1895 - Wohlers, J. F. H. Memories of the Life of J.F.H. Wohlers - CHAPTER IX. THE BEGINNING AT RUAPUKE

       
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  1895 - Wohlers, J. F. H. Memories of the Life of J.F.H. Wohlers - CHAPTER IX. THE BEGINNING AT RUAPUKE
 
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CHAPTER IX. THE BEGINNING AT RUAPUKE.

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CHAPTER IX.

THE BEGINNING AT RUAPUKE.

AT last I was amongst the savages in New Zealand, whose language I did not yet even understand. Some were clothed in large English blankets, in which their athletic forms and graceful bearing looked as stately as the ancient Greeks in their robes. Most of them, however, wore clothes, and in some cases only ragged pieces of them, which were made of the thread of the so-called New Zealand flax woven with their own fingers. A short distance from the beach stood a village consisting of very low dwellings with doors which were barely two feet high and broad so that one could only crawl in on all fours. A little higher up there was another opening of the same size to let light and air in and stinks out. I was now taken to a house that was built in European fashion, and belonged to the absent chief, named Tuhawaiki (commonly called Bloody Jack), whom I had already met on Banks Peninsula. This princely dwelling was, however, only a rough cottage built of boards,

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with a thatched roof, and a door and two small square windows in the front. The interior consisted of two small bedrooms, in which the bedsteads were fashioned after those in a ship's cabin, and a lean-to which served as kitchen and dwelling-room. Seats there were none, but an old pail was turned upside down for me. The cottage was filled with people who belonged to the family of the chief and his household. A bed was allotted to me for my separate use, but I had to share the room with another. A few slept on the floor. Many slept on the flat ground in the kitchen. Roasted potatoes were lying all around close to them. And this was the chief's dwelling. In the huts of the common people it was still more miserable. If the prophecy could then have come to me that in twenty-five years all the people would be walking about washed and in clean European clothes, and would live in comfortable, cleanly-fashioned houses like respectable Europeans, I should not have been able to believe it.

You could only call the Maoris here savages, still they were no longer heathens. After long, apparently resultless, labours of the missionaries in the north, their teaching was at last taken to heart by the Maoris there, and they became, instead of dirty, loutish and cruel men, kind and orderly disciples of Christ. This created so great a revolution that the whole Maori people were affected by it, and the shock was felt to the furthermost end, and had results even in this far south. Then the Wesleyan missionary at Waikouaiti came on mission journeys to the south, and appointed baptized natives as teachers. A year after my arrival the Anglican Bishop of New Zealand (Dr. Selwyn) came here and also appointed baptized natives as teachers. Furthermore, travelling evangelists of both persuasions had already introduced both forms of Christian services. Accordingly I found Christian usages already in practice here. Besides Sunday and twice a week services, every morning and evening meetings for prayer were held, both by the Wesleyans and the Anglicans. As I attended these meetings and saw how and in what a babbling and thoughtless way the teachers read their lessons, and in what a thoughtless way the people conducted themselves, I thought, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious (really too

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much afraid of God). Still what more could be expected at the time. These forms of Christianity, although still without its spirit, had already effected an astonishingly large amount of good in them. They had already given up murder and cannibalisms, and especially all cruel and gross sins which had formerly existed amongst them as something quite common.

An Irishman lived here with his Maori wife (he himself was absent) and their son: the boy knew some English. I had been able to use him as interpreter; but I saw I could not effect much that way, and that it would be much more advisable to devote my whole time to learning the Maori language. For this I had now every opportunity. On my journey through Wellington I had already possessed myself of a Maori grammar, a translated English Prayer Book, and New Testament, and studied them on board ship. Here I could learn the pronunciation. A few here could read already, and these were always ready to sit by me and read with me in the New Testament, in which each of us read his verse in turn. I noticed the pronunciation carefully, and gladly allowed myself to be taught how to pronounce the words. At the same time, my ears got accustomed to understand the sound, for one may be able to read a language which one has learnt and understand nothing of it, when hearing the people, whose language it is, speak it. The organs of speech, moreover, must be practised before one can give the sounds their proper expression. The Maori says of such foreigners who speak their language, but not after their fashion, that they "bite their words."

