THE CHURCH IN NEW ZEALAND.--PART III.
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THE
MONTHLY RECORD
OF THE
SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL IN FOREIGN PARTS.
JUNE, 1855.
THE CHURCH IN NEW ZEALAND. --PART III.
THE school for native teachers, already mentioned, was part of a more comprehensive institution, which it was one of the first objects of the Bishop to establish on his arrival in the colony. St. John's College (so named after that in Cambridge, at which the Bishop himself, and his chaplain, Mr. Whytehead, had received their education,) was opened at the Waimate, early in the year 1843. 'It was formed on the basis of the former Mission school' established there, and was designed 'for the training of
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candidates for Holy Orders, catechists, and schoolmasters, and to comprise also elementary schools for the children of natives and British settlers.' The Bishop regarded it as 'the key and pivot' of all his operations. 'The general condition, on which all students and scholars were to be received, was, that they should employ a definite portion of their time in some useful occupation, in aid of the purposes of the institution; they were reminded that although it had been founded, and would, for a time, be helped by the bounty of others, 'its only real endowment was the industry and self-denial of all its members.' The precepts and practice of the Apostle of the Gentiles was urged on all its pupils, as furnishing the rule of life most suitable to the character of a Missionary College: 'Let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.' It was also intended to make it a temporary home for young settlers who had lately arrived in the colony, and to attach to it a hospital for the sick, and an infant school, including an asylum for orphans.
The College was at first placed under the care of Mr. Whytehead, a deep and accomplished scholar, and a Christian, remarkable alike for earnest piety and a wise simplicity of character; but it pleased God to take him to his rest, before the work, to which he had devoted himself, had well begun. How great a loss his death was to his friends, and, as we judge with human eyes, to the whole Church, may be gathered from the language in which it is spoken of by the one above all others, from character and position, best able to discern and to appreciate his value. 'I look upon his grave,' declares the Bishop, 'as a proof of the overflowing mercy of God to this country, that such a man should have been sent out here only to die.....His meek and gentle spirit has been
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a bond of union between us all, and, by his death, I trust, we shall not be divided.' Some years elapsed before bis place was filled; but at length he found a meet successor in Archdeacon Abraham.
The buildings at the Waimate were of wood and their tenure only temporary. In November, 1844, it was found necessary to remove the College to a site about four miles from Auckland, which had been purchased with part of a legacy left, as an endowment, by Mr. Whytehead. In 1853, a serious departure from the original design of the institution unfortunately became necessary; the climate of New Zealand having been found, by experience, injurious to the health of the Melanesian scholars, 'who formed a very important part of the College charge. Where these will be eventually placed is at present uncertain; but it seems likely that Norfolk Island will be the spot selected, if the convicts, who now occupy it, should be removed, as is proposed. Meanwhile, the Maori candidates for Holy Orders are placed under the Rev. G. A. Kissling, at St. Stephen's school, Auckland, and St. John's remains the University of the English settlers.
The great merit of the original plan of this College is attested by many pleasing facts. Before its operations were limited in 1853, no less than twenty-five of the forty-nine Clergy of the colony passed through it to ordination. We have seen that all its members were trained to manual labour. An instance of their skill and industry, of an appropriate kind, was thus described by their Bishop and founder, during his late visit to England:-- 'The Government sent 2000 settlers, (of whom 500 were old soldiers called pensioners,) with a provision of £200 for building in the middle of the village what was proposed to be a school-room, but which was to serve for chapel and school-room for all religious denominations.
