METHODIST MISSIONS

Evening Star, Issue 17928, 25 March 1922, Page 10

METHODIST MISSIONS

FIIiISHIIIS THE CEISTUHY. MARSDSN AND LEIGH. THE FIRST FOOTHOLD. (Written for the ‘Evening Star’ by A. B. Chappell.j No. 11. Daylight, and the dim coastline coming out of the murk on the port bow. a group of islands—the Poor Knights, whose name becomes tho foil for some early risers’ mirthful gladness over the joys of sea travel. The ocean is unruffled ; true to Maori tradition, this eastern sea of “Te Ika a Maui” is to-day feminine in its gentleness, in contrast with the frequent masculine turbulence of the western surge. Soon it is all a-aparkle, as bets “Rawhiti,” the sunny side. Ther is talk of Cook’s first traversing of this coast in 1169, and of the witnesses ho left in names of point and bay and island. As the nearer headland of the Bay of Islands is descried it is remembered that ho named that headland after one of the Lords of the Admiralty who signed his appointment to the Endeavor, Sir Piorcy Brett (nr Bret, lie spells the cape’s name). Ho gave Sir Piercy double honor, for tho island lying off the cape, ''perforated” in a way that Cook noted is frequent in these waters, he distinguished with the Sea Lord’s first name. “Near one mile from this,” wrote Cook of the headland, “is a small high island or rock with a hole pierced through it like the arch of a bridge, and this was one rciison why I gave tho capo the above name, because Picrcy seemed very proper for that of the island.”

Into the bay to which he gave tho name that now applies to all the stretching sheet of water that runs inland farther than ho saw, “ from the great number of islands that lino its shores,” tho Ngapuhi turns. To the left lies the island on which h© landed, and where tho overbold Natives compelled him to fight a serious battle, in which, thanks to "his restraint of .his sailors, no lives were lost on cither side. There, too, aro tho spot where ho landed on tho “main,” and Whale Island, whore (compelled to return to tho bay) tho Endeavor ran aground. Not far away is the island made famous by stories of French occupation.

Tho Kgapuhi begins to swing again to port, and at once a new direction is given to our thought. It takes us bo the gateway by which Christian civilisation entered with definite determination to possess this land. Away on the right, nestling well within tho shelter of the bay’s northern headland., is the “ Rangheo-hoo ” (of early missionary records), to which “Duatorra” welcomed Marsden’s advance guard of lay agents, and where “ the Apostle of Xew Zealand” himself landed and preached the first sermon about tho “ gjad tidings.” Of all tho holy places of New Zealand, Oihi Beach, a.t Rangihoua is easily chief. . A stone cross, erected in 1907 and restored recently after a heavy gale had wrecked its top stones, marks tho traditional spot where Ruatara prepared tho preachers pulpit with reverent care. _ It bears the simple inscription : _ “ On Christmas Day, 1814, the first Christian service in New Zealand was held on this spot.” A little above is an iron-railing enclosure, where all that is mortal of soihe of the pioneers who were sent on ahead by Mavsden had bnrial'in tho fifties._ The pohutukawa associated by some with the actual place of Marsden’s pulpit no longer stands. There are a few signs of the mission gardens. But what time has not yet effaced is the terraced pa on tho top of the hill whence Ruatara looked out 'from his fastness upon all approaches by land and water. Tho memorial cross is within spoarthrow of this height. But for the pa tho cross would not be there; honor should be his who, despite brutal treatment by seafaring whites, induced Marsdcn to come from Parramatta (Sydney) with tho white sum's gospel, and

stood by him till <kath snatched away In's mana. Boyon? the pa a t\ runs on to To Puna, whither iho rrst mission spread; and farther on is tiansen’s old home, where the master of the mission brig Active eventually settled, j daughter of that homo was tho first white woman born in New Zealand. P e ) OTI . again, up a long waterway, is Kenksn. a Church Missionary Society station ot much later date. But it Is about Rangihona, its pa and its cross, that our hearts linger to-day; for, beside its sanctity as the first foothold of Christian adventure in this land, it has interest for this pilgrimage as Uio landing-place and earliest homo in. New Zealand of that particular Christian adventure which John. Wesley sent abroad into the world. To Rangihona ,Samuel Leigh, camo at Marsden’s suggestion in 1819. It was there he first beheld tho depths of Maori savagery, and got the inspiration that moved Fm gland in 1820 to send him to this people. From the diary of one of the Church Missionary Society lay agents, Mr Kmcst Bedggood, of Wiiimate North, has extracted verbatim tho entry of Sunday, August 1, 1819. It tells of Samuel Leigh's purchase, for an axe, of tho body of a slave that had been prepared and cooked for eating. Ho buried it in William King’s garden. On tho Sunday named there was a great, noise heard from the school, _ where Thomas Kendall taught tho Maori boys. They broke out of tho school and went shouting into King’s garden to dig up tho body. 'By the time Leigh and others got there tho body was taken up. On his explaining that ho had bought it, the boys were compelled to give it back; but, as the Wesleyan visitor filled up tho grave again, these boys, using the new knowledge they were gaining, jeered at him for 'working on Sunday ! Again to that spot in January of 1822 Samuel Leigh came with his young wife, and not far away, most proba.bly._at Tc Puna (juat beyond Ruatara's hill fastness, which byMhis time another chief held as Ruatara’s successor), they spent their first year and a-hal'f in the country, enjoying tho hospitality and sharing the toil of Marsden’s Christian settlers. _ So Rangihona was to both of them training college and experimental plot in one.

