DEATH OF THE VEN. ARCHDEACON WILLIAMS.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXIII, Issue 3123, 20 July 1867, Page 4

DEATH OF THE VEN. ARCHDEACON WILLIAMS.

1 It is a onriooi fact in the propagation of the i religion of the Biblethat suitabli agents have : been raised up according as each emergency in r its history required them. Moses tppearei on I the' stage when the Israelite! needed, a leader ; to rescue them from the bondage of Pharaoh; and Joihua, on hii death, took the wins of go* t ' veroment, and led them into the promised l land. When,,in after times, men of ; eharaoter were desired, Iiaith and hii brother i I prophets presented, themselves,, who, with their 1 j glowing language, reproved the apostasies of I the people; and foreshadowed the death and < glory of the coming Messiah. ' After Him, Paul j and his fellow sufferers in the apostleship, took up the work; and so it' has continued t6 the 5 resent time. , In these islands Samuel Marsen led the way, and b/ his constancy, his • 'courage, and wonderful self-denial? opened the jway for the promulgation, of Christianity .in. ' Hew Zealand. We li»ve been lately called upon, to bid farewell to another pioneer who, with all his faults, must bo regarded, as a great man;' who was singularly suited "to the wants of the loountry j who Jias given' a mighty impulse td :the work the Goi pel ; and who has established his Church on a foundation that promises pro* gress and ptrpetuity. ' A man las now ' departed from amongst us whose namt has not, of late years, been muph, beard, but who, for a long time 1 , was' the leader of the mission, and through w&OBe' spirit of en'. ! Jjberprise it mainly was that this island' was fully 1 occupied by missionaries, long before Bishop Selwyn preached his first , sermon of devout acknowledgments in the ohapel of Paihia. . I Henrjr Williams, late Axohdeacon of Paihia, was originally an officer, in her Majesty's, service, and occupied the post of l lieutenant W board the 'Thames.' Like his brother-sailor Nobbs, who, with a solitary companion, sailed from South America across the Paoifio to search for and labour amongst the inhabitants of Pitcairn's Island, he devoted his, life to the cannibal barbarians of New Zealand. Other missionaries had been before him ;', but, from his time, the mission assumed the aspect pf a consolidated and steadily advancing work.' His skill in navigation, hii coolness, and his Courage, enabled him to visit in his boat all parts of the island, WhereTer a war was, there he was found in the midst of the hostile partiep allaying their regentments.an^ promot- , ing peace, The natives could not comprehend eittistianiiy'buttheyfelVthattnereinuwbesomethinff noble in those influences "thai could impel those men to undertake ' such" journeys and endure such hardships for "their good. The name of missionary soon became the most honoured in the land, and deputations were sent up from all parts to Paihia to beg for one of these teachers. This point, however, was not reached without great struggles j and the little bark seemed often on the point of foundering amid the angr/ elements; neither were their troubles of one kind. At one time an attempt would be made to starve them into a consent to barter powder and guns for food ; at another time the victors, in some local conflict, would rush upon the missionstation, and sweep off their goods as spoil ; and atj another time some imaginary affront would bring down a band of naked savages upon the unsuspecting settlement. To proteot themselves in some way, and to keep a body of disciples around them, the missionaries used to encourage the well-disposed to live in the settlement, and these people assumed the *PP e l" lation of " whare kura" (school-house). These men were most useful and faithful, and manfully withstood their own relatives when they made a descent for plunder. On one occasion, the missionary in the middle of his sermon on the Sunday had to throw off his surplice, and sally forth with his congregation to rescue his goods, whioh were being swept away by a " taua " (hostile band). Many and amusing were the scenes whioh on these occasions occurred. Tohitapu, a naked savage, bedaubed with red ochre, encountered Henry Williams in the attack just referred to Henry was then in the vigour of manhood* and possessed — what in those days was of the utmost value to a missionary — great physical power. Tohi's object was to carry off his spoil; Henry's, to eject him from the enclosure without hurt or any sign of blood— the sure signal of a deadly assault. It was, therefore, a case of wrestling and dragging ; and the endurance and power of the European prevailed. On another occasion, a native had made his way into the missionary's bedroom, and was hastening away with a blanket, when his wife — Mrs. Hamlin — coming in by another door, espied him. She rushed after him, caught him by his long hair, shut to the door— herself at one side, the native at the other— and held him there until her husband, also a very powerful man, came and ejected him by the same process. These were their athletio triumphs. Instances of the reverse, however, are not few, and we could tell of the missionary's teeth being knocked in with a blow of the fist, for having rashly walked across a wahi tapu (sacred place); of another tripped up and laid on the flat of his back ; and of a third whose goods that he had produced for barter— for food only could be obtained by barter in those days — taken away by violenoe, and he left alone with his energetio remonstrances. Bedress was out of the question ; the only resource left being to put the transgressor into Coventry ; and latterly the shaking hands with all the rest of a company of Maoris and not noticing an offender, or, with a smile, chiding him in English, was too much for a Maori to stand, and very often a large present was offered as a gift of peace. Tant» molis er»t Romanam condere gentem. It was rough work, and the men were equal to it. The spirit of a hero was eminently in Henry Williams. He laughed at dangers, and despised hardships. It was nothing to him to wander for three months at a time in his boat, on expeditions with those wild men, till at last " £aru wha" (four eyes), the name given because of his spectacles, was known in every part of the island. As might be expected from his previous life, he was not a scholar, and troubled himself little with books. Before the advent, also, of the settler, his light paled. Into the controversies of those early days it is not now the fit time to enter. That same dogged independent spirit reigned conspicuously throughout; and there are few now who will not admit that, if he brought down upon himself the ill-opinion of the colonist, it was because of the strong ruling love for the race for whom he had done and suffered so much. He entered the service of his Majesty, 10th May, 1815, as midshipman, and was discharged on 29th August, 1815, promoted to the rank of lieutenant, half-pay list. Entered 30th August, 1815, and was removed from the list of lieutenants in 1827, in consequence of his having entered into holy orders. Was engaged by the Church Missionary Society in 1822, at the age of 30; ordained June 22nd by the Bishop of London. He arrived with Mrs. Williams in New South Wales early in 1823, and sailed from Sydney for New Zealand on board the •Brampton,' in company with the venerated Samuel Marsden,on the 21st July, 1823. Arrived at the Bay of Islands, and dropped anchor on the 2nd August, 1823. He departed this life in peace on the 16th July, 1867, at the ripe age of 75 years. The burial was to have taken place yesterday (Friday). So deep was the respect in which he was held by the natives that the contending hapus at Waimate agreed to suspend hostilities until after the burial of the venerable missionary whose life had been spent in preaching to them the blessed gospel of peace and forgiveness through Jesus Christ.

The Committal of the Auckland Aoclimatiiation Society are conrened to attend a mttting tbi« d»y f at Jgft'cloo^atttiiC^waittM-fdiWi. '