1814-1853 - The Missionary Register [Sections relating to New Zealand.] - 1847 - Church Missionary Society. Northern District, Middle District, p 320-328

The Station has been much defaced by the troops. Two houses have been burnt down, and another much torn to pieces, beside other damage. But these are minor evils compared with the demoralizing effect which the sad example of the soldiers has had upon our Natives with whom they have come in contact. Some have given up even attending the ordinances of Religion, while those, whose outward conduct as professed Christians may be considered decent, manifest a great lukewarmness about the one thing needful. There are a few to be found, who, in the midst of many temptations, have held fast their integrity.

From the best calculation we can make, the Natives have lost from the commencement, including Kororarika, 160 men. We are thankful to be able to inform you that none of those scenes of secret murder, as an "utu" (payment) for relatives who have fallen in battle, a thing we so much dreaded, have taken place.

Formerly, in times of war, many were killed on the road; small parties being

dropped upon in the night and destroyed. I asked a Chief how it was that not one, so far as we had heard, had been treacherously killed in the war with the English. He said that the Natives had learned better: consequently many unprotected and innocent Native and European lives have been spared. Let us look on which side we will, we see and hear of the influence of the Gospel, and have great reason to thank God and take courage.

We thankfully record the goodness and faithfulness of God toward us in this season of trial. Not a hair of our heads has been suffered to fall to the ground; and although, in some cases, from the excitement caused by the war, some of our people have not attended so strictly to religious duties as we could have wished, yet in no period have we found the Natives living around us more respectful. The Congregations on Lord's Days have varied from 150 to 180.

Divine Service on the Lord's Day has been as well attended as we could expect under the circumstances of the case, and we have some cause for thankfulness that things are no worse. On the week-days I have imparted instruction to the Natives at their dwellings, and have attended to those who have come to Tepuna to read the Scriptures, or to be otherwise instructed. Archdeacon H. Williams, on one occasion, administered the Lord's Supper to 21 Natives.

The present state of the Natives is such as to call for great exertion, on the part of the Missionaries and Catechists, in visiting them at their villages, attending to Schools, and affording them spiritual instruction. If left to themselves, we have no hope of their improvement, but every reason to fear they will fall away.

At the Kerikeri the Church Service is read morning and evening on the Lord's Day, and catechetical instruction is afforded to the Natives who attend. Mrs. Kemp continues to give instruction to the native girls, and the other females who visit the Station. The Lord's Supper has been administered twice during the year, and five infants baptized, by the Rev. R. Burrows. We have to lament the cold indifference which is manifested by many toward their spiritual improvement. They appear to rest satisfied with the form of godliness, without seeking for its saving and sanctifying influence on their souls.

The Natives at the villages of Takou, Waiaua, and the Ti, have been visited, and religious instruction afforded them: on the Lord's Day the Church Service is read at these places. After the Morning Service, the Catechism and reading of the Scriptures are attended to by the adult Natives and children.

I am thankful that the Natives in connection with us have not taken any part in the war, but have remained quiet at their own residences.

Our Services have been regularly attended. The Native Congregations have been very good during the whole year, and numbers are now cultivating on the Society's land, immediately adjoining the Settlement. The Services at Kororarika were

resumed on Lord's Day, the 18th of March. There has been a good attendance of both Natives and Europeans.

The Native Girls' School at Paihia has been progressing in a pleasing manner. During the last month there has been much illness among the children, several having been afflicted with dysentery. Three have died in the School; and one little girl was removed by her parents, and died on the following day. There have been 50 children residing in the School, and 7 have attended as day-scholars.

In consequence of the disturbed state of the country I have not been able to visit the out-posts so regularly as I could have wished. At Wangarura, Wangarei, and Wangaroa, I found the people under great excitement from the political state of the country around. It was distressing to witness the great indifference to religious duties in these once promising districts. The God of this world appears at present to have the dominion.

From the departure of the forces at the end of October to the close of the war in January our Settlement was quiet; but the Natives about us, who were not actively engaged either with or against the Government, were in a state of excitement. After the proclamation of pardon by our present Government to all Natives who had been in arms against Her Majesty, provided they would return quietly to their homes, our people began to settle down and attend to their cultivations: they also became more regular in their attendance at Church, and began to manifest a desire for instruction. Our Adult Schools, both Sunday and week-day, which had been well nigh forsaken, began to assume their former state of order and tranquillity, which has continued, with little interruption, to the present time.

