INTRODUCTION.
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INTRODUCTION.
In the fourth and fifth decades of the nineteenth century the portion of the coast of New Zealand extending from Hicks Bay to Wairoa in Hawke's Bay, about 140 miles in length, and now comprised in the counties of Waiapu, Cook and Wairoa, was commonly known by the whalers and traders who frequented it as "The East Coast," and this is, the region with which the following reminiscences are more immediately connected. The district is very hilly, the ranges near the coast varying from 200 or 300 feet to an altitude of over 2000 feet, the highest point in this part of the island being Mount Hikurangi, which reaches nearly 6000ft. The population was to be found generally within a short distance of the coast, though in a few favourable localities it extended as far as 20 or 30 miles inland, the mountainous parts of the interior being altogether without inhabitants, except that there were fortified strongholds, in places difficult of access, to which people might retreat when hard-pressed by an enemy. According to the census of 1911 the native population of this district is 6586, but in the early part of last century there were probably at least four times as many. As an illustration we may note that the number of males above the age of fifteen in the whole of the district is now given as 2567, whereas in 1834 two pas in the Waiapu Valley, Rangitukia and Whakawhitira, taken together, were said to muster no less than 2560 fighting men.
In this, as in other parts of the country, the various tribes were very frequently at war either with one another or with distant tribes; feuds which involved the loss of many lives often deriving their origin from circumstances of the most trivial character. Cannibalism was no infrequent feature of these wars, the victors usually resorting to it as a method of emphasising their revenge. Large numbers, too, of the vanquished were carried off as slaves, many of whom were liable to be killed and eaten by the near relations of any chief of the conquering tribe who might have fallen in battle.
Owing to the general feeling of insecurity, the people of each locality lived in or near a pa, fortified with earthworks and stout palisading. It was a comparatively easy matter, therefore, in the early years of the Mission to get together five hundred or a thousand people, whereas now it is rarely possible to assemble more than 40 or 50, unless some special business has brought people together from a distance.
There is no obvious connection between the inter-tribal quarrels of the Maori people and the British penal settlements in Australasia; but nevertheless it is a fact that some of the Tasmanian convicts had no unimportant share in the circumstances which led immediately to the raids of the Ngapuhi of the Bay of Islands on the tribes of the East Coast. In
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the 1803 or 1804, as we learn from the Rev. S. Marsden, a brig called the Venus was taken possession of by the convicts at Port Dalrymple, in Tasmania, and was brought by them to New Zealand. Touching at the north point of the North Island they carried off two women, one of whom was a sister of a chief at the Bay of Islands, named Te Morenga, and the other a near relative of the celebrated warrior, Hongi. These women were afterwards landed by them, one near Tauranga and the other somewhere south of the East Cape, where they were ultimately killed and eaten by the people of those parts. Their relatives, on hearing of their fate, made enquiries, and when they had ascertained the facts determined to take their revenge. But, owing possibly to the urgency of matters nearer home, it was not until 1818 that any attempt was made to put their design into execution. In January of that year, Te Morenga set sail in a fleet of canoes with 400 men and he was followed in February by Hongi, who called on his way at Hauraki, where a chief named Te Haupa made up his force to 900. Both these parties were well supplied with firearms, the lack of which placed the Ngatiporou near the East Coast at a terrible disadvantage. These, conscious of their weakness were in great consternation, and took refuge in their fortified pas. They could not, however, hold cut for long, the want of food and water soon compelling them to surrender. Large numbers were mercilessly slaughtered, and many, according to the custom of the time, were eaten by the victors. Of the number of the killed there is no record, but the extent of the operations of the two expeditions may be inferred from the fact that they are stated to have taken back with them to the Bay of Islands about 2000 prisoners. 1
Two years after this another expedition started from the Bay of Islands under under two chiefs named Te Wera, or Hauraki, and Pomare. Landing first at Te Kawakawa, at the south (mouth?) of the river Awatere, between Hicks Bay and the East Cape, they took the strongly fortified pa on Te Whetu-matarau. From thence they proceeded to Waiapu and to various places along the coast as far as Nukutaurua, near Table Cape. On their return they carried off forty prisoners, including Te Whareumu, a chief of Nukutaurua, and Te Rangi-i-paea, a woman of rank from Tokomaru, whom Pomare took to wife. 2
In 1823 a large force of Ngapuhi had been engaged in an attack on the Arawa tribe in the Bay of Plenty, and had taken the island of Mokoia in the Rotorua Lake, where a large number of the Arawa had taken refuge. Te Wera and Pomare, instead of returning home at once, proceeded to the eastward from Maketu, killing large numbers of people at various places along the coast as far as Whangaparaoa. From thence they paid a friendly visit to Hicks Bay and Waiapu, Pomare bringing his wife, Te Rangi-i-paea. to visit her relatives. Pomare returned from Tokomaru, but Te Wera came on to Nukutaurua, bringing with him Te Wharemu, whom he restored to his own people. At this time Nukutaurua (or the Mahia Peninsula, as it is now commonly called), was the refuge of a large number of the people of Hawke's Bay and of the coast to the south; Te Rauparaha, who, like the Ngapuhi chiefs had been able to procure large quantities of firearms, having driven the people northwards from Wairarapa. It will appear later on how, under the over-ruling providence of God. these sanguinary wars were made subservient to the extension of the Kingdom of the Prince of Peace.