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There was no provision for a Clergyman, and a very questionable one for a schoolmaster. The whole provision for that portion of the body which belonged to the Church of England (more than 1000) rested on the little College of St. John's, and its body of industrial scholars. They went at once into their carpenter's yard to construct a church. Almost all took part in the work, and when the frame was completed, our missionary schooner was put into requisition to carry it to the sea-side. The officer who had the administration of the supreme government, kindly undertook to assist us. We all went down, the whole College party, Governor, Bishop, Clergy, and scholars, --native and English; every shoulder was put into requisition to carry the timber frame up the steep shore. In the meantime the publicans set themselves to work, their great efforts being to open a canteen; that of course stimulated the church builders the more, and we determined to beat the public house, and we did beat it. The church was the first house finished, (I am sorry to say, the public house was the second,) and the old soldiers, from the day they landed, had public service there without intermission. That place has now become a parish, with a regular parsonage house; and the people have sent me notice that they are willing to contribute £70 or £80 a year for the maintenance of their own Clergyman. There have been several other instances of the same kind, where the church was prepared in their own building-yard, and afterwards put up on its intended site; so that persons going out of town in the morning, saw with great surprise, on their return in the evening, a church, where in the morning there was nothing at all. There are eight of these little chapels within a few miles of Auckland, which, assuming that 4000 of the people belong to the Church of England, is one chapel for every 500 persons;
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and all this is the operation of an industrial body, working by the spare time of its own scholars, which would otherwise have been spent in idleness, and perhaps in vice. "The more ordinary occupations of the students of St. John's, are thus described by a British officer, who visited it in 1846:-- 'The education of this College includes agricultural and other useful employments: being intended to be a home for young settlers, where they can learn employment, which will hereafter be of use to them in the Colony. And on this principle every person in the establishment, European and native, is expected to work in the College grounds at whatever may be required. There are about sixty students, thirty boys, fifteen native men, and twenty native boys, so employed; and the gardens have been made by them, and, I believe, twenty acres of land ploughed and sown entirely by themselves. The students teach the boys, and the Bishop and the students teach the natives; the ruling principle being, that for his education every man shall work, and all work shall be for the general benefit. The object is to accustom the natives and the Europeans to work together, thereby civilizing the natives, and teaching the Europeans practical agriculture, and so to make the College support itself.'
A visitor at St. John's, in 1852, describes a striking scene witnessed by him in the College Chapel, when at the 'Unity Service,' on Sunday evening, were 'gathered together representatives of eight island dialects, two native Australians, a large body of New Zealanders, and a body of Europeans, eleven different 'nations, peoples, and tongues.' This Service, which consists of a short selection of Psalms and Collects bearing upon unity, with the versicles and preface in the Communion Service, the Prayer for Unity, a prayer for the College, and one for the
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Bishop when absent, was drawn up by him for use on Sunday evenings, when those members of the College who have been ordained, and placed in charge of the pensioner villages and native settlements in the neighbourhood of the College, reassemble and unite in this short service, which is chiefly choral, and forms a cheerful conclusion to the labours of the day.'
In 1849, the Bishop received a delightful proof of the effect which the system of St. John's had had on the more thoughtful natives:-- 'I have now,' he says, in a letter to the S. P. G., 'a very important matter on which to address you. My former pupils, Thompson and Martin, sons of the noted Te Rauparaha, and other young men of the native race at Otaki, are desirous of founding a College at Porirua, and have given, for that purpose, about 600 acres of land in a most advantageous position, on Porirua harbour, mid-way between their own villages and Wellington. Their form of grant is pleasing and striking and entirely dictated by themselves:-- O friend, O Governor, we give up this our land to the Queen, for a permanent abode for the Bishop of the Church of England, and his successors, for a College of native and English children, that they may be united together as one nation, in the new principle of faith in Christ, and of obedience to the Queen. (Signed) Te Rauparaha, &c.' This Institution, (which will be called Trinity College,) is not yet in operation, not being required in the present condition of the district. 'There is no demand yet,' (our information is due to the ready kindness of the Bishop,) 'for a higher kind of Collegiate education among the English settlers, and the native schools of the district are kept up by Archdeacon Hadfield.'
The College at Porirua, if the hopes of its founders should be fulfilled, will be the germ of a future Univer-
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sity. Industrial schools, of a less ambitious character, are being founded throughout the country, all similarly endowed by native generosity. In the autumn of 1853, the Bishop and the Governor made an overland journey from Wellington to Auckland, 'marking out as they went along, new sites for such schools, and procuring grants of the land from the native owners. In the course of two months, more than six thousand acres of beautiful land was freely given to the Church, in trust for the education of the rising generation of both races, 'in the love and faith of Jesus Christ, and in obedience to the Queen.'