When the Irishman (he was a Catholic) came back from his journey, he invited me to take up my residence in his house. This, however, I declined, not because he was a Catholic--for in our circumstances no difference of belief must be taken into consideration--but because I wished to be for a time in a house where nothing was spoken but Maori. He pressed me to take my meals in his house, to which he would call me when required. I accepted this, for where I was staying the preparation of the food was entirely wanting in cleanliness. There were three meals a day in the house of the Irishman. These consisted of fat

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seabirds (of which more hereafter), potatoes, and damper. The latter is a damp bread made out of flour and water, kneaded, without yeast, and baked in hot ashes. This method of life agreed with me well enough, for I was yet in my full strength, and had a healthy stomach, and I should gladly have shared the expense with him if I had been better supplied with money or had expectations of soon receiving remittances. I dare not remain long in the dwelling where I was, unless I wished to sink into the filthy ways of the Maori, and a missionary dare not do this. Soon after my arrival, I made the acquaintance of the then still young high chief Topi, who stood next in rank to Tuhawaiki--a friendly man, but a little unstable, so that one could not always rely upon him. He was kind enough to offer me a house, but I must not enter it where it stood. It was tapu--holy--because his first wife had died there, and, beside me, he dare not speak to anyone who was not of high birth. Those of high birth were superior to the tapu, because they were either holy themselves or else separated from the common people by the possession of a higher nature.

Superior Europeans, the class to which the missionaries belonged, were considered by the chieftain race as equal in birth to themselves, but they had to take care to preserve the respect of the chieftain race for themselves, for if they were despised by the upper classes still greater contempt was at once accorded to them by the common people. The house, which was only built in a lonely place for the sick woman to die in, in order that the dwelling house might not become tapu, had, therefore, to be removed and built again in another place, for which purpose Topi had already chosen one. This lay under a hill, by a little lake of fresh water, and was sheltered from the sea winds by a beautiful green bush (belonging to the order of veronica). The place pleased me much, as it was far enough removed from the Maori huts to be clear of their stinks and mess, and at the same time from thence one could reach all the villages of the island on the best roads.

In my time one used to hear people in Germany speaking of the dear heathen as if it would be a pleasure to live with such

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amiable people. But this is a great mistake. Wild heathen, in spite of their occasional good temper, and of the occasional noble disposition of the high chieftains, are a class of men sunk so low that they disgust one who has been brought up in Christian customs. They are so dirty in their whole method of life that they stink of it. Still, the servant is not higher than the master, and as the son of God, Jesus Christ, abased Himself to the lowest of mankind to lift them to a Christian life by His life, sufferings and death, and gave us lost sinners eternal life, so His servants in following Him must not shrink from what is disgusting. And when the heathen disgust us it is our duty to make them into men, after the image of God, so that one may love them.

Mr. Tuckett had promised to stop here on his return journey, and I must, therefore, make preparation to send a short report by him to Nelson, and send word whether a field for us four missionaries was to be found here. When I had visited the different villages with the natives, and looked into their population, I came to the conclusion that somewhere about two hundred people lived here, old and young. It is true a few of them were here only on a visit, but this made no difference, for it appeared that visitors often came here, which made this island so important. When I made inquiry about the inhabitants of the opposite coasts, on both sides of the strait, I was always told that there were only a very few, who lived in small, widely-scattered villages. It appeared to me, therefore, that only one missionary was necessary in this small population. It was further to be considered that if all four of us settled down here, we should be regarded with suspicion. I had not lived long amongst the people. As a single foreigner I was welcome; as a missionary I was indifferent to them. None of the already existing sects had any idea of placing themselves under my ministry, because I was neither an Anglican nor a Wesleyan. At no price would the natives part with any land on this island. Four of us would have required to cultivate a considerable piece to supply us with the necessary food, and the suspicion would at once have fallen upon us that we wished to obtain land surreptitiously. The slaughter of the English at the Wairau was long known of here, and was represented as if the

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Maoris has won a splendid conquest over land robbers. Under these circumstances I could not advise my brethren at Nelson to follow me.

A few weeks after he had examined the neighbourhood of Bluff Harbour, and that of the New and Jacob Rivers, Mr. Tuckett came back and landed at Ruapuke. He said that he had found a large plain in the south, but that the soil, with the exception of the swampy land on the banks of the great rivers, was not as fruitful as that in the neighbourhood of Otago. He had, therefore, decided upon that place as the starting point of the Scottish settlement, from which it might spread in all directions. He therefore requested the Maoris, who could speak, to come to Otago soon, and arrange the price of an agreed portion in open meeting.

