A VARIED CAREER

Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 46, 23 August 1917, Page 2

A VARIED CAREER

THE LATE REV. W. RONALDSON.

Tlie late Rev. W. Ronaldson, a veteran missionary and a prominent Freemason, whose death was announced in The Post on Saturday, had a very interesting | career. According to particulars supplied to the Christchurch Star by his son, Mr. C; J. Ronaldson, manager for ihe National Bank in the southern city, in his youtK the late Mr. Ronaldson had a N craving for t.he sea, but an he could not cure' his tendency to seasickness, he had to abandon the calling.,ln 1844 he came to New Zealand,' and joined his father's cousin, Dr. Peter Wilson, who claimed to be the first saUler at Aramoho, near Wanganui/ Eonaldson did ordinary •farm work on Dr. Wilson's farm for twelve months. He then accepted a position offered to him by the Rev. Richard Taylor, a- notable New Zealand mission ary, and the author of an interesting book entitled "Te Ika a Mam.", The position was that of schoolmaster at tha Putiki Pa, on-fche Wanginui River/oppoiite the site of the town. He taught the Maoris for a salary of 10s a week. For teaching 14 the European school he was paid by the children's pence, which amounted to less than that sum. In addition, he was appointed postmaster at Wajiganui, with a salary olT*£4o a year. Tilings seem to have gone very well between the Maoris and the Europeans of th"> district until the. unfortunate Gilfilian murders took place, and the execution of the four murderers, which, Mr. ' Ronaldson Afterwards stated, brought about the first Wanganui war. Amongst Mr. Ronaldson's Maori friends was Major Kemp,- who afterwards received high honours for his loyalty. Mr. Ronaldsott left New Zealand for England in? 1849. His last act before leaving these shores was to officiate ait the funeral, wb Otaki, of the old chief Te Raup&raha, the most famous of all Maori warriors, known in these parts for his siege of tho Kaiapoi pa', and for his ruthless deeds at Onawe Peninsula, Akarba harbour. In England, he was ordained a priest by Bishop Blomfield, of London, in 1855. In the same year he married Miss Ridge, of Newark, and* With her sailed in the Maori foe New Zealand as a trained missionai'y of the Church Missionary Society. Bishop Selwyn took him''into *he Wairarapa district. Two years later they built a Maori college 'at Papawai, on ground given to Bishop SelWyn by the Maoris. By this time, Mr. Ronaldson had become an accomplished v Maori scholar.' He con- j ducted a boarding-school; >ji\hvhich' at one time there* were more 'than twenty Maori children. There was no trouble with the Maoris at first, but emissaries from the Hauhausj with their fantastic cites; came.into* the district, "and tried to. induce tho.Wairarapa .Natives to join the new religion. Although they did not succeed, ithe children' were taken from the school, which was abandoned,. In his later days, Mr. -Ronaldson sometimes gave graphic descriptions of the toilsome journey made by him and his family over the Rimutiika Range on their way ■to Wellington. The family's belongings were taken in a cart, and the tent had ito be pitched many times before the end .of the- journey was j reached. "

In the yews that followed, the late Mr. VRona-ldson received various appointments all over Now Zealand, andfrom 1894 to 1896 he was in Wellington. He was clerical secretary 'to the General Synod of New Zealand when it sat in Dunedin in 1877, in Napier in 1883, and in Dunedin again in 1889. His career as a- Freemason began in 1882, when he was present at the laying of^ a Masonic foundaition-stone at St. Peter's, Cnversham. "If yea will actvpt ««-, 1 will join the Craft," he Said to the District Grand Master. He w^a-s admitted to a- lodge, parsed through the offices, and, eis?tjt,-. years -later, was appointed Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of New Zealand, an office he held for 'ten years, when he retired.