MARSDEN TO MAKE FOURTH JOURNEY TO N.Z. MISSIONS

Korero (AEWS), Volume 2, Issue 15, 31 July 1944, Page 17

MARSDEN TO MAKE FOURTH JOURNEY TO N.Z. MISSIONS

While Explorer Cook (Captain J.) was edging his way round the uncharted coasts of Niew Zeeland more than fifty years ago there was at that time scrambling round his Yorkshire home a youngster named Samuel Marsden, son of a blacksmith. To-day Samuel Marsden is Senior Chaplain in New South Wales of the Church Missionary Society and •Superintendent in New Zealand of the society’s work. The Rev. Samuel Marsden arrived at the Bay of Islands to preach his first sermon on Christmas Day, 1814 the text was, “Behold I bring you good tidings of great joy”; a large congregation of Maoris were no less interested because they were unable to understand a word of the new-fangled English language.

The missionary trail in New Zealand was blasted, after many difficulties, by three assistants-Wm. Hall, shipbuilder and carpenter; John King, shoemaker; and one Thos. Kendall (see other columns re news of Kendall in trouble), They arrived in New Zealand in 1814 and made preparations for the first coming of Marsden; of great help was the good work and negotiation of Chief Ruatara, whom Marsden had befriended earlier in Australia. With the Bay of Islands as the headquarters, the good work of the missionaries has spread rapidly. The missionaries, Marsden in particular, have come to be loved and respected by the Maoris, and not only because of the distribution of S'd.enY Solks'Xr’' 1 ” ma<le Missionary Marsden made a second trip to New Zealand in 1819, a third a year later. News of his fourth visit is now expected,

Two hundred acres of land were bought near the Bay of Islands for 12 axes, and later 13,000 acres at Kerikeri for a nominal payment from Bigchief Hongi (a close friend of Marsden). Several more missionaries have arrived in New Zealand to further the work, the need for which is pressing. Efforts to suppress the introduction by the whalers of liquor (waipiro, or Stinking Water), to eliminate the preserved head trade, and the practice of blackbirding the Maoris into service on the whaling and trading ships are only some of the services done for the natives in the name of Christianity. In addition has been the church and school teachings, the setting-up of missions, the distribution of much-needed European goods, seeds, and animals, and the spreading of information for the cultivation of crops to provide food and other comforts of life.