Spreading the Gospel

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVII, Issue 21529, 16 December 1939, Page 34 (Supplement)

Spreading the Gospel

Trials of the Missionaries

Record of Achievement

Just what part the early missionaries played in the colonisation of New Zealand it is difficult to-day to appreciate. Steadfast and undaunted, they faced hardship and even martyrdom in their endeavour to bring enlightenment and peace to an uncivilised race, one which, coming in contact with illiterate, unscrupulous and evil men, mostly deserters from overseas convict settlements, was rapidly becoming demoralised. But the missionaries were men of courage and vision. By their example of honest work and decent living they 4 gradually won the confidence and esteem of the natives, and so truly laid the foundation of the great edifice which is the Church to-day.

A missionary first set foot in this land in December, 1814, but much was done before this date to pave the way for missionary endeavour. Samuel Marsden, who was the principal chaplain of the convict settlement at Sydney, possessed a farm at Parramatta, where he strove by all the means in his power to set an example of hard and honest work. Here it was that he entertained Maoris who had come across in sailing ships, and he quickly realised their noble qualities. As stories of Pakeha crime and Maori revenge and treachery drifted across the seas and came to Marsden’s ears he determined to endeavour to save the Maori rare from degradation. In 1807 Marsden sailed for England to seek missionaries who would volunteer to go to New Zealand. On the return journey he found the very native, Ruatara, who had so impressed him as to cause him to make the trip to England. Ruatara had suffered much ill-treatment, but soon recovered, and Marsden had high hopes of starting the New Zealand mission under the protection of Ruatara. The native sailed for New Zealand. but the captain of the ship put him ashore at Norfolk Island, and four years were to pass before Ruatara rejoined his people.

Meanwhile Marsden had not been Idle. In 1810 his staff was strengthened by the arrival of a schoolmaster, Kendall. Three years later the man of God purchased the brig "Active” and despatched her to New Zealand to bring back Ruatara and other chiefs who might be friendly to the mission. Ruatara, his uncle Hongi and nine other chiefs came back, and Marsden entertained them at Parramatta. Then came the great event in the history of New Zealand, the arrival of the missionary expedition in December, 1814. Unfavourable winds delayed the departure of the “Active" from Sydney, but she sailed finally on November 28. Along with Samuel Marsden were Kendall, Hall and King, their wives and five children, also four other Europeans, “two sawyers, one smith, and one runaway convict.” Accompanying them were eight Maoris, of whom five were chiefs. Horses, cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry were also aboard, while seeds, tools and goods for trade were part of the cargo. The Three Kings were sighted on December 16. This name must have suggested the Christmas festival to him. Did he wonder where he would be spending this Christmas? If so, he has left no record of his feelings. North Cape Reached Toward evening the brig put in at the North Cape and a day was spent there. Nobody went ashore but some of the Maoris came to the boat where they were made welcome and food supplies were obtained. Continuing their voyage southwards, Marsden arrived at the Bay of Island only to find that the tribesmen of that district were at war with the Whangaroa natives. The feud was a long standing one, arising from the Boyd massacre. From this instance, Marsden began that heroic labour for peace which was to last for so many years and which was to bear such good results. He reasoned with the quarrelling sides and pointed out to them the advantages of employing themselves in useful tasks of agriculture and to cease the endless wars which were playing havoc with their country.

On Thursday, December 22, the “Active" arrived at its destination, Rangihous, Ruatara’s home in the Bay of Islands. Ruatara’s Pah was built on a hillslope, close to Oihi beach on the north side of the harbour about seven miles from the Heads. The whole of the next day was occupied in landing the cargo that had been brought over by the “Active”—sheep, horses and cattle. Ruatara, working on his own ideas, was busy preparing for the Sabbath. He fenced in about half an acre of ground. He caused to be erected in the centre a pulpit and a reading-desk, which he covered with some black na-tive-made cloth and some white duck purchased in Sydney. Seating accomodation was provided by utilising some old canoes and turning them bottomup. The reading-desk was about three feet and the pulpit six feet from the ground. Covering the top of the pulpit and hanging over the sides was the black native cloth, while the bottom of the pulpit as well as the reading-desk was made of part of a canoe. On the heights a flagstaff was erected. Ruatara had done all this without any prompting and when he informed Marsden that everything was ready for the service, the Missioner showed his pleasure at this generous display of friendliness.

