DEATH oF THE VEST. ARCHDECON WILLIAMS.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 11, Issue 862, 30 July 1867, Page 2

DEATH oF THE VEST. ARCHDECON WILLIAMS.

Our obituary contains a notice of the death of the Venerable Archdeacon Williams of Paihia in the Bay of Islands, the elder bro- . tber of the Bishop of Waiapu, now raiding at Napier, and the father of the Rev. Samuel Williams of Te Aute. . This veteran missionary was originally an officer in the royal navy,- which he en- . tered as midshipman in the year 1805, and continued in active service until the peace in 1815, -when, after the action between the Endymion and President, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant The hardy life of a sailor was a ' good preparation in some respects for that which was to be the chief object of his life. In ' the year 1822 he received ordination from the Bishop of London, and, entering the service of the Church Missionary Society, he came to New Zealand in company with the Rev. Samuel Marsden in 1823. Other missionaries had been here before him, but his untiring energy .and zeal placed him at the head of the missionary body. For a long period the natives paid little attention to religious instruction, but during the : frequent wars which were raging between ■ the tribes, Henry Williams was always in their midst to promote the restoration of peace, until they looked up to him as a sort of head (" matua"— " father'?) whose ad : vice was always to be taken when -any great undertaking was to be entered upoftr While, therefore, they did not care for the:.*message of the gospel, they revered the- 7 man who was ever their steadfast friend. It was from this cause that his name travelled to the most remote corners of the island, and when Christianity began to be received with favor, it was a common course to send a deputation to the great peacemaker to ask for missionary instructors. In time many of the old hardened chiefs of Ngapuhi received the gospel, and although from various causes there has been a great falling away from the Christian church, yet has there been a large number of sincere Christians among them who rejoiced the heart of their faithful instructor. On the arrival of the first Governor, Archdeacon Williams was a principal instrument in procuring the signatures to the Treaty of Waitangi ; and, while Captain Hobson was looking around for the best site for the seat of Government, it was at the recommendation of the Archdeacon that the Bay of Waitemata was fixed upon as the spot on which to erect the town of Auckland. The Archdeacon had been in an infirm state of health for the last nine years. He departed this life on the 16th July, at the advanced age of 75, The funeral was to take place on the 19 th. At this time a quarrel had been raging for many weeks between the natives in the neighbourhood of Waimate, but so deep was the respect in which he was held by the natives that the contending tribes at once agreed to suspend hostilities until after the burial of the venerable missionary whose life had been spent in promoting their good.