed his seat amidst loud applause. The Choir having sung the hymn, " From Greenland's Icy Mountains,"

The Chairman called upon The Right Reverend the Bishop of Waiapu to address the meeting. His Lordship began by saying that he rose under great disadvantages after the eloquent speech they had just listened to. Those disadvantages were twofold; firefly, they had heard a much more interesting account than he could giye; and secondly, he could only tell them about the New Zealanders, who, it so happened, were at present, on account of the war now going on, in great disfavor. He should, howevsr, give them a single page out of the history of the missionary work in New Zealand. Many years ago there was a war raging between the Waikato Natives and those of Rotoruo, the principal chief of the former having been the father of Tamehana, the present chief of the Waikatos. At that time there was a missionary work going on among the tribe of Tamehana, in a small party who had attached themselves to Archdeacon Brown their teacher, who was about to remove his station from j Matu-Matu to Tau.anga, one of Tamehana's chiefs, and about 20 Natives, two of them being the children of that chief. There was also one Englishman of the party. They arrived at the foot of a most romantic hill called Wairara where they encamped for the night. The fire they kindled was observed by a party of the enemy about 20 miles up the valley, who at once knew it proceeded from a party of travellers proceeding to Tauranga, and they formed the intention of attacking them, which they did. They saw at once the tent of the white man, and they knew that there would therefore be a greater probability of obtaining spoil, and very providentially they felluponhim first, and everything was taken from him, but they did ! not injure his person. It was a providential circumstance as he said, because it gave the alarm to the Natives who were encamped with him, and afforded time to the chief to take his little boy to a place of safety. His little girl he could not arouse in time from her sleep, and the consequence was that she was slain by those who attacked the camp. The father, on returning after the party had left, found the dead body of his child mangled on the ground, and he took it up to the village to have it buried. A most affecting scene took place then. When Archdeacon Brown was reading the service, he (the father) asked to be allowed to say a few words, and on receiving permission made a most affecting speech. He said —"Here lie 3 the body of my child, who has been killed; for it is in consequence of what was done to the Natives of Rotorua that my child is now lying a corpse. It now remains for mc to say whether peace will be made with the enemy" (for it was the custom when a great chief was slain that his relations should say whether peace was to be made or not). ** I require that this war shall be brought to a close on the death of mv child." He gave this circumstance because it had something to do with his subject in an indirect manner, and he should now go back to a circumstance which took place before he had come out to the country in 1825. He met at Liverpool a chief very much tatooed, who he found had gone to England for the purpose of obtaining arms. The person who had charge of this man told him that he had boarded a vessel in Cook's Straits, and on getting on board sent away all the native canoes, so that therewere no means of sending him a shore again, and in this way he obtained a passage to England. His name was Pehi, and was a near relative of Raupara, chief of an island in Cook's Straits. A short time after his return to this country, he embarked on an expedition set on foot by Raupara, and was killed. He (the speaker) had been making some enquiries that day of the chief at Kaiapoi respecting this expedition, who told him the reason of his being killed, was that he had come down to this island under the guise of friendship, for the purpose of obtaining the greenstone mere, and had watched his opportunity of falling upon the peaceable natives here, who on this account rose against him and killed him. As soon as the news was taken back to his country, the chief persuaded the captain of the Elizabeth, schooner, to bring down his people for the purpose of treacherously falling upon the natives at Akaroa. They knew the awful sconce that followed. All the natives of ] this island came originally from Poverty Bay, and in j fact all the natives down the coast from Wairoa came , from there, having been driven away. He asked this | Kaiapoi chief; whether they found any natives living | on the island when they came. He said there was one remnant of them whom they killed and ate. That might sound very horrible, but they were not a bit j worse than our own forefathers, for in the history of our country, they found scenes as bad there, and j therefore when feelings of disgust crept upon j them at some of the actions committed by the Maoris of the present day, it would be well to cast a glance back on our own country- j men. To continue the history—in the course of time j in 1839, two young chiefs presented themselves at the Bay of Islands, who had taken passage in a achooner from Cook's Staaita. They were the son of Raupara, and his nephew, and announced themselves as being sent by Raupara with a request for missionaries. He naturally enquired what they knew about missionaries; and they answered that they had a native living with them who had come from the Bay of Islands, and who had been living for some time with him (the speaker). On the occasion of the natives there going on an expedition to Maketu, this man went with them. He heard no more of him; he was not considered a Christian, and therefore was not employed as a native teacher. Those men told him (the speaker) they had received their knowledge of Christianity from this man, and therefore they wanted a missionary to teach them more. On further enquiry he found those two men could read very well, and he found they learned to read from fragments of a book which this man had with him, and who also taught them to write. They said he used to write them out prayers on pieces of paper got from the whalers, although he had no Prayer Book of his own. After a little time they said a party of Natives came down from the north who lb*4intiieirposfetawnaPniyexßook,andaportienof