The great plain in the south of the Middle Island of New Zealand resembles the plains of North Germany. On the banks of the great rivers there are strips of rich swampy land; the remainder consists of agricultural land. It is good soil when manured, but the present agriculturists (at the time when I write) will not undertake this as long as land is to be had which will bear without manure. The agricultural land, because there is more rain here than in Germany, is intersected by many streams, so that when it is once worked it would make good meadows, and there is no want of scattered woods. I lately saw in a statistical publication that the average yield of wheat over the whole of New Zealand is thirty and a-half bushels per acre. If a reckoning were made of the Otago division alone, the yield would be considerably higher. If they reckon the bushel at sixty pounds (and good wheat weighs more), and the acre at one hundred and sixty rods, German farmers may calculate the yield of New Zealand soil. It is true that so far only the best land has been worked, but nothing like the care is expended on the preparation of the soil that is devoted to it in well-conducted properties at Home.

In time the promised dwelling was built for me. It was fifteeen feet long and nine wide. The walls from the ground to the roof were four feet high, and the door of the house not quite

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so high. Walls and roof were thatched with freshly-plucked grass, and the whole looked liked a haystack. I was offered servants as well, but I knew well these would expect to be paid, and wages are much higher in New Zealand than in Germany. I therefore declined this courteously and served myself. Gifts of potatoes and fish I accepted gratefully. The most necessary cooking utensils I could get from the Irishman already named, who carried on something of a huckster's business.

My house was now a good settler's hut. When I was at home I was seldom alone. From daybreak till dusk my hut was always full of visitors. None came when it was dark, for they were all afraid in the dark, and I was sometimes asked if ghosts never troubled me at night. Many only came to lie lazily in my way. In time I had to courteously forbid this idle lying in my hut. Others who came to read the New Testament with me, or had something to say to me, I received in a friendly manner. The latter only came to tell me their dreams, or quite unimportant occurrences. Then I took a piece of paper and told them to speak slowly that I might understand it, and wrote their narratives down word for word. If there was a word or an expression which I did not understand I had it explained to me. At first they thought I was only scratching with a pen, but when I read it out to them at the end they were very much astonished that I could write as fast as a man could speak, whilst they have to draw for a long time before they can even make a letter. When the evening came I studied the language from these papers. If one goes to a people that has no literature (translations from foreign languages are not their own literature) to learn their language you must do so from narratives which are given by word of mouth. It may here be remarked that one can write the Maori language faster than a European one because no syllables have more than two letters. If a syllable does not consist of only one vowel it must end with a vowel with not more than one consonant before it. The "ng" and "wh" have only the effect of a single consonant. In dipthongs which run together when spoken slowly you hear the sound of two syllables. The language has five vowels as the German has, and ten consonants "h," "f," "m," "n," "ng," "p,"

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"r," "t," "w," "wh," therefore ten times five and five are fifty-five sounds (formerly not so many as the syllables "wo," "wu," "who," "whu" were wanting). The words, however, can be quite long enough.

Learning a foreign language was never a great difficulty to me. I could consequently now make myself understood by the people. If anyone should here remark that I cannot even yet write the German language well, I might reply that for thirty-four years I have had no conversation with German people, and in that time something may well be forgotten (the translator may perhaps be permitted here to remark that it is thirty-five years since he left Germany, and can fully understand what the narrator feels), and, furthermore, that I only learnt to speak the high German a few years before I left Germany. My old head now gets so tired with daily teaching spelling, reading, writing and arithmetic in the school in English that even with better knowledge I cannot always avoid making mistakes.

Now I may remark that the Maoris for fifty years past were still in the stone age, and that, therefore, many advantages and occupations of civilised peoples were unknown to them, their language, therefore, could have no word to represent them. You cannot, as in German, manufacture a suitable word out of the German language, and one is therefore often weak and helpless in translating, although the Maori language is enriched with many conceptions and ideas. In translating the Bible this is less troublesome because the Bible suits all peoples. As far as earlier conceptions require, the language supplies any idea with great accuracy, in some things even greater so than the German. To mention one instance only, the German language leaves an uncertainty whether, in the case of the pronoun "we," the person addressed is in, or excluded--the Maori language never. I have wondered that even German authors, who certainly work with thoroughness, as well as others, copying foreigners, represent the Maori language as so helpless that it is obliged to form a plural by the prefix of a meaningless particle "nga." But "nga" is by no means a meaningless particle, but the quite plain and proper plural article, and as a plural article as grammatical as that of the

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German language, and one which the English language does not possess.

