A PILGRIMAGE to KAWHIA “The Heart of West Coast Methodism”
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A PILGRIMAGE TO KAWHIA “The heart of West Coast Methodism” SATURDAY 9 NOVEMBER 2013 - 1 - The Rev’d John Whiteley Mrs Mary Whiteley Wesleyan Mission Station, Kawhia, 1845. (From Quarterly Paper of Wesleyan Mission, September 1846.) - 2 - Some of the places we will be visiting and/or talking about today TE RORE where there was a major battle with northern tribes and where John Cowell established an early trading station in the 1840’s with the local Maori agriculturalists and traders. PIRONGIA near to the Matakitaki Pa which was sacked by Hone Hika and his Ngapuhi in 1822. A major frontier town during the last wars and the site of the Peace Accord made between Major Mair and the second Maori King, Tawhiao Potatau, on 11 July 1881. TE KOPUA which was the mission station established by Thomas Buddle in 1841. There was a church/school/flour mill/store, all closed by 1924. Ngati Maniapoto Chiefs Whanui and Rewi Maniapoto had close links with this mission station. WAIHARAKEKE the site of the first Wesleyan Mission Station - established by John Whiteley in April 1835. TE WAITERE or Lemon Point or Ahuahu. This is where the station was re-established in 1858 and where the graves of two missionary children still remain. KAWHIA. The site at Piu Beach is the last resting place of the Tainui Canoe. This is where the first Methodists William and Jane Woon and William White built a small station at Papakarewa in November 1834. The Centenary Church opened in 1934. AOTEA HARBOUR, site of the landing of the Aotea Canoe and of an ancient Pa. On the northern side 844 acres were gifted to the Wesleyans for a boys’ school and mission station, founded by Hanson Turton in 1840. It was known as Beechamdale or Rauraukanere. Last resident missionary before the land was sold was Gideon Smales, - 3 - WHY PILGRIMAGE? • Pilgrimage sites are sacred places calling us to remember our ancestors in faith. • A pilgrimage is both a spiritual and a physical journey. • We, as people of God, are ourselves on a journey, a pilgrimage. Our pilgrimage to Kawhia can serve to deepen our relationship with God, with the land and with those who brought the faith to Aotearoa-New Zealand. Pilgrimage is a time for us to ask what were the events that happened, who were the people involved, and what do they have to say to us today. FOR GATHERING You mark my path and the places where I rest: you are acquainted with all my ways. Psalm 139:2 Companion God, Go with us we pray Guide us on our journey Open our eyes and ears To the signs of your presence Everywhere about us E te Atua o tuawhakarere whaioio, wharikitia mai matou e hikoi ana i runga i te mata o te whenua, i te korowai manaaki aroha, kia tae pai ai ki te wahi e haere atu ana matou, ko koe hoki to matou kaha, to matou Ariki. Amine. - 4 - A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE KAWHIA METHODIST MISSION 1834 - 2013 The First Decade 1834 - 1844 n February 1834 a Wesleyan minister, the Rev William White, made the Ijourney to Waikato to plan further extension to the Methodist work in Aotearoa New Zealand. He made a second visit on 4 May to procure land in suitable places. He purchased land from Haupokia and Waru at Waiharakeke, South Kawhia, and from Uira at Waipa. Stations at Whaingaroa (Raglan) and another at Manukau were planned to open the following year. On 12 November 1834, White engaged a vessel to take himself with the Rev and Mrs Woon to Kawhia, arriving there on 16 November, four days from Kokianga: “after a painfully distressing voyage of seasickness”. White returned to Kawhia with the Whiteleys and the Wallises on Sunday 17 April 1835. A native teacher named Simon Peter came with them and proved of great help. Woon repeatedly spoke of his helpfulness, and also of another helper named Noah. At Papakarewa, a District Meeting was held. It was decided that Wallis should take up the appointment at Whaingaroa, and that Whiteley should open the second Kawhia station at Waiharakeke across the harbour as the headquarters of the Kawhia work. Wallis left his wife and child with the Woons, and set off for his new location overland. Whitely went to Waiharakeke on 29 April 1835, and it was felt that a new era had begun. At the time of his arrival at Waiharakeke, he described the whare prepared for his family: “A rush hut native built, 29 by 39 feet, no floor, no partitions, no fireplace, no windows, and worst of all built in a hole at the foot of a hill, getting all the drainage, and the floor like a mudhole.” After a brief period at Waiharakeke Whiteley decided to move over to Ahuahu, a much more suitable place, later named Te Waitere (the Maori form of