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All the tribes in this district, having suffered so severely at the hands of the Ngapuhi, turned their attention, as soon as they had any respite, to the acquisition of firearms, that they might be in a position to defend themselves in future against any such attacks as they had recently experienced. Whaling ships appeared from time to time off the coast, the captains of which were always ready to purchase pigs and potatoes. The natives were equally ready to supply them if by this means they could procure muskets and ammunition. The visits, however, of the whaling ships were not very frequent, and a readier method of acquiring the coveted articles soon presented itself. The fibre of the phormium tenax, or New Zealand flax, the superior quality of which for the manufacture of ropes and cordage had been made known many years before by Sir Joseph Banks, came about that time to be in great demand. Mercantile firms in Sydney placed agents in convenient positions to purchase the flax from the natives, and sent vessels from time to time to collect it from the various stations that it might be placed on the British market. The trade attained its greatest proportions in the year 1831, in which year 1062 tons were exported from Sydney, the Navy Board having contracted for the purchase of 800 tons at the rate of £41 15s per ton. The trade with the natives was a matter of barter, muskets and ammunition being the chief commodity received by them in exchange. The fibre in those days was all prepared by hand, and so eagerly did the people throw themselves into the business that, for several years, the cultivation of crops and other occupations were very seriously neglected. In the year 1830 Messrs. Montefiore and Co., of Sydney, placed agents in various parts of the country, supplying them with the needful stock-in-trade for the purchase of flax. One of these, John Williams Harris, was placed at Poverty Bay and was taken under the protection of a chief named Turangi. His occupation gave him great influence with the people, and he used to speak of himself as having been at that time "Monarch practically of all he surveyed." The building in which lie lived and stored his goods was of the same unsubstantial character as those which the natives occupied, but notwithstanding the eager demand which there was on all sides for the articles which he had to dispose of, the rights of property were thoroughly respected, nor had he ever any reason to complain of the treatment which he received at the hands of the people among whom he sojourned. They fully recognised the privilege which they enjoyed in having a "Pakeha" to trade with them, and were extremely careful not to do anything which might have the effect of driving him away even though he might have done what under different circumstances might have cost him his life. Turangi had a son about eight years old whom Harris saw one day beating his mother with a great stick. Shocked at such undutiful conduct he gave the boy a slight blow to make him desist. Upon this there arose an angry clamour from all sides in which no one joined more loudly than the boy's mother. He had struck the chief's son--an unpardonable offence. Harris listened to the volumes of wrath and indignation which were uttered by one and another, not knowing what his fate might be. After much steam had been blown off Turangi himself stood up and commented for some time on the gravity of the offence, concluding with a reference to the ignorance on the part of the Pakeha of the respect which was due to the son of a great chief. "What else," he said, "could you expect from an ignorant Pakeha?" So the trouble ended.
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After the year 1831 the flax trade seems to have declined rapidly, and, in the course of a few years, to have altogether ceased. The trade, however, while it lasted, served to divert the attention of the natives from the grievances, real or imaginary, for which, according to their notions, it was incumbent on them to seek satisfaction from offending tribes. But these grievances came to the front again when the trade slackened, and probably assumed larger dimensions from the fact that the injured party was now well supplied with the weapons by which satisfaction might be obtained. There was at that time a feud of some standing between the Ngatiporou tribe of Waiapu and the Whanau-a-Apanui tribe which occupied the eastern portion of the Bay of Plenty. These people had been very severely handled a few years before by the Ngapuhi of the Bay of Islands under Pomare, and large numbers of them slaughtered. This circumstance would doubtless be regarded as an additional reason why the Ngatiporou with their recently-acquired firearms should inflict upon them further punishment. But. before any definite steps were taken an event occurred, the issues of which had an important bearing upon the introduction of Christianity.
An English whale ship, the "Elizabeth," commanded by Captain Black, appeared off the coast near the East Cape in April, 1833. The natives, as usual, were eager to trade, and a canoe was soon alongside. While the canoe was making a trip to the shore a chief named Rukuata with seven others remained on board to await her return. In the meantime a strong breeze from the south sprang up, and Captain Black at once made sail for the Bay of Islands and landed his visitors at Rangihoua. The Ngapuhi chiefs in the neighborhood looked upon the unfortunate men as fair game and were proceeding to appropriate them as slaves, when the missionaries interfered and succeeded in inducing the chiefs to allow them to be returned to their own homes in the schooner "Active" which belonged to the Mission. It was arranged that the Rev. W. Williams and Mr. T. Hamlin should accompany the natives on board the "Active," and they set sail accordingly from Rangihoua on April 30th. After arriving within a few miles of their destination they were driven back by a violent gale from the south-east, and arrived at the Bay of Islands on May 8th, having several of their sails badly torn. Rukuata and his companions were then landed at Paihia to await a more favourable opportunity, and during the next eight month:; they received regular instruction from the missionaries. In the following December the schooner "Fortitude'' was chartered for the twofold purpose of taking timber and stores to the newly-formed station at Puriri, on the Thames, and of restoring Rukuata and his companions to their homes, together with a number of others who had boon carried off by Ngapuhi as slaves in former years. The Rev. W. Williams again took charge of the party and sailed on December 19th. Passengers and cargo having been landed at Puriri, Hicks Bay was reached on January 8th, 1834. To the great delight of the native passengers a party of people on shore were found to be their own relatives and friends. Those who had come in the "Fortitude" had much to tell their friends of their experiences at the Bay of Islands and of the kind treatment which they had received from the missionaries. On the following day they travelled to Waiapu, stopping at Rangitukia, which was then a large pa said by the natives to contain as many as 560 fighting men, though on this occasion many of them were absent. Another pa, Whakawhitira, about ten miles further up the valley.