I began now to hold meetings in the Maori villages, which I visited from time to time, one after another, These consisted of short extempore prayers, the reading of a chapter, and explanatory remarks. I naturally did not refer to sectarian differences. This was more easily avoided when the whole village community consisted of one sect. It was more difficult when they were mixed; still, it generally happened that the gathering consisted mostly of a few of both persuasions. Sometimes I was asked which of the two Churches (the Anglican or the Wesleyan) was the best. When I replied that they were both churches of Jesus Christ, I received the answer that they knew that well; it was the same as if a man had two wives: but they wanted to know which was the head, which the subordinate wife. Those of the Anglican persuasion maintained their Church was to be compared with the head wife, the Wesleyans with that of the subordinate one, which these naturally contested, and even maintained that theirs was the better and most beloved, on which some rude Anglicans replied that theirs was a "he wahine Paremu" (a concubine). Further, I was asked, as the Anglicans had more prayers in their prayer-book than the Wesleyans, which was in the right; or, if the Anglicans assembled one evening for school teaching, whilst on the same evening the Wesleyans had a sermon, which was right. Many questions about quite indifferent matters were asked. When I said these were matters of no importance, and they should trouble themselves more about their own sins and their own salvation, and through belief have Christ dwelling more in their hearts, this did not satisfy them at all. Instead of striving after holiness, they had much rather dispute about sectarian differences, in which they could let out their scorn for one another. They would thus become much more satisfied with themselves, and lust of the eye, lust of the flesh, and the pride of life have freer play than when living in the Word of God without sectarian disputes. These Church communities were, of course, not founded on convictions--the Maoris had, so far, no creeds, but entered on already-existing party lines.

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What a blessing it would be for missions if all Evangelical Missionary Societies would act in accordance with the principles of the London and North German ones, and refrain from introducing the old-existing historical differences amongst the heathen communities!

The contention that one must present the Churches of the Home Country in all the details of their constitution to the heathen, and endow them with the entire creeds, because otherwise in their development they would have to go through all the battles which the Churches at Home have had to fight, is quite a mistaken one. With strange peoples in future centuries quite different disputes will arise to those through which the Church of the Home Country has had to fight its way. There is only one battle common to them all and at all times--that is, the battle against the worldliness of their members. This is not to be driven out with Church regulations, but by a loving heart that seeks the lost, and a true, hearty promulgation of the simple Gospel as Jesus and the Apostles did it.

If the missionaries of the different Missionary Societies could work in districts separated from one another, the differences of opinion of the Churches would do less harm to the conversion of the heathen. The meeting of the missionaries of different sects, in our disturbed time and in a time of so great enterprise, and with the ever-spreading expansion of missions, is not to be avoided. We read at the end of Daniel: "Seal up the writing till the last time, and many will come over and find great understanding." In the English Bible this sentence is thus translated: "Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased." I am not so learned as to be able to tell which translation is the more correct. If the English is the more correct, it would admittedly suit our time, when one can travel so quickly all over the world, when knowledge has already been much increased and is always being still further increased, so that we even use the lightning of heaven as our messenger. Why, then, should the great missionary work of our Heavenly King be so hindered with small and hair-splitting ideas, and the conversion of the heathen be maintained by old Church institutions? If only the converted are saved, it is all

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the same whether they get to heaven out of close, exclusive churches or out of free communities.

If, after the manner of the old settlers, I had sought earthly inconveniences in my hut, I should have soon found them in smoke and draughts. But I sought for no unnecessary unpleasantness in my life as a settler. I had brought strips of glass, made of spare pieces, from a glazier in Nelson, with me. With my handsaw, axe, and pocket knife, I made wooden frames in which I fastened the panes, not much larger than playing cards. Now I had windows, and was no longer troubled with draughts through the openings for light in the walls. Another opening which the builders had left for the smoke to issue was uncomfortable, as the prevailing wind blew into it, and blew back the smoke into the hut in a desperate manner. I had, therefore, to close this opening, and let the smoke find its way through the roof. This was more comfortable, but it had this disadvantage, that it made everything in the hut smoky. My woollen blankets, which were originally white, received a decidedly rusty-brown appearance. Now I cut a hole through the roof, and fastened upright poles into it after the form of a chimney, fastened sticks across them, and plastered my new chimney inside and out with clay. Then I lit a fire and went out to see the effect, and right enough the smoke went straight up from my chimney as it does in a civilised country. In time the grass on my walls dried up so much that the wind could blow through. I had then to take the grass away, fasten twigs on the walls, and then coat them with clay. There was another great trouble to overcome, my bed was always full of fleas which the dirtiness of the Maoris daily brought me. When I made my bed I could see them exercising in it, horse and foot; whoever has seen fleas en masse will understand what I mean. I had, therefore, to make a division wall, so that neither Maoris nor their fleas could come into my bed chamber. The whole house was fifteen feet long and nine feet broad. At one end I made the bedroom, nine feet by four feet; in the other, where the door was, I made the kitchen, nine feet by five feet; in the middle, the reception room, nine feet by six feet. The walls were carefully plastered with clay to make them flea-tight.