The Bishop's plan for supplying masters to his schools is obviously attended with so many advantages, especially where there is but a slender provision for the support of the Clergy, that we think it might furnish a useful model to many other colonies. 'The design is to place the whole education of the young in every place under the charge of a deacon, with proper assistants under him for the mechanical routine of the schools. The religious instruction to be entirely in his hands. The subordinate department to be filled by candidates for deacon's orders, so that there may be, if possible, no distinct order of schoolmasters; and no one will have to look forward to continuing beyond a certain time, in the more irksome duties of the school.' The Bishop hoped, by this means, to guard, among other evils, against that 'want of feeling and irreverence which are complained of in English national schools, and which seem to arise from the manner in which religious instruction is confounded with the most ordinary branches of school education.' 'The points,' he observes, 'requiring to be attended to, seem to be feeling in the teacher, reverence in the tone in which the instruction is given, and separation of that
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from all the other studies of the school;--which can scarcely he accomplished in any other way, than by making the Clergyman, not the mere occasional visitor and examiner, but the actual teacher of religion. 'The plan is faultless, and it has already done much good, but it has failed partially from a cause, in reference to which, however deeply we may regret it, those who live in comparative ease in England, are not entitled to use the language of reproach. Our latest information on the subject is from a letter of Archdeacon Abraham, written about the middle of last year:-- 'You asked about the deacon-schoolmaster system adopted here. As long as we can get the persons to work the system heartily, it answers admirably. The people like it, and it is the only mode of procuring a livelihood for the Clergyman, unless (as is too much the case) he abandons the work for private tuition of a higher kind. It has never been fairly tried here; as in every case the work has been thrown up for the more lucrative and less irksome work of higher education. But the error is a great one, as steadfast adherence to the parish-school would have trained up a body of parishioners, who, in a few years, would be staunch friends of the Church and Clergyman. Yet the difficulty of getting men cannot be denied, or unfelt. In England, I never understood what now so fearfully presses upon us all, the need of that command:-- 'Pray ye the lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest,' --and of obedience to it.' The Neffs and Oberlins are yet to come.
In the year 1851, a most hopeful movement in the cause of education commenced among the settlers in New Zealand, which shows at once a growing sense of their responsibilities as Christians, and a desire to bear for the future their own burden in the discharge of them. 'At
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a meeting of members of the Church of England, called by the Archdeaconry Board (Kapiti) at Wellington for a specific purpose, the subject of education was introduced: and after it had been explained to the meeting by the Chairman, the Ven. Archdeacon Hadfield, that the schools, up to that time, established in the district, and connected with our Church, had been entirely supported from the funds supplied out of moneys placed at the disposal of the Bishop, by societies and persons out of the Colony; it was resolved, that a meeting should be called, for the express purpose of endeavouring to raise funds for establishing, in Wellington, schools in connexion with our Church.' This led to the formation of a Society, called The Church of England Education Society. The leading rules of which are briefly these:-- 'That the Committee shall consist of members of the Church only. That no Master shall be appointed to the charge of a school, who is not approved by one of the Clergymen on the Committee. That in addition to a general education, a course of religious instruction, in accordance with the doctrines of the Church of England, shall be given in the schools, for which the Clergy on the Committee shall provide.' On the 7th of January, 1852, the first school-house, erected by the Society, was opened at Thorndon, near Wellington, in the presence of the Governor, Sir George Grey, the Bishop and other leading men in the Colony, who took a deep interest in the proceedings. Our latest intelligence from New Zealand speaks of another school recently established by the same Society, 'at Te Aro, at the other end of Wellington.'
In 1845 and the two following years, the work of the Church in New Zealand was interrupted by a war between the English and a strong party of the natives. An impression had for some time prevailed throughout
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the country, that the treaty of Waitangi, which had acknowledged a title in the natives to the possession and disposal of the soil, would not be respected by the British Government longer than suited its supposed interest. This notion unfortunately derived much support from the mischievous propositions of shallow statesmen at home, and was fostered by unprincipled European traders, pedlars and others, who coveted a monopoly of the native trade. 'Often was the question asked of the Clergy, What is the Queen going to do? Does she wish to take away our lands?' --and as often did they 'avouch the good faith of England, and recite the authoritative declaration of successive secretaries of state, affirming again and again the validity of the treaty of Waitangi.'