the gospel of St. Luke. Tliis portion of the gospel had I been owned by the chief, the death of whose daughter he had just described, and which had been dropped on the ground in his flight, and the natives carried it away as part of their spoil. A part of it had been I torn up, and the remainder had found its way to the party of natives who were thus taught to read. The request of those men as to obtaining a missionary was responded to, but the difficulty was to obtain one fitted for the work. Archdeacon Had Geld, who had just come out from England, was living with him at j that time, and though in very ill-health, he consented Ito go, and to this d:iy had been able to continue at his work. The natives who were thus brought under his instructions continued steadily to attend his ministrations, and the fruit of his labors was manifested in a remarkable way. The son of Tamehana and his cousin felt they owed a debt to the remnant lof those Natives who had been slain at Akaroa, and | they asked Archdeacon nadfield to go down with them to communicate to them the knowledge of the I gospel, and it was from them that tho natives of this place received the knowledge of Christianity. Though it might be thought strange that those natives should continue to retain traces of the faith they professed, with only an occasional visit from a missionary; yet lie remembered being told by the Bishop of New Zealand that in the journey he took then through the country, all along the coast he found more or less knowledge of Christianity among the natives. He also remembered another remark made by the Bishop of New Zealande ;he said—" I have often heard in England remarks on the impropriety of circulating the Scriptures without note or comment ; but after what I have heard and seen on the coast of New Zealand, and seeing the natives with such instruction as they were able to pick up as they best could, able to understand the Scriptures, I never can agree that the Scriptures are likely to do harm if they are left to work their own way." The New Zealanders had now fallen into great disfavor, for which there were two reasons—the long war that was now being carried on, and the fanatical tenets which were held by a section of the Natives called Pai Marires. Since the horrible , murder of the Rev. Mr. Volkner he had felt it prui denfc to remove his family from the neighborhood. Though the tenets of that fanatical sect had spread rapidly, still he was not discouraged, j because he knew there was One who ruled above and over all, and who would make even this conduce to His own glory. He had recently had the pleasure of seeing the native congregation at Kaiapoi—some 60 or 70 in number, —and as orderly a congregation as ever assembled in this town; and, seeing this, they could only thank God, and take courage. They might feel assured that, notwithstanding all the ravages of the war, God had still a remnant ainon«f the New Zealanders who worshipped Him in spiritand in truth. He would oall their attention to one other circumstance, viz., that God in all His works carried them on independently of man. There were many circumstances that called for notice in the history of the New Zealand Church, and in the first introduction of Christianity among the natives, which was brought iv not by means of missionaries, but by slaves. The Bay of Islands' Natives carried on destructive wars through the country, and carried away an immense number of slaves to their own country. In course of time, when the Gospel went there, those slaves were set at liberty, and they went back to their own countries, carrying the glad tidings with them. And so, also with those horrible transactions of the Pai Marires, they might have full confidence that they would work in the end for the good of the Church of Christ. It was no doubt needful for the Native Church that persecution should come upon it. A circumstance was lately related to him about a native teacher at East Cape who was now dead—a man of the most exemplary character. He remarked in the early days of Christianity in that part of the island, that he believed it was necessary for the natives that persecution should come, for he found on reading the Bible that when persecution fell upon the Church it had a tendency to make men more earnest and prayerful. There was very little doubt it was for a wise purpose that God had permitted those transactions and evils which were now ravaging parts of the country to come, and in His own good time he would make it all plain, and the small Native Church would come forth from those trials like gold purified by the fire. (Loud cheers.) The President then called on the Right Reverend the Bishop of New Zealand to address the meeting. He thought he could be at no loss for a subject to choose, as he had the whole range of New Zealand before him to choose from.

