1855 - The Monthly Record of Church Missions in Connection with the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel [New Zealand sections] - THE CHURCH IN NEW ZEALAND. --Part I, p 73-96

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THE

MONTHLY RECORD

OF THE

SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL IN FOREIGN PARTS.

APRIL, 1855.

THE CHURCH IN NEW ZEALAND. --Part I.

NEW ZEALAND is a name given to a group of islands in the Pacific, lying to the south east of Australia, between 34° and 48° south latitude, and 166° and 179° east longitude. The relative position of the three principal islands is sufficiently indicated by the names, North, Middle, and South, by which they are often distinguished. They are otherwise called Ahi-na-Maui or New Ulster, Te-Wai-Pounamu or New Munster, and Stewart Island or New

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Leinster. The last named is very small when compared with its northern neighbours. Numerous islets dot the bays and straits, formed by the broken outline and approaching shores of all three; but none of them are of an extent or importance to demand particular notice. The superficial area of the whole country is 95,000 square miles. The present population is estimated at about 120,000 souls. The aboriginal inhabitants call themselves Maori. Similarity of language and of manners between them and the natives of the South Sea Islands indicates a common origin at no very distant period. A tradition is moreover found among both, that the first inhabitants of their country came from a place which they agree in calling Heawige, --probably Owhyhee, one of the Sandwich Isles.

New Zealand was first discovered on the 13th of December, 1642, by Abel Janssen Tasman, a celebrated navigator in the Service of the Dutch East India Company, better known as the discoverer of Van Diemen's Land, to which his name, by a tardy act of justice, has of late years become attached. Owing to the hostility of the natives, he was unable to effect a landing, and returned home without making any accurate observations on the nature of the coast. For more than a century after its discovery it was believed to form part of a great southern continent; but this error was at length dispelled by our countryman, Captain Cook, who sailed round it in 1769. He discovered at the same time the straits by which North and Middle Islands are separated from each other; but failed to observe that the latter was similarly divided from New Leinster.

The climate of New Zealand is described as 'the perfection of all climates, hot but rarely sultry, bright but not glaring, from the vivid green with which the

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earth is generally clothed.' 'There is no great heat in summer,' says Dr. Dieffenbach, 'no severe cold in winter. Sometimes, indeed, in the winter nights, the thermometer sinks to the freezing point, and the stagnant waters in the interior are covered with a thin crust of ice, but during day it is very rare that the temperature is below 40°.' 'The soil is amazingly productive,' and owing to the great moisture, vegetation is extremely vigorous,' even in those places where only a thin layer of vegetable earth covers the rock. Sandy places, which in any other country would be quite barren, are covered with herbage, and the hills, which in lithological and geological formation resemble those of Devonshire, may, in the course of time, he converted into pastures, at least equalling those on the hilly portions of that county. Everywhere also trees and shrubs grow to the margin of the sea, and suffer no harm even from the salt spray.' The islands are further remarkable for their picturesque beauty, and for many natural phenomena of an unusual character. In one part or another they present every imposing and every lovely variety of coast and inland scenery: the broad and sinuous belt of glittering sand flanked by unbroken walls of towering cliffs; bold frowning headlands, and 'noble bays indenting the shore at short intervals,' and divided by rocky points, now bare, now partially covered with low shrubby vegetation; labyrinthine caverns where the sea rushes through wide tunnels with a tumult of unearthly sound; vast plains that stretch as far as eye can reach, interspersed with many a 'perfect landscape of soft woodland scenery,' primaeval forests of huge trees festooned with pendant parasites, all vocal, at the early dawn, with a sweet and joyous song of many birds; here 'gentle grassy downs,' or 'ranges of beautifully wooded hills,' there a giant