A complete history of the unhappy struggle which ensued would not be in place here; but a few particulars will be useful, to give the reader a further insight into the peculiarities of the native character, and the manner in which the Gospel leaven is working its renewal.
Hostilities were commenced in August, 1844, by a party of natives, who, incited by John Heke, a clever but cowardly demagogue, cut down a flag-staff at Kororareka; --the erection of which had been represented as a sign of the assumption of New Zealand by the British Government. A few guns were demanded of the natives, and readily given by them, as an atonement for the insult; but before long the flag-staff was again cut down by Heke and his followers. When replaced the second time, it was protected by two block houses, which were garrisoned by 20 soldiers and a body of the town militia. As an attack upon the town was also apprehended, a large house on the beach was stockaded as a place of refuge for the women and children. These precautions were justified by the event, though unfortunately their in-
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adequacy became at the same time only too evident. On the 1st or 2nd of March, 1845, the house of a settler near the Kawakawa was attacked by a plundering party. On the 11th, the storm burst on Kororareka. The flagstaff was taken by surprise, the sentinels killed, and the block-house nearest to it seized, and thus the original object of the attack was gained with hardly any opposition. At another point, however, five sailors of H. M. sloop Hazard had been killed by an overwhelming body of natives, and their commander, Captain Robertson, severely wounded. After a short interval, during which there seemed a disposition to treat, the firing recommenced, and several fell on both sides. As the enemy now surrounded the points still held by the English, and a simultaneous attack on them was apprehended, 'it became necessary to remove the women and children from the fortified house; --which was accomplished by the boats belonging to the vessels in the harbour, which conveyed them together with the wounded, on board the ships, the natives offering no opposition. One woman alone remained, at her own desire, to attend to those who might be wounded. About two hours afterwards the powder magazine exploded, shattering the house to pieces, and causing a fire, by which the whole was totally consumed. 'Two men were killed, and the brave woman before mentioned fell under the ruins, and was removed to the Hazard with a dangerous fracture. One lad of fourteen to whom the Bishop offered an asylum with his mother and sister, on board his schooner, the Flying Fish, answered him, --'Thank you, Sir; but I should like to stay with my father.' The Bishop adds, 'I could only say, God bless you, my boy, I can say nothing against it; and away he went to rejoin his father in the hottest part of the fire.' Happily he escaped unhurt,
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and became subsequently a student at St. John's. The firing having ceased, the Bishop went on shore to recover and bury the bodies of the dead, fearing lest the barbarous custom now almost extinct, should have been revived by that portion of the native force which was still in an unconverted and barbarous state.' The natives were busy plundering the town, but their behaviour to the Bishop and his attendants was 'perfectly civil and inoffensive. Several immediately guided them to the spots where the bodies were lying, with their clothes and accoutrements untouched, no indignity of any kind having been attempted. The natives carried on their work of plunder with perfect composure; neither quarrelling among themselves, nor resenting any attempt on the part of the English to recover portions of their property. Several of the people of the town landed in the midst of them, and were allowed to carry off such things as were not particularly desired by the spoilers.' In one instance a party who were wheeling off a cask of spirits, allowed the Bishop to turn the cock and let the liquor run out upon the ground. One man similarly employed, assured him that he would drink very little. All listened patiently to his remonstrances. The post office was being plundered, but when he asked the natives in possession to spare the written papers, one immediately said, 'I will save them.' Two days after, the Bishop again visited Kororareka. 'In the bosom of dark hills the smoke of the town 'went up like the smoke of a furnace.' All that had been devoted to mammon was gone, but heathen vengeance had spared the patrimony of God: the two chapels and the houses of the Clergy remained undestroyed.' At the Waimate, meanwhile, a large body of Christian natives had collected, who expressed their determination to defend the Missionaries and their families
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to the last, and begged the Bishop earnestly not to think of removing them.' They too had resolved to stay, 'in the assurance that the same power which had guarded the Mission through thirty years of trial and anxiety, would defend it to the end.' To aid their suffering friends was the first thought of those who were thus favoured, and in the course of the following week, a good stock of clothing was collected and distributed to all who were in need. 'As some of the Christian natives remarked, though the heavens were black around us, this was the bright spot of blue sky, which gave hopes that the storm would soon pass away.'