In comparing the Natives in connection with this Station with the Natives in connection with other Stations, we have no reason to complain; but the sad consequence of the late war has been to lower the force of religious feeling among them all, and to make them much more careless in their domestic habits. Some have gone out from us, and made it manifest that they were not of us; others have backslidden, but we trust are not forsaken; while in nearly the whole of our Christian Natives there is a manifest want of those fruits of the Spirit which are the evidences of that Spirit's work upon the heart.

The average attendance at School in the Settlement has been, on the Lord's Day, 60, and on the weekday, 35--all adults.

The New Zealanders, as a people, are nominally Christian. There are many who still turn a deaf ear to the voice of the Gospel; but to all has that Gospel been preached, and the great majority have professedly received it. There is, alas! a lamentable ignorance among a vast number of those who have been received into the Church by Baptism; but they have the Scriptures in their hands, and many are able to read them, and have long enjoyed the privilege of hearing them explained. The Native Teachers, although many of them are very deficient in Scripture Knowledge, are even now made extensively useful, and may, in a few years, be made much more so.

Our Natives are sowing a large quantity of wheat, and the contrast between this season and this time last year is very pleasing. Instead of seeing them pass to and fro, as then, with their instruments of war, we behold them with the implements of husbandry. Their attendance at Church and School is also much better, and, upon the whole, our Christian Natives are behaving well.

Soon after our arrival here, in March 1845, Prayer and Catechetical Meetings were established, and a Testament Class has since been commenced: these are held weekly, in addition to the Lord's-Day duties. On the 22d of March 1846 the Lord's Supper was administered to fifty-five Communicants, most of them tried characters. We have four Candidates for Baptism. The population of Kaikohi is at present, including the Mawe people, about 370 souls. These have for the most part been preserved, through the goodness of God in the formation of this Station, from plunging into the horrors of war.

Much has been done to establish a regular Day School; but although we

have on the books the names of 113 children, only 36 can be said to be in attendance: some weeks ago, the number was even below 30. The few, whose attendance is most regular, are beginning to make a little progress. Mrs. Davis has seven children in a Testament Class: this is a small beginning, but we are thankful for it.

The out-posts, with the exception of Mangakahia, are in a bad state, having all been involved in the war. The Ohaeawae People are residing at Otaua. Of them there is a slight gleam of hope, as they appear to have returned, in a measure, to their religious observances: they are now preparing to return to their place. The people of Otaua are, with the exception of their Teacher, and two or three others, in a wild thoughtless state. At Hikurangi, where the Chief Heke now resides, there is scarcely the form of Public Worship. Heke has been exhorted to allow Divine Service to be recommenced among his people; but he has put it off until they shall be more settled, and peace more permanently established, when, he says, he shall build a Place of Worship, and live quietly.

Jan. 1, 1846 --Yesterday I returned from Kerikeri, where I had been to get something to clothe our naked schoolchildren. The School goes on well: we have upward of 50 on the books, and their attendance is pretty regular. This School, with a Congregation of 150, and the attendance of about 40 at meetings for religious instruction, are the only bright spots we have in the dark horizon.

Jan. 12 --I met about 40 of my people at our usual Monday meeting for religious conversation. These meetings, I believe, have often been beneficial, and I hope to keep them up. There was much seriousness manifested to-day, and I believe that many of the people are under the teaching of the Holy Ghost.

Jan. 18 --Our people were, I believe, nearly all at Service: they amounted to nearly two hundred, beside the schoolchildren. I did not see those on the outside; but I should think there were 50 who could not get in. Our building is a School-house, and is much too small.

Here rests in peace the dust of the late faithful Teacher, Samuel Moke. I could not but mourn over the spot which contained the sacred deposit: he rests from his labours, and is doubtless blessed. At different times he came to me at Waimate, to say the people were so wicked that he must leave them; and then, having been cheered up, he would return and enter anew on his arduous labours, and in those labours he remained faithful unto death.