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chain of rock-piled and snow-capped mountains. But the most frequent theme of the delighted traveller, or grateful colonist, are the bright pure waters of this favoured land. Again and again do they recur to the clear, cold, glittering spring, the 'gushing stream of purest water,' or ampler river, still bright as at its source, that winds in silence, with slow grace, through plains of brilliant verdure, or foams in impetuous flood between the iron-bound sides of a ravine, or leaps precipitate from ledge to ledge of the earthquake-riven rock, or hastes to lose itself in the untroubled depths of some fair inland lake. The varied character of these beautiful waters, and of the landscape through which they flow, is strikingly pourtrayed in the published journal of the Bishop, whose lot, to quote his own acknowledgement, has 'fallen unto him in this fair ground.' He tells us, for example, of one river, the Wanganui, which 'flows in a great chasm between wooded precipices, through a country covered with dense forest;' of another, named from our English Thames, that 'rushes like an arrow through the middle of a barren country, with a bright blue stream, full of life and sparkling with purity;' of the 'noble Waikato, compressed,' at one part, 'in a channel from twenty to thirty feet wide, through which it boils and rushes in a most magnificent manner,' the excavations which it has made in the rock having, owing, it is supposed, to 'the different characters of the strata through which it has to pass, all the evenness of the work of a railway, or a regular fortification;' of the Raukokore, whose 'banks rise almost perpendicular but still covered with trees clinging to the crevices of the rocks, and pendulous plants clothing the face of the precipices, every bend of the river opening a new scene of beauty and luxuriance;' and of the Kerue, the bed of which 'expands into wide spaces of alluvial

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soil, clothed with Koromiko and Tutu trees, intermixed with flowering shrubs of every tone of colour, and backed by magnificent wooded hills, from the steep sides of which each single tree seems to stand out in individual beauty.' A singular phenomenon seen off the eastern shoulder of New Ulster is Puhiawakari, a burning island, containing springs of pure sulphuric acid, and perpetually 'covered with a white canopy of sulphureous steam.' The whole of the Pacific is described by geologists as one 'great theatre of volcanic action,' and in no part are its effects more visible than in New Zealand. In the northern division of New Ulster are several hollow hills, the vents, in bygone ages, of the subterranean fire, 'eruptions of which have covered the country for many miles with cinder or with lava.' Egmont, a noble mountain in the district of New Plymouth, is also of volcanic origin, and Tongariro between that and Hawke's Bay has a crater in continual activity. 'Hornblende, augite, garnet, and other crystalline volcanic products, in great variety,' are found at Kakannui, in the new settlement of Canterbury. In many parts are to be seen hills and deep beds of white pumice, 'jets of steam rising out of innumerable crevices in the earth,' and hot springs, some of pure water, some impregnated with sulphur and other mineral substances. Some of the most remarkable instances of this last mentioned phenomenon are thus described:-- 'We visited Wakarewarcwa hot-springs, by far the finest at Rotorua, about three miles from Ohinemutu. Here are to be seen all the varieties of Ngawha (hot-springs). There are mud cauldrons, black, blue, grey, green, yellow, and red, the very emblem of laziness; a faint steam rises from them, and ever and anon a solitary bubble of gas disengages itself slowly from the surface, which then returns to its usual dulness. Close by the side of these, and in

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strong contrast, are the clear pools of boiling water, of great depth, and of bright azure, enclosed in precipitous walls of sulphurous formation; from some of these hot streams flow down, which are guided by the natives either into artificial baths, or into natural hollows of the rocks; the supply of hot water being so regulated as to keep the bath at the right temperature. Among these cauldrons and pools, a strong and rapid stream of cold water rushes down, in some places not a yard from the spot at which the natives are sitting up to their breasts in hot water. But by far the most beautiful springs are the boiling jets, which are thrown up to the height of many feet from a narrow orifice in the top of an irregular cone, formed of the matter held in solution by the water, which is deposited as it cools, and forms a substance of a pinkish white colour, sometimes also tinged with yellow by crystals of sulphur. The hot water in its descent trickles down the sides of the crater, and falls into several natural baths of most agreeable temperature, formed in the pure and white substance of the cone, and lined with the same matter in its half formed state, still yielding and elastic. A small native village is here, with the usual appurtenances of a native steam kitchen at the hot springs; namely, hot plates, made of large slabs of stone, laid over boiling water to dry the Tawa berry upon: steam hanghis, or native ovens, always in readiness, and holes of boiling water in which fish and potatoes can be speedily cooked.' The food of the New Zealanders consists for the most part of fish and vegetables. Of the latter they use principally the kumera, or sweet potato, yams, plantains, gourds, cocoas, and the root of a species of fern, which, when roasted, serves them for bread. From another fern they obtain, with more art, a substance somewhat resembling sago. Potatoes, cabbages, turnips, and other vege-

