NOTES. The Reinstatement of Henry Williams. Thomas Grace.
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NOTES
The Reinstatement of Henry Williams
The ostensible reason for William Williams' journey to England was to see the new editions of Prayer Book and New Testament through the press. But the members of Central Committee, including the Bishop, were well aware that two other motives were uppermost in Williams' mind. The first was to vindicate the N.Z. mission from Grey's charges-- if he failed to do this he had resolved to quit the C.M.S. 1 --the second was to present in person the facts of his brother's case.
He was well received by the Parent Committee and on 20 May 1851 he spoke at length 2 and successfully to the Corresponding Committee of the C.M.S. which as a result passed a resolution completely exonerating its N.Z. mission. A week later he spoke to the Committee on Henry's case. Here he was not so successful, although to William the defence of Henry was of secondary importance to the defence of the mission. The Committee found that 'no sufficient grounds had been shewn' for rescinding its motion of dismissal, but as a compromise gesture offered Henry Williams a pension of £150 per annum--as he had made over his land to his children he might possibly have made himself destitute. This sop William Williams immediately refused:
I am prepared to declare that Archdeacon Henry Williams will not accept of any pecuniary compensation from the Committee, so long as their resolution shall leave him under the charge of being unfit to remain in connexion with the Society. It is not a matter of salary but of character. 3
The matter, however, did not rest there: Henry had advocates both in New Zealand and in England. James Disney, a clergyman and member of the C.M.S. led the fight at Salisbury Square. At home, Hugh Carleton entered the lists on the side of his future father-in-law. 4 Even the Bishop and the Governor, both of whom had been surprised and not a little dismayed at the Parent Committee's decision, were anxious that Henry Williams should be restored to full connexion with the C.M.S. Carleton maintains that the New Zealand laity, through the press, made the question of 'dismissal without enquiry too hot for all concerned in it', although from a reading of contemporary newspapers it would seem that there were editorial statements and letters to the editor, which while
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not condoning the action of the C.M.S., argued that whatever the rights or wrongs of the matter, for a missionary Henry Williams had held too much land.
In 1854 while Selwyn was in England, he made a particular point of addressing a meeting of the C.M.S. at Salisbury Square and asking for the reinstatement of Henry Williams. In October of the same year, the Parent Committee passed a resolution which rather surprisingly adverted to the confidence 'which the Committee had ever felt and expressed in Archdeacon Henry Williams as a Christian missionary', and went on to rejoice in believing that 'every obstacle is providentially removed against the return of Archdeacon Henry Williams into full connexion'. 5 In fact, Providence had not really changed anything, but an accompanying letter from Henry Venn to Henry Williams contained, between the lines, a rather embarrassed plea for Williams to let bygones be bygones. Henry Williams received and accepted the Society's resolution.
Full expiation for the Parent Committee's reaction to Grey's 'blood and money' despatch was paid by the C.M.S. in 1939 as its contribution to the New Zealand centenary: a resolution recorded the Society's appreciation of Henry Williams 'both as a founder of the Maori Church and of the colony of New Zealand', and, more important, admitted that the Society had been mistaken in its judgment owing to misrepresentation of the facts, and that 'the charges made against Williams were without foundation'. 6
Thomas Grace
T. S. Grace, his wife Agnes and their three children arrived at Auckland by the Fairy Queen on 9 July 1850. He was a clergyman in full orders and a member of the C.M.S. At the end of September William Williams accompanied the Grace family to Turanga where they landed, with some difficulty, on 1 October. Grace recorded his first impressions:
Turanga is pretty rather than beautiful--being a dead flat; on account of the bush, there is no view, and the hills for the most part are too distant to give a pleasing effect. The quality of the land, however, more than compensates for the lack of beauty. Growth is prodigious. In the garden there is a willow tree which, Mr Williams tells me, has been planted only eight years. My curiosity led me to measure the tree. Its girth is 4 feet 6 inches. 7
Just over three weeks later, 24 October, Williams departed and the new missionaries were left 'surrounded by Natives without knowing many words of their language'. 8
Both Grace and Williams were evangelicals and members of the
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same missionary society; both thought of the Maoris as a dying race and of the European settlers and traders as providing the kiss of death. But there was also a difference. Williams had fought to keep his Maoris uncontaminated from intercourse with European society--he disapproved of Maori whaling ventures and of Maoris working for European whalers; he was not in favour of Maoris owning or building their own coastal vessels so as to engage in trade with the new towns. Poverty Bay was to be a Maori-mission enclave. Grace shared Williams' aversion to Maoris selling their lands and was glad that he was temporarily absent from Poverty Bay when McLean called in 1851; but, possibly even more than Williams, he was determined that Maoris should not sink into a condition of servitude to Europeans. Before entering the priesthood he had been a successful business man and he passed on some of his acumen to his natives. He encouraged the Poverty Bay Maoris to demand a higher price for their produce, and to help them in this, advised them in the establishment of a corn market to fix the price of wheat. It would also appear that he encouraged them to build their own coastal vessels and to cultivate and husband their land and their cattle with greater assiduity. Money began to replace trousers and shirts.
In every temporal respect, they have made progress. More than one of these Maoris has told us: "Now is the beginning of our strength! This is the beginning of our Kingdom! Now we are beginning to live!" 9
His report for 1852 stated:
The natives have attained a degree of intelligence beyond what might have been expected in so short a period. Their motto is now: "Ploughs, sheep and ships", to establish a civilization like unto that of the pakeha. 10
The Poverty Bay settlers and traders, however, were less than happy with the prospect of this new kingdom, and in Grace's first year at Turanga did their best to make the Maoris disaffected with their new missionary. In this they had some success. Ngati Maru who were chiefly employed in building the church, abandoned the project, discontent over trading practices grew, Maori-pakeha relations deteriorated.
'It would be well', wrote J. W. Harris to McLean, 'if that gentleman would confine himself to his religious duties and not interfere in matters that have been quietly settled.' 11
On 16 August 1853, William Williams returned to Poverty Bay and shortly afterwards Grace left. His next and principal station was at Pukawa, Taupo, which he established in April 1855.
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