CHAPTER I
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CHAPTER I.
It was not until after my admission to Deacon's Orders by the Bishop of London in May, 1853, and my return from England at the close of that year, that I was directly connected with the work of the mission in the East Coast district, and, as a missionary of the Church Missionary Society, stationed at Turanga in Poverty Bay.
During the six years of my absence from New Zealand, a great change had taken place in the circumstances of the people. The effects of the recent discovery of gold in Australia were felt throughout New Zealand. Even natives from the East Coast betook themselves to the diggings, one of whom, in a letter to a Pakeha friend, told him that gold was indeed plentiful where he was, but that unfortunately it would not stay in his pocket. They were much better fed and clothed than they used to be, and the more extended agricultural operations, demanding as they did considerably more time and attention than had been the case in years gone by, tended to promote habits of more regular and continuous industry. But it was noticeable that the desire for instruction on the part of the people generally was becoming far less keen than it had formerly been, owing to the attraction of occupations which, from a worldly point of view, were found to be abundantly profitable.
An illustration of the general material prosperity was afforded in 1854 by an entertainment which was given by the Rongowhakaata tribe to a large party of the Tuhoe who occupy a mountainous country lying to the north of Lake Waikare-moana, and somewhat difficult of access from the coast. Some two or three years before a young Tuhoe chief had been married to the daughter of a chief of the Rongowhakaata in Poverty Bay, and had taken his bride to his home at Ruatahuna. In 1854 the young couple came to reside for a period with the lady's relatives and were escorted by a large party of the Tuhoe. Great preparations were made in order that the visitors should be received with due hospitality, and it was arranged that they should have a formal reception at two different places by two sections of the Rongowhakaata. At each of the places the framework of a long temporary shed was constructed with poles, and on the arrival of the visitors these were covered with blankets and pieces of print and calico, while inside were placed hundredweight boxes of biscuit with quantities of flour, sugar, tea, tobacco, and various other articles, all of which were a gift to the visitors in addition to the ordinary food of the people with which they were abundantly supplied. It is hardly necessary to say that the scantily clad and poorly fed Tuhoe were overcome by such a profusion of luxury, which was more than they could consume, and most of which they were unable to carry away with them on their return to their mountain fastnesses. A few years previously such a display would have been far beyond conception by the most fertile imagination of any among the Rongowhakaata themselves; for the general condition of the people, though not by any means one of destitution, had nevertheless been one of comparative poverty. Food indeed, in the shape of potatoes
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and kumara had not been lacking, but the whole of their surplus produce which the traders took off their hands was not more than sufficient to provide the amount of clothing and other articles which they had then come to regard as necessaries. So great a change as is indicated by the profusion of good things with which the Tuhoe visitors were entertained, coming about as it did in the course of a very few years, was likely to be accompanied with some decline in the religious fervour of Christians who had so recently emerged from a state of barbarous heathenism.
Before Archdeacon Williams left for England great preparations had been made for the erection of a church in the Maori style of architecture, which was to be 90 feet long and 45 feet in width. A large quantity of totara timber had been got together and dressed for the framework of the walls and for the support of the weighty ridge-pole. The uprights for the walls were so prepared that they should stand over 15 feet above the ground. They averaged two feet in width and the inner surface which would be seen inside the building was elaborately carved, the grotesque caricatures of the human form so common in the carving of Maori whares being avoided. The two posts which were to support the ends of the ridge-pole, and to stand about twenty-eight feet above the ground were also elaborately carved from top to bottom. During the Archdeacon's absence, all being ready for the erection, the work was proceeded with and the carved timbers were placed in position, the lower end of each being firmly fixed in the ground. At this stage a serious misunderstanding occurred and the work was abandoned. It was a great disappointment to the Archdeacon to find on his return that the work had proceeded no further, and that there seemed to be little prospect of its being resumed in the near future with any degree of heartiness. It woould seem to have been unfortunate that this difficulty should have arisen while the Archdeacon was out of the way, as the older people especially had been in the habit of looking to him for advice and guidance in any time of difficulty. His place was supplied to a certain extent by the Rev. T. S. Grace, but with his very moderate acquaintance with the language and habits of the people he could not be the same to them as one who had acquired their confidence during many years of residence among them.