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tables have been introduced by the English, and are already much valued by the natives. Their bays abound with edible fish of the best kinds, of which they dry and store large quantities for winter use. The only land animals observed by Captain Cook were the dog and the rat, of which the former was bred for food; 'and even these were not numerous.' On his several visits he landed some pigs, goats, and domestic fowls, of which the islands were equally destitute, and other species have been introduced since, but with the exception of the pig, none of them appear to be yet very common among the natives. The bat is the only quadruped which naturalists allow to be indigenous.

The character of all nations, but of the uncivilized especially, depends in no small degree upon the natural features of their country, and the facilities which it affords them for procuring the necessaries and comforts of life. Placed amid such scenes as we have described, and for the most part supplied easily, if not in great abundance, with the means of sustaining life, the natives of New Zealand could not fail to become very different beings from the moody savages of a North American wild, or those less remote tribes, who wander in squalid misery over the vast plains of central Australia. Their 'gentle disposition' was apparent even to the superficial observation of our earlier voyagers. 'They treat each other with the utmost kindness,' was the remark of Captain Cook. According to him they also evinced a ready submission to authority, a childlike simplicity, and though addicted, like all savages, to theft and fraud, appeared to be singularly without art in their dishonesty, and incapable of concealment. The general modesty of the females was also much commended by the same author, A closer inspection, however, revealed some of

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the darkest traits of unregenerate nature. They proved an excitable and impulsive race, rapidly passing from repose into the unbounded excess of passion. Their kindness was extended to those only with whom they were in daily habits of peaceful intercourse; and too often, it must he added, to those only from whom a return might be expected. They were revengeful in the extreme, perpetuating their feuds through many generations, and carrying malice beyond death. It was a common practice, until lately, though perhaps of recent origin, to preserve the heads of their murdered enemies, 'to make them sport when their hearts were merry.' Though all of the same stock, they were divided into tribes, that were 'perpetually at war with each other.' In their wars quarter was rarely given. The victorious party, and still 'from the diabolical spirit of revenge,' feasted on the bodies of the slain. The few captives that were spared were made slaves. Grief for their own dead was shown by self-inflicted wounds. Notwithstanding the outward propriety of the females, unmarried chastity was unappreciated and unknown. Polygamy was allowed to the men, and produced its usual bitter fruits, domestic strife and frequent infanticide. 'It has been my painful lot,' thus wrote a Missionary, in 1835, 'to bo an eye-witness of several cases of infanticide, the mother being the destroyer of her own child. I have seen the helpless infant strangled in a moment and then cast into the sea, or thrown to the dogs or pigs, by an infuriated woman, who, but for the jealousy which raged within, would have given her own life to save that of her infant.'

In mental qualities, the natives of New Zealand were observed to be far above the average of savage nations. They seemed intelligent and lively, and showed consider-

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able proficiency in many of the simpler arts. 'They displayed great ingenuity in the form of their fishing nets, which were made of a kind of grass.' 'Their dress was formed of the leaves of the flag split into slips, and made into a kind of matting.' 'They had two kinds of cloth besides, one of which was as coarse, but beyond all proportion stronger than the English canvas; the other formed of the fibres of a plant drawn into threads, and made to cross and bind each other.' 'They made borders of different colours to both these sorts of cloth, resembling girls' samplers, and finished with great neatness and elegance.' They were found to possess a variety of musical instruments, and 'sang with a degree of taste that surprised their English hearers.' An aptitude for the arts of design was apparent in all their ornaments.

