1 CONTENTS Preface The Land Story Reference and Background Material The People Story Sydenham Methodist Church and Its Predecessors Lower High Street Bible Christian Church Beckenham Methodist Church Bibliography 2 PREFACE The Methodist Church of New Zealand has asked each Parish to examine its Land Story. We were to trace the history of the properties we have and the way the land was acquired. The Parish was grateful that Pat Greening was prepared to undertake this task. This work has been done in considerable detail reflecting diligence and sensitivity. We realised this was only Part I of ‘Our Story’ and that we also needed to record something of our past in terms of people and places. In a work of this nature it is always a problem deciding how much to include and how much to leave out. Inevitably some will say, ‘They haven’t mentioned such-and-such or so-and-so.’ For this reason it was decided to use names very sparingly, mentioning only key figures who could scarcely be omitted. Our aim was to tell a story rather than produce an archival document or definitive history which could have become cluttered up with long lists of nams of office-bearers or others who featured to a greater or less degree in the life of the Church. This story is simply intended to record landmarks in the church’s history and to recall something of the corporate life and activities of the various centres of worship available to the early residents of Beckenham - centres which contributed to the amalgam which has finally come together on the land which Pat Greening wrote about. We hope the story will bring a nostalgic smile to the faces of many of our older members. Those of us who have come to the district more recently will perhaps delight in being reminded of identical experiences which we enjoyed in our younger days in churches many miles from Beckenham. For our young people we hope this will give them an understanding of what it was like in those pre-TV days when most of our religious, social, cultural and recreational activity was centred on our local church. As we drew together the strands of our story we obtained information from the works listed in the Bibliography but we have relied mainly on the personal recollections of Isabel Butler (Sydenham), Joan Beaumont (Lower High Street), and Eric Young (Beckenham), and the earlier history which Shirley Purves recorded for our Jubilee in 1978. If we have succeeded in adding some interesting flesh to the bare bones of history, it is largely thanks to their valuable contributions. I am particularly grateful to Fred Brooker who has so ably woven together the strands of the People Story, collated the material and the photographs, and brought the project to a very satisfactory conclusion. My thanks also to Graham McHarg who took over of the binding of the booklet at no cost. Maxwell A. Hornblow November 1993 Minister 3 THE LAND STORY About a thousand years ago the Maori first came to live in New Zealand. They found it a bounteous and hospitable land, and empty of any human settlement. The Maori very quickly adapted to life in their new surroundings. There was an abundance of food to eat and trees and flax for shelter and clothing. They were a fearless and warlike race who lived in fortified villages usually on high ground. 4 Because of its colder climate, the South Island was less favoured by the Maori, and attracted fewer settlements than in the North Island. However there were large pas at Kaikoura, Kaiapohia, Koukourarata, (Port Levy), and Taumutu, and small pas in many of the bays round the peninsula. 5 In December 1642, Abel Tasman sighted the New Zealand coast near Hokitika, turned and sailed northwards, searching for a suitable anchorage. His stay in Golden Bay ended abruptly when three of his men were murdered by a canoe of Maori. For several days they encountered bad weather and later were unable to land because of the rocky shores and the sight of more natives. Less than a month after sighting New Zealand, Abel Tasman sailed away, disappointed by the apparently hostile attitude of the weather and natives. And no European eye had yet seen the future Province of Canterbury. 6 One hundred and twenty seven years later in 1769, Captain James Cook rediscovered our islands. His orders were to observe the transit of Venus from the Island of Tahiti. He was given further secret orders to sail south from Tahiti and investigate the jagged bit of coastline that Abel Tasman named New Zealand. The ‘Endeavour’ left England on 26th August 1768, Tahiti on 13th July 1769 and New Zealand was sighted on 7th October, nearly three months later. Captain Cook spent nearly six months exploring arid circumnavigating the islands. He named geographical features after his friends and the crew and sometimes after interesting events on the journey. Cook’s journey along the Canterbury coast was made well to the east and he didn’t see any of the Maori settlements or their inhabitants. 