At the end of 1853 two vacancies in the staff of workers had been filled up by the appointment to Te Kawakawa of the Rev. Rota Waitoa, who had been ordained Deacon in the previous May, and to Rangitukia, of the Rev. Charles Baker, who had been ordained Deacon in December of the same year.
The most urgent need of the mission at this time was that greater efforts should be made in the matter of education. A boarding school for girls had been opened on this station in 1848, in a building which had been erected for the purpose, a steady Maori married couple being placed in charge, and much of the teaching being done by members of the Archdeacon's family. This arrangement was not altogether satisfactory, but it was the best that the circumstances admitted of. For several years past Sir G. Grey had manifested great interest in Maori schools, and had strengthened the hands of the different religious bodies which were working among the Maoris by making free grants of land in some cases, and by money grants towards the expenses of the schools. The conditions on which this was done were generally specified in the Crown grants for land
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which was held in trust for the education of the Maoris, whether the land was a free gift from the Crown, or had been obtained by purchase or private gift from the natives. The formula most frequently adopted was that the land was to be held in trust for the support of a school "so long as religious education, industrial training, and instruction in the English language should be given to the youth educated therein or maintained thereat." The industrial training consisted largely in agriculture, because it would have been impossible otherwise to procure an adequate supply of food for the pupils, the means at the command of the managers of the schools being very limited. It was now proposed to establish central schools at Turanga for the whole of the East Coast district, in one department of which young men should be trained in the hope that some of them at least might in time prove to be fit for admission to Holy Orders; and the circumstances did not admit of this being done except on the industrial system mentioned above. This department was to be my special charge. It was decided to make a beginning as early in 1854 as possible with a few young men who could be accommodated in a building which was then available, leaving a school for boys till further provision should be made.
Many months elapsed, however, before the work could be said to be fairly started, in consequence chiefly of the very severe epidemic of measles for which the year 1854 was sadly memorable. This was the first time that this malady had visited the North Island. It had visited the South Island as far back as 1838, when, according to Maori accounts, a large proportion of the population was cut off by it, but at that time it did not cross Cook's Strait. In 1854 it is said to have been brought by an American vessel from Tasmania to the Bay of Islands in March. In a few weeks it had spread all over the island with deadly effect. Among the Maoris there were very few, if any, who escaped it and, as it was a prevalent notion among them that the best thing to do when the rash made its appearance was to plunge into cold water, it is no wonder that the disease itself or the after-effects were in many cases fatal. It is said that in some cases it was followed by scarlet fever, but in the East Coast district large numbers of those who had been attacked by measles were carried off afterwards by dysentery. Dr. Thomson, in "The Story of New Zealand," (Vol. II, P. 214), says that "directly or indirectly the disease carried off 4000 natives, and most of its victims were selected from the ranks of the young and the aged." His estimate of the death roll is probably much under the mark.
The old Turanga station comprised not more than about eight acres which were held on a somewhat insecure title; it was necessary therefore, that, if the proposed schools were to be to any extent self-supporting, an adequate amount of land should be obtained. In the neighbourhood of the station there was no lack of unoccupied land belonging to various sections of the Rongowhakaata tribe, but there seemed to be great difficulty in procuring the consent of all concerned to the permanent appropriation to educational purposes of the amount of land required. While the matter was under their consideration an offer was made by the Whanau-a-Taupara section of the Aitanga-a-Mahaki tribe of a block of land at Waerenga-a-hika in close proximity to their own settlement. This block, which was afterwards found on survey to contain 593 acres, seemed to be in every way suitable, and the offer was accepted.