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was visited next day. Here there were about 1000 persons present, including about 400 children, but the pa was unusually large and was said to muster about 2000 fighting men. On Sunday, January 12th, Rukuata and his friends made arrangements for getting as many as possible of the people together at Rangitukia to witness a Christian service; and later in the day a service was held also at Whakawhitira, this being the first Sunday so observed in this district. Mr. Williams was much struck with the demeanour of the people and with the promising opening for missionary work which appeared to present itself, many of the people having expressed an earnest desire that Christian teachers should come to live among them.
Some three years after this a Ngapuhi chief who had returned from a sojourn in the East Cape district called on the Rev. W. Williams at Waimate, and asked how it was that no missionary was placed in that district where the people were all eager for Christian instruction, and had already begun to abstain from work on Sunday, and to worship the Christian's God in intention at least, if not with much understanding. On enquiry it was ascertained that this state of things was owing to a Waiapu man named Taumatakura, who had been carried off by the Ngapuhi as a slave, and had lived with his master for some years at Waimate. There he had attended the mission school and had learned to read and write, though he had never shown any special interest in Christian instruction, not even having been a recognised catechumen. In December, 1833, when Rukuata and his companions were about to return to Waiapu, his master gave him his freedom and allowed him to join the party. After his arrival among his own people he began to impart to as many as were willing to learn as much of the new teaching as he was master of. His apparatus was one of the simplest description. He possessed some short prayers and hymns and a few texts of Scripture written on scraps of paper. Writing tablets were made of flat pieces of wood well greased and dusted with ashes so that they could be written on with a sharp-pointed piece of stick. His display of extraordinary knowledge made a great impression upon his people, who looked upon him as a "tohunga," and probably credited him with the possession of occult powers. It appears to have been in 1836 that an expedition was organised by the tribes south of the East Cape to attack Tokakuku, a strong pa of Te Whanau-a-Apanui, near Te Kaha, in the Bay of Plenty. Taumatakura was urged to accompany the expedition, but would not consent to do so until they agreed that there should be no cannibalism nor any wanton destruction of canoes or other property. At Tokakuku he was in the thickest of the fighting, and the fact that he came out of it unscathed was attributed to the protective influence of the new God whom he professed to worship. Hence the adoption by his people of the Christian practice of making Sunday a day of religious rest, and their desire for a missionary to live among them. This readiness to adopt the new religion was not, of course, devoid of superstition. A people whose religious observances had hitherto consisted solely in the use of charms to ward off the influence of malignant spirits could not be expected to apprehend without careful and long continued teaching the meaning of prayer to a benevolent God whose tender mercies are over all His creatures; nor could they have any notion of the nature of sin or of the need of atonement. It is instructive, however, to notice how, under the providence of God, even the Ngapuhi raids and the wars with neighbouring tribes were made conducive to the spread of the Gospel.
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In consequence of the information thus brought from the East Coast, a short visit was again paid to the district by the Rev. W. Williams in company with Messrs. Colenso, Stack, and Matthews, in January, 1838. The party was landed at Hicks Bay, and proceeded overland to Poverty Bay, visiting all the principal settlements on the way. They were warmly welcomed everywhere, as were also two chiefs, who had come with them as an embassy of peace from Te Waharoa of Matamata. Many too and urgent were the applications which were made to them for a resident missionary.
In the following November, six well-instructed Christian natives who belonged to this part of the country and were competent to do the work of catechists, were brought from the Bay of Islands by the Rev. H. Williams, three of whom were placed by him in the Waiapu district and three in Poverty Bay.
It was afterwards arranged that the Rev. W. Williams should leave the school at Waimate, of which he had had the charge since 1835, to the Rev. R. Taylor, who had recently joined the Mission, and should make his headquarters somewhere on the East Coast. He visited his new sphere of work with the Rev. R. Taylor, in April, 1839, and was very much struck with the progress which had already been made by the native catechists. Everywhere, from Hicks Bay to Table Cape, the people were found to be most willing learners. In some places buildings had already been erected for the worship of God in which large congregations were in the habit of assembling every Sunday, and frequent classes for special instruction in Christian doctrine were very numerously attended. In the course of this journey a site for a Mission station was fixed upon in Poverty Bay, within a short distance of Orakaiapu, 3 the large pa of the Rongowhakaata tribe, the warriors from which, in 1769, marched to Turanganui for the express purpose of trying to take possession of Captain Cook's ship, the Endeavour, as she lay at anchor in the bay. The situation was a central one, giving easy access to Waiapu and Hicks Bay on the north, and to the Mahia Peninsula and Hawke's Bay on the south.
A NEW STATION.