Up to the present time we have received no insult; but their wild native songs and play make me feel much. In their former state we expected these things; but now they are truly distressing. Can these surely be the people who once attended so earnestly, and with so much childlike simplicity, to the Means of Grace? who were in the habit of coming to our houses, and some of them many miles, to solicit instruction? who would accompany us on the road for miles, after leaving their places, in order to lengthen out the word of Christian counsel? who pressed forward so earnestly for Baptism, and with whom I have so often partaken of the Lord's Supper? and who, rather than infringe on God's holy day, were in the habit of preparing their food on Saturday? Yes, awful to relate! many of them are the very people.

June 20, 1846 --One of my Natives, own sister to the late Broughton Ripi, was buried to-day. She appeared to possess a firm faith in Christ. I think I never committed a body to its original dust with a stronger hope of a joyful resurrection.

The war has been, and still is, a sore trial to us. We have, however, been greatly blessed, as but few of our Natives have joined in it; but, more or less, their minds have been greatly excited. They have been fully engaged in digging kauri 1 gum, which has done them great good in a temporal point of view. To the continued excitement we have opposed strict attention to the Means of Grace, weekly inculcating on the minds of our Teachers the importance of keeping up the attention of the people to Divine Worship. This has not been in vain, for the Means of Grace have never, I think, been more prized, either in or out of the Settlement than during the past year.

Our Natives have grown a large quantity of fine wheat, and have among them twenty steel mills to grind it. They have also horses, cows, and sixty sheep, and the price which they this year obtained for their wool so pleased them, that I think they will attend to the rearing of sheep. As the Natives become interested in these matters they are not likely to seek amusement in war. We had a good example of this a few months back. During the height of the war at the Bay of Islands, two influential Chiefs, one from Hokianga and one from Wangape, came to stir up our people at Waro to go and join Heke. They all assembled to hear; but one of our Chiefs said to the assembly, "Do we not possess horses, &c.? Why should we not enjoy the privileges which we possess? If we go to fight we shall go against our own good." And when the principal young Chief saw that his father, or uncle, was wavering, he said, "I have three children, and my father shall not go: I will not allow my children's land, &c. to be endangered." This had the desired effect, and not one of three hundred went.

On the Lord's Day we have alternately performed Divine Service in the Settlement three times--twice for Natives and once for Europeans; and also with the Natives in the villages.

Two sick and dying adults have been admitted to Baptism during the year, and 48 infants. We have about 40 adult Candidates for Baptism, who are examined at stated times.

We have had a daily School for infants and larger children; and, notwithstanding it has suffered much through the fever which attacked many of them, and also from the distance from which many of them had to fetch their food, much good, we trust, has been done, for many of them can read, write, and cipher in the first rules of arithmetic. We are now endeavouring to draw out local resources, in order to carry on the School on a more efficient footing.

We have had a Native Sunday School, which, with the other Means of Grace, both on the Lord's Day and on week-days, has been so attended as to afford us much encouragement.

Our Native Teachers continue punctually to meet at the Settlement every Saturday, and pursue their duties cheerfully: we have reason to hope that much good is effected through their services on the Lord's Day.

Our week-day time has been occupied in the various duties of the Settlement, in visiting the sick, and in taking journeys among the Natives residing at a distance. In this way the Natives of the North Cape, Herekino, Parakerake, and Taipa, have been visited.

During the last few months Mr. Puckey's time, during the week, has been chiefly employed in finishing the Church: this was absolutely necessary in order to save it from premature decay. A few months' more labour will completely finish it.

I was much pleased with the state of the place: every thing appeared quiet and in good order, being far removed from the scene of action. The Native Teachers, so necessary to the regular and active carrying out of the Mission duties, are under good discipline.

Feb. 28 --Natives have been coming in from all quarters, so that the Archdeacon has been all day examining them. In the evening I assisted.

March 1: Lord's Day --I read Prayers, and the Archdeacon preached. The Church was nearly full. After Service the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was administered to 184 Communicants. Between the Morning and Evening Services the Archdeacon met the Teachers.