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To move the station to Waerenga-a-hika was by no means a light undertaking. The land was in its natural condition and, before any of it could be utilised for the support of the schools, it was necessary to fence it, to clear off the natural growth, and, if ploughing was contemplated, to dig out the roots of tutu and other shrubs. The distance it is true, was only eight miles, but there were two rivers to cross, over neither of which was there a bridge; there was nothing that could be called a road; and the only vehicles that could be used were sledges drawn by bullocks. The buildings on the station had to be pulled down and the materials transported in this way; and before any extra buildings could be erected the timber must be sawn in the neighbouring forest. The most formidable difficulty was perhaps the raising of the funds that would be needed. There were advisers of influence who considered the difficulties insurmountable, but the event proved that boldly to face them was the wiser course. The Church Missionary Society had already granted a sum of £500 from its Jubilee Fund towards the erection of new buildings which would need very largely supplementing, but there was nothing at all in hand for pulling down and re-erecting the old buildings. It was decided, however, to make a vigorous effort to raise the additional amount which would be required, and to defer the actual move as long as it might be necessary. In the meantime it was possible to do something in the way of preparation. Steps were taken at once for enclosing and clearing a portion of the ground in readiness for cropping. The boundaries of the land to be ceded were promptly indicated, but before a satisfactory title could be obtained the services of a competent surveyor were required, and he must be sent for from Auckland. A deed of cession also had to be prepared and duly executed. In connection with this a serious difficulty had to be surmounted which had not been anticipated. The owners were quite ready to execute, and did execute a deed of gift to Archdeacon Williams as trustee, specifying the purposes for which the land was to be held in trust. But the law would not recognise any title as valid except one conferred by the Crown. It was necessary, therefore, that the land should first be ceded by the owners to the Crown that it might be granted by the Crown to the person or persons who should be fixed upon as trustees. Nothing was further from the thoughts of the natives than that the Crown should be allowed to get any footing in the district. Much discussion consequently ensued, and it was not till April, 1857, that the deed of cession to the Crown was actually signed.
For the removal of the buildings and their contents it was found expedient to have a punt built in which the freight might be conveyed up the river as far as Matawhero. By this means a great saving was effected, as the amount of sledge work was diminished by half. The working of the punt was not without variety in the shape of misadventure. Among the material to be conveyed was a quantity of wheat which was part of our food supply. At the time when this was being dealt with the state of the tide necessitated an early start in the morning; the punt therefore was loaded during the previous afternoon, and upon the wheat was placed a square piano in the tin-lined case in which it had originally arrived from England. The punt was then moored to the bank of the river ready for the morning. The men who were to navigate the craft were about betimes, but, to their dismay, the punt had disappeared, and the piano was floating in its case some little distance away. The wheat formed a
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heavier load than usual and the water, which found its way in at first by some unsuspected crack gradually filled the punt, which sank down with the wheat to the bottom of the river. The piano was soon rescued but not before much water had got into it, seriously damaging the internal mechanism. The wheat was recovered by diving, and after having been spread out to dry, was found to have sustained no real damage. The piano was taken in hand by a very clever joiner, and rendered good service afterwards, though it never recovered its original quality.
Some progress was made in the erection of new buildings in the course of 1856 and, by the end of the year, 160 acres of the land had been enclosed and a portion of this was under cultivation. Considerable progress also had been made with buildings, some of these being constructed with raupo in the Maori style of architecture to serve until others of a more permanent character should be provided.
The move into the new quarters was made in the following February and March; the old mission house, which up to that time had been occupied by the Archdeacon and his family, having still to be taken down and rebuilt on the new site. The buildings were not luxurious, but they were weather-proof. One of the new wooden buildings contained two large rooms, one of which was used as a dining-room for the natives and the other as a school-room. The school-room had to accommodate both the students and the boys, their industrial occupations being so arranged as to admit, of the alternate use. The building into which the Archdeacon and his family now moved was intended to be used for Maori girls as soon as the old mission house should be re-built and fit for occupation.
A specious attempt was made about this time to beguile unwary Christians by the revival of an old superstitious practice of spiritism. An elderly woman named Maora, who lived near the old mission station, claimed to be in receipt of important communications from the spirit of a man who had died a few years before, having been a consistent Christian and a much-respected teacher. It was doubtless thought that the name of such a man would give credit to the business. Some of the people were very much struck by the alleged communications, and reported them to Archdeacon Williams, who, to satisfy them, acceded to their urgent request that he should go to hear them himself; but as long as he was in the medium's presence the reputed spirit could not be induced to make any communication. The medium was much discredited by this circumstance and the imposture was soon discontinued. Before this, however, the infection had spread to Tolaga Bay and the neighbourhood, where various female mediums professed to be able to put people in communication with some of their departed relatives. One man who had lost a young daughter not long before assured me that he had had a communication with her through one of those mediums, and that he was quite satisfied as to the identity of the spirit because it had given a correct answer when asked what was the wood of which the coffin was made in which the corpse had been buried. It did not occur to him that the medium was probably conversant with all the circumstances. The spirits were said to indicate their presence by whistling and were commonly spoken of as "atua kowhio whio" or whistling spirits. 1
