BISHOP HADFIELD

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVII, Issue 21508, 22 November 1939, Page 8

BISHOP HADFIELD

GREAT MISSIONARY INFLUENCE WITH MAORIS Not the least part of the story of the evangelising of New Zealand has as its central figure Octavius Hadfield, later Bishop of Wellington (18701893) and Primate of New Zealand during the last three years of that period. The ‘‘Church Chronicle" for November pays tribute to a great missionary in an article headed “Romance of Missionary History; a Great Centenary, and the Maori Church." Therein is recorded the romantic story of Hadfield, who, accompanied by his future father-in-law, Henry Williams, made the long journey from the Bay of Islands to Petone by schooner and thence to Waikanae on foot in response to the appeals of a son and nephew of Te Rauparaha for a Christian teacher for their tribe. Hadfield and Williams arrived at Waikanae on November 19, 1839, one hundred years ago, and received a rousing welcome from 1200 natives which “put fresh heart into the travel-worn missionaries.”

Promise for the future was given by a friendly reception by the allpowerful Te Rauparaha on Kapiti Island on the following day. Soon after their arrival Henry Williams was instrumental in restoring peace between the Ngati Toa at Waikanae and the Ngati Raukawa at Otaki, and on December 5 he set out on his long pioneer tramp from Otaki to Tauranga, via Wanganui and the Wanganui River. “The time of Hadfield’s arrival at Waikanae was the period of increasing readiness on the part of the Maori tribes to listen to the Gospel message,” says the “Church Chronicle” narrative, which goes on to recount the spread of Christianity in the district and much further afield. Hadfield’s wonderful influence over the Maori people of the district resulted in the failure of Te Rauparaha to induce the members of the Ngati Toa and the Nagti Raukawa to join him in a raid on Wellington in 1843, and again in the failure of the powerful Hauhau leader, Te Ua, to persuade the people of otaki to join his great antiEuropean crusade in the sixties. “Space does not; permit of further references to the work of a great pioneer missionary, his wonderful influence over the Maori tribes, and his fearless championing of Maori rights, which brought down upon him the abuse and ridicule of Government supporters, land grabbers, and the Press when growing resentment at some of the early land transfers precipitated the Maori wars,” concludes the article. “Arrangements have been made for the publishing of a fuller article in the Wellington paper at the end of the month. The best answer to Hadfield’s critics is to be found in the fact that the members of the tribe which he had influenced refused all the efforts of the disaffected sections of the race to join in revolt against the pakeha when the storm broke.”