Thera is no time to sot foot there today ; the Ngapuhi continues on her way, opening up a group of grim-looldng islets, the Black Rocks, and just ahead of them a high island', the longest in the bay. On that island —Matu-von, of course, on account of its length —Leigh, with lus wife and Mars den, spent some unexpected days. lie had become terribly ill at Whangaroa, and been persuaded by Marsde.ii, then on his fourth visit to Sow Zealand, to return for a while to Australia. With Marsden, the Loighs journej'ed from Whangaroa to the Ray of Islands, and there joined the ship Brampton for New South Wales. She was driven by a tempestuous gale on to the shoal that now hears her name —see that buoy on the right? it marks the outmost end" of tho hidden rocks—-and in an open boat the three missionary friends made a perilous landing on tho inner end of Motu-roa. Leigh was near death that night, but ha wrote afterwards of the experience with calm delight over the attention of the succoring Maoris: “I shall never forget the sympathy and kindness of these poor heathens,” That spot is radiant with tho fellowship of suffering in our past. Tho bones of the Brampton have vanished, but an exhilarating memory remains. Ten weeks later tho Dragon took Marsden and the Leighs away. He came thrice again to New Zealand; they went out over these waters never to return.

Another veering to the left, and (still away on the right) another spot famous for Methodist,- influence comes into view. See that river mouth with a green slope on this side and a low flat on the other? That is the Waitangi. Cannot your mind’s oye picture that flat alive with Natives—there, where that hall _ stands ■with a light grey obelisk beside it? Thereabouts, in tho early weeks of 1840. it was thronged by Maoris immersed in discussion as to whether or no the fateful document should bo impressed with tho “moko” of the chiefs in token of acceptance of British sovereignty. It was the speech of Tamati Waka Neno (baptised by tho Rov. JoihnX Hobbs and' in-

flucncod towards loyalty to Britain by that early missionary ot our Church! that was mainly responsible for tho decision to accept tho treaty. On that obelisk the treaty’s main provisions arc inscribed in Maori'; that hall is built for Maori Parliament purposes, ami is to bo for.mally opened at tho end of this mouth. Its predecessor was destroyed in a galo. Tho treaty itself was signed by the first group of Native chiefs on the northern side of tho rivor, in front of that house among tho trees at tho top of tho green slope; that was then the homo of Mr Busby, the British Resident. Among tho witnesses who signed there that day was a Methodist minister, Samuel Ironside.

Further along tho beach a little row of houses faces out to the cast. _lt is Paihia, tho Church Missionary Society settlement founded by Henry 'Williams, under Marsden’s direction, in 1823. Its location is duo to Methodism. Seeking a. place for definite mission enterprise, Leigh, with tho advice and help of Church of England missionaries, eventually chore Whangaroa, to the north. In those days, to quota Henry Williams, there was little distinction between tho two missions, which worked aido by side; so, when a further extension of Anglican work was desired, Paihia was chosen as in a direction opposite from Whangaroa's, that there might be no overlapping. At Paihia the first printing press in Now Zedland was set up by the missionaries, and to supply the need’s of the Wesleyan mission tho .rest issue of the complete New Testament in Maori was increased from 4,000 to 5,000 copies. Thither, while waiting (probably at Te Puna) for tho Dragon after the Brampton wreck, Mrs Leigh was taken by Marsden to visit Mrs Williams, ae he records in his diary; and there, in as pretentious a house as could in those days be found, a little girl, destined to become the wife of tho Rev, William Kirk, was born to Mr and Mrs Hobbs.

But Russell suddenly breaks into view round the point on the left, and tho Ngapuhi’s whistle blows a signal of arrival.