'Their tools were made with great attention, and elegantly carved.' The same taste was displayed in ornamenting their weapons, boats, paddles, &c., and even in the elaborate patterns of their tattoo. 'Nothing,' says a writer on the country, 'can exceed the beautiful regularity with which the faces and thighs of the New Zealanders are tattooed: the volutes are perfect specimens.' Both sexes were painted with red ochre, or a black pigment, called amoko. Their houses, on the other hand, were constructed with little care or skill, nor did their interior show any regard to cleanliness or comfort. They are described as 'from sixteen to twenty-four feet long, ten or twelve wide, and six or eight in height; the frame of slight sticks of wood, and the walls and roof of dry grass; some of them lined with bark of trees, and the ridge of the house formed by a pole which runs from one end to another; the door only high enough to admit a person crawling, and the roof sloping; a square hole near the door, serving both for window and chimney;

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'straw for the family to sleep on being laid near the walls.' The wretchedness of their dwellings was in a great measure owing to their perpetual wars, by which they were often driven to seek refuge in a securer habitation. On such occasions, they would collect in the fortified villages of the tribes, called Pas, and there withstand the attacks of their enemies. These were generally on cliffs, and only accessible on one side, where they were protected by ditches and strong palisades, within which was a fighting-stage, or terrace, whence they hurled stones and darts, a large quantity of which were always stored upon the spot. Sometimes a Pa was built on an isolated hill, in which case the top was levelled, and the sides were cut away, so as to present a perpendicular face all round. The platform at the top was then surrounded by walls of clay and mud about ten yards in height, proof against every native weapon, and even against musket ball. Unhappily the use of these fortresses is not yet obsolete.

Religion, properly so called, the unchristianized New Zealanders have none; for they acknowledge no duty of love, reverence, or worship to any superior being. They believe that all men are descended from one pair; and, singularly enough, they have a tradition that the first woman was formed out of the rib of the man; a fragment of Scriptural truth, of which perhaps another trace exists in the word hevee, which singifies a bone in their language, and may possibly. have some connection with the name of our common mother. They relate many idle tales of several powerful beings, the Aitua, Mawe and his brother Taki, and a sea-demon called the Taniwa, whom they regard as the causes of misfortune, and of every natural evil. Sickness is supposed to be occasioned by the Aitua entering the sufferer's mouth, and their

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method of cure is to effect his expulsion by threats and incantations. They never address themselves to any other unseen being. With more truth, they believe in an author of spiritual evil, whom they call Wiro. He is supposed to be everywhere present, to excite the bad passions of men, and tempt them to sin. Their notions of a future state are various; but a common opinion is that after death all men descend to Reinga, the abode of misery. Here they are thought to dwell in cruel bondage to Wiro, but occupied in some manner with the pursuits of their former life. In consequence of this belief, the death of a chief was, till recently, often followed by the massacre of his slaves, and the suicide of a wife, that he might not find himself without his usual attendants, when in the world of spirits.

A Missionary gives the following description of the death of a renowned chief, which took place in 1826:--

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Having no form of worship, the New Zealanders have no images, or other representations of deity. They practise a rite resembling baptism; every child at five or eight days old being dipped in a stream, while certain charms against evil are muttered over it, and a name given it: small stones are at the same time thrust down its throat to render it hard-hearted. These ceremonies are performed by a person, whom English writers improperly call a priest, whose business it is to observe omens, drive out the Aitua, bring down the rain from heaven, and practise other rites of similar kind.

Allusion has been already made to the tapu. When New Zealand was discovered, this rite, as practised there, was both more burdensome in itself and more strictly observed than in any other island of the Pacific. It has of late years been gradually giving way to European influences, but is still to be seen in full force in some districts, and among the least civilized tribes. A few examples will explain

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the nature of this remarkable institution. A person under the tapu is not permitted to touch his food with his hands, and consequently is obliged to pick it up with his teeth and lips, or to be fed by others. Any one who has come near a corpse, or touched a new born infant, is thus tapued for several days. All who are employed in planting the sweet potato, or in preparing the net for mackerel-fishing, are tapued till the work is completed. Even the land on which they are at work, and the water in which they are about to fish, are for the same time sacred; so that no person may enter either, unless he has been tapued for the express purpose. Property is often secured from theft by the inviolable prestige of a tapu. Among a people literally 'without God in the world,' this custom served in some measure as a substitute for the sanctions of religion. It probably had its origin in some religious observances, the meaning of which was in course of time forgotten.

