NORTHERN ADVOCATE DAILY MARSDEN'S LIEUTENANTS

Northern Advocate, 5 November 1934, Page 4

NORTHERN ADVOCATE DAILY

MARSDEN'S LIEUTENANTS

Registered for transmission through the post as a Newspaper. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1934.

There is a widely held belief that little information is available regarding the early-days of colonising effort in New Zealand. This belief is not justified, for, though it is true that much of what would today be of absorbing interest if it had been recorded by a historian has been lost, there remains a rich field awaiting exploration. The Otago University Council is placing the people of the Dominion under a big debt of gratitude by reason of the effort it is making to give the world the story of the early days. Dr. J. R. Elder, Professor of History at the University, has rendered , invaluable service by editing “The Letters and Journals of Samuel Marsden,” and Mr A. H. Reed has also earned a reward which cannot he measured in money by publishing the work. Now there has come from the same sources another contribution which is of absorbing interest. It bears the caption “Marsden’s Lieutenants,” and gives to the public for the first time what Mr Downie Stewart describes in a foreword as the strange and dramatic story off the three missionary agents placed by Marsden in the Bay of Islands. It is indeed a strange and dramatic story, and its telling turns back the pages of history in a manner that compels the undivided attention of the reader. The genesis of the New Zealand Mission is to be found in the Church Missionary Society, which ivas instituted on April 12, 1799, at a meeting of sixteen clergymen and nine laymen, held in an upper room in the Castle and Falcon, Aldersgate Street, London. The society made West Africa its first objective. The first seven missionaries enrolled were Lutherans. They all died in West Africa. Eighth and ninth on the roll of agents accepted by the society are the names of William Hall, a carpenter of Carlisle, and John King, a shoemaker, from Nether Norton, near Bunburg, a native of SAverford, in Oxfordshire, who entered the service in 1809. These were the first recruits for the Ncav Zealand Mission, and OAved their acceptance directly to the enthusiasm for. the Maoris of Samuel Marsden, who had held His Majesty’s commission as chaplain in Noav South Wales since January 1, 1793. The London Missionary Society had, in 1801,' made him its official correspondent and adviser in respect to its Avork in the Pacific. A communication to the committee, Avrittcn early in 1808, set out Marsden’s ideas with regard to the particular form that a mission in Noav Zealand should take. “"Since nothing, in my opinion,” he wrote, “can pave the way for the Gospel but civilisation, and that can only be accomplished among the heathen by arts, I would recommend that three mechanics be appointed to make the first attempt should the Society come to the determination to form an establishment in New Zealand. One of these men should be a carpenter, another a smith and a third a twine-spinner. The carpenter

Would teach them ' how to make a wheelbarrow, build a boat, hut, etc. The smith would teach them how to make all their edge tools, nails, etc., and the twine-spinner would teach them how to spin their flax or hemp, of which their clothing, fishing lines and nets are made.” j Marsden held that much of the suc-i cess of the mission depended upon] the qualifications of the persons employed in the work. “Four qualifications,” he wrote; “are absolutely requisite in a missionary: piety, industry, prudence and patience. It will be readily admitted that sound piety is essential, and that without this nothing can be expected, A man must feel a lively interest in the eternal welfare of the heathen to i spur him on to the discharge of his duty. A missionary should also naturally be an industrious man, who could live in any country by dint of his own labour.”

The Church Missionary Society adopted Marsden’s proposals, and in 1809 William Hall and John King were granted passages to Australia in the convict ship Ann, on condition that they worked j as required during the voyage. Marsden and his family sailed by the same ship, as did a Maori chief named Ruatara, on whom Marsden- and his missionaries were to rely in large, measure for the success of their pioneer enterprise in 1814. Hall and King were held up in New South Wales for about four years, and as they were doing well as tradesmen, Marsden found it difficult to control them as he wished. In the meantime, the Church Missionary Society had sent out another missionary, in the person of Thomas Kendall, a Loudon schoolmaster, who, with his wife and family, arrived at Port Jackson at the end of 1813. From this point, things moved quickly. Marsden, believing that it would be in the interests of missionary effort in New Zealand if a mission ship were procured, bought the brig Active, 110 tons for £or £llOO, in which Kendall and Hall sailed for the Bay of Islands' on March 14, 1814. ft is at this point that there emerges evidence that all was not going well between Marsden and Hall, for tlie latter, writing to the secretary of the Missionary Society, said:

“Mr Marsden and I have not been upon good terms of late, but it was entirely owing to money matters. I can do very well with Mr Marsden if I never ask him for money, but as soon as I begin to want money our friendship is soon done away, so that I was obliged to draw myself from his employ; and T have done much better ever since. ... I do not intend to ask Mr Marsden for any money in future if I can avoid it,” About the same time, Marsden wrote that HalJ and King were sober, honest, moral and industrious men ... but with respect to the mis-' sion they have not acted as they ought to have done, and have given me much vexation and trouble, as I could not prevail upon them to at-, tend to the natives of New Zealand when I had them living in my house.” Hall evidently was upset when he reali'sed that he had disappointed Marsden, who, in a later letter, said: “Mr Hall has since come forward on his own account and assured me that he would in future take advice. All differences were settled, and he cheerfully embarked with Mr Kendall.” King did not go, then, Marsden wishing him to do so when the Mission was finally settled. It was thus that Kendall and Hall set out on their momentous mission to New Zealand, while Marsden, the prime mover, remained in New South Wales to hope and pray that t.he long expected day had at last dawned, and that “the Lord was about to prosper Zion.” Marsden was doomed to much anxiety and disappointment, as Dr. Elder demonstrates by the judicious editing of letters and diaries. The story outdoes romance, and should be read by all who are interested in the events which formed the foundation-stone of the Dominion as we know it today. Whatever missionary zeal there may have been in the make-up of the missionaries, it was seriously offset by the sailors and traders whose ships filled the Bay of Islands. These, in order to. secure pork and potatoes and other articles of food from the Maoris, offered muskets and powder as barter, It was this desire of the Northern Maoris to arm themselves that led to the downfall of Kendall, who, in defiance of Marsden’s orders, bartered muskets and powder for food. ’ He justified his action by stating that the Maoris would not accept any other form of payment for food which the missionaries required, and that, in any case, refusal to supply muskets, which were more humane killers than meres or tomahawks, would only have incensed the Maoris and frustrated the missionary enterprise. There was perhaps more in this argument in 1814 than there appears to be in 1934, but there con be no question as to the regrettable nature of the transactions. However, other things—immoral association with a Maori girl and intemperance—were happening, which, added to the musket trading, brought about Kendall’s eclipse, and ho was dismissed from the mission. I It is a sad story of human weakness and, combined with the temperamental misdemeanours of others who had come to the field, it is a matter for wonder that missionary enterprise was not strangled at its birth. It is a tribute to the nobility of the Maori character that this did not happen. John King and William Hall, despite

differences of opinion at the outset regarding the roles they should play, did work of lasting benefit, and the coming of the Rev. Henry Williams to Paihia in 1823 opened a new in the history of the mission in New Zealand. However, the work of. “ Marsden’s lieutenants” must ever retain the Interest that attaches to all pioneer effort, and the story of these men who blazed the trail in New Zealand, as told by the letters edited by Dr. Elder, furnishes an invaluable picture of life in those far-away days.