The Rev. W. Williams left Waimate with his family towards the end of December, 1839, and arrived at Poverty Bay early in the following January. On the occasion of his visit a few months before, he had arranged with the natives to have a building erected for his accommodation, and this had been done by them to the best of their ability. The accommodation was of a very rough description, but this was a matter of course in the formation of a new mission station, and the very hearty welcome accorded by the people was no slight compensation for the inconvenience. The building was a mere shell without doors or windows or interior partitions, the walls being constructed, according to native custom, of raupo on a frame of wood, and the roof being thatched with toetoe grass. The floor, which was formed by the soil on which the building had been erected, was found to be swarming with fleas. These resented the intrusion of any invader and caused him to beat a hasty retreat. The natives, however, had very effective methods of their own for dealing with the difficulty, and by the judicious application of fire and boiling water, soon got rid of the vermin. Some of the requisites for making the house habitable had been brought from the Bay of Islands, but there was much
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to be done before those could be utilised. The timber for the flooring and other purposes was still growing in the neighbouring forest, and it had to be cut and seasoned before it could be applied to the various purposes for which it was needed; much of the work too, in the absence of professional workmen must be done by the missionary himself, and all of it under his superintendence. This work, which was necessary to insure health and bodily efficiency, could, owing to circumstances, be done only by degrees, and caused little hindrance therefore to close intercourse with the people. The three native teachers who had been placed by the Rev. H. Williams at Poverty Bay in 1838 had now been working there for rather more than a year. As a result of their labours Mr. Williams found that the number of people who were more or less regularly under instruction, notwithstanding the difficulties caused by the inadequate supply of books and other material and the want of competent teachers in the various villages, was over 1500. That they had worked to good purpose was shown by the account which Mr. Williams gave of his first Sunday. "In anticipation of the first Sunday after our arrival, many strangers had come together the previous evening, and at service the next day there was a congregation of at least 1000 persons. We assembled in the open air, but the weather was fine, and the extreme attention of this large body was a grateful commencement of missionary labour. At noon the natives again met for school, when there were five classes of men, two numbering seventy each, one fifty, one, a hundred and ten, one a hundred and fifty, besides the boys who were fifty in number. The women were in two classes, one of a hundred and fifty and one of twelve. The last, with one of the men's classes of seventy, read in the Testament; the rest, not being able to read, were instructed in the catechism, the whole repeating the answer after the teacher." 4
In the course of about three months after his arrival, Mr. Williams visited the East Cape district, where the progress made by the three men who had been placed there was even more striking than that at Poverty Bay. This may have been owing to assistance received from Taumatakura and others of the party who returned from the Bay of Islands in 1834. The congregations in that district amounted to upwards of three thousand, and, in most of the villages, the people had erected buildings in which they might assemble for religious worship. In the course of that journey thirty-nine persons were selected after due examination and admitted to the Sacrament of Baptism, three of the number being each chief of his own hapu. This was "the first fruits of an abundant harvest which was to follow." 5
In the following spring a visit was paid to the Mahia Peninsula, Wairoa, and other parts of Hawke's Bay. No regular teachers had as yet been placed in these parts, but, as in the case of the Ngatiporou near the East Cape, the way for the preaching of the Gospel had been paved by liberated slaves from the north, one of whom had come from the Bay of Islands, and two from Rotorua. A considerable number of the people had already learned to read, though all the literature they had access to consisted of a few manuscript prayers and hymns copied from printed books, and at one place there was a regular congregation of about 500 who were eager for definite Christian instruction. Three chiefs from the central part of Hawke's Bay district had already manifested their own desire and that of their people for further instruction by coming overland to Poverty Bay,
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a distance of over 150 miles, and this was an indication of a disposition which was found to be prevalent throughout the district. The supply of teachers was by no means equal to the demand, but as soon as it could be arranged some of the more advanced of the converts in Poverty Bay were placed in the larger centres of population in Hawke's Bay to give the people instruction in the rudiments of the Christian religion.
The presence of a missionary seemed to give great impetus to the movement, for in the following year the number of people who had attached themselves to the mission was estimated to bo about 8600, viz., 3200 at Waiapu and Tokomaru, 2500 at Tolaga Bay and Poverty Bay, and 2900 in the southern part of the district. The catechumens numbered 2115, and of these 839 were during the year, after careful and patient examination, admitted to Holy Baptism, together with 339 of their children, making a total of 1178. 6
If we compare the very slow progress of missionary work at the Bay of Islands in the early days of the mission with the ready and even enthusiastic reception of the Gospel in this district, the difference is very striking. It is to be noted, however, that the circumstances of the two cases were very different. The northern natives, having recently become possessed of firearms, were bent upon using them in their quarrels with the comparatively unarmed southern tribes, and so engrossed were they with this one object, that one cannot wonder that the Gospel should have made so little impression on them. In the East Coast district, on the other hand, the beneficent work of the missionaries had been favourably reported upon by a number of persons, who had had experience of it, and the teaching and preaching in the north during those early years had thus begun to exert an important though indirect influence on the southern tribes; and in the Waiapu district especially Taumatakura and those who were brought back with him in 1834 had done much, under the over-riding providence of God to dispose their people to a favourable reception of the Gospel.
