ROBERT MAUNSELL HONOURED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23097, 23 July 1938, Page 1 (Supplement)

ROBERT MAUNSELL HONOURED

By MATANGA

A Tribute to the Past

A BOOK about Robert Maunsoll, one of the early stalwarts of the Church Missionary Society in New Zealand, is a welcome addition to our island story ns it is being now usefully retold. The wonder is that a book with him as subject has not appeared earlier. His eminence in ono respect, and the interest of his lifo in many ways, fully entitle him to a front place in the regard of inherit ing generations. "Hubert Maunsell, LL.I)., a New Zealand Pioneer," by Henry E. H. L. "\Vi!y and Herbert Maunsell —published by the enterprising house of Heed—is pelf-commended by the qualifications of its writers. One is the possessor of personal memories of Archdeacon Maunsell that remain nndiinmed after nearly fifty years; his associate in the fond task is the Archdeacon's surviving son. Their joint product has, consequently, n warmth of touch too often absent from hooks about the past. Their task was made difficult, however, because "Dr. Maunsell, at once the most industrious and the least selfadvertising of men, has left scarcely any record of his nearly sixty years of service." Vet. with material all too meagre of the sort that would have made possible a bigger book, they have done remarkably well. Some day, when scattered sources of information which undoubtedly exist have been patiently collated, a fuller story will be told. In the meantime, this one should be widely read. In outline its substance is easy to keep in mind Horn at Milford, near [Limerick, Ireland, in 1810, Maunsell went from education at Watorford to Trinity College, Dublin, there to win distinction in classics and graduate 13.A., at twenty-three. Trinity afterwards .gave him his LL.D. Moved bv the missionary impulse that has changed so many lives, he relinquished the prospect of practising law, went to the Church Missionary Society's college at Islington, pursued in addition a short medical course, was ordained, took a wife, and was ready to go abroad. "Send me'where you please," he said in answer to an inquiry as to what part of the world he preferred for his location. New Zealand was chosen. Missionary Labours Paihia. in the Bay of Islands, was reached by the young couple on November 10, 1835. There Henry Williams, in charge of the C.M.S. Mission, soon recognised in Maunsell one of the most valuable of recruits. The period of extension of Christian territory had just begun, and Maunsell, after some months of exploratory travel with others, in the course of which he occupied Mangapouri, in the upper Waikato, for a time, formed a station at Mokatoa, on the Manukau. Later, following a short period at Orua Bay, came in 1838 the move that ■was to mean so much, first to the Maraetai fit the mouth of the Waikato and afterward to Kohanga, a much more suitable spot some miles up the river. , His fifteen years at the Heads were arduous and often disappointing, but his infhien'co was widely felt through multiplying contacts with tribes along the great inland waterway. From Kohanga, too. his domain of oversight spread until it entailed much fruitful journeying. The outbreak of the Waikato war in the 'sixties thrust upon him a diffi-

cult situation. Ardent in sympathy with every Maori need, he was yet for firmness with native makers of trouble, and eventually joined one of the British regiments as chaplain. Kohanga had to be given up. Most of its people had left permanently for the interior at a crisis the struggle, and little was left far him to do. In 1864 he became vicar of St. Mary's, Parnell, for seventeen years maintaining an attractive pulpit vigour.' His intellectual powers remained, but the physical stress of his long missionary toil brought the end on April 19, 1594. The Brave Old Days To read this revealing narrative is an enjoyment. It makes tho brave old days live again. Particularly does it put in handy compass the story of a courageous, zestful life. Maunsell's supreme claim to grateful remembrance —the devotion of his fine scholarship to the translation of the Old Testament into Maori and the leading share he took in a revision of the whole Maori liible —is told appreciatively. What a marvel of pluck was his undertaking all over again most of that colossal work, after every book and paper in his study had been destroyed in a fire that burnt down his mission dwelling! In the main, this book is so fully worthy of its theme that to offer any word of criticism goes against the grain, but to do careful justice involves a warning 'against blind acceptance of some of its details. Its dates need occasional amendment, and in an important instance, where a question of geography is also involved, they add to confusion. Rightly recorded is the fact that Maunsell "formed" the mission station at "Maraetai, I'orti Waikato," and his own first report, in 1839, is quoted: Inexpert as 1 am, I am obliged to through the formidable mass of mechanical and other secular labours attendant on the formation of a new settlement." But in that selfsame chapter is this by the authors: "To?'afd the end of 1838 he moved to Maraetai, Port Waikato, and took over the station the Rev. E. Fairburn had recently established there." Two Places Confused 'The Hov. K." should lie "Mr. JV.r.," for he still had catechist rank; j but this is a trifle compared with the geographical mistake. Fairburn's j Maraetai is the one on the east coast, the Hauraki Gulf, whither he had « gone from Puriri (Thames) —as Preece . also removed thence when native dis- , turbances impelled them both to leave , r~"J' way of Kauaeranga in 1837-38. | lie was still there when Maunsell es- 1 tfiblished his .Maraetai station at the , mouth of the Waikato; the name is not f uncommon among Maori place-names. And Fairburn was still in charge ) there when Henr.v Williams visited that j Maraetai at the end of February, 1810, \ Jr. 01 ) 1 H.M.S. Herald as she lav in the Waiteinata; there, too, when Governor ■Hobson visited his station (not Maimseil s) on Sunday, .July 5, of tho same j year. ' ' . Hie evidence for Fairburn's continued j Occupation of that eastern Maraetai is . Provided by ('.M.S. records and reb.v the manuscript "Mahara- c "anga" (memories) of Fdwin Fairburn-, r ® son, by a letter of Mrs. Hickson's, a r ] au Rhter (Fstlier), and by convincing j. auxiliary testimony. Captain David tl rio'l i ono Hobson's "suite," pro- t e !-V describes the place and the hap- s P nitigs of the Governor's visit. b l ? future edition of this welcome t ? the tangle should bo straightened ], , • Meanwhile an errata slip should r of ' )ro P ar °d and issued for the benefit unwary readers. «