CHAPTER IX. RECENT ACCOUNTS FROM THE MISSION
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CHAPTER IX.
RECENT ACCOUNTS FROM THE MISSION--DESCRIPTION OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, AUCKLAND.
IT has already been mentioned, that the Bishop of New Zealand, soon after his arrival in his diocese, commenced a Collegiate Institution at the Waimate, for the training of candidates for Holy Orders, catechists and schoolmasters, comprising also elementary schools for the children of natives and British settlers. This college the Bishop has repeatedly spoken of in his letters, as the key and pivot of all his operations. With respect to the most important part of the system, the preparation for the ministry, it is evident that the circumstances of an infant colony, like New Zealand, render it indispensable that the Bishop should have a personal and intimate knowledge of the candidates for ordination, which can only be attained by their residence, for a fixed period, at the Collegiate Institution.
The college having been in operation for more than two years, at the Waimate, where the
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buildings are all of wood, and of which the tenure was only temporary, the Bishop, in 1844, (as has been already stated, see page 163) found it necessary to remove to a site about four miles from Auckland, easily accessible both by land and water, and which was purchased with a part of the legacy left by the Rev. T. Whytehead, as an endowment for the college. A more detailed account of the college will be found in the Appendix. It is here sufficient to state, that it was founded:--First, as a place of religious and useful education for all classes of the community, and especially for candidates for Holy Orders. Secondly, as a temporary hostelry for young settlers, on their first arrival in the country. Thirdly, as a refuge for the sick, the aged, and the poor.
The natives have already given the most gratifying proofs 1 of their willingness to send their children even from great distances, for education at the native school attached to the college, and the only real impediment to the extension of religious education among them, is the want of funds for the support of this institution: for the Bishop writes:--"The present state of feeling would enable me at this moment to bring a thousand native children
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into my schools, if I could undertake to maintain them."
In a letter dated September 1846, the Bishop thus describes the college:--
"The buildings at present completed are the school dormitories, in which we are all now living--the kitchen (now used both for kitchen and hall). By the side of this, the hospital, with stone foundations and wooden superstructure, has risen to the height of the eaves. Further on, materials are lying ready for the native schools. Three little wooden cottages, on the other side of the road, are the dwellings of the college servants. In the valley is the college barn, now used for the native schools--but shortly to be applied to the purposes for which it was designed."
A number of little thatched buildings of native reeds are occupied by some of the students--the rest being with the Bishop on the hill.
"Our walls of volcanic stone, two feet thick, defy the winds, which whistle round us in our lofty situation. Though the hill on which we are situated is of volcanic origin, yet the fire seems to have died away, as is evident by thirteen or fourteen extinct craters which may be counted from the college grounds. In front, through my latticed casement window, I have
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a noble sea view over the bays and islands, among which, the Flying Fish cruises on her missionary errands. On the right, eight acres of wheat are just now beginning to be green, when your English harvest is safely stacked. This is the work of our native schools, and has occupied forty spades, great and small--the adults and boys all working--the older digging--the younger breaking up and pulverizing the soil. On the left, is the English valley, where the English schools have subdued from the waste two acres of garden ground, in which vegetables of many kinds and several flowers are just beginning to show their spring shoots. Our little army of 70 spades, working regularly two or three hours a day, soon changes the appearance of the land, with the aid of the college team of six bullocks--to break up the stubborn surface, and make it more tractable for hand labour. Next year we hope to eat no bread that is not the fruit of our own land."
The college has recently been visited by Nene, or Thomas Walker, the native chief, who fought on the English side in the north, who appears to have considered the building in the light of a fortress. "It was amusing," the Bishop writes, "to see him when he came to visit us, viewing the buildings, and pointing out where the loop-holes ought to be broken
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out in the walls, and then he said, 'Ekore horo,' 'it will not be stormed.' You may be sure that I shall not desire to make the experiment, but shall do my best to maintain peace with all men."
It will be unnecessary to give any further description of the college, as a minute account of the system of education pursued in that institution, with the names of the officers and other information relating to the colony, will be found in the Appendix.
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