BIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE REV. JOHN WHITELEY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IV, Issue 46, 25 February 1869, Page 2

BIOGRAPHY OF THE LATE REV. JOHN WHITELEY.

(From the Taranaki Herald). The Rev. John Whiteley was born at Eddingley in Nottinghamshire, in 1806, and was ordained to the* ministry of the Wesleyan Connexion in Lambeth Chapel, London, in 1832. He was soon afterwards appointed to the mission work amougst the natives of New Zealand, and sailed from Dover on the sth November, 1832, under the auspices of the Wesleyan Missionary Society. He arrived in New Zealand, in May, 1833. He was appointed to the Hokianga Mission Station, but was obliged to land at the Bay of Islands, in consequence of stormy weather, and to proceed overland to the future scenes of his labor. At that time New Zealand was not colonised. Mr Whiteley remained at Hokianga several years ; at the end of which time, he was removed to Kawhia, where he continued his missionary labors with great zeal aod self-denial for sixteen years. During this period, the great influence he had, acquired with the natives, induced the Waikato tribes to liberate their slaves, the Taratiakis, whom they had takea prisoners in war, and to allow them to return to this province. Mr Whiteley was appointed chairman of the Auckland district in 1855, but a year afterwards he was stationed at Taranaki being the oldest and most influential missionary. During the early part of Mr Whiteley's missionary labors amongst thd natives ia this province, the different tribes were at war with each other, and Mr Whitely frequently, at the risk of his own life, interposed between the contending parties and used every effort to conciliate them and prevent bloodshed. After his arrival in Taranaki, Mr Whiteley was appointed by the New Zealand Government a Commissioner for Native Lands, along with Messrs Parris and Cutfield; but never received any salary.