7 Cook also had problems with bad weather, taking a full three weeks to cover the last thirty miles of eastern Northland and double Cape Maria van Dieman. Twice he was able to careen the ship and scrape her sides. On 26th March 1770, the ‘Endeavour’ left Ship’s Cove and sailed away to the nor’west. Twenty three years after Cook’s discovery of New Zealand, the first sealing ship came to our waters. Soon numerous sealers were operating and so great was the slaughter that within thirty years the seal skin trade had collapsed. Before 1800 it was discovered that thousands of whales lived in the waters around New Zealand. Whaling ships soon abounded in the southern oceans, and the Bay of Islands became their main New Zealand base. The whaling trade petered out when the depleted pods migrated to the Indian Ocean. 8 From the time of Cook it was known that New Zealand had an abundance of timber and flax. In 1794 the first trading ship came to this country specifically for such a cargo. In course of time a lucrative trade developed with Sydney merchants. It is unfortunate that the visits of the whalers and traders, usually did more harm than good to the Maori. A highly intelligent race, they quickly learned, and suffered by, some of the white man’s ways. The Rev’d Samuel Marsden was appointed chaplain to the Port Jackson penal colony in 1794. During the following years, he became interested in and befriended the fine looking, tattooed New Zealanders who were often seen in Sydney. 9 He was also much disquieted by the stories of exploitation of Maori sailors by unscrupulous sea captains, and of the unsavoury influence by ships’ crews on the Maori population in general. He finally managed to obtain official permission to visit New Zealand and on Christmas Day 1814 he conducted the first service of Christian worship in this country, at Ohai in the Bay of Islands. With the encouragement of Samuel Marsden, the Rev’d Samuel Leigh came to New Zealand in 1822 and began the first Weslyañ Mission in Northland. Although he spent less than two years in New Zealand, Samuel Leigh laid solid foundations on which the later missionaries built a lively and successful Church. During the following years, many undesirable white men came to New Zealand, along with the missionaries and honest traders. Escaped convicts from New South Wales and deserters from whaling ships brought nothing but harm to the Maori. In 1833 James Busby was sent from Sydney as British Resident, to maintain law and order amongst the white men and to protect the Maori from unscrupulous adventurers. Without police or militia to enforce his authority, he had an impossible task and the Governor of New South Wales consistently ignored his repeated requests for help. 10 Meanwhile, other countries were looking enviously at New Zealand. In 1837, Charles de Thierry landed at Hokianga with the intention of making himself sovereign chief of New Zealand. Busby’s report on the situation finally roused Britain to set about making New Zealand a Crown Colony. At the end of January 1840 Lieut-Governor William Hobson arrived at the Bay of Islands. He had been sent by the British Government as consul, with power to negotiate with the native chiefs for a cession of sovereignty over part or all of their territory. During the following week, Busby helped Hobson prepare the treaty. On 5 February a large crowd of Maori and Pakeha assembled to hear and discuss the contents of the treaty. The next day the first of the Maori chiefs signed the “Magna Carta of New Zealand” and Britain officially took responsibility for the new colony. The Treaty of Waitangi has been called the Magna Carta of the Maori people. In New Zealand strong tribes had conquered weaker ones; throughout the world strong nati.ons often won and held new lands by conquest; yet here was Britain promising a small, brave, but mostly unarmed people that they could remain in peaceful possession of their lands. 11 In 1837, the New Zealand Company was incorporated in London for the purpose of the orderly settlement of the country with approved immigrants from a cross—section of English society During the next ten years, the Company transported many ship— loads of settlers to the planned settlements of Wellington (1840), New Plymouth (1841) and Nelson (1842) Because Otago and Canterbury were both church— sponsored ventures, the Company could claim only indirect involvement in these two schemes.