Henry Williams Centenary.

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume XIV, Issue 4, 1 October 1923, Page 307

Henry Williams Centenary.

The following is a verbatim report of the speech of the Rev. E. M. Eruini referred to m our Synod' report: — • Sir President, . my Fellow Clergy and Laymen •: .". I beg to move that on this the Centenary year of the arrival of the late Archdeacon Henry .Williams hi New Zealand, this Synod desires to express its' heartfelt gratitude' to God for the many blessings both temporal and spiritual granted to the Maori people as a result of the life work of himself and his wife arid family. •' .

I want to take this opportunity to give expression to our deepest reverence to the memory of the late Archdeacon Henry Williams himself, his wife and family. For 44 years he sowed the glad tidings of God 's wondrous love m Maoriland. He arrived at the Bay of Islands m the year 1823; he was called home to his eternal rest m 1867. "He was a father indeed to all the tribes." "A man brave to make peace m the Maori wars." And I Avant also to have the liberty to join the names of all his brave noble associates and all that aided m tHeir sewiral days and several ways m the work of evangelising* the Maori race. A hundred years #go we see a. land where scarce a white man has set foot ; a land inhabited by people numbering' some hundreds of thou- • sands; a people of whom it might be truly said that their pastime was the making of war. Let us look back to those dark days and think how each man went m fear of his life. Think of the bloodshed, when sometimes whole settlements would "be blotted out of existence, and man ate his fellow man. Think of these times and how 1 by faith m Jesus Christ war was abolished, how the old intertribal wars, and cannibal customs are unknown. It is clear, perfectly clear that' the remarkable change m the Maori race was due to the efforts of these pioneer missionaries. If the Marsden was thd original apostle of New Zealand, preeminent amongst the noble band of missionaries was Archdeacon Henry Williams. It is also clear that it was not the might of England that compelled the Maori to seek the protection of England, it was not the power of England that compelled him to give up what were most dear to him, ' his ancient institutions; it was not the fear of England and England's might that compelled him to confess- on bended ■ knees that his ancient foe was his brother; it was not these — but the power of the Gospel. New Zealanders, whether Maori or . European, owe a lasting debt of gratitude to the late Archdeacon Henry Williams and his noble associates, they who gave the Gospel to the Maoris, and by its influence so changed the character of that once savage race, that colonisatioiTbecanie possible, and British energy has been .able to. transform, Maoriland into the New Zealand of to-day. Mr President, the greatest respect that anyone could show the dead is by finishing the work they began and we cannot get away from the fact that we owe a debt of gratitude, and the only payment we can make is to carry on, and build upon the work

well and truly laid down by those pioneer missionaries. . We are linked to them m one gravid continuity with God at the beginning of the road, and God with us here, and God at the distant end beyond the range of human vision; and each of us, each of us all has his appointed place to fill, his appointed task to do. Fullbacks or half-backs or forwards, or whatever it may be m this noble team work; the goal posts are heaven's gates; the prize is the crown of eternal life, and the captain is God Himself. In conclusion' I will take the liberty and. borrow from Shakespeare and say:— " His life is gentle, and the elements so mixed that Nature might stand up and say ,to all the world, that was the man." I therefore have very much pleasure, m moving the resolution standing m my name. . '