'[T]He Sound of the Bell Amidst the Wilds'

‘[T]he sound of the bell amidst the wilds’: Evangelical Perceptions of Northern Aotearoa/New Zealand Māori and the Aboriginal Peoples of Port Phillip, Australia, c.1820s-1840s Samuel Gordon Gardiner Ritchie A thesis submitted to the Victoria University of Wellington in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History Victoria University of Wellington 2009 ii Let me sing a song for you that alters your belief – Ryan Adams iii Abstract This study investigates evangelical missionary perceptions of northern Aotearoa/New Zealand Māori and the Aboriginal peoples of the Port Phillip district of New South Wales, Australia, during the 1820s-1840s, a period when evangelical humanitarianism was at its height and European racial thinking was in a particularly formative stage. The thesis uses three case studies: the Church Missionary Society missionaries George Clarke and the Reverend Wil- liam Yate in northern Aotearoa/New Zealand, and the Wesleyan Missionary Society missionary the Reverend Francis Tuckfield in the Port Phillip district of New South Wales, Australia. Clarke, Yate, and Tuckfield’s perceptions of the indigenous peoples they sought to ‘save’ are explored through an exami- nation of journals, letters to missionary society secretaries in London, personal correspondence, and in the case of Yate, evidence presented to the ‘House of Commons’ Select Committee on Aborigines (British Settlements)’ and his published Account of New Zealand (1835). Particular attention is paid to how these men’s perceptions changed over three key stages: prior to arriv- ing in their respective mission fields, the initial period following their arrival, and after a significant period of residence. Evangelical missionary endeavour in both Aotearoa/New Zealand and Aus- tralia is compared in this thesis because in the early nineteenth century these two places were part of a common Tasman world. The similarities in evangelical experiences in the Tasman world during this period reveal an evangelical community within which ideas and information flowed freely. Comparative exploration of evangelical perceptions of northern Māori and the Aboriginal peoples of Port Phillip reveals that adaptation and evolution occurred through missionaries’ experiences. Evolution of evangelical ideas is revealed in missionary encounters with a number of non-European populations, which further shaped missionary ideas about those they sought to ‘save’. Adaptation of evangelical ideas is reflected in the different evangelical experiences in Aotearoa/New Zealand and Australia. These differences, most significantly the opposing experiences of success in Aotearoa/New Zealand and failure in Port Phillip, Australia, indicate that evangelical views of non- Europeans were not static, but rather they were altered as a result of experi- ence. iv Preface The topic of this thesis is a combination of my interests in early contact between Europeans and Māori and between Europeans and the Aboriginal peoples of Australia, and more generally, the contrasting places of these indigenous populations on the European hierarchy of races. While I am secular in my own beliefs, I am interested in missionary perceptions of Māori and the Aboriginal peoples of Australia because evangelical encounters with these peoples, related through a wealth of written sources, provide insight into a fascinating historical topic. Many of the events discussed in this thesis are painful issues for both Māori and the Aboriginal peoples of Port Phillip and wider Australia. I have endeavoured to discuss these events sympathetically, however certain incidents mentioned may remain distressing for some read- ers; writing about them was often distressing in itself. During the thirteen months spent researching and writing this thesis I was fortunate enough to have a considerable amount of assistance and support from many people. This thesis had benefited greatly from these people’s help; the remaining failings are however, solely my own. I am extremely grateful to: my whānau for support and inspiration – aroha nui. The staff and my fel- low postgraduate students in the History Department at Victoria University of Wellington (VUW) who made my workspace an enjoyable one. Charlotte Macdonald and Adrian Muckle, my supervisors for this project, whose wealth of knowledge and expert guidance made this thesis substantially better than it might have been. Kate Hunter, for introducing me to Francis Tuckfield. My office-mate Susie Johnston, who, with good humour, put up with me for over a year. The VUW Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences for two research grants which enabled me to twice visit Melbourne – firstly to conduct research in the State Library of Victoria (SLV) and a second time to present