THE JOURNALS OF SAMUEL MARSDEN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21734, 27 August 1932, Page 4

THE JOURNALS OF SAMUEL MARSDEN

NEW ZEALAND HISTORY IN THE MAKING

" The Letters and Journals of Samuel Maraden, 1765-1838, Superintendent of the Mission of the Church Missionary Society In New Zealand." Edited by John Rawson' Elder, M.A., Litt.D (Abdn.), Professor of History in the University of Otago. Dunedin: Coulls Somerville Wilkie, Ltd., and A. H. Reed, for the Otago University Council (£2 2s net). It may be truly said that the history of early New Zealand owes as much to Marsden as to any single figure. Without a full knowledge of his life and work no student could claim to possess the whole story, and it is the more remarkable for ..that reason that the manuscripts which alone 'contain it have only now been published, nearly a century after the death of their author. These manuscripts, comprising the voluminous journals and correspondence of Marsden, cover the period from 1814, when a mission was first established at the Bay of Islands, to 1838, the year in which he died, “ full of years and honour.” They were acquired by Thomas Morland Hocken from the London office of the Church Missionary Society, where they had lain buried for years, many of them “ all but illegible from the ravages of time; faded ink, poor writing requiring the attention of an expert.” Dr Hocken spent many years collecting Marsden material, his search taking him to the various scenes of the missionary’s labours in New Zealand and abroad. He died before the work which would have been his crowning achievement in New Zealand historical research was written, but his place has been taken by one who brings an equal enthusiasm and the trained mind of the researcher and historian to the task. It is true that Dr Elder has had the rich Marsden material in the Hocken Library ready to hand in editing “ The Letters and Journals of Samuel Marsden,” but the volume before us contains on every page, in- each comprehensive reference ana footnote, ample evidence that his part in this valuable document owes more to his industry and study than is the usual debt of such works to their editors. In themselves Marsden s journals are of great importance in providing a full, often graphic, description not only of the first impact of Christian civilisation upon the Native race, but for their detailed account of the Maori in war and peace, of his own by no means inconsiderable . work as explorer. They required, however, just such illumination as Dr Elder has provided. In the matter of the spelling of Maori names alone, a great disparity exists between Marsden’s more or less phonetic renderings, which appear to have been arrived at without much thought, and the spelling approved by later etymologists. In order that the people and places that occur in the journals shall be identified the editor must have ppent countless hours in investigation, and this is but one small part of the labour that has been called for in fully elucidating the journals. Marsden in New South Wales