Before the year 1814, no attempt was made by any European nation either to form a settlement in New Zealand, or to convert the people to the Christian faith. At that period however a Mission was commenced by the Rev. Samuel Marsden, the chief Government Chaplain in New South Wales; one of the brightest names in the annals of the Colonial Church. He had been led by intercourse with some New Zealand chiefs, who had visited him at Paramatta, to form a high opinion of the native character, and in 1810 he earnestly besought the Church Missionary Society to extend its operations to these islands. --In consequence of this appeal, three lay agents, Messrs. Hall, King, and Kendall, were sent out to open a Mission under his direction. The last named was engaged to act as schoolmaster: of the two former, the one was an excellent carpenter, the other a shoe-

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maker, who had been instructed in the mode of dressing flax. When they arrived in New South Wales, it was two years before a vessel could be found to convey them on, owing to the general terror inspired by the recent massacre of an English crew off Wangaroa, on the coast of North Island. At length, however, on the 20th of December 1814, the little party, accompanied by Mr. Marsden, was landed at Wangaroa, and spent their first night in New Zealand, upon the spot which had been stained by the blood of their countrymen. The scene which presented itself on their awaking in the morning is thus described by a Mr. Nicholas, who went with them:-- 'An immense number of human beings, men, women, and children, some half-naked, and others loaded with fantastic finery, were stretched about us in every direction; while the warriors with their spears stuck in the ground, and their other weapons lying beside them, were cither peeping out from under their mats, or shaking from off their dripping heads the heavy dew that had fallen in the night.' Their safety was due to the influence of a powerful chief, named Duaterra, previously known to Mr. Marsden. The next day they proceeded to Rangihoua in the Bay of Islands, where they settled under the same protection. By March their position appeared so hopeful and secure, that Mr. Marsden was able to return to his duties in New South Wales. A degree of success soon justified a further effort. In 1819, two other lay-agents, Messrs Butler and Kemp, were sent, and a new station opened at Keri-keri, 'a beautiful spot, situated at the confluence of the tide and of the fresh-water stream from which it takes its name.' Here they were protected by the terrible E'Ongi, already mentioned, a man of considerable powers of mind, but of unexampled ferocity, and of equal success in war. He had been in

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England, and received much kindness from the Prince Regent and others, which had disposed him to regard the Missionaries with favour. His last words are said to have been:-- 'Let the Missionaries sit in peace. They have done good; but they have done no harm.'

In August, 1823, the first ordained Missionary of New Zealand, the Rev. Henry Williams, now Archdeacon of the Waimate, established a third station at Paihia, on the south side of the Bay of Islands. He was assisted by Mr. Fairburn, a skilful carpenter, as well as an excellent catechist. The next year they were joined by Mr. Davies and Mr. Clarke, two other catechists, and in 1825, by Mr. Williams' brother, the Rev. William Williams, now Archdeacon of Waiapu. In November, 1829, Mr. A. N. Browne, now Archdeacon of Tauranga, arrived in New Zealand, and in conjunction with Mrs. Browne, opened schools for the education of the children of the Missionaries. In 1830, a more inland station was formed at the Waimate, seven miles from Keri-keri, where a 'sufficiency of good land' was put under cultivation, with the double view of supplying the Mission with flour and other produce, which had till then been brought at great expense from New South Wales, and of inducing the natives, as an important step towards their civilization, to adopt the European implements and modes of cultivation. The experiment was blessed with good success. An ample supply of grain and roots was thus procured; while the moral effect of an industrial establishment, employing many, benefitting more, and daily open to the inspection of all, contributed not a little to prepare the heathen for the reception of the Gospel, and to confirm the believer in the profession of it.

In the year 1833, the native converts were furnished with the Prayer Book, and several books of the New Tes-