a v paper at the ‘Re-Orienting Whiteness’ conference in December 2008. The helpful staff of the VUW library, the Alexander Turnbull Library (ATL), the SLV, and the Hocken Library (HL). My friend Rachel Standfield, who both encouraged me and assisted me in my research interests, and who, with her fiancé Jason Groom, hosted me during my first visit to Melbourne. Most im- portantly, my wife Michelle, without whom none of my academic pursuits would be possible – just three words my love: you mean everything. Table of Contents Abstract iii Preface iv List of Figures vii List of Abbreviations viii Introduction 1 Chapter One: Shaping the Evangelical Mission 13 Chapter Two: Success as a Lens for Perceptions of Māori – George Clarke 43 Chapter Three: An Account of Māori – William Yate 73 Chapter Four: Failure as a Lens for Perceptions of the Aboriginal Peoples of Port Phillip – Francis Tuckfield 98 Conclusion 127 Bibliography 134 vii List of Figures Figure One: The house at Kerikeri in which George Clarke, his family, and William Yate lived 69 Figure Two: The house at Te Waimate in which George Clarke, his family, and William Yate lived 70 Figure Three: Headstone of George and Martha Clarke at Te Waimate cemetery 71 Figure Four: The Church of St. John at Te Waimate 72 viii List of Abbreviations ATL Alexander Turnbull Library CMS Church Missionary Society HL Hocken Library HRV 2A Historical Records of Victoria, Volume 2A LMS London Missionary Society NSW New South Wales SLV State Library of Victoria VUW Victoria University of Wellington WMS Wesleyan Missionary Society 1 Introduction ‘There is something peculiarly pleasing in the sound of the bell amidst the wilds of New Zealand’ wrote the Reverend William Yate (1802-1877) in his 1835 Account of New Zealand.1 This study is an exploration of evangelical missionary perceptions of northern Aotearoa/New Zealand Māori and the Aboriginal peoples of the Port Phillip district of New South Wales, Australia, from the 1820s to the 1840s – perceptions of the cross-cultural encounters which arose from the ringing of the church bell in ‘the wilds’. Yate’s Ac- count – written after six years labouring as a missionary to Māori – and other written observations produced by Yate and the missionaries George Clarke (1798-1875) and Francis Tuckfield (1808-1865) are the subject of this study. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the nature of evangelical missionary perceptions of two different groups of indigenous people during a period when European ‘racial thinking’ was in a particularly formative stage.2 More generally, it also attempts to contribute to the broader historiography of race and religion in the British Empire. Missionary journals and correspondence provide a rich commentary on evangelical, and even common European, perceptions of the non-European societies which they encountered. As David Arnold and Robert Bickers have 1 William Yate, An Account of New Zealand and of The Church Missionary Society’s Mission in the Northern Island, first published London, 1835, facsimile reprint with an introduction by Judith Binney, Wellington, 1970, p.199. 2 Richard Broome, Aboriginal Victorians: a History since 1800, Sydney, 2005, p.xxiv; Nancy Ste- pan, The Idea of Race in Science: Great Britain 1800-1960, London, 1982; Colin Kidd, The Forging of Races: Race and Scripture in the Protestant Atlantic World, 1600-2000, Cambridge, 2006; Kenan Malik, The Meaning of Race: Race, History and Culture in Western Society, London, 1996; George W. Stocking Jr., „From Chronology to Ethnology: James Cowles Prichard and British Anthropology, 1800- 1850‟, James Cowles Prichard, Researches into the Physical History of Man, first published 1813, reprint of the first edition with an introduction by George W. Stocking Jr., Chicago, 1973, pp.ix-cx; Roxann Wheeler, The Complexion of Race: Categories of Difference in Eighteenth-Century British Culture, Philadelphia, 2000; Nicholas Hudson, „From “Nation” to “Race”: The Origin of Racial Classi- fication in Eighteenth-Century Thought‟, Eighteenth-Century Studies, vol. 29, no. 3, 1996, especially pp.247 & 258. 2 observed, for Europeans, ‘missionaries were one of the most important sources of information and images of non-Europeans’.3 Historian Judith Bin- ney has written that ‘*m+issionary journals are, on the whole, disappointing sources for commentary on the existing societies’ which they encountered.4 While this may be the case, missionary correspondence does provide a wealth of information concerning evangelical perceptions of these societies. In 1793 the Evangelical Magazine was established to cater to Protestants of any denomination who were devoted to the spreading of the gospel.5 It is in this sense that the word ‘evangelical’ is used in this

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