The First Half Century 1822-1872 ——— « ———

Te Hahi Wereriana by George I Laurenson 1972 – Part 1 PART ONE The First Half Century 1822-1872 ——— « ——— Wesley Historical Society Publication #27 (1&2) Page 1 Te Hahi Wereriana by George I Laurenson 1972 – Part 1 Contents Acknowledgements Introduction PART ONE. THE FIRST HALF CENTURY 1822-1872 CHAPTER ONE The Anglican Initiative, the Preparation and the Kaeo Adventure 1822-1827 CHAPTER TWO A new start in the Hokianga 1827-1834 CHAPTER THREE The first southward move 1834-1838 CHAPTER FOUR Once more to Waikato and Southward 1838-1842 CHAPTER FIVE The third decade 1842-1852 CHAPTER SIX The fourth decade 1852-1862 CHAPTER SEVEN The fifth decade 1862-1872 Wesley Historical Society Publication #27 (1&2) Page 2 Te Hahi Wereriana by George I Laurenson 1972 – Part 1 Acknowledgements My indebtedness is gratefully acknowledged to many people without whose encouragement and advice this volume could not have been produced. In particular we acknowledge the most generous subsidies from the Maori Purposes Fund Board, the Methodist Home Mission Board, the Methodist Board of Publications, and the Alfred and Isobel and Marion Reed Trust, without which this volume would have had to be greatly reduced in size. My sincere thanks go to Mr M. A. Berry, the Revd's E. W. Hames, B. M. Chrystall, R. D. Rakena and W. H. Greenslade who read the manuscript in its formative stages and offered many help-ful criticisms and suggestions. To the Librarian and Staff of the Library of the Auckland Institute and Museum for access to much valuable historical material, and for their good offices in enabling me to read the thesis of Dr J. M. R. Owens of Massey University on "The Wes-leyan Mission to New Zealand, 1819-1840." My special thanks to Dr Owens. To the Methodist Home Mission Department and the Trinity Theological College for permission to read the typescript copies of the mass of early Missionary correspondence and diaries, and the Minutes of Church Conferences and Boards and Committees who have led the Maori Mission from the early days until now. To owners of copyright of portraits and illustrations used in the volume and in each case acknowledged. I am especially indebted to "The History of Methodism in N.Z." by the late Dr W. Morley published in 1900. To the Automobile Association of Auckland (Inc.) for informa-tion provided in preparation of the two locality maps, and my special thanks to my son Mr E. H. Laurenson who drew the maps. To Messrs Simpson and Williams Ltd for permission to quote from the book "N.Z. Church History" by the late Canon H. T. Purchas. To Mr Philip Hames for designing the layout of the cover. To my sister Miss Jean Laurenson for her great assistance in travelling to Auckland and typing the final manuscript, and for a number of helpful suggestions. To Miss Ruve Wallis for her patient and diligent reading of the proof sheets of the book. To the Institute Press for their co-operation and professional services. And, to my wife for her patience and restraint over many weary months as her dining room table slowly saw some measure of order appear out of seeming chaos. —G.I.L. Wesley Historical Society Publication #27 (1&2) Page 3 Te Hahi Wereriana by George I Laurenson 1972 – Part 1 Introduction This story is to record the main features, the personalities, the varied fortunes, the trials, disappointments, aspirations and achievements of the Methodist Maori Mission to the Maori people over three half-centuries 1822 to 1972. It is a very condensed account, but it aims to provide an overall picture of a significant strand in the history of this country, and it may awaken an interest that should produce in future years further accounts of aspects of the story. Other Churches shared in this Missionary activity, and they have their recorded volumes. In particular we pay our tribute to the initial pioneering of the Church Missionary Society's workers of the Anglican Church under Samuel Marsden and his colleagues, without whose brotherly co-operation and encouragement, much of this Wesleyan story would never have been told. The work began in a confused age. The Napoleonic Wars had recently ceased with all the inevitable social and economic confusion that followed. The major nations of Europe were licking their wounds and still viewing every move of their erstwhile adversaries with suspicion. Britain's conflict with the American Colonies, and the loss of areas for economic expansion, and a place to dispose of her growing surplus population, meant that she was seeking some solution in the face of a disillusioned public who had burned their fingers in their experiments in colonisation in America. It was a period of intense sectarian rivalry in Britain and