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THE annals of missionary
settlement in New Zealand are largely a record of civilising adventure.
To seek the good of the whole man,’ not only to snatch his soul as a
brand from the burning, was the deliberate aim.
In December of 1814 Marsden’s
mission brig Active was anchored at Whangaroa, where he
spent some time ashore amid the
tribe responsible for the Boyd massacre five years earlier. On
board was his pioneer party
of mission settlers—William Hall, Thomas Kendall, John King, with
their wives and children—bound with him to the Bay
of
Islands. Next morning
there was high breakfast aboard, and to chiefs
who had been fiercely at odds, the
redoubtable Hongi among them, Marsden spoke in a way that
reconciled them one to another. He made them presents of tools and other
useful things. Then he introduced to them his men chosen to lead the
enterprise, as his journal tells—‘Mr. Kendall to instruct the children,
Mr. Hall to build houses, boats, etc., Mr. King
to make fishing lines, and Mr.
Hansen to command the
Active, which would be employed in bringing
axes and such things as were
wanted from Sydney, to enable them to cultivate their lands and
improve their country.’
More than sagacious tact
was in these words of
introduction. They did not cover all the capabilities of even
these blazers of a trail, yet they
were charter-terms of the mission, pointing clearly to a part,
not unimportant, of the duty ahead.
To-day, looking back on all that
was achieved in loyal application of them, and noting that almost
everywhere the principle in
them has been adopted in missions among peoples starting late
upon the road of civilised life,
we appreciate their wisdom.
'New Zealand scholars crossing the river to
school,' is the title of this sketch from Rev. William Molster's
'History of Wesleyan Missions in all Parts of the World' (1871). The
artist shows he can not have had firsthand knowledge of New Zealand
and the Maori.
A missionary's raupo house at Te Papa, Tauranga.
A view of the mission station at Waimate, founded
in 1831, from the Rev. William Yate's 'Account of New Zealand' (1835).
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Jean Baptiste Francois
Pompallier, born at Lyons in 1802, was selected to be the first Roman
Catholic Bishop of western Oceana, including New Zealand. He arrived
with one priest at the Hokianga River on 10th January, 1838, after a
long voyage, during which he visited the islands of the Pacific.
Pompallier and his companion, Father servant, acquired a thorough
knowledge of Maori before they began their missionary work. To insure
the establishment of the principle of religious toleration in New
Zealand, Bishop Pompallier intervened in the negotiations leading to
the Treaty of Waitangi. all who had contact with him testified to
Pompallier's gentlemanly bearing and high character.
De Sainson, the French artist,
drew this picture of a missionary travelling in the North Island
in1827.
The Rev. Samuel Leigh, pioneer
Wesleyan missionary, arrived in New Zealand in 1822, a year later
founding the Wesleyan mission at Wesley Dale in the Kaeo Valley,
Whangaroa Harbour. Like other missionaries, Leigh encountered
difficulties in the course of his work, and ill health forced him to
return to Australia in 1823. The Revs. Nathaniel Turner and John Hobbs
then carried on the station until the beginning of 1827 when they were
forced to abandon it owing to the hostility of the Maori. A year later
the mission was re-established at Mangungu, Hokianga.
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