Marsden is allowed, so far as is compatible with the editor’s object of presenting a complete panorama of the man and his works, to speak for himscif. There is, however, an introductory chapter that makes him known to the reader with more precision than his own writings do. He went to New South Wales m 1794, as second chaplain, immediately after his ordination, to find prevailing a “dreadful state of disorder, licentiousness, idleness, and dissipation in which the whole colony was sunk.” Marsden was no complacent cleric who would be content to administer in such an unruly parish only to those who sought him out. <He was a practical -reformer as well as an idealist, one might almost say a politician as’much as a preacher, and from the moment of his landing he commenced to make his influence felt. The result was that he gained more enemies than friends, and the story of his life as it relates to New South Wales is punctuated by law suits and controversies. It has been told before —is, ■ perhaps, allowed _ to overshadow in its rather unecclesiastical aspects all other phases of Marsden s_ work —and does not receive more attention in this book than is necessary <to give one a comprehension of the'courage, despotism i and practicality of a man who was possessed, besides, of a rare spirituab outlook and undeviating faith. When Marsden’s desire to establish the mission in New Zealand was at last on the point-of fulfilment he was still absorbed in_ the political as well as the spiritual cohamon of New South Wales. He sailed to, England to bring the New Zealand project before the Home authorities of the mission with the comment that, in _ all the circumstances, his voyage seemed to be “a highly favourable dispensation of Providence towards myself at. that time, being aware that a great political storm was fast gathering in the Colony in which, if I remained, I could not, well avoid being involved; add to gratify ray earnest desire of having the’ Gospel preached at New Zealand, as well as to secure my. own quiet, I" was most anxious to quit the Colony without delay, lest I should be prevented from proceeding on the design I had formed.”- This letter, so long as it does not convey to the reader any impression that Marsden was one who -would run from danger, i 8 an interesting commentary on the character of the man. His aims were ever lofty and disinterested, whether.they were directed at improving agricultural methods in New South Wales or bringing the Word to the Maoris, but-his very sincerity, coupled with uncompromising outspokenness and reforming zeal, was forever leading him into the area of secular controversy. The rigid nature of his beliefs _ was never better exemplified than in his intermittent magistracy in New South Wales. He has been accused of inhumanity in his treatment of the convicts, and Dr Elder remarks of his stern exaction of the penalties prescribed by law: “ He acted throughout from a sense of duty and with entire regard for the principles of integrity and justice, but the chaplain, the apostle of love, who wis also the judge, the exponem of law, was placed in a difficult position. Of his courage there is scarce need tc speak. It is sufficient to mention that Marsden’s desire to visit New. Zealand was for a long period unfulfilled because, after the massacres at Whangaroa and, Te Puhi, he could not find any master willing to take him there “ for fear of his ship and crew falling a sacrifice , to the Natives.” Marsden had no fears, and was confident “ from my personal know ledge of the real character of the New Zealanders” that the mission would sue ceed could he find a ship to convey the missionaries thither. The New Zealand Mission Eventually he purchased the Active, and on December 22, 1814, the brig anchored in the Bay of Islands. This date marks, to use Marsden’s own phrase in an earlier part of the journal, “ the first dawn of the rising of the sun of righteous- 1 ness upon the poor benighted heathen of New Zealand.” Escorted by “ Duaterra (Ruatara), Marsden was made welcome; by the Maoris, once their first timidity I was overcome, and spent a meditative night on the mainland: — I viewed our present situation with new sensations and feelings that I cannot express. Surrounded by cannibals, who had massacred and devoured ,6u* countrymen, I wondered much at the mysteries of Providence, and how these things could be. Never did I behold the 'blessed advantages of civilisation in :t more grateful light than now. I did not sleep much during the night; my ! mind was too seriously occupied by the present scene and the new and strange ideas it naturally excited. The first Christian service .was held on Christmas Day, a Sunday, Marsden being pleased on coming on deck to see the English flag flying, “the signal for the dawn of civilisation, liberty and religion in that dark and benighted land. I never viewed the British colours with more gratification, and flattered myself they would never be removed till the natives of that island enjoyed all the happiness of British subjects.” Some of the Natives, who had visited Sydney, wore regimental uniforms given them by Macquarie, which must have added both to the loyal and incongruous nature of this scene —a scene which deserves, if any does, immortalisation on canvas. Marsden, surrounded by chiefs, Native women and children, in a solemn silence, preached from St. Luke, “ Behold, I bring you glad, tidings of great joy.” The congregation told “ Duaterra ” .they could not understand what the missionary

meant, but this difficulty wae soon overcome dor "when I had done preaching he informed them what I had been talking about.” One may lament that no Native scribe has loft us an account of “ Duaterra’s ” translation of the missionary’s words, but Nicholas has recorded their reception, for after the service “ the Natives, to the number of three or four hundred, surrounding Mr Marsden and myself, commenced their war dance, yelling and shouting in their usual style, which they did, 1 suppose, from the idea that this furious demonstration of their joy would be the most grateful return they could make u s for the solemn spectacle they had witnessed.”

