Early Mission Days in South Taranaki by A.B.Chappell Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #1(4) 1942 Page 1 Early Mission Days in South Taranaki by A.B.Chappell Early Mission Days in South Taranaki By Rev.A.B.Chappell MA Dip.Journ. The decision of the Methodists in Hawera to celebrate, at the end of March this year, the centennial of their denomination's mission amid the Maori people of .South Taranaki, was a matter of great public importance. Sunday, March 29, as the focal date of the celebration, did not coincide precisely with the passing of a hundred years since the establishment of the first Methodist mission station in this particular area, but the disparity, for reasons to be fully understood and appreciated, is of little moment. If an exact date is to be named, as that of actual entry upon the local task that was to mean so much for all Taranaki South, there is no doubt that May 30 must be chosen. The pioneer European minister concerned in the truly great venture wrote with care in his journal: "On the 30th of May we"—he was referring to his wife and himself— "arrived at our station." Not always is such exactitude observed when setting down records that afterwards are to be ardently cherished as veritable discoveries. However, much equally vital happened before that glad arrival. There had been a preliminary journey by the missionary, for the purpose of spying out the land. That journey, southward from New Plymouth, was begun on April 12, and it was preceded by careful planning. On the selected ground, too, even before the day of adventurous pathfinding, much was long in hand to make the missionary feel immediately at home when he first saw the Waimate region, marked out by native co-operation as the headquarters of his cure of souls. He went then far beyond Waimate—indeed, to Wanganui — before turning back to New Plymouth, whence the real expedition was soon to make mission history. A wife was to be brought—the missionary directors and overseers in London took the view that an unmarried missionary was ill-furnished for his work —and “our boxes, stores, books, etc.,'' had to be as carefully carried as was she. The cavalcade comprised "more than 100 natives,'' and while they were so excitedly footing it, hundreds more in the faraway destination were making ready. So there is ample justification for antedating a little the centennial observance. Things happen that gradual way, as a rule. "First the blade, then the ear, afterwards the full corn in the ear.'' Besides, a particularly good reason exists for carrying the celebration back into the preparatory dates. The Rev. G. F. Stockwell, who as Hawera's Methodist minister has been mainly eager to see this centenary worthily honoured, will be leaving the district at the end of March on retiring pastoral activity; and what more fitting than that he should see and superintend the centennial festival of memory? His local successor, due on the third Sunday in April, will no doubt be glad to be freed from the burden of concentrated attention to the notable occasion, and will find pleasurable opportunity to Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #1(4) 1942 Page 2 Early Mission Days in South Taranaki by A.B.Chappell use -the interval before the May date in becoming acquainted with the history to which that date will appositely invite renewed attention. CHRISTIAN CONTACT. Let us get back to the story. Here, in a rapid survey, its profoundly interesting details cannot be fully told. It must suffice to sketch an outline as framework for a selection of salient facts. How greatly entitled they are to reverently grateful recall! First, the spread of Christian contact until the remarkably difficult lands of South Taranaki were evangelised. The early part of the story goes along lines well defined in our New Zealand annals: the beginning of Methodist missionary endeavour for the Maori people in the far north, with the cordial approval and aid of Samuel Marsden and his men of the Church Missionary Society; the survival of disaster to the initial location of the Wesleyan Missionary Society's enterprise, at Kaeo (Whangaroa); the transfer to Hokianga on the opposite coast; the growing success, seen in an expanding welcome by the native people, a renewal of work among them on the original site, an extension southward to Kaipara, and then a further venture, in response to Maori pleading and promise, into territory at distant harbours of the coast (Kawhia, Whaingaroa, Aotea, in that order); the natural continuance of progress southward still, to Mokau along with the threading of river valleys into the upper reaches of the Waikato and the Wanganui; and at length the occupation of other parts of Taranaki northward of the mountain that gives