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tament in their own language; smaller portions had been translated three years before. The Rev. W. Williams, Messrs. Brown, Shepherd, and Puckey were the persons principally engaged in this work. They were printed in New South Wales; but in 1834, a press was sent over for the use of the Mission, and in 1838, the whole of the New Testament, and another edition of the Prayer Book were printed in Maori by its means. The press was at this time under the superintendence of Mr. Colenso, since ordained to the Missionary charge of Ahuriri, a near relative of the admirable Bishop to whom the Monthly Record owes its existence. It should be mentioned, that the orthography of the language had been fixed, and a grammar prepared, in 1820, by Professor Lee, with the assistance of Mr. Kendall, one of the Mission, and the two chiefs, E'Ongi and Waikato, who spent this year in England, and to afford every facility for the accomplishment of this important object, took up their abode in Cambridge, until the Professor's labours were brought to a conclusion. The character and power of the language made the task easier and more agreeable than might have been anticipated from the rude character of the nation. 'It is,' we are told, 'peculiarly soft and sweet; and in the longest speeches, not a harsh sound ever strikes upon the ear. It is remarkably rich, admits of a very varied phraseology, abounds in turns of peculiar nicety, and is capable of being reduced to the most precise grammatical principles. There is scarcely any thing we can imagine, but they have an expression for it, except it be some such words as express the Christian graces of hope, gratitude, &c., which words, and some few similar ones, always require to be New Zealandized, and of course to be explained. Some such words have been introduced into our translations, perhaps from twelve to twenty in number, and are now pretty generally understood by all.'

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Meanwhile 'the word of God was not bound.' Believers had been added to the Church daily, and multitudes who were as yet strangers to its higher blessings, had learnt, in some measure, to acknowledge the happiness of a people who have the Lord for their God. We are told that for 'nearly fifteen years, the natives had always rejected the overtures that had been made them for the furtherance of the Gospel in the vicinity in which they themselves resided.' In 1833, however, we find a fifth station, established at Kataia, near the North Cape, 'in consequence of the earnest solicitations of the chiefs and people,' who dwelt in that neighbourhood. Since then the only obstacle to the formation of new settlements, wherever they appeared needed, has been the difficulty of finding men fitted for the work, and of supporting them when found.

We are able to produce many pleasing testimonies, written about this period, to the reality and sound character of the great change which appeared in those who had been 'added to the Church.' Captain Jacob thus describes what he witnessed in districts visited by him in 1833:-- 'The schools at Waimate and Paihia, exhibit abundant proofs of the zealous attention of the persons composing this Mission. I observed all ranks and ages, chiefs and subjects, old and young, bond and free, receiving and communicating instruction, with a degree of decorum and regularity that would have reflected credit on a school of the same kind even in England. In another direction, I fell in with the chief Ripi, a convert, whom, with his people, we found engaged in cutting a road through a dense forest, to enable the Missionaries to get at a village beyond it, for the purpose of extending to them the same blessing which he and his people have now learned to enjoy. I was struck by the dignified

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appearance of this man, and when contrasting his present employment with that in which he was a few years since constantly engaged with hostile tribes, I felt the power and the beauty of the simile he himself used, when, reasoning with another chief on the evil of his former courses, he said, 'The name and reputation, which a native acquires by war and bloodshed, is like the hoar frost, which disappears as soon as the sun shines upon it; but when a man is brave in seeking the things of Jesus Christ, his name lives for ever.' In his village, Ripi has regular daily prayers, and his example is calculated to do much good in the country. Mr. Clarke, in a letter written in 1832, says, 'The villages which we visit on the Sunday present a scene truly grateful. The Sunday is indeed a day of rest: the fire-wood necessary for cooking, is regularly prepared on the Saturday. Whether visited or not, the natives commence the day by reading and prayer, and we always find some of them watching for our appearance. As soon as the chapel is opened, an effort is made to get a place; and for want of room, many are obliged to remain outside. The after part of the day is spent much as the former; all is silence and order, except hearing from the little cottages the voice of praise, by two or three families met together for that purpose.' Schools under the care of native teachers supplied the principal agency for the conversion of the people. 'Many native villages,' wrote a Missionary twenty years ago, 'have two schools established under the direction of a lad who had previously received his instruction from the Missionaries themselves. The knowledge thus obtained is easily communicated from one to another. Sometimes it is carried to a great distance, to tribes whom we thought to be in perfect ignorance. Persons who have been made prisoners of war, and enslaved by the Bay of