The omen was deceitful. A desultory and occasional warfare which cost many valuable lives, was kept up till the middle of 1847, and would in all probability have continued much longer, if the authorities at home had persisted in the erroneous policy which had provoked it. Only a short time before the disturbances ceased, a despatch from the Colonial Secretary on the disposal of public lands asserted doctrines so much at variance with the treaty of Waitangi, that it became the duty of the Bishop to make a protest against it. 'The Clergy had been the chosen instruments of the Government,' --such was the explanation of a great statesman in the House of Commons, --'for contracting the treaty of Waitangi and establishing the government of the Queen. That treaty was made known to the natives through the medium of the Clergy, to whom its construction was in a great measure committed; and it therefore became the duty of the Clergy, and of the Bishop as their head, to see that public faith, as conveyed through them, was carefully guarded and kept strictly inviolate.' Happily the eyes of England were soon opened to the true nature of the question, the rights of the natives have been
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acknowledged and respected, and the result has been a cordial and firm peace, which, as far as men can judge, is not likely to be again broken.
We return to the missionary work of the Diocese. When the Bishop of New Zealand was appointed to his holy office, 'the venerable Primate, at whose hands he received his Episcopal consecration, charged him, in the names of the Archbishops and Bishops of the mother Church, not to confine his efforts to New Zealand, but to watch over the progress of the Gospel, throughout the coasts and islands of the Pacific.' From this injunction of the Archbishop of Canterbury arose the Melanesian Mission. The Bishop's method was to visit the islands from time to time, and after acquiring the confidence of the natives by friendly intercourse, to invite them to send their most promising youths with him for instruction in religion, and industrial training during the eight warmer months of the year; in the winter they returned to their friends, and by the information which they were able to give them, and the improvement which they exhibited, laid the foundation of much future good. On several of the islands he found native teachers, chiefly Samoans from the Navigators' group, the fruit of the remarkable labours of John Williams, and his successors, at Samoa and Rarotonga. 'So great has been the zeal of these native missionaries, and their willingness to lay down their lives for Christ's sake, --frequently at long distances from their own homes, that,' according to Archdeacon Abraham, 'the Bishop knew of forty within eight years who had either been murdered, or fallen victims to the fever of those Islands; --every fresh boy that came to St. John's having a story to tell of murdered Samoans, who came to preach to them, of 'Jesus up above, and Satan down below.'
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In the course of a voyage undertaken in 1852, the Bishop visited or sighted no less than 53 islands. 'In twenty six of them, he was able to hold some kind of intercourse more or less with the people, while from eleven he received scholars. The youths also who were intrusted to him in his former voyages, were in many eases of very great promise, and though several died from the effect of the climate, the survivors and their friends were so much gratified by the benefits derived from their residence at St. John's, that the privilege was eagerly sought by many others. A few particulars respecting some of the Bishop's Melanesian scholars will prove interesting.
George Siapo, a young chief of Mare, or Nengone, had already been two summers at St. John's, and had lately been baptized by the Bishop in his own island on his second return thither. During the Bishop's subsequent absence among the other islands, a serious illness had much shattered his constitution; but he nevertheless resolved to go back with him once more. 'He put before his friends the possibility of his dying in New Zealand; but still expressed his desire to go there and learn more of the Christian religion.' At the same time he requested that his affianced bride, Wabisane, might be permitted to enjoy the same advantages as himself, --a request, 'which would seem to show a decided advance in his own Christian character, as no longer treating women with the contempt that uncivilized people usually do, and wishing to make his wife a slave; but as anxious to find in her a Christian helpmate, and an educated companion.' His wishes were complied with; but, as he had feared, his illness soon returned, and proved mortal. It was not long ere he became too weak to walk or to sit up. Still he continued to take great interest in all the lessons that were going on in his room, and he used to