Sept. 23, 1845 --I went up Kaitaia Valley to see Wareparoa, who is in a dying state, and was much pleased with his conversation. I felt much for him, as he was living alone without a neighbour: he told me, however, that he was not so much alone as when he lived at his other place, where there were more people, for the Natives did not visit him; "but now," he said, "I am in the way of several Native Teachers, who call upon me and speak a word to me." The old man used to work to supply us with food when we first came, and has always been very well behaved: he is a Chief from the South, and was captured by the Aupouri, who have been so kind to him that he has never tried to escape. I saw he was near death. He sat up, and said, looking me in the face, "I am drawing toward the evening of life. Christ is the way, and what remains for me but to walk in it." The Liturgy was lying on his pillow--a well-worn book. Knowing that he could not read, I asked if any one had prayers with him. He said, "I have had morning and evening prayers myself, as long as I was able; but now I have to pray a little at a time." I knew that, although he could not read, yet his Liturgy was of great value to him, as it served to remind him of what was in it. This has been the case with many pious Natives, who could never read. I asked Wareparoa if he understood what the prayer of the heart was. He replied, "I do." He then quoted several passages of Scripture very correctly; one of them being, The night is far spent, the day is at hand, &c. He said, "I now remember what Joseph," a Native Teacher, "said to me a long time ago--Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him." He continued, "I remember what you said to me about our bodies being but temporary sheds, made of earth -- 2 Cor. v. I." "Yes," I said; "and you are now feeling that the wind takes away one piece of rush and one stick after another till the shed is no longer habitable." He then repeated the sentence, to shew his full assent to it. I spoke to him on the subject of Baptism, if he should live a few days longer, as I wished to visit him again. He said he had long wished to be baptized. On taking leave of him, I reminded him that the great word of the Bible was, God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life, and that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. I was now outside the hut, when he again said, "Christ is the way, and what else have I to do but to walk in it?" I was delighted with this repetition of what he had before stated, as I felt assured that he had laid hold upon the hope set before him in the Gospel.

Sept. 29 --I again went to visit Wareparoa. In the distance I saw a company of people near his hut, Christian Natives, who had assembled to be present at his baptism. On my approach they carried him out, on some clean fern, to the river side; where, after a little conversation with the Native Teacher of the valley, who had visited him in his affliction, and with the dying man, I read the Service, and baptized him, naming him Charles Faulkner. I concluded with the Visitation Service. I believe that the

ordinance was made a blessing to him. The Christian Natives present seemed to rejoice much that their old friend was admitted into Christ's "visible Church militant upon earth." I afterward went further up the valley, to see some more sick people; and on my return to Wareparoa

I found that Himeona, our old Native Teacher, had come to visit his dying relative, and was praying by his side, using part of the Service for the Visitation of the Sick. Himeona remained with him till he died, and then came to tell us that the day after he was baptized he was praying to God, and at the conclusion of his prayer died instantly.

Jan. 4, 1846: Lord's Day --Old Mahia arrived early, and evinced great earnestness to be admitted to the ordinance of Baptism. I spoke to him faithfully, and so likewise did three of our Native Teachers. After due examination we had Service, when I baptized him by the name of Williams, and Hill's wife, an old woman, by the name of Martha. A great solemnity pervaded the whole assembly. I felt that the Lord was indeed in our midst. I also baptized five infants. After Service, Hill observed that all the words of the Baptismal Service appeared new to him, and that he felt as if he were baptized over again. I spent a happy day with this simple people.

March 5, 1846 --I went to Pukewhau to visit an old man, nearly blind, but a warm-hearted Christian. I asked him what he thought was the greatest word in the Bible. After a short pause he answered, "The love of God as manifested in the death of Christ."

April 6 --I went to Parakerake, and visited a person who had been ill with the fever. I found him in a low state, with his Prayer-book in his hand. One of my Natives, having been to see him before me, had pointed out to him appropriate Psalms to read.

Jan. 24 --I visited poor Reihana (Richard) Riki, and talked with him about Jesus Christ as the Saviour of sinners. Just before I entered the sick room, I heard a voice within: it was Simeon, one of our Teachers, reading the Service for the Sick in a very solemn manner. On my entrance, Reihana made a great effort to speak, and said, "My heart is stedfastly fixed upon Jesus: yes, it is." He asked me to give him some medicine which was in a bottle by his bedside. I gave it to him, and said that Jesus was better medicine than that. He assented by a slight motion of the eyebrow; but never spoke after what I have recorded above. I wonder what those, who say that there has been no good done among the Natives, would have thought, could they have been present at the death-bed of Reihana. The power of the Gospel is visible in every place to which I go. I see a vast change since the year 1819, when I first arrived in New Zealand. Reihana died in the forenoon: none of us thought his death was so near.

