METHODIST HOME MISSIONS

Taranaki Daily News, 20 October 1930, Page 11

METHODIST HOME MISSIONS

| WORK AMONG THE MAORIS.

REVIEW BY SUPERINTENDENT.

The opoprtunity to hear in a musical service the Maori musical party touring with the Rev. A. J. Seamer, general .superintendent of • the Methodist home mission department, was accepted by a very large congregation at the Whiteley Methodist Church, New Plymouth, last night. ■ The nine members of the party led the singing and sang in Maori and English some well-loved hymns and psalms'. The talented young soprano, Miss ■ Airini Karenara, L.A.8., of the Chatham 1 Islands, sung in her exquisite voice the solo “O Divine Redeemer.”

Dealing more- particularly with the Methodist missions to- the Maori people, in view of yesterday being home mission Sunday, Mr. Seamer traversed the work of his department. Home and Maori missions, social work, education and evangelistic work were fostered by it, he said. If the ordinary church worship and activities failed to maintain contact between the Church, the people and God, it would have been a failure, indeed. The founders of Methodism had more to do with starting the education of the massees than any other body of men of the time. An early conference had decided “that Methodist ministers are (definitely) to preach on education once a quarter until they do know what education means.” Prior to this the excuse had been made that many ministers knew little of school themselves.

' As a church they hoped soon to establish a Methodist school for Maori girls in the New Plymouth locality. In parts of New Zealand there was a literature famine. While the Government was spending many thousands of pounds upon primary schools, no notice wa; taken of their need for future reading, or what class of literature was read. The church was taking an active part in the provision of good literature for the boys and girls in the Maori pas and elsewhere in the backblocks. Again in social work the church was helping the distressed and fallen in- the cities and in the country. ,

The 108th' anniversary of the commencement of the work among the Maoris at Whangaroa, North Auckland, was being celebrated this year by the Methodist Church. From Whangaroa the work had spread to Hokianga on the other side of th® peninsula, down the coast, through the z Waik'ato, the King Country, Taranaki, and farther south. By 1840, the date of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, the Maori work of the Methodist Church was flourishing. In 1858 the church had over 26,000 Maori members and 'adherents and oyer 6700 children in the church schools. Then came “the long, dark night” from 1860 to 1872. The Maori Wars had been fought in the principal missionary areas of the. Methodist Church. The natives had lost confidence in all things European, and in 1872 there were less than 2000 members remaining to the church. In an up-hill fight that number had been increased to 4000 to-day under the care of 30 native ministers and home missionaries. Five of them were stationed in Taranaki and were- doing excellent work.

The New Plymouth area insofar as the Maori population was concerned had been without the supervision of a home mission agent from the time of the Rev. John Whiteley’s death in the ’sixties until the appointment this year of the Rev. Oliver Haddon.

As a church to-day, said Mr. Seamer, they were delighted with the progress the Maori work was making, but even this progress would be /difficult -of achievement until the prejudices of the Maoris could be removed. That the Maori people could be brought to a high level of Christianity and civilisation it was not necessary to prove beyond referring with a glance at the fine body of young Maori men and women who com-' posed his delegation. Earlier in the day the party held services at Parihaka pa, where special celebrations were held in connection with “Tohu’s Day.” The mission party gave their entertainment at Fitzroy on Friday evening, at Hurworth on Saturday evening, and to-night they will appear at the Empire Theatre, New Plymouth.