The Maoris of Taranaki.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 11581, 13 October 1900, Page 2

The Maoris of Taranaki.

Speaking of mission work among the Maoris in this district the Primate, at the Auckland Diocesan Synod, said :—: — For many years very little missionary work was carried on among the tribes living in the southern districts of tha Taranaki Archdeaconry. This distressing state of things was mainly the result of the alienation of the native race from intercourse with Europeans, in consequence of the ever-to be-lamented war of 1860. These self-isolated Maoris, w.ere not, however, forgotten or disregarded. Through all those years the diocese had at New Plymouth, in the person of Archdeacon Govett, a devoted minister of the Gospel, well acquainted with the "history of the Maori tribes, with a thorough knowledge of their language, and ever ready to re-open' friendly relations with those who had apostatized from the faith. In 1874 a Maori Deacon was located by me at Waitara, in the hopo that, through him, some .of those who had separated themselves might be brought back to the Church; and from 1882 until his death in 1896, the Rev F. T. Baker, a good Maori scholar, the son of a former clergyman of the Church Missionary Society, received a subsidy frpm the N.Z. Mission Board, in consideration of his doing what he could for the lapsed Maoris living within reach of Waitara. I state these facts in case it should be thought hereafter that the Church had for a season neglected her duty to tho Maoris of Taranaki. Mr Bennett is happily ablo to assure me that the unfriendly feeling of the Maoris of those parts 'has changed very much of late, 1 that those '< dwelling near him 'are beginning to place complete confidence' in their teachers, and that some adults are being prepared for baptism.