The Missioner was surprised at these elaborate arrangements and records “The whole was becoming and had a solemn appearance."

Christmas Service The next day was Sunday—and Christmas Day. When Marsden arrived on deck he was greeted with the Union Jack flying from the flagstaff on the hilltop at which he was very pleased. He writes "I considered it the signal for the dawn of civilisation, liberty, and religion in that dark and benighted land. I never viewed the British flag with more gratification, and I flattered myself it would never be removed till the natives of that island enjoyed all the happiness of British subjects.”

Marsden showed his faith in his new friends, in spite of the stories of the plundering of ships, by ordering all on shore to attend the service with the exception of the master and one man. About ten o’clock in the morning the party landed on the beach where they were received by the Ngapuhis, dressed in their best mats and drawn up m readiness to march into the enclosure. “Peace on Earth—” The chiefs, Ruatara, Korokoro and Hongi, proudly arrayed in regimentals and swords which had been presented to them by Governor Macquarie of New South Wales. Instead of their fearsome warlike weapons, they carry peaceful manuka switches with which they direct the congregation to their respective places—the Europeans to the canoe seats and the tribes in various groups on each side of the pulpit. Then there was a silence—it was a turning point in the history of this country. Marsden felt the importance and states that he felt “my very soul melting within me." Slowly he rises and commences the service by the singing of the Old Hundredth Psalm: “All people that on earth do dwell Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice.” Across the placid waters of the beautiful Bay of Islands the music of those voices float as a sweeter challenge to the gruesome hakas and war-chants that have haunted these beautiful Islets for centuries. A new outpost has been established —a new challenge has been hurled —that of right against might—an expression of the undying faith that “peace and goodwill toward all men will ultimately prevail."

The party then returned to the "Active” where the Holy Sacrament was administered. Marsden was most gratified with the reception that had been accorded him and in the joy of that experience he writes “In the above manner the Gospel has been introduced into New Zealand, and I fervently pray that the glory of it may never depart from its inhabitants till time shall be no more.” Wonderful Influence Thus -the Church of England introduced Christianity to New Zealand’s barbarous shores, and too much tribute cannot be paid to the men whose influence for good gradually developed over the Maoris, and who won through in their constant struggle against vice and cruel and vicious native customs, and who became pioneers of civilised industry and civilised government. Trouble there was in plenty in the Colony, fear of French annexation proving an effective stimulus to British action. In 1838, Bishop Jean Baptiste Francois Pompallier, Vicar-Apostolic of Western Oceania, landed at Hokianga with the New Father and two brothers of the Society of Mary. On January 13. 1838, he said the first mass 1 at the house of an Irish settler', Thomas I Poynton. The coming of Bishop Pomi pallier created sectarian divisions > among the teachers of the Christian Faith, and caused the English missionI aries to suspect French designs of . colonisation. At this time, however, I the attention of British settlers and administrators was mainly centred in the Bay of Islands, and not much thought was given to French activity in the whaling stations of the South Island. All these movements, however,

had tire effect of making British annexation inevitable, and both Marsden, before his death in 1838, and his first lieutenant and successor, Henry Williams, had come round to the view that such a step was in the best interests of the Maoris. The path of the missionaries was by no means smooth. Many claims for land were made by the settlers and by the missionaries and the governor, in a despatch to the British Government, I without actually accusing the missionaries of using their Influence with the Maoris to obtain land for themselves, hinted at such a charge. The missionaries concerned, particularly Henry Williams, were hurt and Indignant at one part of the despatch in particular. The unfortunate result was a bitter quarrel. The Church Missionary Society upheld the Governor and went so far as to remove Henry Williams from his archdeaconry. The first bishop of New Zealand also, the great missionary, Bishop Selwyn, took the side of the Governor; but Henry Williams remained firm and refused to give up the land which he had legally acquired until the Governor should see fit to make amends for what Williams regarded as a spiteful attack on his honour.

