MAORI MISSION REVIVAL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 290, 11 December 1935, Page 5

MAORI MISSION REVIVAL

A marked improvement in the work <4 rhe Maori Misison in the Waikato is recorded by Archdeacon Hori Haiti in an article in the current issue of the Waikato liiocesan Magazine. The writer said that prior to 1926 the work of the mission among the Maoris could oe described as being dead. The Church had a number of discouraged clergy working among the people, the majority of whom were hostile to the Church. Two or three clergy met in 1926 to determine what was wrong. The fact emerged that the trouble went right to the time of the Maori War. It was decided that the clergv interested in the mission should address as many congregations as possible and publicly confess that the pakehas had been wrong in waging the Maori War and promise to do what they could to put matters right, continued Archdeacon Raiti. The action of the clergy was received by the Maoris with the greatest interest and joy. and immediately the opposition to the mission died dowi.. Many Maoris who before ha J been indifferent began to take an interest in Christianity. It could be safely said that more Maoris had come under the influence of the Church in the last nine years than during the 63 years following the Maori War and up to 1926.