RECENT INTELLIGENCE. New-Zealand Mission.
[Image of page 109]
RECENT INTELLIGENCE.
New-Zealand Mission.
OTAWAO.
THE Middle (or Southern) District of the north island was first entered upon by the Missionaries in 1834. An extract from a Letter of the Rev. J. Morgan, dated J an. 9, 1830, will help us to realize the difficulties of the undertaking.
In this, the southern part of the island, we are surrounded by a darkness which may be felt, the habitations of cruelty, and the strongholds of native superstition: ignorance and vice are on every side: while further south there are many thousands who have never heard of the saving name of Jesus. A Chief belonging to this place has recently been shamefully murdered, and afterward eaten at Rotorua. The people are expecting a vessel on the coast, from which they may have a supply of arms and ammunition in exchange for flax. They will then proceed to seek payment for the death of their friend.
On the breaking out of the desolating war which immediately followed, the situation of the Missionaries became hazardous in the extreme. The old chief of Matamata, a sanguinary warrior and cannibal, had often represented to them the necessity of sending their wives away; but, unwilling to break up their Schools, they deferred doing so until the last moment. Scarcely had this been done, when the war-party arrived, consisting of various and strange tribes, carrying with them fearful tokens of the victory they had just achieved. The Rev. R. Maunsell, in his Journal of April 5, 1836, thus describes the scene--
They arrived peaceably, and we without any apprehension mixed among them. But who can describe the feelings of disgust and abhorrence which the whole scene was calculated to excite! Dead to all feeling, the victors, holding by the hair, shook in our view the heads of their vanquished foes; directed our eyes to the bones and hands, which they were carrying in bundles on their backs; and offered us, for food, the flesh, the presence of which the abominable smell sufficiently disclosed. Worn out with disgust, I returned to the Settlement. But there similar scenes presented themselves; and a boy not sixteen years of age stuck up, within two yards of our fencing, a human head. Oh! these are scenes that call forth prayer, and lead the mind to Him who is peace and loveliness; that constrain us to long for the termination of our warfare--for that victory which shall be cele-
[Image of page 110]
brated by no blood, but by the holy rejoicings of a holy people!
How different the scenes now presented to us in the Journals of our Missionaries! How transforming, how tranquillizing, the influence of the Gospel! What a privilege to be even a hewer of wood or a drawer of water in such a work as this!
Mr. Morgan, in a Letter dated Otawao, Jan. 2, 1849, writes thus--
The progress of civilization amongst the Aborigines is satisfactory. A very important change has taken place in this respect within the last three years. A general desire now exists amongst the Natives to rise as near as they can to a level with Europeans. They now eagerly follow out any plans which tend to this end; and as one tribe rises in the scale, and reaps the benefit of this advanced state, surrounding tribes become anxious to follow their example. One fact will illustrate this. After the formation of this Station, I procured a number of choice fruit-trees, and having also obtained a lesson in the art of budding and grafting, I instructed one of my teachers, and supplied him with wild stocks, and worked buds and grafts from my trees. He formed a small orchard, and this excited other Natives to the same work. In the proper season many Natives may be seen with their knives in their hands; and the wild peach (the only European fruit the Natives possess) is fast giving place to the worked peach, the apple, pear, almond, plum, damson, quince, and the English gooseberry. Dozens of old peach trees have been cut down, and hundreds of young trees reared and worked from buds and scions, with which I have supplied them. The teacher above named sold twenty shillings' worth of fruit last year to European traders, and then placed the money, together with another pound, in my hands, to purchase bricks to build an oven, and which are now being made.
At Otawao and Ngauhuruhuru the Natives have had erected two large water-mills, the former one at a cost of no less than 320l.
On Jan. 17, 1849, Mr. Morgan writes again--
In my Letter of Jan. 2 I particularly alluded to the advancement of the Natives in civilization, and the success of my plans for their future improvement. The large mills at
Ngauhuruhuru and Otawao fully answer my expectations; and about six tons of flour, I believe the first produce of the kind grown by the Natives and ground in their own mill, have been taken down to Auckland and sold at about 13l. per ton. More bricks for ovens are being made; one boarded house is in course of erection, and others in contemplation; besides a farm at Ngauhuruhuru, where it is proposed first to introduce the plough. The wheat crops belonging to the Natives of my district, and now nearly ripe, may be estimated at between 800 and 1000 acres. The benefit, however, of the two large mills, is confined to the Natives living within six miles round Otawao. All the villages between ten and forty miles distant are still unprovided for. The larger Settlements can unite and build a mill, but I feel anxious to see the growth of wheat encouraged at the small villages also. The steel mills sent out to the Colony are generally of the most common description, and are purchased at the rate of 100 per cent, or more upon the English price. They soon get out of order, and are cast aside as useless. Hence they tend to discourage the growth of wheat. I am anxious, therefore, to introduce a better description of wheat mill, and am of opinion that Dean's hand-mill, with French burr stones and dressing-machine No. 120, price 15l., would, if fitted with a water-wheel, so that it could be placed at the side of a rivulet, be most suitable for the small villages. I am sending for the above for Wawarua, and have no doubt it will prove a great acquisition to the village.
I feel exceedingly anxious to promote the civilization of the Natives, as well as to see them growing in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, that the New Zealanders may, by the blessing of God, form an exception to the fate of Aboriginal Tribes in general, before the tide of European civilization.
Mr. Maunsell visited Otawao in January last. He baptized 83 adults and 42 children, several of the adults being converts from Romanism. The Lord's Supper was administered to 153 Native Communicants. May the Holy Spirit graft, upon the wild stock of the New Zealander's natural character, a new nature in Christ; that, instead of bitter fruits, they may bring forth "the pleasant fruits of righteousness!"