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Islanders, have been educated in the Missionary schools, and then, having by some means obtained their freedom, or having received permission from the chief to whom they belonged, to visit their friends, have at once commenced among them the work of instruction, and been readily and eagerly attended to by the whole people. And when the remoter natives became acquainted with the other acquirements of their returned countrymen; when they found that they were blacksmiths, or carpenters, or brickmakers, and knew other simple arts, and could render essential assistance in erecting their houses, or in otherwise adding to their comforts, they more readily received as truth, the lessons which they taught of the religion of Jesus.' A much later writer speaking of a district in the south of New Ulster, which had been partially evangelized by such means, says:-- 'In the case of Otaki, the agent in this good work had lived (when in slavery) at the Paihia Mission Station. The first thing that his heathen relatives learned from him was to say grace before meals, and to abstain from work, to noho, or sit still, on the Seventh Day. He had brought with him his own book, but what was that among so many? He could not keep school with that: so paper and pens were procured from the whaling ships which frequent the island of Kapiti, and this one book was multiplied with wonderful perseverance, till there were copies enough for him to teach his friends what he himself knew.' The reader will remember that the instrumentality of slaves, natives of England, who had been redeemed in France, and instructed by the Missionaries under Augustine, was, in a similar manner employed, to aid in the conversion of our Saxon forefathers.

Until the death of Mr. Marsden, in 1838, the Mission remained under his general superintendence. He often

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visited it, and gave to its zealous labourers the much valued benefit of his advice and sympathy. On his seventh and last visit, which took place in 1837, when he had reached the age of 72, he saw 'many of the stations within the compass of 100 miles,' and noted with joy and thankfulness 'the wonderful change' that had passed over the land. Writing from the Waimate, he said:--

'This was formerly one of the most warlike districts in the island, but it is now the most moral and orderly place I ever was in. A great number of the inhabitants, for some miles, have been baptized and live like Christians. There are neither riots nor drunkenness, neither swearing nor quarrels, but all is order and peace. The same effects I have observed in other districts,' An incident occurred at a southern station visited by Mr. Marsden a little after this, which exemplifies in a very striking manner, the grateful and affectionate temper of the converted natives. 'During the evening,' says our informant, 'a few chiefs called to converse with Mr. Marsden. At length we had to request them to leave, when one of them said, 'We wish to have a very long steadfast look at the old man, because he cannot live long enough to visit us again.''

New Zealand was at this time a dependency of New South Wales, and therefore within the diocese of the Bishop of Australia. It was accordingly visited by Dr. Broughton, the pious and learned occupant of that See, in the December of 1838. While there he held two confirmations, consecrated the burial ground at Paihia and Kororareka, and admitted to Priest's orders the Rev. O. Hadfield, who had accompanied him with the intention of remaining on the island, and has since proved himself one of the most earnest and laborious, and through God's blessing on his labours, one of the most successful

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of evangelists. The Bishop on this occasion saw much of the older Missionaries, and it is interesting to trace in their character, as described by him, the source of their influence over the excitable minds of the natives, and of the large measure of success already vouchsafed to their exertions. 'I must offer a very sincere and willing testimony to their maintaining a conversation such as becomes the Gospel of Christ. Their habits of life are devotional, they are not puffed up with self-estimation, but appeared to me willing to learn, as well as apt to teach: and among themselves they appear to be drawn together by a spirit of harmony, which is, I hope, prompted by that Spirit whose fruit is love, gentleness, and goodness.' With regard to the number of their converts, he remarks, that 'at every station which he visited, they bore already a very visible and considerable proportion to the entire population,' and that he had 'sufficient testimony to convince him that the same state of things prevailed at other places, which it was not in his power to search.' In speaking of the character of the converts, while lamenting that their indolence, duplicity, and covetousness, were not yet overcome, he states that 'their haughty self-will, their rapacity, and sanguinary inclinations had been softened, he might say eradicated, and their superstitious opinions given place, in many instances, to a correct apprehension of the spiritual tendencies of the Gospel.' He pointed out, at the same time, the defective constitution of the Missionary Church as the great hindrance to its efficiency, and suggested the only effectual remedy:-- 'Many stations are from necessity left without a resident minister, and the occasional visits which may be paid, cannot be of that frequency or that duration, which are necessary to make them fully profitable. The Church of England requires to he planted in the full in-

