Nelson Evening Mail SATURDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1922 MISSIONARY WOHLERS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LVI, 14 October 1922, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail SATURDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1922 MISSIONARY WOHLERS

IN 1811, in the parifih of Bruskeu. district of 11 ova, Germany, thou under French rule, was born Johann Friedrich Heinrich Wohlers. His father was a younger sou of a family o, seven. All younger sons of his station in life became, or endeavoured to become, farmers in their turn, either by purchase, lease, or marriage. But young Wohlers was an exception; he had no desire to follow in the footsteps of his farming forbears. He wanted learning, wanted to get out of the rut of his life and experience tha t world which lay beyond the round of ploughing, sowing, and reaping. Such education as was open to him he had absorbed, but the village school with one teacher to 120 children did not offer great educational facilities. Peasant life was no idyllic existence in young Wohler's day : long hours of steady toil loft little time for other interests.' At seed time, rising when the stars had not yet left Husky, the ploughman was at his work as soon as it was light enough to see. the furrows, and in mowing time the scythes swung into the grass or grain at the breaking of the day. But though the future missionary was not happy in the lot in which he found himself; though he hourly wished for more knowledge and a fuller intellectual, life, ho did not fail in the duty that lay nearest to his hand. He learned to do all branches of farm work quite as well as the peasant who never had a thought beyond: it. Probably, in spite of his disinclination for it, he would have eventually set up as a farmer on his own account, but, chancing to pick up some numbers of a missionary magazine, he became intensely interested, and resolved to do what he could in the field of missionary endeavour. He did not imagine that ho was, or could become, competent to fill a missionary’s place, but he thought that ho might be eligible as an assistant. Ho went to his pas-

lui' for- advice, and that kindly but wiso man counselled him to unit a year *.o see it Ids resolve "a* deep*moled or 10,1. That probation period passed. lie was accepted by (lie committee of the missionary sM'iidy and began a course of five years study. At last, on the day aider Christmas in JS-12, Wohlers, with three companion missionary labourers, sailed for Now Zealand, a number of emigrant settlers for the new land being in the :a me vessel. The scheme oi the Nnrjdi derman Missionary Society was in some respects a good one, but it certainly failed to grasp the condition ol things ni New Zealand. A piece of land had been purchased, and Wohlers and his parly were supplied with a waggon and farm implements. They were to live on this land, supporting themselves by the produce ol it; the Christianising of the Maori was apparently to be undertaken in , their spare time. The farm-bred missionary was rather doubtful about the propagation of the Gospel in a , farmer s spare time. M knew from my own experience that farming demanded hard, dull work from early morn till evening if it was not to bo prosecuted at a loss, and the mere raising of food for one’s own cost may bo more costly than when it is bought. 1 knew that the fatigue of much manual labour would exhaust energies required for learning and teaching, as well as the zeal for missionary work proper.” invents proved that he knew much better than his superiors.

After a long voyage, with such adventures as an outbreak of smallpox and a conflict, ul : authority hot ween the emigrant officials and the captain, the mountains of New Zealand were descried rising out of the sea. Soon the harbour of Nelson was entered, and the five and a half months’ passage was over. “On nearing the land wo found a. remarkable difference m the temperature. ft was the middle of June, and therefore winter here; and in the latter part of our voyage wo had had raw and -cold winds. AVc now sailed, as il by enchantment, with soft winds in warm sunshine, and in an air as sweet and mild as a warm spring day among blooming fruit trees in the old home.”

Under aivangementwith “the Company,’’ the missionaries had an acre in tho town, r>o acres “in neighbourhood,” and Idi) acres ‘‘in the country.” The original intention had been 4o eject the farm buildings ou the large block, but as it was not ycl surveyed, and there was no immediate prospect of its lining sy~. mere was nothing for it but to commence operations, ou the smaller holding. Kor a few weeks the missionary parly lived in a little hut in,the Wood, which was then, to a great extent, covered with standing bush. When arrangements were completed Wohlers and his colleague Heine set out for the. Moutere Valley, whore their dO acres lay. it meant ten hours tramp, for the roads were as yet in the apologetic stage, and for the last hom'even the apology was lacking. But the wildness of the scene and the hard work in front of them did not daunt the farmer missionary. Ho writes of tho scenery with enthusiasm, and there -is no touch of sarcasm when he says: “It was really a beautiful piece of land, and only an hour distant from our nearest neighbour, and there was a reasonable expectation that in time a road would bo made to it.” The farm waggon, however, lying in the Company’s warehouse} had to remain there for a while; the only way to get it to the farm was to carry it there, and “waggons are for carying things, not,to be themselves carried.” Of the further life story of this single-minded man, of his determination to fulfil tire purpose for which he left the Fatherland, of Ids sotiement in storm-washed Rnapuke, there by patient example and teaching to bring a community out of ignorance and degradation to tile knowledge of civilisation and Christianity, we have no space to tell. But, in conclusion, wo should like to urge that those interested in the* early history of the province should gather every detail of Pastor Wohlers’ connection with Nelson, To rescue such details from oblivion, to link together a complete history of the circumstances and to preserve for posterity a story of modest worth and indomitable effort would boa task honouring both the historian and Ids subject.