The general eagerness of the people for instruction was evidenced by the fact that many, even of those who were past middle age, had learned to read and write, no fewer than eight of the forty-one chiefs of this district who signed the Treaty of Waitangi having written their own names. The Bible-classes, too, and the classes of the catechumens were attended with great regularity. The fear of invasion by other tribes having passed away, the fortifications of the pas were allowed to fall into decay, and the people soon began to spread themselves over the country, the various sections of each tribe occupying small settlements on the land which was peculiarly their own. This dispersion made the work more difficult. The usual routine when Mr. Williams was at home was that on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in each week the morning was devoted to three large sections of the Rongowhakaata tribe who lived at no great distance from the station, a Bible class being held on each day for those who had been baptised, after which there was a class for the examination of catechumens. In the more distant places services were held and instruction regularly given by native teachers, who came to the station on one day in the week for their own improvement. There was also on week days an early morning school of an elementary character, which was generally superintended by Mr. Williams or some member of his family.
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In addition to the usual Sunday routine as already described it was a common practice for men and women to commit to memory the collect for the day and the whole or part of the Epistle and Gospel, which they repeated in the evening, one of the native teachers catechising them on the portions which they had learned. The few English residents in the neighbourhood were also accorded some share of attention, Divine Service, which they were invited to attend, being held in English every Sunday afternoon.
When a movement such as this which was now taking place among the Maori people becomes fashionable there will always be many who will join it from inadequate motives, the rank and file, even among more civilised peoples, often being ready to follow their leaders without taking the trouble to exercise their own judgment. Nevertheless there were not a few, who, as far as man can judge, showed by a consistent life that the change which they had undergone was genuine. In the case of a number of others whose conduct was not such as to inspire perfect confidence, allowance may be made for imperfect knowledge, and for the difficulty which anyone in their circumstances must necessarily experience in overcoming bad habits which have grown up with them from their infancy. It was only to be expected that the best of them would advance with tottering steps along the now path on which they had started, and that there should be many grievous falls. It was not long before the occasion arose for the exercise of discipline in the case of some who, after Baptism, had fallen into grievous sin. St. Paul's rule to "have no company" with such offenders, was found by the native Christians to involve no little difficulty, living as they were in close proximity to one another, and they insisted therefore, that any who had so offended, should find some other place of abode, until, on showing signs of repentance, they should be restored again to Communion. This practice in those early days became universal throughout this district as well as elsewhere, and was adopted by the natives themselves as the only method by which they could show their disapproval of grossly unchristian conduct. There is no doubt that in some cases undue harshness was exercised, but it was a difficult matter to interfere with it without encouraging connivance at gross sin.
Missionaries had been working at the Bay of Islands for many years with little apparent success; but in 1838 when they had begun to see some fruit of their labours, a Roman Catholic Mission under Bishop Pompallier came first to Hokianga, and afterwards made their headquarter at Kororareka (now called Russell) at the Bay of Islands. The Bishop indeed told the natives that he had no wish to interfere with the disciples of the missionaries who had preceded him. "Let them," he said, "continue quietly to follow the teaching which they had already received. The heathen only are my flock and they all belong to me." But whatever may have been his intentions on the subject this was not the policy pursued by his subordinates. In 1841 a Roman Catholic priest was sent to Nukutaurua, near Table Cape, where there was a numerous population. He was received by a small section of the people which had kept themselves apart from those who had embraced Christianity, or showed any leaning towards it. Following the example which had already been set by his brethren at Kororareka, he told the natives that he would challenge Mr. Williams to a public discussion in their presence on the various points on which he joined
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issue with the Church of England missionaries. It was not long before the opportunity was afforded him, for Mr. Williams was then preparing to visit the Wairoa district, taking Nukutaurua on the way. The proposed discussion was accordingly held and kept up for more than four hours. Such a controversy, carried on by those who presented themselves as heralds of the same Gospel must have tended rather to the bewilderment of people who had so recently been won over from heathenism; but as the teaching which they had received had been directly challenged, it was due to them that the futility of the grounds on which that teaching had been impugned should be exposed. Shortly after this the Roman Catholic priest was deserted by a good number of those who had previously welcomed him, and after some ineffectual attempts to establish himself in some other places in the neighbourhood, he left the district altogether about nine months after his arrival. 7
ARRIVAL OF THE BISHOP.
Early in 1842 it was decided to hold a conference of missionaries at the Bay of Islands for the purpose of discussing matters connected with the progress of the mission, and Mr. Williams accordingly left Poverty Bay in the mission schooner Columbine, taking his family with him to Paihia. He had not been long there when, on June 6th, the news was brought that Bishop Selwyn had arrived at Auckland on May 30th. On Monday evening, June 20th, while the Rev. H. Williams was engaged with his usual Bible class, a card was brought to the house which announced that the Bishop of Now Zealand was on the beach. Mr. W. Williams went immediately and found the Bishop with his chaplain, the Rev. W. C. Cotton, and another Englishman dragging up a boat in which they had rowed from Cape Brett, a distance of twenty miles, steering for the Paihia Mission Station by pocket compass. The small schooner in which they had started from Auckland with the Rev. G. A. Kissling and Mrs. Kissling as fellow-passengers had been becalmed off Cape Brett and the Bishop had therefore decided to come on in his own boat, he and his chaplain both being good oarsmen.
On the following Sunday, June 26th, the Bishop surprised everyone by preaching to the natives in their own tongue, he having studied the language on the voyage from England with the help of a native whom he had met with in England, and having composed a written sermon for this occasion, which, before delivery, he submitted to experts for any correction that might be necessary. The coincidence of the Bishop's arrival with the visit of the Rev. W. Williams gave the former an opportunity, of which he readily availed himself, of learning something at first hand of the character and progress of the work on the East Coast, and one of the Bishop's first public acts was the appointment of Mr. Williams as Archdeacon.