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tegrity of its system; its ordinances administered by a clergy duly ordained, and the clergy themselves subject to regular ecclesiastical authority.' Certain practical evils, which they knew not how to meet without the aid of an authority entitled to control and guide their counsels, led the Missionaries themselves to the same conclusion. Thus Mr. H. Williams wrote:-- 'Many questions of moment frequently present themselves, on which we possess no authority to enter. We much hope that a Bishop for this colony will soon make his appearance.' Thus in New Zealand, as in our older Colonies, a principle, always confessed by well-instructed faith, was suggested by the painful experience of incomplete achievement and wasted effort. Thus was it urged once more upon the awakening apprehension of the Church at home, that God's work, to be well done, must be done altogether in God's way, --that a Church which is to flourish and endure, must be framed upon the model set forth in Holy Scripture, and based immediately on Apostolical authority. Nor was it long ere the good Providence of God enabled the infant Church of New Zealand to remedy the defect of which it had become keenly conscious. In 1839, an English company, having bought large tracts of land from the native chiefs, commenced the colonization of the country, by founding the town of Wellington, not far from the southern extremity of New Ulster. This was soon followed by New Plymouth, near the middle, and on the western coast, of the same island, and by Nelson on the north coast of New Munster. The year following saw the sovereignty of England over these islands established by the treaty of Waitangi, to which nearly every chief within them gave his assent; while it was proclaimed in Stewart Island, as accruing by the right of discovery. The reasons, which induced the natives to

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accede to this assumption of supremacy, exhibit strikingly their sense of the benefits, which they had derived from the residence of the Missionaries among them. They were expressed at length by Nene, 'our most faithful ally, with a degree of natural eloquence which surprised the English. Addressing himself to his countrymen, he exhorted them to reflect on their own condition; to recollect how much the character of the New Zealanders had been exalted by intercourse with Europeans; and how impossible it was to govern themselves without frequent wars and bloodshed; concluding by strenuously advising them to receive the British, and to place confidence in their promises.' New Zealand was made, at the same time an independent Colony; by which event the Church upon its shores was withdrawn from the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Australia, and lost its legal title to his pastoral care. But 'man's extremity is God's opportunity.' The increased urgency of its need stimulated the exertions of Churchmen at home, and it was determined that New Zealand should be one of the first of the Colonial Bishoprics, for the foundation of which a very earnest, and God be thanked, a very successful effort was at that time being made. Accordingly, on the 17th of October, 1841, George Augustus Selwyn, sometime Fellow of St. John's College, in Cambridge, was consecrated to be the first Bishop of New Zealand, and of the Isles adjoining. It has been remarked as an unnecessary departure from primitive and general custom, that the name of the new See was borrowed, as in some other instances, from the country over which the authority of the Bishop extends, and not from the ecclesiastical centre, at which his residence is fixed. The circumstance, though not of great importance, may be regretted as a singularity. We trust however, that the subdivision

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of the Diocese, already confessed to he of an unmanageable extent, will lead ere long, as in the parallel case of Australia, to the adoption of a more appropriate title.

Followed by prayers and welcomed with thanksgivings, the Bishop arrived in New Zealand on the 29th of May, 1842, and began at once, both among settlers and the natives, the 'full proof of his ministry.' A month only had elapsed from his first landing, when the senior clergyman of his Diocese, gave utterance to the following happy presage, as it has since proved, of the whole tenour of his Episcopate:-- 'Our most worthy Bishop has now been beneath my roof ten days. We have had very much conversation, and upon all points, so far, we have fully agreed. He appears not only to be the head of the Church in this country, but at the head of the Mission, which is quite in accordance with our views. It will relieve us from a multitude of perplexities in committees, and give a tone and character to the Mission, it never possessed before.' The reader cannot fail to know how nobly this promise has been realized. In fact, from this time forward, the history of the Church and of its Missions, are one with the history of its single-hearted and ever active Bishop. This subject, however, must be reserved for our two following numbers, in which we shall have to speak much of his devoted labours, his Apostolic journeyings and perils, and propose to enter also into some of those many pious and wise designs, through which he has sought to 'glorify the name of the Lord God of Israel in the isles of the sea,' by building up in them, in strength and beauty, on that foundation other than which 'can no man lay,' a 'spiritual house of lively stones, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.'