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rouse himself to explain the meaning of Nengone words to his teacher, or the Christian truths to the youths of his island. About Christmas, the Bishop went to see him once or twice before he started on his Diocesan Visitation, and finding that he was duly qualified and instructed to receive the Holy Communion, he administered it to him, and in giving him his parting blessing, he felt that he should see his face no more on earth. Except on such occasions, Siapo was indisposed to speak of himself, or his inner feelings; and it was not till the 14th of January, when he thought he was dying, that he broke through all his natural and reverent reserve of character, and spoke plainly of his trust in Christ who had redeemed him, and his love of his heavenly Father who had first loved him. He repeated his expressions of faith once or twice with great earnestness, and begged his friend and teacher to return to Nengone, and teach his people whom he loved so dearly. It was a touching and truly Christian sight, to witness the struggles of his two strong feelings; the one, his nationality and special love for his own people, and the other, his love of the Bishop and others who had brought him to the knowledge of Christ. Almost his last words were, 'Go to Guamha,' (his home in Mare), 'Dear Mr. Nihill. Let Wapai, my brother come to New Zealand and learn. Dear Mr. Nihill, you have been to Guamha. But there is only one God and one home above in heaven.' And so he fell asleep, as we trust, in Jesus. The removal of his influence was soon felt by us at College in various ways, by which we perceived how truly noble and gentlemanlike, as well as Christian, he was in his feelings and principles, and how he had controlled all around him for good. The two little girls, Wabisane and Wasatrutru, who came from the same island, conducted themselves
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with great propriety during their stay at the College. The former, George Siapo's affianced bride, showed many traits of a naturally refined and ladylike mind. The other was much cleverer and quicker, and learnt a great deal of the English language and habits. Both made such progress in Scripture knowledge, and gave such evident proofs of an earnest and religious character, that they were baptized, and received the names of Caroline and Sarah. 'It so happened that the three boys, who, up to November 1852, had been admitted to baptism 'entirely on grounds of fitness and due qualification,' (others having been baptized in sickness) 'were also chiefs, or belonged to the chief's family, and will therefore probably be influential in their own spheres. When it was determined to propose baptism to these three boys and two girls, they were each asked whether they wished it, and whether they understood what it was, and what it pledged them to. They all took time to consider before acceding to it, and seemed really to understand what they were pledging themselves to. In the case of the young Lifu chief, the profession of Christianity involves a considerable sacrifice of the licence of a heathen chief. They all seemed to have well counted the cost; and those who witnessed that evening service on the 7th of June, when the Bishop baptized them, will not easily forget their reverent manner and earnest countenances, as they stood by the font and were sealed with the 'sign of the cross, in token that hereafter they should not be ashamed to confess the faith of Christ crucified.'
As might be supposed, an enterprise, which had proved so fatal to the native Missionaries of Samoa, has not been without its dangers to the Bishop and his companions. On his first visit to Fate, or Sandwich Isle, one of the New Hebrides, a plot was formed (as he learnt afterwards) to
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cut him off and seize his schooner; but it pleased God that he should be unable to land through the violence of the winds, and thus by the manifest interposition of Providence, his life was preserved. A much greater danger befel him at Malicolo, in the same group, the last island which he visited in the missionary voyage of 1851. He had set out in the boats in order to procure water, leaving the Bishop of Newcastle, (who accompanied him throughout this voyage,) 'together with the mate,' a sailor and two or three native boys, in charge of the ship. Several canoes then surrounded the vessel, full of savage looking men, apparently desirous of getting on board. They were armed with clubs and spears, and it was with great difficulty that they were overawed. After two hours the savages appeared to consult together and departed. 'During this time,' says the Bishop of Newcastle, to whom we owe these particulars, 'I was constantly employed; and though I perfectly knew our danger, I felt no fear. But now began the most anxious moment of my whole life; for the savages made for the boats which were lying off the shore, the Bishop of New Zealand having gone to a pool a quarter of a mile up a rocky wooded bank, for water. They evidently intended to cut them off and prevent the Bishop's return. While I was called upon to act and protect the ship, I was calm, and though conscious of the danger of our position, I felt no alarm; now I was full of fear. With my telescope I could see one man in each of the boats, and about a hundred natives on shore. The danger therefore was, lest the canoes should reach the boats and kill the men before the Bishop of New Zealand's return, and thus deprive him of all power of joining the ship, and destroy him at their leisure. The canoes neared the boats, I asked the mate, 'Can we render any assistance?' 'None,' was the
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reply. 'If any thing should happen on shore, have we any means of defence?' 'None.' This information did not disconcert me. I felt it a duty to inquire, and if any thing could have been done, should at once have set about it. But the thought that something fatal might happen on shore, brought with it a sickening disregard as to what might happen to myself. I paced the deck, and rendered the only aid I could, that of fervent prayer, asking, in our Saviour's name, that He would guard, and protect, and restore to us in safety, my dear friend and his companions.' The Bishop of New Zealand seeing the hostile intentions of the natives, lost no time in getting into the boats, and rowing off as quickly as possible; and although arrows were shot at them, they happily regained the ship without any injury.'
