PIONEER MISSIONARY

Taranaki Daily News, 2 December 1929, Page 13

PIONEER MISSIONARY

ARCHDEACON BROWN CENTENARY OF ARRIVAL. WORK AMONG THE MAORIS. (By A. F. Tun'ks in Auckland Herald). Friday was the centenary of the landing in New Zealand of the late Alfred Nesbit Brown, first archdeacon of Tauranga, who arrived at Paihia on November 29, 1829, and first visited Tauranga in 1834. A commemoration service is to be held on Sunday on the site of the original mission chapel. Born on October 23, 1894, Archdeacon Brown was educated at Colchester and was confirmed by the Bishop of London in 18'23. His decision to become a missionary must have been reached at an early age for the records show that he was one of the foundation students at tlio Church Missionary College when it was opened in 1825. On June 10, 1827, he was admitted as deacon by the Bishop of London, and a year later was made a priest. Whether he chose to work tn New Zealand, or whether he was simply appointed to what was then a new missionary outpost, is not clear, but with his wifo he must have set out on the long voyage in June, 1829. It took the little vessel over five months to reach Australia. The vessel on which they travelled first touched at Hobart, and Sydney was reached on October 10, 1829. A few days later Mr. Brown was informed "that Mr. Marsden was to proceed to New Zealand, if practicable,” and that he would be detained to take that pioneer’s duty at Paramatta. Circumstances, however, kept Mr. Marsden in Sydney, so Mr. and Mrs. Brown embarked on the City of Edinburgh on November 11, 1829, for the Bay of Islands, arriving at Paihia .on Sunday, November 29, 1829. FIRST VISIT TO TAURANGA. For some years, Mr. Brown was resident at Paihia, acquiring a knowledge of the Maori language, customs and manners, and, most important, psychology, which latter must have contributed largely to his long and successful mission service. Thence he took part in many cross-country trips through the Maori-inhabited parts of the island, and arrived at Otumoetai with a party on Saturday, September 6, 1834. Otumoetai was then the principal pa in the Tauranga district. On the following day, Sunday, a service was held at tho pa, and the project of establishing a mission station laid before -the Maoris, who, it is related, displayed indifference. However, the party proceeded to To Papa, not so generally known then by its borrowed name of Tauranga. A site for a station- was selected on. the northern extremity of the Te Papa Peninsula, on which tho town of Tau-

ranga now stands, and arrangements were made for the construction of two raupo huts. Two years later a station was established at Matamata, wit'll Mr. Brown in charge, but owing to native disturbances there, he was transferred permanently to Te I’apa in November, 1839.

A HISTORIC BELL.

Realising tho attraction that a bell had for the Maoris, Mr. Brown early sent to England for one. This bell arrived in New Zealand by sailing ship, in charge of the master, who ha-d instructions to deliver it to Mr. Brown in person, but was unable to do so. Declining all offers to accept delivery of the bell, tho captain took it back to England with him, and again brought it to New Zealand on his next trip, when he was successful in delivering his charge. The bell bore the casting date 1830, and had a very fine deep tone, which was heard for over fifty years, when, unfortunately, it was cracked. After years of silence it has been recast, and is again to speak from its old position, on the centenary of its owner’s arrival in New Zealand.

The station, having passed through its initiatory stages, thrived and became the scene of much active missionary enterprise. In contrast to the recorded indifference displayed at Otumdctai in 1834 is the record of a service held in January, 1840, when housing room could not be found at the station for the congregation of over a thousand Maoris, and the service was held in. the open, "but,”, states -the record, “tho weather favoured us.”

In 1845 Mr. Brown suffered the death of his only son Marsh, who was born at Paihia on June 22, 1831, and died at the mission station at Tauranga, on September 14, 1845. It is related that over two hundred Maoris attended the funeral. THE MISSION CEMETERY. In 1835 the Otamataha pa, part of the mission station area, was converted into and established as the burial ground of the Church Mission Society, and became known as the mission cemetery. In it a marble slab still stands in good order, bearing the name of Anne Catherine, wife of—John Alexander Wilson, died. November 23, 1838. In later years, notably during the sixties, this cemetery became the resting place of many soldiers and sailors, those who lost their lives at the engagements at Gate Pa, Te Ranga, Irihanga and Whakamarama, being buried there, besides a number of Maori warriors. From this it has become known, inaccurately, but not inappropriately, as the military, cemetery. Indeed, the presence of the redoubt and this cemetery, with its large proportion of graves of soldiers and sailors, with their pathetically youthful ages, would seem to indicate military rather than a missionary history. In 1847 a residence was completed at the station of pit-sawn New Zealand timber. It had been a long time building, one cause of delay being the burning of the workshop, through a capsize of glue. The contents, consisting of doors and "windows in process of construction and all the carpenters’ tools, were also destroyed. The house was built on an English pattern, without verandah, and with shutters to cover the glass doors. Many English trees, notably elms, also Norfolk Island pines, hawthorn and elderberry hedges, and an orchard, were planted and thrived abundantly. A MAORI TRIBUTE. Hostilities between Europeans and Maoris during the sixties proved a barrier to successful mission work. However, during that time the station was maintained, and a remarkable tribute of Maori regard for and loyalty to Archdeacon Brown was tho fact that a letter warning him of an intended raid by Maoris was got through by a wellknown warrior, one William Thompson.

Ho was advised to get his friends and household away, but he himself might remain, and would be safe. After the conclusion of hostilities the “mission chapel” continued for* man yyears to be used by both Europeans and Maoris. On September 7, 1884, exactly fifty - ono years after his first visit to Tauranga, the archdeacon died there, aged 81 years, and was laid beside his son Marsh in the old mission cemetery. He was followed on June 26, 1887, by his wife. Part of the station area has been subdivided into residential sites, and built over. The mission residence still stands, a monument of sound timber and sound workmanship, on the reserved portion of the area, ,known as “The Elms,” owned and occupied by the Misses Maxwell, nieces of the archdeacon, ladies of a school and standard, alas, rare, and to whom I am indebted for information drawn from carefully-preserved records, long antecedent to my earliest recollections. On lower ground, a little to the north of “The Elms,” and on part of the old mission property, is the railway settlement, and near it, on reclaimed land, the railway station. The chapel has been removed to a settlement a few miles out of town, and still serves its original purpose of a church for the Maoris.