on the Continent. Following the Evangelical Revival of the eighteenth century and the counter-movement of the Anglican Tractarians, there was a polarising of religious thinkers around sharply divergent viewpoints with strong antipathies. Such divisions emerged within, as well as between, the various denominations. The Napoleonic Wars had resulted in a renewed mutual distrust between Protestant and Roman Catholic Churches, and movements of the Roman Catholic Missionaries, often from zeal-ous French Orders, gave rise to fears of fresh French colonial expansion. The Industrial Revolution had begun. Towns grew around the factories, the birthrate multiplied, social unrest assumed alarming proportions, and the commercial world was looking for new sources of raw materials and markets. There was a boom in ship- building, with a resulting demand for timber, masts, spars and cordage for the sailing Wesley Historical Society Publication #27 (1&2) Page 4 Te Hahi Wereriana by George I Laurenson 1972 – Part 1 ships, and there had grown a new demand for whale oil and animal skins. All these factors turned the eyes of the commercial and industrial leaders to the Pacific area. Amidst all this, a growing social conscience nursed in the Evangelical Churches stirred a concern for the unevangelised peoples in the lands now opening up. This was a day of strong convictions, held with zeal and propagated with vigour. The men and women who were thrust up as leaders in that period were men and women of their time. Not only Church people, but large sections of the general public were living under somewhat limited and puritanical pressures, some of which were good and some not so good, but as the Missionaries went out from such a social situation and made their impact on primitive peoples, their attitudes and standards set before these folk received much unfavourable judgment. To this day this continues from their critics. However in justice it must be said that these early Missionaries, a very varied group of men and women, were prepared for their convictions to travel to the ends of the earth and face privations and live dangerously to a degree that humbles their modem readers. In an age when the anti-hero and the debunker of the great figures of the past are in fashion, one wonders how far modern detractors of Missionary personalities would have been prepared to face such conditions themselves for the sake of their convictions. It is from the reading of the work of this section of Christian Missions to New Zealand that these pages are recorded. The readers who will make this a beginning of their search will find that it opens a great human story for which as a young nation we should be grateful. Wesley Historical Society Publication #27 (1&2) Page 5 Te Hahi Wereriana by George I Laurenson 1972 – Part 1 CHAPTER ONE The Anglican Initiative, the Preparation and The Kaeo Venture 1822-1827 There was a ship in the Bay. She was not a stranger now, but her coming could usually bring some new excitement. This was the Brig 'Active' from Sydney. As she dropped anchor, almost everyone who could manage it gathered on the beach, excited, jostling and curious to see who and what she had brought this time to lend a new interest to their lives. It was always like this in the early European days in isolated New Zealand. And when it happened on January 22, 1822, at Rangihoua in the Bay of Islands the waiting crowd saw come ashore a young Wesleyan Minister from England, not very robust, and with him his new and brave wife. He was the Rev'd Samuel Leigh; his task to begin a Mission to the Maori people; but like those who were later to join him, he brought to his task an ignorance of Maori ways which led to some tragic misunderstandings as the two cultures clashed, but also a courageous determination to serve and uplift these people. Bearing near incredible hardships and griefs, they spread a good influence long before it ever became apparent, they steered the Maori warrior into the ways of peace, and they mitigated many of the various blows which befell the native race through its contact with the less worthy and the more avaricious among the European arrivals. What had led to Leigh's coming? The opening of New South Wales as a convict station had called for the appointment of an official chaplain, and the Rev'd Samuel Marsden had been so appointed as Anglican Chaplain. As time went on a mixed settlement developed in Sydney consisting of the families of the convict settlement staff, a number of general newcomers, traders, immigrants, sailors, whalers, as well as certain of the paroled prisoners seeking employment. Marsden's work soon extended far beyond the specific work of Chaplain to the convict settlement.

Load more