Other Denominations Other denominations followed in the wake of the Church of England missionaries, and they in their turn played a big part in the establishment of the Church and the development of die, country. Actually the second senior church in New Zealand in respect of the period of its establishment, the Methodist Church can trace its foothold in the colony back to 1818. In that year the Rev. Samuel Leigh visited New Zealand; and, as a consequence of what he saw on that occasion, he returned to found, in 1823, the first Methodist Mission, at Whangaroa. At Samuel Marsden's suggestion Leigh paid a holiday visit to New Zealand to report on the Bay of Islands Mission for Marsden, and to see the little-known islands. The young man was horrified to be forced to attend

By this time, however, the Church in New Zealand had passed out of the missionary stage. In 1842 Bishop Selwyn landed in New Zealand and set about the strenuous task of organising the Church of England. He stood out pre-eminent in vigour of body and mind and loftiness of character, and performed a noble wort.

cannibal feasts, to be offered smoked human heads as grim souvenirs, to find the trade in rum and muskets, and native women flourishing among the bad, hard, careless seafarers who frequented the coast. He went back to Britain to persuade the heads of the Methodist Church to permit him to establish a mission on the coast; in February, 1822, the brig "Active” landed him and his young wife at Paihia. A year later they transferred to Whangaroa by the schooner St. Michael, to set foot on a beach where only a few months earlier Leigh had escaped certain death only by flinging among the excited natives a handful of flsh-hooks, precious to them as silver, and escaping during the resultant scramble. Bravely he went back, but soon illhealth forced him to abandon his charge to the missionaries Hobbs and Turner. The savagery of the natives drove them in to Kerikeri in 1827, but the same year John Hobbs established the mission at Hokianga, whence Methodism spread throughout the land. In 1839 Hobbs and the Rev. J. H. Bumby visited Port Nicholson, where they found a single white seaman living among the Maoris. They purchased land for a mission, and subsequently the Rev. James Buller walked down . from Kaipara to guard their interests , when the organised settlement began. Bumby’s visit was not a happy one; he was scandalised by the behaviour of the Cook Strait whalers, and subsequently was drowned on his way back to Hokianga, through a canoe capsizing in the Hauraki Gulf.

Buller, on his visit, lound the Aurora newly arrived in port with immigrants, and preached on board to them before they disembarked. Samuel Ironside, an eye-witness of Waitangi, was another Methodist preacher, who ’ came to build Ebenezer Church at Port Underwood, and on his way back afterwards when the Wairau Massacre set his achievements at nothing. j Church of Rome j As mentioned earlier. Bishop Pompallier arrived in the Colony in 1833. I He was present at the signing of the I Treaty of Waitangi, and requested Captain Hobson to assure the chiefs that freedom of religion would be tolerated. An announcement to this effect was made in Maori to the assembled i chiefs.

1 In July that year the French corI | vette L’Aube called at the Bay of Is--1 I lands on her ill-fated trip to annex the ; i country, and to establish a French • i colony at Akaroa. The first aim failed, of course, but the second was achieved, , ! and when L’Aube sailed from Bay of ’ 1 Islands she carried with her to Can- [ I terbury Fathers Comte and Pezant and i Brother Florentin. The Bishop followed, and personally spread the mis- ’ ' sion as far south as Otago. It was not , ; long, therefore, before the Catholic Church became solidly entrenched, and continued to flourish. Catholic Fathers , started a mission at Wanganui at great . peril from hostile Maoris, and they ’ found their work undone by the mad F .uhau outbreak. In Hawke’s Bay, Fathers Lampila and Regnier and Brothers Basil and Florentin /ounded I missions, at Wairoa and Meanee. Overwhelmed with nostalgia, Father I Regnier, to remind him of the fair I land of France, planted vines and ! pressed their juice for wine, from which foundation has sprung the great Hawke’s Bay wine-making industry. The Presbytery The Presbyterian Church obtained a footing in the Colony on the arrival of the Bengal Merchant at Port Nicholi sen on February 20, 1840, with New I Zealand Company pioneers from the Clyde. Among them was the Rev. John Macfarlane, of Paisley. He conducted th* - first service of his church in the new land, under a shady karaka tree, nt the head of Petone beach. The songs of bellbirds are said to have broken into the voices of the singers.