PURIRI MISSION STATION

Taranaki Daily News, 15 January 1931, Page 5

PURIRI MISSION STATION

DESTRUCTION BY FIRE, ; STORY OF FOUNDATION. The recent destruction by fire of the old mission station at Puriri lends particular interest to the following facts kindly furnished to the Auckland Star by the Ven. W. J. Simpkin, formerly of Hawkes’ Bay. “It was impossible,” says the arch- / deacon, “for a man so missionaryhearted as Henry Williams to be content with: a sphere so limited as the Bay of Islands, more especially when his voyages had brought him into touch. , with the Maoris in the districts' farther south. In April, 1833, Mr. Williams, reported to the Church Missionary Society upon the urgent need for settlement at Thames, with a prospect, of extending through the two islands. ‘The part wp now possess is a mere spot,’ he wrote, ‘and that at the extreme end. At . present all is darkness, desolation, and. death, but there is certainly no physical reason why it Should remain.’” ( In the following October Mr. Wil-

liams, in company with Mr. Morgan. Mr. F. Fairburn and the Rev. A. N. Brown, who had arrived in New Zealand >

that year, spent six weeks on a, journey which extended as far as Mata-, mata and resulted in the selection of a site for the mission. station at Puriri. “It is recorded in ‘Christianity Among the New Zealanders,’ by. William Williams, regarding the journey:—‘Pulling up the river Waihou, they camp to a. small branch stream, which they entered, and found a body of natives at their cultivations. After the evening meal about 200 natives were assembled

for evening prayer. There, were several fires in front of the tents, which, with some torches held by those in the distance, gave a striking effect to the scene The whole assemblage joined in the hymn and the responses were made by all as one man. Nothing like this had been witnessed before. These people had -received instruction from three youths who had lived. with the mission families at Paihia. Thus the work of q God had been carried on without previous arrangement by man. Next day the party continued their course up the river to Matamata, where Waharoa, the great chief of the tribe, resided. He asked What they were to do without a missionary to teach them. The party then returned to Puriri, which the missionaries concluded to be the most eligible site, and had three raupo houses erected.’ Subsequently the wooden building, recently destroyed by fire, was erected. “In December of the same year Mr. Janies Preece and Mr. John Morgan

started mission work at Puriri. Mr. William Williams, who was on his way: to the East Coast with a party of natives, accompanied the others to visit • the new station. , ' r i “In 1834 the Rev. A; N. Brown, with

Mr. James Hamlin, made a journey of ' 80 miles through a trackless forest from Kaipara to examine the district at another point farther up than Mata- ■ mata. The journey occupied eight days and a site for a mission station was secured at Mangapouri, near Otawhao. Later the station was moved to the Manukau, and afterwards other stations were opened at Matamata, Tauranga, and Rotorua.” _ i .