1814-1853 - The Missionary Register [Sections relating to New Zealand.] - 1848 - New Zealand, p 319-326

I am working hard to fulfil my promise of a gradual reduction of expense; but every one must see that the years which I have spent in New Zealand have been the leanest of the lean--so far as the possibility of obtaining assistance in the country itself. Yet my successor would find himself in no very uncomfortable position, in a good stone house with sixteen fireplaces, beside a large kitchen and bakehouse, with a fine estate of 800 acres in a ring-fence attached, about seventy or eighty acres of which are already in cultivation; and more than 300 fenced in, and ready for the plough--with a nucleus, at least, of a Native and English College, wanting only a few more years of Divine Blessing and of Episcopal Care to bring it to maturity--with nine Churches and Chapels of wood or stone on the English Settlements, and comfortable Parsonages at Wellington, Nelson, and Taranaki. The sums already received to meet the Society's grants from other quarters are--

New Zealand Company.........£7500
Whitehead's Scholarship....... 600
Meyrick (in land)............. 600
Marsh......................... 500
Appleyard..................... 500
Lady Margaret................. 700
College Subscription.......... 5000
Special Donations (in land)... 5000
..............................£20,400

By far the larger portion of the above is invested in real securities of land in good situations, or substantial buildings for Church or Collegiate purposes. I think,

therefore, that it must be admitted that the Gospel-Propagation Society's endeavours have fructified to no small extent, and that they may bear with me a few years longer, till the Colony is in a more solvent state.

The present state of feeling would enable me at this moment to bring a thousand native children into my Schools, if I could undertake to maintain them.

The buildings at present completed are the School Dormitories, in which we are all now living, and 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. Farther 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.

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 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 shew their spring shoots. Our little army of seventy 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.

A book, lately published, says, that the worst Natives are always those who have received Missionary Instruction; and that the crime of stealing was almost unknown among them before they had Missionaries. How a man could write such a barefaced falsehood I am at a loss to conceive. Why, Sir, what was the custom of the New Zealander some twenty-five years ago, in reference to vessels that happened to be wrecked on their coasts? Did he not rob, and plunder, and murder? And what, I ask, would have been the consequences, at that period, of the same number of Europeans taking up their abode in New Zealand, and bringing such a large amount of property to these shores? Would it have been prudent, would it have been safe, without a very large military force to protect them? I believe not; and if the Bible had not preceded, colonization could not have been accomplished.

The diffusion of Scripture knowledge done no good! What has terminated the sanguinary wars of the New Zealander? William Naylor, a powerful Chief of Wangaroa, known to some of you, told me that it was an argument drawn from Scripture that first induced him to give up fighting. He was on the eve of departing on an expedition of war, to seek revenge for some of his friends who had fallen in a previous contest. A Missionary arrived at his "kainga," and, just as they were going to start, reasoned with him, and tried to dissuade him from his purpose; and it was this argument that prevailed: "Leave it," said the Missionary, "till the day of judgment, and the Great God will avenge the death of your friends; for He will judge every man, and reward every man according to his works." That fastened on his mind. He called to his friends, "Listen! the Pakeha says, that God will utu the death of our friends; let us leave it with Him:" and from that time to this he has never engaged in war. What saved the few remaining Aborigines of the Taranaki District, that had been well nigh utterly depopulated by successive years of war and bloodshed? The diffusion of Scripture Principles has preserved them alive. Some may say that war has not entirely ceased. It has not. New circumstances, into which the half-civilized New Zealander has been thrown, have, in some cases, led to war; but I am fully persuaded that their late wars have been much less sanguinary than they would have been, if they had not had the Scriptures among them. I was struck with this on one of my visits to Manukau. During the late quarrel, when on my return from the Ngatiteata to Bunting's Camp, I found them all on their knees in solemn prayer to God that he would interfere, and prevent the threatened kino. Instead of charging their muskets, with which to receive the other party, they commended the affair to God, and met them with empty guns; and who can tell but that Divine Providence, in answer to their prayers, prevented bloodshed on that occasion? What was it that taught them this, but the Word of God?

I am delighted to hear that the Society do not intend to withdraw from the great and good work which they have entered upon in New Zealand. I shall always cheerfully bear witness to the great amount of good which the Society has effected in New Zealand, and reflect with

pleasure that there are many among its Missionaries whose character and labours must long live in the recollection of all who take an interest in the human race.

SIR--The urbanity with which you condescended, in my late visit to Auckland, to explain to me some of your views respecting the native race, and the kind offer you made of assisting me in any way that was in your power, have encouraged me to write this Letter to your Excellency. The subject will, I trust, commend itself as deserving attention, and will also be an apology for my thus trespassing upon you.

