BOOKS REVIEWED

Waikato Times, Volume 122, Issue 20522, 11 June 1938, Page 20 (Supplement)

BOOKS REVIEWED

Dr. Robert MaunselL PIONEER MISSIONARY PRIVATIONS OF EARLY DAYS , “Robert Maunsell, LL.D., a New Zealand Pioneer." (By Henry E. R. L. Wily and Herbert Maunsell j (Reed.) The Rev. Robert Maunsell was the pioneer missionary of the Waikato. It is a hundred years ago this year since he settled at Waikato Heads, about half a mile away from the spot where the Children's Camp buildings now stand. Maunsell worked at Waikato Heads till 1853. He then moved twelve miles up the river to Kohanga. and there established his headquarters till driven away by the Maori wars in 1863, when he left the mission fleld and took up the position of vicar of St. Mary's Cathedral in Auckland. The enterprising firm of A. H. and A. \V. Reed, which has at once discovered and exploited the present | healthy Interest in New Zealand early ! days, has now published a memoir of j Dr. Maunsell. At first sight it may i seem surprising that no life of so ; notable a missionary had appeared | before. The explanation seems to bo | in the scarcity of the material left behind by Maunsell and his unwillingness to talk of his experiences. In reading these records one can understand that reluctance. His experiences had at times been bitter indeed, ! and one can sympathise with his de- ’ sire not to let his mind dwell too long j on the past. Work Destroyed I One grim night in particular must i have long oppressed his memory. ! Maunsell had been five years at AVaiI kato Heads, living in a rush hut, before he managed at last to erect a proper weather-hoarded dwelling. The new j house had been up only three weeks j when it was burned to the ground. I Everything was burned. Maunsell j managed, however, to carry Mrs Maunsell to a carpenter’s hut and to make her fairly comfortable on a bed of fern. And there, before daybreak, a daughter was born. tine wonders if Maunsell, in the midst of his anxiety, thought that night of the manuscripts of the almost complete translation ol the Old Testament Into Maori which perished in the fire in their entirety. At any rate, he had plenty of time to think it over afterwards when he had to begin from Genesis once again. Maunsell’s biographers, in view of the scanty material at their command, have wisely devoted much of their space to quotations from letters, Church Missionary Society reports, diaries and the like, thus setting down all the known records in connection with a remarkable man. The effect of this method is not to make the narrative disjointed or confused. Rather does the reproduction of these letters sketch In the background more firmly. It is to be hoped and expected that this book will be widely read in the Waikato, where it is of special interest. Whoever reads it cannot but be impressed by the personality of Dr. Maunsell, his fearless honesty, his disinterestedness, his faithful service. D.B.P.