the region its indelible Maori name. Southward of the mountain awaited an additional field of missionary endeavour, a field neither easy of entry nor offering easy harvest. It was to yield to Christian faith and courage, but the tale of achievement was destined to be a mingled yarn; strands dull and bright, grey as well as golden are closely intertwined as the living experience is spun. The road into South Taranaki's heart was no "primrose path of dalliance": there were at the beginning, and have continued long down the years, conditions making it fit only for heroes. To be recalled after a hundred years is the oft-forgotten fact that the coast from Mount Taranaki (Cook's Egmont) down to what is now Port Nicholson was often a trail of blood. Te Rauparaha in his time took more than once that grim route of tragedy, and on it others as versed as he in its opportunities for spoil and enslavement wrought their treacherous will. Traces of those raids of terror can still be seen in the remains of strong pas, the fastnesses of fear-ridden tribes driven by the instinct of self- preservation to contrive refuges from a succession of marauders. Such fastnesses dot the topography of South Taranaki's advance in knowledge of the Gospel. Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #1(4) 1942 Page 3 Early Mission Days in South Taranaki by A.B.Chappell NORTH AND SOUTH. In only a limited sense is Taranaki one continuous area on the missionary map. Except that North and South meet at the mountain, hingeing upon it as they swing in their respective radii of a shared sector of a circle, they are fundamentally separate. The mountain was as much tapu (sacred) as any other, and to give it a wide berth on the landward side—it ran down close to the shore on the seaward side— was so much a habit that, except on occasions not always pleasant, there was little intercourse. There is hint enough in this habit to point the path of separate investigation by the historian. Of the response of North Taranaki to the approaches of the missionary a great deal has boon written. Not enough, maybe; nor wholly authoritative, maybe: but the tale has taken shape. Mr W. H. Skinner, of New Plymouth, has placed future writers under a welcome debt by his unearthing: of much authentic detail. In "The Gospel 'Comes to Taranaki: a glimpse of heroic beginnings'' he has once more added to that debt. Reference here to this product of his careful pen may usefully serve to direct attention to the fact that the missionary history of North Taranaki is being steadily compiled. To make the kindred, but different, developments of 'South Taranaki as well known is surely worthwhile. The same significant fact is met on the threshold of the two stories: it is the pioneering part played by wholly voluntary Maori agency to give the Gospel to the Maori people. The introductory impact was communicated by the white missionary: the new religion was his religion, not the Maori's; the God revealed was the white man's, not the Maori's; the commended way of life was the missionary's, of a sort remote from the Maori's. Yet soon, remarkably soon, after the impact, it was the Maori, not the missionary, that was most vigorously spreading the spiritual and moral revolution. This is well told in the late Rev. T. G. Hammond's story of South Taranaki, "In the Beginning," the chief hero of which is Wiremu Neira (baptised William Naylor). Father Hammond's telling of the tale will remain classic in its breadth of sympathy, depth of insight, loftiness of ideal and robustness of common sense. His knowledge of the Maori mind was unsurpassed, and therefore his interpretation of the Maori reaction to the Christian evangel was trustworthy to a degree seldom equalled in a Pakeha expositor. His long acquaintance with events and persons in the missionary story made him a veritable encyclopedia of fact. Where correction or qualification is necessary, the reason exists in his lack of access to official records and reports; their availability since he published "In the Beginning" and other books enables a subsequent writer, knowing him intimately, to supplement his account. Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Publication #1(4) 1942 Page 4 Early Mission Days in South Taranaki by A.B.Chappell HEROISM OF WIREMU NEIRA. Of William Naylor he was a profound admirer, especially of him as "the first evangelist to the Maoris of South Taranaki.'' How this honourable title was earned merits clear recall. Somewhere about 1837, according to traditions preserved by the Maoris of South Taranaki, a company of freed men were permitted by their northern Ngapuhi conquerors to return from Hokianga to the Hawera district in order to induce the southerners to look favourably on Christianity.