I believe I am right in concluding that you assented to the remark that I took the liberty of then making to you, that the position in which the New Zealanders should be regarded was not very dissimilar from that of a ward in Chancery-- from this simple reason, that, no matter what moral advance they may have made, their character, until properly disciplined, will always exhibit a strange mixture of the craft and spirit of the man, with the improvidence and fickleness of the child. If, therefore, left to themselves, there is reason to fear that they would soon alienate their lands for any bauble that might at the time excite their desire; and though they got a fair equivalent in money, yet, when they found hereafter that nothing now remained to them, and that their properties thus sold were increasing in value, it is more than probable that a strong feeling of discontent would arise in their minds, particularly against the Government, whom they are taught to consider as their friends and guardians.

That the Government should therefore maintain a check upon their sale of lands is, I think, most desirable.

It will, I trust, be also admitted, that, while the Government remunerate themselves for their expense and trouble by a share of the produce of the land sales, they are also bound to provide that the Native should get a fair benefit from this disposal of his properties.

What should be the nature of the good thus derived to the Native is the question on which I desire now to offer a few remarks.

I admit that the making roads, and carrying out other such useful works for the benefit of the country, is, in a certain sense, a good rendered to those of the Aborigines who are owners of property in the neighbourhood of those improvements, or who are employed in works connected with them.

Still it is not, I consider, the good now most suited to their present condition; for--to keep up the original idea of guardianship--we should not consider that those guardians were best consulting the interests of their ward who simply aimed at increasing the value of his estate, without preparing him for its proper enjoyment.

What the Aborigines now most need is, education--education, not only for their own sakes, but for that also of the Colony.

They need it for their own good; for it is clear this state of nonage ought not always to last; and the only reason why they are considered unfit to use their properties is, because they are uneducated.

It is needed for the sake of the island at large; for who cannot see how intimately connected it is with the interests of a country, whether nine-tenths of its population continue to be wild, lawless, roaming warriors, disturbed themselves, and disturbing others, or whether they be induced to settle down as useful members of society, fearing God and respecting lawful authority.

That neither fear, political management, nor the prospect of gain, can produce this result, is, I am satisfied, well known by yourself, from the intercourse you have already had with a people more easily daunted, and perhaps of less impetuous passions, than the New Zealanders.

The great nations of Europe have taught us a lesson which I trust will not be forgotten in the government of this deeply-interesting country. They shew, by the efforts they are making to promote education, that they are of opinion that it is the interest and duty of the State to help forward the moral culture of its subjects.

A chief reason, I suspect, why so little has been done hitherto toward the educa-

tion of the Aborigines, is from an impression that there are Religious Societies in operation which will adequately attend to that duty. This opinion, I am sorry to say, is far from being correct.

That a great deal has been done is as much a source of wonder as of gratitude. On this head, however, I shall not enlarge, after the high terms in which your Excellency was pleased to speak to me in reference to our labours. Still, a statement of the case will, I am sure, evince how deeply we need a large and immediate increase to the means we have now in operation. I will confine myself to the labours of the Church Missionary Society, with which I am connected, and with which I am best acquainted.

The field of labour of this Society may be described as being all that portion of this island, excepting a few places occupied by the Roman Catholics, which lies to the eastward of a line drawn from Cape Maria Van Diemen down by Kaitaia on to Waimate; thence nearly direct to Auckland; from thence to the mouth of the Waikato River; up the Waikato; on to Taupo; down the Wanganui to its mouth, and along the Western Coast to Port Nicholson. That is to say, we occupy upward of five-sixths of this island, an island nearly as large as Great Britain. We occupy it with twenty-four men, ordained and Catechist, two of whom are unable from sickness to continue any longer in the field, and others are unable, from the same cause, and age, to attend to their heavy duties.

On the Mission 10,000l. is spent annually by the Home Society, and this sum is appropriated to the providing and maintaining residences for the Missionaries, to the salaries of the Missionaries, to their travelling and all such contingent expenses; to the building, repairing, and maintaining Places of Worship; and to the keeping in operation a press for printing the Scriptures, and other useful books in the Maori Tongue. More than 500l. also of this sum is devoted to the maintenance of Schools.

All the Stations, except two, are occupied but by one Missionary, and the average size of his sphere of labour is larger than an English diocese. On him alone rests every kind of duty connected with the Station, secular and spiritual, and more than a third of his time is occupied in visiting the different Native Settlements.