Jan. 31 --I went out this afternoon to see Turuhira, a sick woman, and found her very ill. I asked her what she thought of death. She replied, that she thought of it with joy; that Christ had gone to prepare a place for her, and that He was ready to receive her.

Feb. 4 --I went to see a poor woman who has been dangerously ill. I found her still very ill, but her mind stedfastly fixed upon Christ. I exhorted her to be constant in prayer. She could not speak much, her malady being principally in her throat; but she managed to tell me that Christ was to her the way, the truth, and the life. She had not taken any kind of food for a fortnight.

Jan. 11, 1846: Lord's Day --I went to Poneke, about eight miles distant; but did

not get there till the Morning Service was nearly ended, owing to a bridge having broken down. I arrived just in time to hear the concluding words of the Native Teacher's sermon, which he had had from us the day before. I sat behind the house, and could hear all that was said within. I was much pleased to hear the simple manner in which he explained the duty of parents to their children. He said, "God has given us children--we have dedicated them to Him in baptism--we must not let them run wild, as they are at this moment, playing a little way off: we must put a bridle in their mouths to keep them from going astray. We cannot expect any blessing from the Lord if we let our children run wild." At the conclusion they sang a hymn, and although it was not exactly correct, according to the music, yet I thought it was very sweet; much of the harshness of their voices being taken off in coming through the raupo of which their house was built.

Feb. 7, 1846 --In the forenoon I was engaged in copying out multiplication tables for the School, not having type enough to print them. They were taken away by the Natives as fast as I could draw them out. I attended School with them in the afternoon, and was glad to see that they were improving: they complained much that they had not attended to that branch of education before.

March 12 --I employed Philip Patiki, a Native, to print a great number of copies of the multiplication and pence tables. [Mr. W. G. Puckey.

In January the "Hannah" Schooner, laden with oil, came ashore upon the western side of the island opposite our Settlement, when the Natives, after burying four of the seamen, took all care of the oil for the owners; and have since given it up on being paid for their trouble in rolling the casks eight miles.

On the 11th of March, H. M. Sloop "Osprey" came ashore at Herekino; when our Natives rendered all the assistance that was required, and supplied the whole crew with vegetable food during the eight weeks they were on shore attending to the stores.

Two wrecks have lately considerably occupied the minds of the Natives-- a whaling Schooner, and H. M. Sloop "Osprey." It was indeed a great source of temptation to them when the Schooner was washed ashore: their fingers tingled to appropriate the things to their own use; but an inward principle of right restrained them. Nearly 100 tons of oil were recovered.

After the wreck of the "Osprey," some of the Heathen Natives behaved very ill in stealing lead from the Brig. It was, however, all returned; and our Christian Natives behaved in a very becoming and honourable manner.

We have to lament the lukewarmness of our people in spiritual things. Many of them possess great knowledge of the Scriptures; but they seem to be quite strangers to secret prayer: and while that is the case, we must fear, that while they have a form of godliness they are strangers to its inward power. In my School, which I commenced at Otumoetai fifteen months ago, I have had much to contend with from the rude habits of the children, and the indifference of their parents. I have been enabled, however, to bring them into subjection, although it only lasts during the period of school-hours. In the Afternoon School at the Papa, under the charge of Mrs. Davies and Miss Baker, the children have made great progress in English, and repeat most distinctly a great many hymns, &c. My afternoons are occupied in administering medicine to the sick, of whom there are a great number. I endeavour to direct the minds of those who come to the only Physician who can heal their spiritual maladies.

Oct. 27, 1845 --A Native, who, a few years since, dug under my store and stole some spades, called on me to-day for conversation, and I had the satisfaction of presenting him, at his request, with a New Testament.

Nov. 2: Lord's Day --There were 160 present at Service this morning, when I baptized two infants and administered the Sacrament to 51 Natives. In the afternoon I preached in English, and again administered the Sacrament.