NEW ZEALAND.
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NEW ZEALAND.
The Committee refer the Members to the Narrative of Mr. Marsden's visit to New Zealand, printed in our last volume, pp. 327-332, 459-471, and 500-523; and then justly remark--
No lover of his kind, much less any Christian, can read the affecting Narrative of Mr. Marsden, without heartily wishing well to this first attempt at forming any establishment among that people for the promotion of their good, either temporal or eternal.
It is added--
And your Committee are grieved to report, that here, as well as in Africa, the Society's attempts for the civilization and conversion of the Natives are retarded and counteracted by the conduct of men who disgrace the name of Englishmen.
After referring to the Government and General Orders issued in New South Wales against these practices, and the formation of a Society at Sydney for the protection of the Natives of the South Seas, the Report proceeds--
But the Meeting will hear with sorrow, that these measures are rendered well-nigh nugatory; and that the cruelty of some Europeans navigating those,
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REPORTS OF SOCIETIES
seas, still continues to stimulate the minds of the Inhabitants to acts of retaliation, on either the innocent or the guilty, which endanger the safety of those benevolent men who are labouring for their eternal good, and which present a formidable obstacle to the success of their attempts among them.
No one can read Mr. Marsden's melancholy narrative respecting the innocent Tippahee and his family without feeling a glow of shame. And many such acts are perpetrated, the horrible particulars of which will not be known till that day when the earth shall disclose her blood and no more cover her slain! If the hire of the labourers which is kept back by fraud crieth, and the cry entereth into the ears of the Lord God of Sabaoth, how much more bitter and piercing is the voice of our brother's blood which crieth to our Common Father from the ground!
Your Committee feel it strongly that the Providential guidance of their Heavenly Master has thrown the Society, in its two attempts among the more uncivilized Heathen, into conflict with the most rapacious and the most unfeeling of their countrymen. But, whether it respect Western Africa or New Zealand, they will not cease to protest against these enormities, and to wipe their hands of these crimes; nor will they desist from employing all practicable methods of obtaining redress, till such redress is actually obtained. While in Africa, and in the islands of the South Sea, they bear the blood of Abel their brother speaking in the ears of the Almighty Father, they will not be discouraged from calling the injured and oppressed to that blood of sprinkling, which speaketh better things than that of Abel.
The Committee are preparing a Memorial on this subject, accompanied by Documents, to be laid before His Majesty's Ministers, praying for the adoption of such measures, as may remedy the evils which have taken place, and prevent the recurrence of similar enormities. In these representations they will be supported by a like appeal from the London Missionary Society, the successful exertions of which body in the Islands of the South Sea are equally endangered by these acts of violence. His Majesty's Ministers have uniformly evinced such a readiness to encourage the benevolent undertakings of both Institutions, that there can be no doubt whatever but that they will apply the most prompt and effectual remedies to these evils.
Whenever such remedies shall be applied, the Society will be encouraged to extend its efforts in New Zealand to the utmost degree which its funds will allow. Possibly his Majesty's Ministers may be induced to form a National Establishment, which will give permanence and stability to the efforts of the Society: but, if not, your Committee cannot doubt of their countenance and assistance in the extension of the Society's Plans, which have as direct a bearing on the commercial interests of our own country, as they have on the higher interests of the Natives.
The Committee do not mean to represent the New Zealanders as opposing of themselves no obstacles to their conversion, except such as grow out of the cruelties of Europeans. The representations of Mr. Marsden, of Mr. Nicholas who accompanied him, and of the Settlers, sufficiently declare, that, while they have virtues which place them in the highest ranks of the uncivilized nations, they partake in many of the common evils of the uncivilized; those, however, chiefly which arise from the fierceness of the untamed spirit, rather than from the more degraded vices of the sensual.
Nor will the Committee conceal it from the Society, that, since Mr. Marsden's departure from New Zealand, individual acts of robbery and violence have been committed on the Settlers: yet it must be declared, to the honour of that magnanimous people, that, while not less than 100 Natives have been murdered by Europeans within no great distance from the Society's Settlements since it has been established, yet no public suspicion or act of retaliation whatever has rested on the Settlers. Yet it must be obvious that the lives of the Missionaries, which are wholly in the power of the Natives, must be exposed to imminent hazard, until an effectual stop be put to such wanton cruelties.