With so many distracting cares, it is clear that he cannot pay steady attention to any one locality, or to any School on that locality. The Native Teachers, it is true, are useful; but their characters are too unstable, and their knowledge too scanty, to enable us to look for any thing that is permanent or solid from them. To add to our difficulties, the people are, in the majority of the districts, so scattered and so migratory, that the instances are but few in which Day-schools of any magnitude are capable of being conducted with regularity. The only satisfactory way in which education can be brought to bear on this population is through the medium of Boarding-schools. In establishing these we are met by the insuperable difficulty of heavy expenditure and contracted means.

Though many attempts have been made, no system has been yet brought into action by which a School can be maintained at less than six pounds per annum for each child. The school at Kaitaia is the only exception I am aware of. In that Institution twenty children are maintained and boarded at an expense of two pounds per child; but this is owing to there being two Missionaries on that Station--men not only active, but skilled also in manual occupation; and thus able to avail themselves of local advantages.

To what source we are to look for the support of Schools is a question that has been for some time anxiously discussed in this Mission. From the Home Society, considering the heavy demands upon them from other, and densely-peopled, quarters of the world, we cannot expect any increase of their grant. Indeed, they have more than once intimated a desire to be relieved from the burden of this Mission, that they might bend their attention to new fields, in which the need of Missionary Labour is more urgent than it is even in this island. Our local resources your Excellency is, I dare say, well aware, are very scanty, while the calls for instruction are more urgent. Our present position may therefore be not unaptly described by the homely, but strong proverb, of the Jewish King-- The children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth. We have brought the people into condition for receiving instruction, and are now unable to administer it. What the coming years will witness is a matter of deep anxiety. The fear is, that circumstances, now so favourable, will not be found to continue if unimproved.

Under these feelings I have taken the liberty of bringing this question before your notice. I have been told that my labour would be lost; but, as I believe your desires are with us, I venture to hope you will make an effort to have that done to the Aborigines which is but common justice on the part of their protectors and guardians--the British Government, who have (mainly through Missionary influence) obtained from them the voluntary cession of such a large measure of controul over their properties, and who are now receiving 20,000l. per annum from them in the shape of taxes; a sum of which I was not aware until I heard it from your Excellency, and on which I leave it with your Excellency to say whether my memory has misled me.

How much should be given, and how it should be given, are two questions which, if properly settled, might perhaps open the way to our receiving the assistance we need. I am in great hopes that in this matter but little difficulty will be found; and that we have, in the proceedings of the Government at home, a sufficient basis for a satisfactory arrangement.

Fearing, however, that having thus intruded upon your attention I have exhausted it, I will not enter upon these and other questions connected with this subject, until it be ascertained that the Colonial Government are ready to lend their aid toward the civilization of a people in whom we hope they are as deeply interested as ourselves.

Begging, therefore, from your Excellency a favourable consideration of this question, I remain,

Your Excellency's obedient Servant.
(Signed) R. MAUNSELL.

Government House, Auckland.

MY DEAR SIR--I have not so much time as I could wish to reply to your very interesting letter of the 25th ult. I can perhaps, however, in a few words convey to you the substance of my views, and of my powers to act, in reference to the subject to which you allude.

Firstly, I think that we shall shortly receive from the Natives 20,000l. a-year in the form of taxes; but at present I doubt if we receive from them more than from 12,000l. to 15,000l. per annum.

Secondly, I quite agree with the main features of your ideas respecting the necessity for educating the Natives; and my most earnest desire is to introduce a good permanent system of education into New Zealand; but this can only be done by having a fixed and unfailing fund devoted to this purpose. At present such a fund could not be obtained from the revenue; but if the Colony continues to prosper, and the revenue to increase, as at present, in two or three years' time a considerable annual amount might be voted for that purpose. I need hardly say that I anxiously watch for the moment when I can safely do this.

I quite agree with you that the land fund should be partly expended for the good of the Natives in some other mode beside making roads; and this is provided for by the Government. Fifteen per cent, of the land fund is to be devoted to the good of the Natives, half of the remaining portion to emigration, and the other half may be devoted to public works, or to the good of the Natives. When we have again a land fund, I will, if I am here, take care that a fair proportion of it is devoted to educational purposes; but it will require a year or two of peace and prosperity before people will purchase much land.

In the meantime I must beg you to accept my thanks for your letter, and my excuses for so hurried an answer. In fact, the subject alluded to in your letter could be only satisfactorily discussed in a long conversation, which perhaps we may contrive to have upon my return from the South, where I proceed to-morrow. Believe me, &c.

(Signed) G. GREY.

