WORK AMONG THE MAORIS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 10, 12 July 1909, Page 2

WORK AMONG THE MAORIS.

METHODIST HOME MISSION. In nil the churches in New Zealand increasing attention is beinc given to homo mission work, and its"in<poitance is more and more recognised. This wyjnotably tho case at the la-t-t conference of the Methodist Church, wheie it was agreed that the energetic conduct of home missions lay at the bass? of the success of every department of chinch woik. The work, it was realised, had grown beyond the capacity of the existing organisation;' and for the tiist time it was. decided to set apart a minister who should devote himself entirely to its organisation. This is how it comes to pass that the Rev. T. G. Brooke, to whom this duty was committed, is now in Wellington, engaged in a vigorous campaign on behalf of the home mission and church extension work. He arrived ten days ago, and has been holding nightly missionary meetings; the laet of the present series is to be held in Newtown to-night. The work, Mr. Brooke explained in an interview with a Post representative, is divided into two branches — Maori and European. The balance-sheet for last year showed a grand total of £4560, of which, apart from expenses of management, £2150 was spent on the Maori branch, and £2000 on the work of church. extension. The Methodist Church, in common with others engaged in the Maori mission, has in recent years found a change lor the better. In the early days the church suffered more than any other from the defection of the Maoris from the faith and practice L of Christianity. By tacit arrangement, the ! Church of England had missioned the East Coast and the We&lejans the West, and the outbreak of Hauhaui^m and kindred superstitions, with their revival of the worst forms of ancient heathenism, mingled with perverted Scripture teaching, was most, virulent in and around Taranaki, whence it spread as from a centre. For great pail of a generation the work of the churches seemed dead or dormant ; but there has of late been a notable change, and the work on the W^est Coast is now showing encouraging signs of prosperity. The death of the prophets Te VVhiti. and Tohu has broken down the old exclusiveness, and the Maoris are weary of the bondage of native superstition and are recognising its futility. They long for something better ; and Mr. Brooke instances as a sign of the times that ten acres of the best land in the di&tviet has -eeti set apart for the use of the missionary, the Eev. Robert Had don, for life — by the tribe that a few years ago turned Him and his family out of house and home. Mr. Brooke is well acquainted with his field of labour. Thirty years ago, a "new chum" from an English city, he was sent out to labour m the North of Auckland, where his duties involved his riding on an average twenty miles daily. Since then, he has had large and varied experience in both islands, and has had opportunities of making himself intimately acquainted with the need of the congregations of both races. For some years he lived in Dunedin, and edited the Methodist pages of The Outlook. He has begun his organising duties in the Wellington district, and will work northward, taking Johnsonville and Hutt on Sunday, thence to Napier, taking all intermediate stations, and working from ciicnit to circuit. His itinerary it> practically filled up to next Christmas, after which he intends going lo Christ church and taking up the South Island stations ill detail.