On Mr. Williams' return to his station, he was accompanied by the Rev. W. C. Dudley, who had arrived with the Bishop's party from England, and had been designated for work in the East Coast district, with the view of his forming a station at Wairoa, in the northern part of Hawke's Bay.
The Bishop was not long in taking steps to make himself personally acquainted with some portion of his large diocese. After a stay of three weeks at Auckland he visited Nelson and Wellington, spending a few weeks at each place. From Wellington he went on foot to Whanganui and New
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Plymouth, returning by sea to Waikanae, the station of the Rev. O. Hadfield. Here he was joined by Chief Justice Martin, who travelled with him overland to Auckland. Their route lay up the course of the river Manawatu into the Hawke's Bay district. At Te Roto-a-Tara, near Te Aute, on November 15th, they were joined by Mr. Williams and the Rev. W. C, Dudley, who had come by arrangement from Poverty Bay to meet them. On their arrival at Kaupapa, Mr. Williams' station, they found that the new church which the natives had in course of erection had been wrecked by a violent gale a few days before. This would have been a large building capable of containing about 1000 people. But notwithstanding this disaster, on the following Sunday, November 27th, a congregation of over 1000 assembled for Divine Service amidst the ruins. The Bishop preached from Acts XV, 16-17, on Christ repairing the breaches of David's fallen tabernacle, that the Gentiles might seek the Lord. During this service Mr. Williams was formally installed as Archdeacon of Waiapu. "After the morning service," the Bishop says, "the natives formed into their classes for reading and saying the catechism. The native character appears in this in a most favourable light; old tattoed warriors standing side by side with young men and boys, and submitting to lose their place for every mistake with the most perfect good humour." 8
Prom Poverty Bay the Bishop and the. Judge, accompanied by the Archdeacon, proceeded to Rangitukia, where Mr. V. Stack had recently formed a mission station, and from this point the Archdeacon returned, leaving the Bishop and his party to continue their journey to Raukokore, in the Bay of Plenty, and thence on to Auckland, visiting the various mission stations on the way.
FRESH WORKERS.
The altered circumstances of the country owing to the spread of Christianity and the foundation of the Colony had brought about a feeling of greater security on the part of the native population generally, and consequently the people belonging to Wairarapa and the coast south of Hawke's Bay, who for years past had been congregated on the Table Cape Peninsula, soon began to return to their old homes. In order to the more efficient prosecution of the work among the people, the Archdeacon determined in October, 1843, to go by sea to Wellington, and to return on foot overland that he might be able to visit them in their re-occupied settlements. He was accompanied on this trip by Mr. W. Colenso, who, being then a candidate for ordination, was looking forward to occupying a station somewhere in the southern part of Hawke's Bay. The party comprised the present writer and several natives who had been engaged to carry the small amount of necessary luggage. In consequence of a succession of strong north-westerly gales the schooner in which we had embarked was driven back repeatedly from Cook Strait, and as much time had thus been lost, it was decided to land if the weather would permit somewhere a little to the north of Cape Palliser. The wind having moderated when the schooner was off Flat Point, the boat was lowered, and as it would not hold all the party, the natives went first. When the boat returned the wind had increased again to such an extent that another trip to the shore was out of the question. When the next lull occurred, the schooner was off Castle Point, where we were landed. We soon found a small party of natives at Mataikoua, with whom we stayed till the other
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portion of our party joined us. A start was then made on our northward journey, the various settlements being visited on the way. There was then a large pa at Waitangi, near the mouth of the Ngaruroro, and a site near that pa was fixed upon for the station to be occupied by Mr. Colenso. On reaching Mohaka Mr. Colenso went north through the interior, making his way back to Auckland and the Bay of Islands. Bishop Selwyn was then living at Waimate, and in the following September several of the lay missionaries were admitted to Deacon's Orders, among them being Messrs. J. Hamlin and W. Colenso.
Up to the time of the Bishop's visit Mr. Williams had been working single handed in the district extending from Hicks Bay to Wairarapa, but the rearrangement of the old spheres of work in the north and the arrival of fresh workers from England rendered possible more thorough occupation of the field. The Rev. W. C. Dudley, who had joined Mr. Williams on his return from the Bay of Islands, was to have occupied Wairoa, but in the course of the journey to meet the Bishop in November, 1842, he was seized with an affection of the brain, which for the time, completely deranged his mental faculties, and he was obliged to return to Auckland for treatment. Mr. James Stack, as already mentioned, had begun work at Rangitukia shortly before the Bishop's visit, and soon afterwards the Rev. G. A. Kissling, who had seen service in West Africa, was placed at Kawakawa, between the East Cape and Hicks Bay, and Mr. C. Baker, who had been working at Waikare in the Bay of Islands, was moved to Tolaga Bay. In January, 1845, the Rev. J. Hamlin and the Rev. W. Colenso commenced work at Wairoa and Waitangi. Messrs. Stack and Kissling. however, were invalided in 1847, the former returning to England, and the latter, after a period of rest, taking charge of a school for native girls at S. Stephen's, Parnell. Mr. Kissling's post was taken by the Rev. C. E. Reay, but he died at Rangitukia early in 1848, and after an interval of a year and nine months was succeeded by the Rev. R. Barker, so that for a long time, Mr. C. Baker, who was not in Holy Orders, was the only missionary to the north of Poverty Bay, while to the south the Rev. Messrs Hamlin and Colenso were only in Deacons' Orders. This state of things made it necessary for the Archdeacon to be much absent from the district for which he was specially responsible. What this involved may be gathered from the account which he gives of a sojourn of seven weeks in the Waiapu district in the months of July and August, 1849. During that time at six of the principal centres of population, he examined 951 catechumens, of whom 383 were admitted to the Sacrament of Holy Baptism. Infants to the number of 195 also were baptised; the Holy Communion was administered to 737, and thirty-four couples were married.