It has been the great disgrace and crime of England, as a colonizing nation, that her emigrants have been permitted, --or rather encouraged, --to go forth without any provision, except in a few early instances, for the spiritual and moral wants either of themselves or of their children. In their new home they have been deprived of all those sanctifying influences, emanating directly from the Church, or from a social system originally built upon her sanctions, by which the best among ourselves are formed and moulded, and the worst are, at least unconsciously, restrained. The result has been that in the course of a very few generations the descendants of our colonists have, for the most part, fallen into an open contempt of religion and morality, or into errors, which nothing but the grossest ignorance, or some strange perversion of mind, could lead them to mistake for the 'faith once delivered to the saints.' In the early part of 1848, it was determined by some excellent sons of the Church, that an effort should he made to redeem the national
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character in some degree from this reproach, by the foundation of a colony, which should from the first be in possession of all those institutions to which the moral, and therefore the political, greatness of England is mainly owing. This noble enterprise, which received the sanction of the Primate, the Bishops of London, Norwich, Oxford, and many other distinguished men, gave rise to the Canterbury Settlement, established on the eastern coast of the middle island of New Zealand. Its projectors, in the first document which they put forth (under the name of the Canterbury Association) after declaring their belief, that 'adequate provision for man's moral and religious wants in the new country contains the primary elements of successful colonization, not only on account of the importance of such provision per se, but also because thereby alone can a really valuable class of men be induced to join,' proceed thus to a general sketch of their design:-- 'We intend to form a settlement, to be composed entirely of members of our Church, accompanied by an adequate supply of Clergy, with all the appliances requisite for carrying out her discipline and ordinances, and with full provision for extending them in proportion to the increase of population. As by preserving unity of religious creed, the difficulties which surround the question of education are avoided, we shall be enabled to provide amply and satisfactorily for that object. The Committee of Management will have the power of refusing to allow any person of whom they may disapprove, to become an original purchaser of land, and as that power will be carefully exercised, it is hoped that ineligible colonists may be almost entirely excluded, and that the new community will have at least a fair start in a healthy moral atmosphere. The purchasers of land will have the selection of labourers, to
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be recommended for a free passage; such labourers to be also exclusively bona fide members of the English Church. Our settlement will be provided with a good college, good schools, churches, a Bishop, Clergy, all those moral necessaries, in short, which promiscuous emigration of all sects, though of one class, makes it utterly impossible to provide adequately. It is hoped that nothing may be left undone which is required to fill the void (so far as it can be filled) which the loss of home presents to the imagination of the colonists, to strengthen, instead of weakening the ties of memory and affection which should connect him with England, --to save him, in short, from losing his old country while he gains a new one.'
To carry out these intentions, arrangements were made with the New Zealand Company for the acquisition of a territory of about 2,400,000 acres, including Banks' Peninsula, and extending beyond it inland, and coastwise on either side. To secure the advantages proposed by the Association, it was found necessary to demand £3 an acre from purchasers of rural land, of which 10s. was to be considered the price of the land, 10s. went to a fund for expenccs of survey, road and bridge-making, &c., £1 was to be employed in promoting the immigration of English labourers and mechanics, and the remaining £1 to be devoted to ecclesiastical and educational endowments. The first settlers, 1512 in number, sailed from England in eight ships from the fourth of September 1850, to the eighth of January in the year following. Each ship carried out a Clergyman and a schoolmaster, intending settlers. These were soon followed by others, and Lyttelton, the capital of Canterbury, had by the close of 1851 already assumed the appearance of a busy and thriving settlement.