The Bishop of New Zealand said that the invitation of the President embraced a very wide field, and one which he had difficulty in entering upon at that late hour of the evening,-because after having taken part in the various works which they had heard described by Bishop Williams, and having taken part with Bishop Patteson in his endeavors to evangelize the natives of the Islands of Melanesia, and having taken part also with the English clergy of this country in their endeavors to preach the Gospel to the English people, he felt at a loss where to enter into his subject, and with what to conclude. But there was one subject open to him, which was to poiut out the wonderful providence of Almighty God, which had led to those results, and to draw from them this inference that those fearful troubles which they lamented, and those sorrows which had befallen their path, would by the same God be brought to an end. If lie asked them for what purpose they had met that evening, surely it was not to listen to music and speeches, but to cause them to go to their homes that night, with one clear thought in their minds, a thought which would find expression before they closed their eyes, in the distinct words of the Lord's Prayer "Thy Kingdom come;" and it was an absolute duty laid upon them by Almighty God in consideration of the blessings received to become active agents in the hand of God in spreading his gospel throughout the whole world. For let them remember that it was not they alone who had token an active part in the work by their bodily exertions, but every man in his daily prayers, every man in the bosom of his own family, every mother as she taught her children here to offer up their daily prayers, might be as instrumental in extending the means of grace as the most active missionary who ever lived. That was, therefore, the distinct thought which they were carrying home to the bosom of their families', and let them act upon it in their daily prayers, and consider themselves part of that mighty work ordained through all eternity, that mighty commission given by our Lord himself before he departed from this earth—" go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature," and let every one engaged in that work take to his own heart the full assurance of the promise—" I will be with you always," and believe with men like the Bishop of Waiapu, and Archdeacon Maunsell, who came out to this country nearly 50 years ago, in the progress ofthe work in which they were engaged. Did they believe that those men would ever have come out here if they had not had in their minds the fullest conviction that the work was not of man but of God, or that they would have come out, without any prospect of benefiting themselves to settle among a people in an extreme state of barbarism unless they knew that it was his will to prosper tho work for which they came. Was it not the same in olden times, when, under Augustine the missionaries raised up by God to restore the religion which was then on the point of falling into decay, stood on British shores in doubt whether to venture into that barbarous and idolatrous nation, a letter came from that good man Gregory, saying that having seen those poor Anglo-Saxon children in the slave market of Rome, he thought they were angels rather than Angles, and bidding those men lingering on the shores ofthe British Channel to go on in God's blessing, i and not to be turned back on their course. And that was the reason why they were Christians here at the ends of the earth at this time. Hthey asked him what the leading cause under God was to bring them out here, he would say it was all summed up in the name they all knew—Samuel Marsden. There was the little one who had become a thousand. That man, seeing a few Maoris brought by trading vessels into the port of Sydney, said to himself, t&at those men must not be left to live and die in ignorancej they bad souls to be saved, and

there were thousands more, far away in New Zealand, in the same condition; he thought it was surely the will of God, that, though overburdened as he was with the care of England's outcasts, it was his duty to take some little portion of his time, and give it to those dark islands beyond the sea. They knew how he did not rest till he planted that mission, of which the fruits had been spreading from isle to isle. It was due to his labors also that they saw that evening present the translators of the whole Bible into the Maori language—tho Bishop of Wai3pu and Archdeacon Slanusell, who never rested till they had completed that work, by which the whole of the inhabitants of this island had now in their own language the tidings of salvation. He considered it was no ordinary fact that they were able at that moment to cast their eyes upon the translators of the Bible. And then there was the preaching of the gospel to the hundred islands of Melanesia, a work well worthy of their prayers. There was another subject he wished to talk about, and one which they had been discussing at the Synod, viz., why it was that so few young men offered themselves for the ministry. Some alleged that the inducements to enter the ministry were not sufficient, others that there were so many temptations for young men to enter into higher situations in life, but he believed it was because parents did not put those things steadily before the eyes of their children. He did not mean to force them against his inclination—for God loved the cheerful giver— but to keep out of sight that idolatry of Mammon which was the bane of so many, and to place before his children's eyes that the highest object to which he could aspire would be the means by which he could save ono sinner from destruction. His Lordship then went on to give an account of this and the neighboring province of Otago on his first visit to this part of the country, and contrasted the country as it then was with its present condition. In conclusion he hoped they would go on in hope, because when hope once failed despair came in its place, and men gave up the cause as lost. He thought they were on the eve of peace, but sure enough peace would come, and then those two nations to whom God had given these islands for an inheritance would grow up as one people in the faith of their holy religion, and yielding obedience to one Queen. (Loud cheers.)

The Yen. Archdeacon Maunsell would only mention one or two thoughts which struck him as the former speakers were talking. He thought of a statement made by philosophers, that on a stone being thrown into the water the motion communicated to the water extended to the utmost ends of the seas, and that a sound uttered was conveyed, not only through our own atmosphere, but through the remotest distances of space. There was a remarkable analogy between matter and mind, and between the physical and moral world, and the same existed in religion and morals. Tho Yen. Archdeacon went on to illustrate this by showing from what small beginnings the events alluded to by former speakers had arisen.

The Choir having then sung the Evening Hymn, and the benediction having been pronounced by the President, the meeting broke up.