Besides these visits to distant parts of the East Coast district there was other important work which necessitated the Archdeacon's absence from home for several months at a time. This was the revision of the translations of the Prayer Book and of such portions of the Bible as had already been translated, which was undertaken by a committee of missionaries. While he was thus engaged at Waimate in 1844 his place was taken for a time by the Rev. H. Williams; and when he was so engaged again at S. John's College, in 1847, the district was visited by the Rev. R. Burrows.
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OBSTRUCTION.
Among the converts there were, as was only to be expected, some from time to time who fell away like withered plants from the seed which fell on the rocky ground where there was not sufficient deepness of earth; and though there was nothing that could be called "tribulation or persecution because of the Word," the enemy could make use of comparatively trivial circumstances to serve his purpose. An instance of this which occurred in 1847 may serve as an illustration. A young widow was pressed by the relatives of her late husband, in accordance with old Maori custom, to become the wife of her brother-in-law. She, however, preferred a suitor belonging to another section of the tribe, and persisted until she attained her object. The near relatives of her former husband then, by way of marking their resentment, decided to revert to some of the abandoned practices of their heathen days, and began to get some of their young men tattoed. This operation had always been discountenanced by the missionaries because their old superstitions were bound up with it, and it was never practised without what were considered the necessary incantations. This revival of the old practice was equivalent therefore to a rejection of the Christianity which they professed to have adopted, and was regarded by them as such. Happily there were not many who were involved in this movement, and after about six months it was given up. The whole movement was strongly reprobated by the bulk of the community.
About a year after this, Te Whata, the chief who had taken the lead in reviving the practice of tattooing, but who in the past had not shown any disposition to accept the new teaching notwithstanding that his wife and the other members of his family had all been baptised, put away his wife and took another woman. As his relatives very strongly expressed their disapproval of his conduct, he went away to Te Wairoa, where he met with some people from Ruatahuna who had been connected with the Roman Catholic Mission, and joined himself to them. In the course of a few months he returned to Poverty Bay, bringing with him one of his new friends who acted as his chaplain. Later on, while the Archdeacon was away at Heretaunga, in Hawke's Bay, he was followed by a Roman Catholic priest, who freely expressed his intention of waiting till the Archdeacon's return in order that he might expose the falsehood of his teaching. An opportunity for doing this was soon afforded and large numbers assembled to hear the discussion; but he failed to satisfy his audience, and as he received scant encouragement he, in the course of a few months, took his departure from the district.
GENERAL CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE.
Ever since the days of the old flax trade European traders had established themselves at various places along the coast, who with others had been engaged in the whale fishing were the first foreigners who had come to reside permanently among the natives and were generally known by them as "Pakeha Maori," not because, as has sometimes been said, they were regarded as "strangers turned into natives," but to indicate that they were of the class to which they had been accustomed in the past, and to distinguish them from the missionaries and others whose occupations and habits were of a different character. Since the foundation of the Colony Auckland had become the market for all produce, and through the agency of the traders the natives were able to procure readily any articles of
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clothing, together with implements and utensils of various kinds which made life easier for them. At first the principal products were maize and pigs, the latter being either killed and salted by the traders or sent away alive and sold in Auckland. The introduction of wheat after a time gave an extra stimulus to trade, and as good prices for this were realised the people soon began to acquire cattle, horses and agricultural implements, and to bring much more land into cultivation.
Except in the increase of trade the progress of colonisation had very little influence on this part of New Zealand. The Treaty of Waitangi had been made known to the people and Mr. Williams, as other missionaries had done, had used such influence as he could command to induce the principal chiefs on the East Coast to sign it, his name appearing as witness to a number of the signatures. Very little land had been purchased by Europeans and the title to what had been purchased had never been investigated by the constituted authorities; there was therefore no influx of settlers into the district. The thirty-ninth parallel of latitude had been fixed upon as a boundary between the provinces of Auckland and Wellington, and those portions of the district which were to the north of that line were theoretically in the Province of Auckland, and those which were to the south of it in the Province of Wellington, but practically this was one of those outlying regions in which Her Majesty's Government had no officer of any kind, and with reference to which all Europeans had been warned that, if anyone should choose to settle in such a district for any purpose whatever, he must do so at. his own risk; and that, if he should get into any trouble with the natives, or should suffer ill-treatment at their hands, he must not expect the authorities to interfere in any way on his behalf. There was no government, and it is to the credit of all parties that no serious disturbance of any kind had occurred in any part of the district. For many years the only attention paid by the Government to this district was the occasional dispatch of a Customs officer when there was any ground to suspect that smuggling of tobacco or spirits had taken place.
ARCHDEACON WILLIAMS VISITS ENGLAND.