The following extract from a sermon preached in West-
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minster Abbey, on the 4th of May, 1851, to a body of the colonists then about to set sail, will shew the earnest and religious spirit in which the authors of the enterprise desired that they should go forth, and in which there is reason to hope that many of them did go forth, to found, if it were God's will, a second England in the Pacific:--
'We stand together here in this ancient and noble house of God; where, before heaven and earth, our people's unity has been so often spoken forth at the solemn anointing of our kings, of one stock, of one blood, of one Church. We have been wont to mingle together in the daily business and home-stream of our country's life. Bred in various parts of it, in the country parsonages, in the village halls, in the cheerful country towns, in the busy metropolis of Old England, we have gathered here together as for the parting grasp of loving hands, and the last straining embrace of loving hearts, before our God and in His worship, because His voice has called some of us to go out from our kindred and from our Father's house, unto a land that He will shew them. Surely ye who are going out should go now, as Abraham went of old; surely we who send you forth, should part with you, seeking for you the blessing which rested upon Abraham from Abraham's God. For see how like, in the most substantial points, are your circumstances to his. You go forth because you gather that God calls you to this venture, because it is His Providence, which provides for His purpose of replenishing all the earth by the necessity of these tides of emigration, thus issuing forth from lands where the race of man is strongest, and because, as you interpret the guidance of His Providence, that tide of emigration seems to bear you upon its breast. Here, then, it is with you, as with Abraham. It is at God's call that you go; and then next, you go to maintain and spread
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abroad the true worship of the one God. It was for this pre-eminently that Abraham was separated from his father's house, and sent forth to wander in the land of Canaan. It was not as the first object that he might grow rich in multiplying flocks and herds, that he was called from Haran. This was, so to speak, the accident of his call; the first object was to preserve the worship of the one true God. And is not this, too, eminently true of you? For herein, manifestly, a great provision is made by God for evangelizing the earth--that all the tides of emigration flow now, even of necessity, from lands where His truth is already fixed, and therefore, that new settlements become of themselves outposts of the faith. For that growth in the numbers of a people, which leads to the necessity of emigration, is one consequence of the increased value and care for human life which Christianity produces, just as the spirit to go forth on such an enterprise is itself a moral fruit of that ennobling faith. And so the increase of Christian lands, ought to lead to the evangelizing of the earth. This colony, which you are joining, is in its most distinguishing features, the embodying of this idea. You go forth from the land, you go from the Church of England. Alas! that so it should be, but so it undoubtedly is, that in almost all our colonizing efforts for generations, this, which is the leading idea of your movement, has been almost absent; and whenever present at all, present well nigh by accident. Hitherto, of late years at least, we have colonized only to relieve the nation at home of those who were a burden to it; and been almost without thought of planting in the new land, any true representation of our own people in their various ranks, in their civil institutions, and, above all, in their religious blessings. But, God be thanked, it is not so with you; you go to reproduce the various
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ranks of English society, to transplant her civil blessings. Above all, you go as members of the Church of England, to reproduce the Church of your fathers in the far land in which you settle.'
We grieve to add, that these high hopes have been as yet but partially fulfilled. The emigration of several Clergymen has happily been the means of supplying the Colonists with spiritual instruction, and a due administration of the sacraments, in ampler measure than was vouchsafed to the first settlers in any other of our colonies; nor has their industry been unrewarded by an encouraging share of temporal prosperity; but, owing to the embarrassments of the New Zealand Company, the effects of the discovery of gold in Australia, and other causes, upon which it is unnecessary to dwell here, no permanent or complete provision for their spiritual and moral wants has hitherto been made.
The erection of a Bishopric and the foundation of a college, two main and essential features of the original design, have been deferred. Other parts of it have been but inadequately carried out. We trust, however, that in time every hindrance may be removed, and every defect supplied. Let all who read this contribute,--what all may,--towards a result so much to be desired, by sending up an earnest prayer, that the Association may yet be enabled to secure to the growing community which it has planted, that best inheritance of a true Church and pure faith. Should it fail to redeem its pledge before many years shall have elapsed, religious or civil discord, it is too certain, must arise, to prevent united action and palsy the heart of generous enterprise, and the hope that now cheers the forward-looking exile, as he thinks upon the doubtful future of his children, will disappear for ever.