The Birth of a Nation It has been said that Marsden was a practical man, dnd at no time was this attention ,to realities more evident than on the first New Zealand visit. He lost not .a day in making arrangements for the housing of his settlers, the inspection of the surrounding coast, and the manufacture of those axes so. necessary to trade. In these'icarly parts of his journals, as elsewhere, however, we find him taking an active and not unsympathetic interest — though he was frequently Shocked —in the Maori codes of behaviour, their lore and customs. During one discussion he informed the chiefs that banishment was the penalty inflicted on the Englishman who had two wives, a statement that provoked some discussion: “One of the chiefs said he wae of opinion that.it was better to have only one wife, for, where there were many, the Women always quarrelled. Others said that their wives made the best overseers, and that they could hot get their grounds cultivated but for the industry of their wives, and for that reason only, they thought more wives than one was good policy." Elsewhere Marsden observes;, ‘‘The New Zealanders are all cannibals. They did not appear to have any idea that it was an unnatural crime. -When I expressed my abhorrence at their eating one another, they said it had always been their custom to eat their enemies. . ... I took an opportunity upon all occasions that offered to impress upon their minds the horrors this practice excited in the breasts of other nations, and the dread and disgrace it attached to theirs.” On this visit he purchased for twelve axes some 200 acres of land for the purposes of the mission station, and after landing at the North Cape, returned , to Sydney, arriving there in March, 1815. The narratives of the six subsequent visits are a of progress in the work of evangelisation, a vivid and in-, valuable commentary upon ■ the contacts of the white teachers with their -dark, sometimes intractable charges, and delineate the general trend of development during these twenty pregnant years, enabling us to observe clearly the destiny of New Zealand as a part of the British Empire slowing taking shape. It must be remembered that for Marsden Christianity and the Empire were, though by no means synonymous terms, ever associated in his mind, as he was convinced that Great Britain must, for the sake pt the Maori race, assume control in New Zealand. Character is strikingly portrayed in these engrossing pages—not only the character of their author, but of many of the resident missionaries and Native chiefs. "All the difficulties in New Zealand that 1 have met with have been in ' governing the Europeans, Marsden wrote in 1820 to the Church Missionary Society. “They will not do what is right. They will not live in unity and brotherly love. . . . The love of money, the thirst for pre-emin-ence, the want of industry and zeal for the good of the heathen, have greatly mitigated against the success of the mission.” This is one of the facts that is emphasised again and again in these records. The pioneering , missionaries,, striving to acclimatise themselves to a rough and unaccustomed mode of me, sometimes had their grievances, not always easily dealt with. On one side were the Maori leaders, many of them warriors quickly roused to anger, on the other Hie motley assortment of runaway convicts and whalers, while in,the,centre of the stage 1 stalks the missionarystatesman, dogmatic, commanding, sometimes impatient, butpossessed withal or the truest form of humility, The resolution to bring knowledge, both spiritual and practical, to the Native races, not for his own glorification, but the glory of the Church and the British Empire. _ “The Letters and Journals of Samuel Marsden,” is, for all that being an historical work if contains none of those* impressionist embellishments so loved by the biographers of the modern school, an. intensely book, full both of personal drama—for Marsdeu’s strength and assurance give all histhoughts and actions a dynamic quality —and of the greater drama of the founding of a new colony. It is suggested by the publishers to be the most important work'on New Zealand history published in a quarter of a century, and the claim cannot be challenged. Every future historian of New Zealand will find it , a fruitful and essention source of information, the anthropologist will obtain rich material from Marsden’s careful and for the general reader it contains a memorable, human story of the*beginnings of civilisation in our own land. From the productidh point of view “ The Letters Journals” is worthy of its subject. It is handsomely bound, compact, and the illustrations, which 'include several fine plates in colour, are of great historical interest. Altogether the work, which ■ bears the imprimatur of the Otago University Council, and has been produced in Dunedin, reflects great credit upon all who have been concerned in its compilation, printing and publishing. It is most fittingly dedicated to _ their Excellencies, Lord and Lady Bledisloe.

The Author John Rawson Elder, Professor of History in the University of Otago since 1920, was educated at Robert Gordon’s College, Aberdeen, and the University of Aberdeen, where he graduated M.A. with first class honours in English and literature and history. After graduation he devoted special attention to studies in history and in Spanish, and in consideration of his published works was in 1912 awarded the degree of Litt.D., by the University of. Aberdeen. In Scottish history He has specialised in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, .his works being “ The Royal Fishery Companies of the Seventeenth Century,” “ The Highland Host of 1678.” and “ Spanish Influences in Scottish History.” His contributions to the study of Spanish are an annotated edition of the : drama “La Verdad Sospechosa,” by Alarcon, and a text book “ Spanish Composition Through Reading.” Books of New-Zealand interest by Dr Elder include “The Pioneer Explorers of New Zealand ” and “ New Zealand Goldseekers and Bushrangers.”- He has contributed the chapter on "Trade and Exploration” to the New Zealand volume of the “ Cambridge Modern History of the British Empire,” which will be published shortly. J. M