Whiteley’s name), or Lemon Point. He received a warm response from the people. This site was to become the headquarters for Methodist work on the West Coast from the Manukau Harbour in the north, to New Plymouth in the south, extended later to Wellington. Whiteley was the first chairman of this large district. - 5 - Meantime, Captain Hobson was discussing the ceding by Maori of kawanatanga (governorship) of the country to Queen Victoria. This was a matter on which the missionaries held widely differing views and feelings. Most wished for the establishment of ordered government to control the disorderly elements which were drifting into the country, but they feared large-scale European immigration as a danger to the moral and social life of the Maori. It was not an easy decision to make but, on balance, they came down on the side of the proposed Treaty and used their influence to persuade many chiefs to sign the Treaty of Waitangi. The Treaty was signed at Kawhia on six different occasions: 28 April, 21 May, 25 May, 15 June, 27 August and 3 September. The chief who signed the Treaty on 3 September 1840 was the last signatory in the country. One achievement of the missionary work was the decision of the chiefs to release their slaves and return them to their homeland under missionary escort. In 1840 Whiteley arranged for Edward Meurant, a mission helper, to accompany one such group to Ngamotu. Shortly afterwards a large group was escorted to south Taranaki by Samuel Ironside. The people at Aotea Harbour pleaded with Whiteley for a station to be opened in their district. An experienced leader was not available, and the newcomer, Hansen H. Turton, was appointed to open this new field. He had no knowledge of the Maori language. He left his wife with the Whiteleys at Kawhia and lived for eight weeks in a tent at Rauraukauere, inside the northern entrance to the Aotea Harbour, while his house was being built. He was the first resident missionary to live there. He named the station Beechamdale, after John Beecham, one of the Mission Board Secretaries in England. In May 1843, Turton held a six day gathering to celebrate the anniversary of the founding of the Aotea Mission, with a Sunday congregation of 2,000 people including many visitors from surrounding tribes. There were 200 people at the Communion Service in the Chapel, and 60 candidates for baptism. Soon after the establishment of the Kawhia Mission, local people shared the gospel with all who would listen. Some travelled long distances as missionaries. One such person was Rawiri Waitere. He was converted in 1835 at Kawhia under Whiteley’s ministry, and then went to Port Underwood in Marlborough to preach to his relatives. In June 1840 he returned to Kawhia to urge the appointment of a resident missionary for his people. This resulted in the Rev Samuel Ironside’s appointment and the continuance of a very significant missionary endeavour which had commenced under Rawiri. - 6 - GROWTH & CONSOLIDATION The Kawhia Mission 1844 to the end of the war 1872 y the early 1840s the Kawhia Mission had gained a reputation as a Bsuccessful and adventurous centre of the Wesleyan Church. Five months after the Treaty was signed at Waitangi, Governor Hobson paid a visit to the stations at Whaingaroa, Aotea and Kawhia. In March 1844, Te Whero Whero, the leading Waikato chief, attended a large gathering called by Whiteley at Kawhia for the annual examination of classes, and the the sale and distribution of New Testaments. The Rev Gideon Smales took over the leadership of the Aotea work from the Rev Turton in 1844. In the same year the Rev Walter Lawry, the General Superintendent, opened the chapel at Papakarewa, Kawhia (8 September 1844). This chapel was made available to local Pakeha settlers for a day school, and a committee under Whiteley’s chairmanship employed a day school teacher. The Northern District report of 1852 showed that several paid lay workers were being employed. Among them were Pita Warihi at Kawhia, and Hone Ropiha at Mokau as “native teachers”. C.H. Schnackenberg was at Mokau as Catechist. Rev George Buttle was quietly pressing on at Te Kopua on the Waipa River. Many of his people had moved to Kawhia to work land for the purpose of having produce to sell to the settlements, and this movement for planting and harvesting meant frequent interruptions in the steady work of the Circuit. Whiteley told of a flare-up over land ownership at Kawhia. Ngatimahuta and Ngatihikairo were disputing possession, but under missionary restraint, they refrained from violence. News of this dispute spread further afield, and great alarm was caused by the arrival in Kawhia of a heavily armed war party from Waikato, who sided with Ngatimahuta against Ngatihikairo.