SAMUEL MARSDEN

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 33, 8 August 1934, Page 14

SAMUEL MARSDEN

PERSONALITY AND WORK

APPRECIATIVE LECTURE

Dr. Guy H. Scholefieid, 0.8. E., Par-j liamentary Librarian, lectured on Tues- j day to the Yorkshire Society of New j Zealand on the subject of Samuel Marsden, pioneer Anglican missionary to Now Zealand. Mr. Karl Atkinson, president, occupied the chair,, and tho Rt. Rev. T. 11. Sprott, Bishop of Wellington, was present. Prior to Mr. Scholefieid's address, the! president read the following letter from tho Governor-General, Lord Bledisloe, in response to a letter sent on behalf of the society expressing appreciation of his Excellency's service to New Zealand: "Dear Mr. Atkinson, —How very kind of you to write on behalf of the Yorkshire Society of New Zealand expressing so generously the confidence and good will of its members. We appreciate greatly the message and the kind thought which prompted it. I am very fond of Yorkshire and its virile, capable, resourceful, and warm-hearted people. There are few, if any, counties in which I havo so many friends. Your society with its admirable objects has our best wishes for its future success. Yours sincerely, Bledisloe."

Letters of greeting and good will wore also read from Viscount Halifax, Mr. J. B..Priestley, and Miss Phyllis Bentley, and the Very Rev. Dean Inge. Mr. E. Bold, having given a dialect reading which was much appreciated, Dr. Scholefieid delivered his address.

Until recently, ho said, Samuel Marsden was, so to speak, only a name, but in recent years his diaries and journals had been studied and revealed a remarkable personality. Born at Parsley, some six miles from Leeds, on June 25, 1765, he sprang from farming stock and was born into an environment saturated with the evangelical spirit associated with the work of John Wesley. His early life was ono of elementary education, hard work, and plain fare; factors which tho speaker considered contributed to his success in later life. Through the interest of a clergyman he became a protege of the Elland Clerical Society formed to assist poor youth to the ministry, went to the Hull Grammar School, and later, at the age*of 26 was a sizar a,t Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he had the reputation of being a diligent and earnest student. In 1792, before taking his degree he was offered the assistant chaplaincy of New South Wales through William Wilberforcel Marsden felt himself too young and inexperienced for responsible service in a convict settlement, but being pressed to accept, he consented. Thereupon ho was ordamed, and being married to Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Fristan, oi, Hull, he sailed from London on the transport William on July .1, 1793. The moral condition of the settlement was deplorable, and the distance from authority, time taken in transit, and laxity in military discipline contributed to disturbances and insubordination. Marsden was short, stock, and muscular. In addition to his clerical office, he was appointed Civil Magistrate and Superintendent of Public Works at Paramatta whero ho soon demonstrated his strength of character and ability. CONTACT WITH NEW ZEALAND. Whilst on a visit to Norfolk Island he had made contact with two Maoris encaged in cultivating flax, and this was his initial connection with New Zealand. Ho commenced practical farming, and .was ono of tho pioneer sheep farmers. He went on furlough m 1807 being presented with a testimonial lauding his pious, humane, and exemplary conduct. Returning ho brought merino sheep from tho Royal flocks, a library for the convicts, trade instructors, now stock, cattlo, horses, and sheep. On his furlough ho had persuaded tho Church Missionary Society to tako an interest in Now" Zealand, and urged an industrial mission. Marsden at his own expense purchased the brig Active, and, after initial difficulties, made his first voyage to New Zealand in 1814, landing at Whangaroa. His first servico was a Christmas morning service, whon ho preached from the text, "Behold I bting you glad tidings of great joy;" Tho conflicts-between the tribes and tho disturbed conditions did not daunt Marsdon, who went fearlessly about his task. Ho purchased 100 acres of land for the mission. He returned to Australia with ten. chiefs and sent two of them, Tui and Titorc, to England. Ho established a mission at Kerikcri, in Hongi's territory, and made an overland journey of 700 miles. lii 1820 he was commissioned by tho Admiralty to arrange for kauri spars. On his fourth visit in 1823 he dismissed a missionary for trading. Marsden cherished tho hope-of making the various Maori tribes come together into a political unity and cease their wars, but in this he was frustrated by Hongi, who refused. He foresaw that British sovereignty was inevitable Ho. foresaw, also, that his experiences would be of interest to posterity. When he was a bishop, and following the death of Mrs. Marsden in 1835, he wrote: '.'I havo been collecting my memorandums relative to New Zealand. . . I purpose to send my imperfect observations of New Zealand to the society for publication. It is possible they may interest mankind 100 years hence when wo aro dead and gone.",

His work was not accomplished without a certain amount of friction with official personalities, and his reforming zeal brought him into collision at times with settlors. Those who had occasion to inquire closely into his conduct affirmed that ho showed "that same undaunted and inflexible spirit that he displayed whenever an attempt was made to do violence to his feelings or wound his character." Sensitive in respect to his sacred offico. a man of great natural piety, robust physically, and in his outlook on life, inured to hardship, sagacious, energetic, and even militant, Marsden was pre-eminently the right man in the right place, and it seems certain no other typo could havo achieved such remarkable success under such trying conditions.

Speaking briefly, following a vote of thanks to Dr. Scholeflcld, Bishop Sprott remarked that having been ordained in York Minister in 1879 ho was a "Yorkshireman by ordination," and his first parish was Hull, where the parish church is said to be tho largest in tho Empire. The hearty applause which carried the vote of thanks testified to the appreciation of the audience.