Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1914. THE MARSDEN CENTENARY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 29 December 1914, Page 4

Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1914. THE MARSDEN CENTENARY.

No event that has been celebrated in. New Zealand on. recent years hagbeen surrounded with more, pleasant associations than the centenary of the holding of the firs.* religious service in the Dominion by the Rev. Samuel Marsden, It was on Christmas Day, 1814, that the chaplain from Botany Bay laid the foundation of the Church of England in NewZealand. The details of the event ar e to be. found in the "History of the English Church in New Zealand," by the Rev. Canon Purchas. According to the author of this work, at was the visit of a Maori Chief, Te PahT, and his four sons to Parramatta in 1803 which first directed Marsden's attention to this country, and set h'm thinking about its evangolisation. Many years elapsed before■ ho was able to carry out the'project he had in view. Te Pahi, asi Canon Purchas reminds us, happened to be at Whangaroa when the Boyd was captured in 1809, and h e did his best to savo some of thg crew from the terrible daughter that followed. But Irs

presence at tho scwie was enough to give a handle' to Ji*s enemies. Thoy accused him to the wmnors of participation i : n the outrage, and the:o .stormed the islaau pa by night and slaughtered tluuiu.hii.jpjcLiig inhab 1 - tants. To Pain escaped with a wound, but ha na.r suon afterwards killed by the - real authors of the Boyd massacre for his known sympathy with the iiiurupeanw. in the same year Mar,"den was in England, tryng to interest the Church Missionary Society in h.'S plan for a mission to the Maorij. He made ihe very sensible proposal that artisans should be sent out to teach the Maori's carpentering, flax-spinn'rfg, boat-bu'lding, and other useful pursuit. r .i, thus preparing the way for ordained clergy. The executive, v.'th old-fashioned idea.?, were \v t'i great diffioulty converted to this view, and at-length agreed to 'send out William Hall, a carpenter, and John King, a shoemaker. They were to receive £2O each per annum until they should be able to grow corn enough for their own .oupport. To meetth's and all other expense's the committee advanced Marsden" th e sum of £IOO. Just as they were about to sail a halfartarved Maori, Ruatara, a chief in hits own country, who had come to England as a sailor in order to seo the world, and had been badly treated, was put on uo'ard. He proved to be tho nephew of Marsden's old friend, To Pahi, and uubsequentiy proved of immense help to hm in his work. The party went m the Srst instance to Sydney, and owing to the Boyd massacre, it was not till 1814 that (Governor Macquario allowed Martden to proceed to New Zealand, being unwilling, as he sa'd, that he should throw away his life on such a quixotic scheme. The scene at tho Bay of Inlands on Christmas Day, 1814, when Marsden held his first service and preached hi's first sermon, taking ai.r*h>'s text, "Behold I bring you glad tidings of great joy," etc., has often been described. •Ruatara, Canon Purchas tells us, had cau.od about half an acre of land by the Oihi beach to be fenced in j within this area he improvised some, rough seats with planfes, and an upturned boat; >'.n a convenient spot he erected a reading desk and p-dpit which ho draped with black nir-ve cloth, and with white duck which-he had brought from Sydney • on the top of tho hill he raised a flags tiff; and thus "prepared .his church for the coming festival, t Christmas Day in 1814 was a Sunday, and Marsden thus opens his account of this memorable service:—-"On .Sunday morn"f.tig, when I war upon deck, I saw "tho English flag flying, which was "a pleasing sight in New Zealand. I '.'considered it as the signal and the "dawn of civilisation, liberty, \and, "religion in a benighted land. I' "never viewed the British colours "with more .gratification and flat"tered myself they would, never be "removed," till the natives •of that "island enjoyed all the happiness of "British subjects." How these p r oits anticipations have been realised it is needless for us to point out. It is interest'ng, and at the same time consoling, ' for us to remember that at that time, as now, England- was engaged in' a life and death 'struggle for existence. In the midst of war, she did not forget her duty as a Christian natron to carry the message of the, Gospel into other lands.