For some time previous to 1850 a controversy had been proceeding in the north with considerable warmth, which, though not bearing directly on the work of the East Coast, resulted in a determination on the part of Archdeacon W. Williams to visit England. To explain this a brief digression is necessary.
On the conclusion of Heke's War in January, 1846, Governor Grey, only two months after his arrival in New Zealand, began to manifest extraordinary animosity against the missionaries of the Church Missionary Society. He said of one of them that, in his opinion, he was in no small degree responsible for the recent outbreak; and insinuated that others had been holding correspondence of a treasonable character with the insurgent natives. In a dispatch to the Secretary of State for the Colonies he charged them with asserting claims to land to which they could not be put in possession without a large expenditure of British blood and money; and in letters to the Church Missionary Society he accused them of having defrauded the natives, assuring the Society at the same time that, "unless the old missionaries were removed, there would be no peace in the northern district." Much correspondence, in England as well as in
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New Zealand, arose out of these statements, and Archdeacon H. Williams, as the recognised leader of the mission, demanded that His Excellency should either establish fully the allegations which he had made or honourably withdraw them; and repeatedly expressed the readiness of the missionaries, on this being done, to surrender the Crown grants which they had received for land which had been fairly purchased for the benefit of their families long before the colonisation of New Zealand was contemplated, and of which their families were then in peaceable possession. His Excellency, however, would neither produce anything in the way of proof for the charges which he had made, nor would he withdraw them. Under these circumstances an appeal was made to Earl Grey, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, requesting that the missionaries might be put in possession of any charges made against them by the Governor, and that they might be afforded an opportunity of rebutting them. This was denied them on the alleged ground that it would be inconsistent with the respect due to Her Majesty's Representative in the Colony, in whom Her Majesty's Government had perfect confidence. The Bishop in the meantime was urging the missionaries to accede to the demand for the unconditional surrender of their title deeds, and to accept whatever the Governor might be pleased to award them. The committee of the Church Missionary Society was much perplexed by all this controversy, and, being perhaps overawed by the Colonial Office, came to the conclusion that it was impossible to institute any enquiry into the subject. The end of it was that without any investigation, Archdeacon H. Williams and Mr. G. Clarke were formally dismissed from the service of the Society. The committee by this act seemed to admit as true the charges which had been made against the missionaries by the Governor, and, on the decision becoming known in New Zealand in May, 1850, Archdeacon W. Williams decided that he would visit England in order that he might explain to the society the actual position and vindicate the character of the missionaries from the groundless and gross aspersions by which the Society had been misled. The Rev. T. S. Grace arrived from England in. July, and it was arranged that he should take charge of the Turanga station during the Archdeacon's absence.
Opportunities of sailing direct to England in those days were by no means frequent, ships having generally to go elsewhere for a return cargo. The Archdeacon did not get away till December, when he took passage in the John Wesley, which belonged to the Wesleyan Mission, arriving in England on 30th April, 1851. The annual meeting of the CM. Society was then close at hand, and he was pressed by the secretaries to take part in it; but this he declined to do until he and his brother missionaries were exonerated from the charges which seemed to have been admitted and acted upon by the Society. An opportunity was afterwards afforded him of meeting the committee, and he had no difficulty in showing by abundant documentary evidence, that the charges made against the missionaries were absolutely without foundation. A resolution was accordingly passed by the committee in which it was stated that there was no intention on the part of the committee to give the slightest colour or countenance to the charges complained of; and that the conduct of the missionaries throughout those trying and eventful times was calculated to engender in the minds of the natives loyalty towards the British authority and respect towards themselves.
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Having succeeded in this business the Archdeacon had other matters to attend to in connection with the mission, one of which was seeing through the press the revised editions of the Maori versions of the New Testament, and the Book of Common Prayer. He embarked at Gravesend on his return voyage in October, 1852, but owing to an extraordinary succession of violent south-west gales the ship did not leave the coast of England till the following January, arriving at Auckland in May, 1853.
The two and a-half years of the Archdeacon's absence had been a season of great material prosperity for the Maori population. The cultivation of wheat for the Auckland market had for some time past proved very profitable to them, and now the rush of people to the Australian gold diggings had greatly increased the demand, and, by raising the price, had stimulated the production. The plough was largely superseding the spade, and the use of bullocks in agricultural operations was becoming general. Europeans had in the past provided vessels for the conveyance of the produce to Auckland, but now the people were for purchasing schooners for themselves that they might got the full benefit of the prices ruling in Auckland. The cultivation of wheat was general throughout the district, and the East Coast was furnishing a very considerable proportion of the wheat export from Auckland to Australia. To people who, though not in a state of destitution, had been accustomed generally to live from hand to mouth without the enjoyment of anything that could be described as wealth, the setting in of such a wave of prosperity could not but prove a very serious testing. One deplorable result of the increase of material wealth and of the more frequent intercourse with English settlements for the purpose of trade was that a number of the young men began to acquire a taste for spirituous liquor, and that drunkenness, which two or three years previously had been almost entirely unknown among the Maori people, had now become by no means uncommon. It had been often witnessed in the case of white men, but it used to be looked upon as a Pakeha failing and was generally spoken of in terms of strong disapprobation. Men of the older generation were greatly concerned at the prevalence of the vice and would have been glad if they could have put a stop to it. but this was beyond their power.