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Then I got a few boards (I got them from the Irishman who used to go round trading) and made steps and doors. The latter were not much more than four feet high, because the side walls were so low. I had previously made a table and chair. When the Maoris came, and they had finished their talk, I told them in a friendly way to go, to break them of their lazy habit of sitting in my house. Then I took my broom, swept the room, and strewed fresh sand. This was done three or four times in a day, and I achieved a certain amount of cleanliness. I could not manage the warming of my house for a long time. At last, in my wanderings through the island, I discovered some flat pieces of rock which had been loosened from granite blocks. I hewed these carefully into squares, made a sledge, and hauled them home. Then with clay I built them into the shape of a stove. Now my settlement in a comfortable little dwelling was effected.

When Spring came I had to think of making a garden, for the presents of potatoes ceased to be made. In my simplicity, as I gave the people credit for more kindness of heart than they had, I did not at first know that the Maoris expected for their gifts a return of still greater ones. It happened once that a man brought me, quite unexpectedly, a big pig for killing. It was very opportune, and as I thought he brought it out of kindness and love for me, I was very much pleased. Later, the man demanded a return of more than the pig was worth, and I was obliged to give it. Pigs at that time were only very small, and as they mostly fed on worms which the foul seaweed bred on the beach, they were of a very fishy flavour. This, however, did not trouble me much, for when one only has rough food, and not much of that, taste adapts itself to circumstances.

I enclosed, therefore, a place for my garden close to my hut. The Maoris were astonished at my labour--such a handsome woven fence they had not yet seen--and, therefore, willingly gave me potatoes to plant. When the Maoris who had a voice in the matter came back from the land sale in Otago, they brought me, from Mr. Tuckett, vegetable and flower seeds for my garden, as well as some coffee, tea, sugar, and wine. First I will tell about

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the seeds of vegetables only. Peas, cabbages, turnips, and carrots would grow; the others died, because of the cold, wet Spring air, caused by the cooling of the cold southern sea water. Of the flower seeds only the hardier sorts would stand. But these were flowers of the most conspicuous kind. Looking out of my window in Summer you might have seen a variegated bed of flowers. The Maoris were also astonished at this, and it was of assistance to elevate their minds, for the sense of beauty which, in a better bygone time they had possessed, had disappeared in later generations.

Concerning the wine, Mr. Tuckett wrote me that he sent it because I belonged to a persuasion that takes the sacrament in a spiritual manner externally, whilst it understands it in a spiritual manner internally. We were, however, far from prepared to take the Holy Supper at Ruapuke, but I was overjoyed to find that he was so broadminded as to honour those of another persuasion in this manner.

We now come back to Ruapuke. There were seven little villages, which all lay on the sea beach in the inlets all around the island. I visited these villages one after another on week days for devotional meetings, and always towards evening, when the people had finished their labours in the field.

When with time I became more fluent in the language, I began to hold divine service regularly on Sundays, and to preach in turns at every place every Sunday. The desire for Christian fellowship at that time was so weak that the people would not go from one village to another to hold a service in common. I tried to speak in a very simple manner, and to make my meanings clear by illustrations taken from their own life. In this manner, in time, I secured their attention; so far they had thought that serving God consisted of merely patiently sitting through the time. At first I wrote my sermons and then learnt them by heart, and as they came best from my heart if I wrote them very plainly, it had this good effect, that in time the Maoris became desirous of having my written sermons to read them and have them read to them. As a reward for them I had presents of fish and such like. Later on, when my labours increased, I had not

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always time to write, and I found then, that by means of reflection alone, I could learn a sermon by heart.

We shall soon come on to holy ground in this history, but before we tread on it this will be the proper place to give a short description of the island and the people.


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