MISSION HOUSE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21742, 6 March 1934, Page 6

MISSION HOUSE

OLD TATJRANGA BUILDING ARCHDEACON BROWN'S WORK INTERESTING ASSOCIATIONS There in ' a,n endless charm about buildings which have grown old gracefully. At Waitangi recently the attention of th<3 whole of New Zealand was focussed on {a wooden house, restored to; the' dignity and charm wliich it possessed when,/ nearly a century ago, it served as i:he background for the birth of a new British country. Throughout New Zealand there are cither old houses, each with its own aura of history and many possessing a beauty which has survived from, an older and more gracious age. Such a building is the old mission hoUse at Tatiranga, now privately owned, but for many years the residence of Archdeacon Alfred Nesbit Brown, ore ,of the outstanding figures in the early history of the Church in New Zealand. The old house stands on a bluft, surrounded by 7 lovely trees and lookingdown oveiv sheltered waters to where Mourn; Maunganui guards the entrance to Tauranga Harbour. A lawn sweeps up to the foot of French windows with old-fashioned green shutters. The house, still in jperfect repair, is a gem of colonial architecture and fits naturally into its surroundings. The spirit of the past clings to it and after nearly 90 years it lives as a little shrine of history, a fitting memorial to the pioneers jrho liuilt it.

Visit in 1834 The house, known as " The Elms," is Sat present' owned hy Miss A. H. Maxwell, nieco of Archdeacon Brown, and in it countless treasures from the early days have been preserved. The archdeacon, who was ordained by the Bishop of London? in the Chapel Royal, St. James' Palace, on June.l, 1828, came to Now 2iealand with his wife in the following year. They arrived in the Bay of Islands on November 29, 1829. and took up their residence at Paihia. Busy years followed in the Waikato and Thames Valley districts, and in 1834 the archdeacon paid his first visit to Tz.uranga. He selected a site for a mission station at Te Papa point, and, in spite of some hostility from a section of the natives in the vicinity,

pegged out the sites for the buildings and made arrangements for their erection. The first building was hardly more than a raupo whare, and a rose-covered trelliii now marks the spot where it - stood- —probably the first European habitation in the Bay of Plenty. ' It was after his establishment of the Matamata mission station in 1835 that Archdeacon Brown and his wife took up their residence in Tauranga in 1836. The old house then began to take shape. Kauri logs were rafted down from Thames £ind the timber prepared in saw-pits adjacent to the beach, near where the Tauranga railway station now stands. Shells were brought from Mount Maunganui and burned to provide the necessary lime for the erection of chimneys. Entries in his diary refer the planting of an orchard and the glazing oi: windows, while an entry a few months earlier refers to the archdeacon's presence at the Bay of Islands, ''packing up trees, etc., to recommence a, garden at the southward."

Attack by Hatives A significant entry made in the journal, while the building was in progress is the following: "At dawn we were aroused by the firing of muskets. It proved to be natives from Rotorua, attacking from a distance the pa at Maungatapu. They seized an old chief, two women and two children and, having killed them, bore away their bodies to eat." Slowly the' buildings of the mission station grew. Interruptions were many, but the main desire of the missionaries was to work among the natives and they were quite prepared to sacrifice their own comforts to this end. The

first wooclen building was the library, built in'lß44 and still housing to-day a magnificent collection of old books.. In the following year the chapel was built, bull the main dwelling was not completed until 1847. Th 3 building stands to-day practically as it was in the days when the archdeacon worked to bring peace to the native /tribes. In the dining room there is an old oak liable and round it, on an April evening in 1864, a

group of British officers sat at supper. / On the fo [lowing day the battle of Gate Pa was J'ought and not one of that little group survived. Later their bodies were taken .from the mission house and laid to rest, in the mission cemetery near by. Charm of the Interior The exterior charm of the house is an adequate reflection of the period perfection of the interior. Every room is a delight and from a, hallway a little winding staircase of marvellous workmanship leads to the attic rooms, from which two dormer windows look out through the magnificent elms, oaks and Norfolk pines planted by the archdeacon nearly a century ago. In the library reposes the first piano brought to New Zealand, an old square instrument, constructed, as were the pianos of those days, on the principle of the harp. It was only recently repaired in Auckland after a silence of 60 years and its delicacy of tone still matches the beauty o:f its woodwork. Thero are old chairs and a writing desk of the same period. The original mission chapel no longer gtands on the property, but the outline of itii foundations are still discernible on a grasii plot looking out toward the western hills. But a relic which survives is the old church boll, believed to be one of the earliest brought to New Zealand. It was the personal property of the archdeacon, who ordered it sjKJcially from England. It was brought to Auckland by one of the sailing ships about 1840, but Archdeacon Brown was /unable to come from Tauranga to bake delivery of it. Anniversary Services Hearing of its presence on board the Bhip, a £.;;roup of Auckland residents offered to buy it from the captain for a church then in course of erection in the little town. However, the captain refused to hand it over to anyone bub the archdeacon and took it back to England "with him, delivering it safely on his ne:st voyage. An inscription on the bell shows that it ws.s ca3b in London in 1835. Some years ago it was badly cracked, but Miss Maxwell had it recast in Auckland in 1929 in time for use at a celebration service held to mark the centenary of Archdeacon Brown's arrival .in New Zealand. That anniversary is still observed evtiry /year and the old bell and the old house keep fragrantly alive the memory of men and women who in their work shaped something of enduring teauty.