The decreasing state of the Natives is truly distressing, and appears to threaten their total extinction within a given period of years, as the deaths far exceed the births. The fact is too evident to admit of doubt. We have been recently taking a census of the people, which exhibits a fearful number of persons married, yet no prospect of any family. This can only be accounted for by the very loose mode in which they herd together from infancy, without any constraint over their natural passions; and since this late disturbance there has been a general disposition to carry their daughters to the troops and the shipping.

Small parties of Natives, from the interior, and little villages on the banks of the Manganui River, occasionally spend the Lord's Day at the Station, which affords an opportunity of conversing with them on religious subjects; and many, to obtain medicine and food for the sick, often come from distant places.

To the native villages of Takou, Waiaua, and Ti, I have made frequent visits to give religious instruction. The Church Service is held on the Lord's Day at the above places, but is not so well attended as formerly, and I fear the work of the Gospel is not on the advance among them. I am sorry to say that some have turned to the native customs of taking up the dead, and moving their bones with all the forms and ceremonies observed during their heathen ignorance. The enemy of souls has gained great influence over the minds of the Natives, in consequence of the late war. This is more and more visible, from the demoralizing effects which it continues to manifest. I am thankful, however, to say, that there are some who are stedfast in their Christian walk and conversation, and who will, I trust, be made useful in bringing back some of the wandering sheep to the fold of God. The Lord has permitted these trials to come upon His infant Church, and we hope and pray that, in His own good time, He will overrule all for the good of His children, and cause them to come forth like gold purified seven times.

The difficulty of forming Schools is a

very melancholy fact with which we have to contend. I can scarcely imagine that in any other country such reluctance is shewn by the aborigines to the Schools. There is a strong desire to acquire knowledge; but the opposition to allow their children to board at a School, as in England, is very surprising. There is great difficulty in collecting any number of children together, and greater to keep them when collected.

It is distressing to see that their ancient custom of holding their heathen feasts has been revived, as also that horrible practice of laying out the bones of their deceased relatives; at which ceremony large assemblies of people are gathered together, and every evil and angry passion is stirred up to hatred and revenge by the relation of old grievances and wrongs. These had all for several years been laid aside; but owing to the late disturbances they have been revived, to the destruction of every correct feeling.

At all the places where I found those who had been actually engaged in the late war great disaffection still exists, and consequently their religious feelings are in a very insensible state. By many the old superstitions are resumed, which has a pernicious influence around. Their Lord's-Day duties are generally set aside, and also their Schools. One principal reason assigned by them for this disregard of the Lord's Day is the fact that the troops took possession of Te Ruapekapeka on the Lord's Day, Jan. 11, 1846. We might yet hope for much improvement, and restoration of their religious duties, could they have more regular attention than can be given under present circumstances.

Our Native Congregation is composed of those who reside in and about the Settlement, and the believing Natives of four villages, all within four miles of the Church. The average attendance at the Morning Service is 200, including the School-children, and in the evening from 80 to 100. There has been an increase of late in the attendance. We wish we could say there had also been an increase of spirituality among the members of our Congregation; but we fear that many have a name to live while they are dead. It is a matter for rejoicing, however, to find, after such a sifting time as we have had, so many who still come within hearing of the Word of Life.

The children in the Girls' School are progressing slowly, but we hope steadily. Our greatest difficulty is with the parents, who exercise no control over their children, but in most cases allow them to do as they please. The consequence is, when a child is corrected, or becomes tired of the School, she will often embrace the first opportunity to run away; which act is more frequently applauded than censured by the parents and friends. But, annoying as this is, it should act as an incentive to greater diligence; for the fact of the parents doing nothing for their offspring, but rather hindering their moral and spiritual improvement, is a powerful argument for increased energy on behalf of the young of our charge. The present number in the School is 29, and they are fed, clothed, and educated at the Society's expense. They attend every morning at the Church, with the Natives of the Settlement, for Morning Prayers.

An Adult Sunday School is held every Lord's Day between the English and Native Evening Service, and is generally well attended. We sometimes number 60.

Our Monday-Morning School, which is held immediately after Morning Prayers, varies from 20 to 50, according to the weather and other circumstances. We have also a Monday-Evening School, which consists chiefly of the Native Teachers of the different villages, and the Natives of the Settlement. We are now going through Genesis, in which they are much interested.

Notwithstanding, therefore, that we have our discouragements--arising from the worldly spirit of many of our baptized Natives, the backsliding of others, and the hardened state of those who are Heathen by profession as well as in practice--we trust we may still thank God and take courage; especially as we have

the Word of Truth, a light that shineth in a dark place, as a sure word of promise and support.