The reader of Mr. Marsden's Narrative will have seen with admiration the courageous frankness of his conduct, and its effect on the people, in winning their confidence and affection. The Committee have just received a testimony equally honourable to Mr. Marsden and to the New Zealanders. Provoked and goaded as they have been by the rapine and murder committed on them by other
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vessels, one of their most warlike tribes has declared, that they will not injure the Active should she put in on their coast,, because they are attached to Mr. Marsden, and like the conduct of the Captain and the ship's company: but they will not give any promise respecting other European Vessels.
Surely, the mere Policy of this country, to say nothing of her Justice and Humanity, demands that an instant stop be put to the capricious and lawless insolence of marauding Englishmen. The untutored Savage will suspend his law of retaliation in favour of the man who has won his confidence; and it is equally in the power of all our countrymen to avail themselves of that noble character which prevails among these Heathens, and to create and perpetuate friendships on every part of their extensive shores.
Some intelligence, received since Mr. Marsden's Narrative, has appeared in our Numbers for August and September.
On one part of this intelligence, it is remarked in the Report: --
Mr. Kendall actively employs himself in visiting the surrounding Chiefs; and applying to their benefit his early knowledge of farming. He is the sower of their wheat, and the director of their incipient farms.
"August 18th, (he says) I went up the River about twelve miles, to sow some wheat for my friends Shunghee and Tairee.
"August 21st, I went up the River about six miles, to sow some wheat for my friend Shourackie.
August 28th, I went up the River about twelve miles, to sow some wheat for my friends Widouah, Tahoa, and Rewa. "
Such Notices speak volumes in the ear of the Christian Philosopher; and will be read with gratitude by future generations of New Zealanders, when our Holy Religion shall have rendered their country, by the Charities and Energies which it awakens, a great and powerful nation.
It is added:--
Mr. Hall and Mr. King are employed in their respective departments. They have suffered from pilferers, who cannot withstand the temptation of their tools and iron. Mr. Hall has built two wooden houses and a smith's shop; and has made a boat by cutting off both ends of a canoe, and enlarging it so as to carry three or four tons. He has been active in procuring timber, and employs as many Natives as he can in such work as they can perform. He is acquiring the language with great rapidity.
The establishments of the Society in the Bay of Islands contained, at the date of the last advices, twenty-six men, women, and children, supported by its funds.
A further purchase of land, of about fifty acres, has been made for the Society at Wytanghee; being the most eligible spot, on some accounts, for a Settlement in the Bay of Islands. Warrackie, the Chief of whom the land was purchased, expressed, as several other Chiefs have done, and as the dying Duaterra seems to have felt, apprehensions lest the English should ultimately dispossess the Natives of their country. The conduct of both the Government and the Society will doubtless be directed to allay these fears, which thoughtless or evil-minded men have awakened.
Mr. Marsden has entertained hopes that advantage may be derived by the importation of Flax from New Zealand, which grows there in great abundance, and apparently of a very fine quality. Some samples of Hemp, manufactured at Sydney from this flax, were sent to this country; which was worked, it was stated, at less labour and expense than any known. These samples were sent for trial to Knaresborough, where great quantities of Hemp are used; and where they were put to the test with every advantage, the New-Zealand Mission being in that town an object of peculiar interest. This trial did not succeed to the full satisfaction of the parties; but the Committee; still entertain hopes that, when a larger quantity is received, the result may be more decisively encouraging.
The character and death of the young Chief Duaterra are then referred to. His name is well known to all who have read Mr. Marsden's Narrative; A Memoir of him will be given in the Appendix.
It is remarked in the Report:--
There are some circumstances attending the death of this hopeful young man, which cannot be read without feeling. They paint, in gloomy colours,
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the deadly influence of old Superstitions on a man not far, at least, from the kingdom of God, and of whom we cannot but hope that he has found mercy; and they draw a heart-rending picture of the conflict of natural feeling against the cruel dictates which govern in the dark places of the earth.
But we leave this lamented Chief in the hands of Infinite Mercy. Of one of his countrymen, who has, like him, left this world, no anxieties whatever rest on the mind with respect to his eternal safety. Mowhee, with whose name the reader of Mr. Marsden's Narrative will be acquainted, has left his earthly remains with us in this land, but his soul is with his Lord; and the first-fruits of New Zealand have been doubtless gathered into the garner of Heaven, and are a pledge of that abundant harvest which will one day be there safely housed for ever!
A Memoir and Obituary of this young man having been drawn up by the Rev. Basil Woodd, to whose kind protection and care he was entrusted by the Committee, it will not be necessary to enlarge on the painful subject of his death, as Mr. Woodd has improved that event in a manner likely to render it useful, under the Divine Blessing, to such as read the affecting Narrative.
This Memoir has been laid before our Readers.
