APOSTLE OF NEW ZEALAND

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23037, 14 May 1938, Page 1 (Supplement)

APOSTLE OF NEW ZEALAND

Marsden's Enterprise

By MATANGA

SO much has been written, from time to time, about Samuel Marsden's life and his service to New Zealand that the centenary of his death, on May 12, 1838, may hardly seem to call for detailed review of his career. Yet, because - memories are short and untrustworthy, the occasion may be profitably used to refresh and check what they hold. On both sides of the Tasman is a natural wish to renew acquaintance with him and to do him honour. As to the need to check what is remembered, a few points can be usefully set down. Marsden's own statement, corroborated bv others, is that ho was born on Juno 25, 1765, not 1764, tho year mentioned in tho Dictionary of National Biography and several books. A careful noto ill Dr. Elder's familiar volumo of "Letters and Journals' 1 approves 1765. It is sometimes said that Marsden was tho first official chaplain of New South Wales. Clearly this was not so: Richard Johnson was the first—a contemporary clergyman in New South Wales with him was Mr. Bain, attached to a military regiment—and Marsden beenmo Johnson's assistant in 1794, to succeed him r.s Senior Chaplain when Johnson resigned in 1800 and returned to England. Now and again Marsden is credited with being Australia's first bishop. In this, again, admiration outruns fact: the honour belongs worthily to Broughton, whom Marsden, never a bishop, was glad to serve, although there were advocates of his own elevation to the office. A mistake more remarkable is to speak of Marsden's "steering" of his brig Active when voyaging to New Zealand: actually he was no sailor and was constantly a victim of prostrating seasickness —a fact, adding lustre to his resolute founding and oversight of the New Zealand mission, an entirely voluntary task necessitating seven visits across a sea notorious for its frequent turbulence. They were but visits, in spite of certain careless allusions to his continuous Work here among the Maoris. A cause of greater surprise—and regret, for it argues a lack of knowledge of one of the most important events in our history, -if not the most important —is the occasionally wrong location of his memorable conducting of Christian worship for (mainly) a Maori congregation. This was at Oihi beach (Rangihoua), in the Bay of Islands, the scene of the first mission settlement, not at Kororareka or Waitangi, as is sometimes said. Deep Desire After all, these are details. The outstanding thing to remember is the deep and tireless concern for the evangelisation and civilisation of the Maori that won for Marsden the appropriate title of "Apostle of New Zealand." It was an indefatigable eagerness through nearly twenty-five years of pioneering guidance of the mission, preceded by several preparatory veara of thought and labour for its establishing. At his Parramatta home, near Svdney, lie made provision for housing, befriending and teaching adventurous Maoris who had crossed the Tasman to see the outer world, and he paid a visit to England, bent on arousing the Church Missionary Society authorities to sponsor this mission. . After the initial visit of 1014-15 the other six voyages were undertaken in 1819, 1820, 1823, 1827, 1830 and 1837. The last was not long before his death —at Windsor, New South Wales, not Parramatta, for he had removed some time before to the "Windsor rectory—and this final journey was made "in age and feebleness extreme." Nearly two years before the end he had "written to the secretary of the C.M.S. committee in London, "I feel my natural strength failing me very much. My eyes are dim with age. I am seventy years old this day, so that I have no reason to expect a much longer period in this world. I have had my share of contentions with unreasonable and wicked men, but out of all the Lord hath delivered me. . . I have nothing to complain of. I have no grounds for murmuring, for Goodness and Mercy Lave followed me all my life long." , The Final Visit There were grievous sorrows to be „ borne. The -next year he wrote to the Rev. Henry Williams, to whom he could always unburden his heart as to more than a friend—when Henry Williams came to the New Zealand mission in 1823 Marsden felt for the first time a confidence in deputing much of the care of it -to another: "I believe my time will not be long here, I am so feeble. At the same time I wish to promote the general good. The death _of Mrs. Marsden has been a severe trial, for I want her society. When I como home weary and tired I appear to find an empty house." . . Bravely 21 e battled on, determining to pay yet another visit to the mission in New Zealand before the expected end came. "As I was very weak and feeble," he says in a letter to London about this, journey of 1837, which he made at his own expense, "I took with me one of my daughters"—Martha, his youngest—"to assist me. I purposed to cross by land from the west side of the island to the east." This he did, remaining first for thirteen days among his friends of the Westeyan Mission at Hokianga. Thence ho set out for the Bay of Islands. More than seventy natives accompanied him. Others, travelling from Waimate, went to meet him. The forty miles, by land and water, were through difficult country. "The natives carried me on something like a hammock for twenty miles." Plans for the Future He was charmed by much he saw of progress in the work on which his heart had been so long set, and his mind was full of plans for its extension. However, he found himself doubtful of travelling as widely a3 he had hoped. "It was my intention when I came." he wrote, "to have visited all the stations from tho North to the East Cape, but from tho state of the country the present time it is not considered prudent for mo to go to tho south. 1 ehall therefore return, God willing, to my duty in New South Wales. Whep this country is moro settled in its political affairs something may bo done in the south." Talk of British colonisation was then !n tho air, and he believed this_ change, whatever risks to the mission it might bring, would eventually serve its cause. So, grateful for the past, yet with hopeful outlook on the future, he made a final survey, as far as was possible, of tho field of much sowing and much harvest. Tales of thac visit, which sometimes was like a triumphal progress, are still *" handed down among the people whose Sood he had ardently sought. Happily, it was found possible to travel southward after all, and these grateful recollections are widely preserved. When news came of his death in the followlng year the treasuring of them became a consoling duty.