PIONEER WOMEN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21248, 30 July 1932, Page 1 (Supplement)

PIONEER WOMEN

BEFORE WAITANGI

BY SI.A.R,

We often acknowledge in general terms our debt to pioneer women; but so few of them left records of their experiences that their individual lives are forgotten or have no memorial save in the hearts of their children or their children's children. When Rev. Samuel Marsden arrived at the Bay of Islands in 1814 in the Active he brought with him three families who were to live among the Maoris as lay missionaries, to instruct, them in pakoha ways of work as well as in spiritual knowledge. The three missionaries were Mr. Kendall, the schoolmaster, who had with hint his wife and three little boys, Mr. Hall, a builder, with his wife and one son, and Mr. King, who was a ropemaker, with his wife and one little boy. A largo hut was built, for their temporary accommodation, and there, only a few weeks after their landing, Mrs. King gave birth to a second child. They lived under the protection of tho powerful but bloodthirsty Ilongi and in proximity to horrible scenes. Imagine seeing war canoes returning across tho peaceful waters of the bay laden with flax kits containing material for a cannibal feast. It must have been a hard task for the mothers to shield their children from knowledge of the savagery around them, and as they grew older, an everincreasing worry to keep them wholesomely occupied and find some sort of future for them in a land where settlement had not yet begun. Even to feed them must at first have been a problem. ' r hey brought some cattle and sheep with them, but it was some years before they seemed to have much benefit from them, and even in gardening some experiments seem to have been necessary before vegetables were successfully grown. The weekly rations from the mission store at a little later date were given as, for each man 81b. flour, 51b. salt pork, lib", sugar. 2oz. tea, and £lb. soap, with correspondingly smaller quantities of each for women and children. In spite of all their difficulties they kept on steadfastly. Their family cares increased; in 1819 Mrs. Kendall had seven children, Mrs. Hall and Mrs. King each had three. Other helpers came to reinforce the Church Mission, and in 1822 the Wesleyan Mission began with the arrival of the Rev. Samuel Leigh and Mrs. Leigh. Mrs. Henry Williams. But it was not until 1823, when the Church Mission received the notable addition of Henry Williams and his wife, that we have from a woman's own pen an account of her daily life in New Zealand. Mrs. Williams' diaries are the most interesting records of the period because of the freshness of her point of view and the detail with which she writes. When she landed at Paihia the Maoris gave her a royal welcome. Lined up on the beach they shouted in high glee " Te wahine, te wahine, tena ra ka koe. Homai te ringa ringa." And that night when she lay down to sleep in her raupo hut—- " the Beehive " —she never slept • better in her life. The Maoris were not always so amiable. Once some Maori women came and looked in her window and said ominously, " Mother, you see a great fire in the house. Oh, yes, children dead, all dead. A great fight, plenty men, plenty muskets, children crying, oh, yes." Pleasant words these for a mother to hear in a savage land ! Years of storm and stress followed, but they were years of progress. A comfortable mission house was built surrounded by a high palisade. One day in 1826 a great disturbance was heard outside and someone shouted out that a party had come for " utu." Mr. Williams went out to remonstrate, but the Maoris took no notice, jumped over the fence and began pulling the clothes off the line. The elder boys and girls rushed out to save what they could and hurled trousers, damp clothes, saucepans, frying-pans and all sorts pell-mell into the sitting room. Then Mrs. Williams remembered the younger children were down on the beach and someone rushed off for them One of the girls climbed to a vantage point on the roof, and called out that tho Maoris had knocked her father down. Poor Mrs. Williams! She writes: " My children were on the beach, rny husband out in the uproar, my feelings tried more than ever before since leaving England. I screamed out, ' Will nobody tell me if he is killed ?' " However, Mr. Williams was safe, and the uproar presently subsided. A Stormy Year The next year, 1827, was a stormy one, for there were continual rumours of Hongi's death and signs of hostility from the Maoris. Another mission station, Whangaroa, was attacked and plundered in that year, and Mr. and Mrs. Turner and their children came as fugitives to tho Williams', who never knew when it would be their turn. " You in England," writes Mrs. Williams rather pathetically, " know the meaning neither of greeting nor good-bye," and she describes the relief and joy she felt when at 9 p.m., after a journey on a, peace-making errand among the natives, the sound of oars was heard at last, followed by her husband's well-known step on the gravel. Once Mr. Williams went down the coast in a cutter. She expected him back in a fortnight. Thirty-three leaden days dragged on and still he had not returned. Acute anxiety was succeeded by dull despair. At last a little Maori boy rushed into the room shouting "Te Wiremu! Te Wiremu! Coming on foot." She dared not believe him, for (be Maori boys were often mischievous little imps, but tottered to the door, and there was her husband, safe and sound, hastening home to relieve her anxiety. I notice that tenders are just at present being called for additions to the Keri Keri school. Let us look buck more than one hundred years to Mrs. Williams' pleasant picture of a Keri Keri school gathering in 1829, when the mission schools of Keri Keri, Paihia and Rangihoua held their combined examination at Keri Keri. There was all the festal feeling of a. holiday—rising at daylight in the morning—persuading their children there was time to eat their breakfast —crossing the harbour with the Maoris paddling and singing all the way. Darwin's Praise The missionaries' wives taught the girls sewing and other domestic arts, arid Mrs. Williams said they were really surprised when they saw tho work all gathered together. What excellent things they had made —gowns, shirts, frocks, and trousers. At noon they all had lunch, each of the native children receiving a little kit of provisions which they could either eat or take away, and the missionaries felt quite proud as'they looked at the clean, neatlydressed boys and girls. In 1835 Charles Darwin visited the Bay of Islands and commented on the beautiful appearance of the Williams' home—" placed there as by an enchanter's wand " —the roses, honeysuckle, jasmine, stocks and sweetbriar that grew about, the neat decorous youths and girls—and lie describes the Williams' family party. "On December 23 I went to Mr. Williams' house, where 1 passed the night. I found there a large party of children, collected together for Christmas, and all sitting round a. table at tea. I never saw a. nicer or more merry group; and to think that this was in the centre of a land of cannibalism and atrocious crimes! The cordiality and happiness so plainly pictured in the faces of (he little circle appeared equally felt by the older persons of the mission."