1867 - Williams, William. Christianity among the New Zealanders - CHAPTER XVII: 1847.

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CHAPTER XVII.

1847.

AT an interesting gathering at Whanganui at Christmas 1846, there was a congregation of 2000 persons met for worship, when the Rev. R. Taylor administered the Lord's Supper to 382 communicants. On the morrow a missionary meeting was held, at which it was proposed that some of the Christian teachers should go and carry the Gospel message to their heathen countrymen. Two were chosen for this work, Manihera and Kereopa, of the tribe Ngatiruanui, and they selected as the special field for their labour a tribe at Taupo, with whom their own people had been at war. They were advised by a near relative of the tribe they were going to visit, to defer their journey until he should have gone before to ascertain the feeling of the people. It does not appear that they acted upon this advice. They first visited

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Rangihaeata, the famous warrior, in his stronghold,, and endeavoured to persuade him to give up his aggressions upon the English, that war might cease among them. The old chief replied to their address by laying his hand edgeways on the back of his own neck, intimating the danger to which he considered he should be exposed if he fell into the hands of the white people. They then bent their way towards Tokanu, where lived Herekiekie, another celebrated warrior. On the part of this chief and his tribe there had been a long standing enmity against the tribe of Manihera, for the father of Herekiekie had been killed in battle by the latter tribe, and his widow still survived, and was instigating her people to seek revenge. On their way they preached at Motutere. The people of this place, fearing for their safety, endeavoured to persuade them not to visit Herekiekie's Pa; or at any rate to go first to Pukawa, where they would find Te Heuheu, who they said was a good man, and would give them a welcome. Manihera replied that he ought to go to Herekiekie's Pa first, as he came to preach to the wicked. In the course of his preaching, Manihera said that he apprehended the time of his departure to be at hand; that either on that day or the next he should be an inhabitant of the unseen world. But he pursued his journey. We cannot but think that these good men were going beyond the line of duty. While our Lord instructed his disciples to be harmless as doves, they were also to be wise as serpents. If persecuted in one city

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they were to flee to another. They were not to run into danger where there was no necessity for doing so. In the present case, according to native usage, the avenger of blood would take his first opportunity to wreak his vengeance; and it was not to be supposed that a party of heathen would in any way be influenced by a change which had come upon their enemies. Timely notice had been given to them, and another course was wisely recommended by their friends, which would either have prepared for their approach, or have shown that the way was closed against them. Ten natives belonging to Taupo, of the Christian party, accompanied the teachers. Some heathen, however, of Tongariro, who had declared their intention to waylay them, sent out thirty of their people to secrete themselves in the bush; and as soon as the Christian party approached, they fired upon them. Kereopa was shot dead on the spot; Manihera was wounded, and the enemy rushed upon him, striking several blows upon his head with their hatchets. One of their ten Christian conductors was the foremost, and his cheek was grazed by a bullet. The other nine were a short way behind, and upon hearing the report of the guns, they rushed forward, when the murderers made off. Poor Manihera was tying his head, which was dreadfully cut, with a handkerchief. He gave to Wiremu, the man whose face was grazed by a ball, his Testament and some papers he had with him, telling him that his Testament was indeed great riches; and, shaking hands with

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them, he leaned his head aside and died. Thus fell these Christian soldiers, having their harness on, and prepared for the battle.

A month after these tidings reached Whanganui, Mr. Taylor determined to visit the district, with a view of allaying the excitement which these murders had occasioned. Apprehensions for his safety were felt by many friendly natives, and threats against him were uttered at different stages of his journey, but he determined to proceed. The party halted at the small village of Poari, in order to send notice to Te Heuheu of their approach, a rumour having preceded them that Mr. Taylor was coming at the head of four hundred men to avenge the death of Manihera. The next morning they reached Pukawa, and were kindly received by Te Heuheu. 1 "The great and the lofty have fallen," said this chief; "we are all cast down on this account; but I bid you welcome, whether your object is to cover up or uncover the crime. This land has been polluted with blood from the time of our ancestors to this day." Mr. Taylor told him that this was his second visit on account of the dead; first for Te Heuheu, now for Manihera and Kereopa: that the falling of the mountain crushed the one by the visitation of God, but that the others had been basely murdered, when they only came as messengers of peace. His object now was to put an end to the

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quarrel: that the old feud with Ngatiruanui might be done away, since all excuse for keeping it open had been removed by the blood which they had shed. Te Heuheu said he approved of their proposal, and thus far there was every encouragement to proceed. An hour's pull on the lake the next morning brought them to Tokanu. On the way they passed the spot where the great Te Heuheu had been overwhelmed by the landslip. The grass was not yet grown over the common tomb of his tribe. That part of the lake was strictly sacred, and the wild fowl, as if conscious of their security, allowed the canoes to pass without taking wing. They now entered the Pa of the murderers, and received a suspicious welcome from a few females. They sat down in silence opposite to Herekiekie, and the murderers of their friends. At length Hemapo, the chief next to Herekiekie arose. He acknowledged the crime which had been committed, and deplored that his relatives should thus have to visit him without the interchange of the usual welcome. Another said, "We suppose you are on your way to Auckland to fetch Wherowhero to come against us; but we are all united and prepared for the worst. We are sorry for the deed, but we could not forget the death of our own friends." Te Huiatahi, who killed Manihera, said, "I am not at all sorry for what I have done; but I do not wish to continue the evil or to carry it further. What I have done is according to our custom." Mr. Taylor then replied, that they had not come to judge, but to pre-

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vent further shedding of blood; --that the dead were the servants of God, and had died in doing their duty; --that vengeance was left to Him who has said, "Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord;" but he trusted that they would see the enormity of their crime and repent of it; --that now the blood of Kereopa and Manihera had been shed, they could not be brought back again to life: they were in the enjoyment of their reward, and it was great; --that sufficient blood had been shed, and their friends did not wish that any should rise up to avenge their death. It had been said that he was coming with several hundred men to avenge their deaths. He had come, and they beheld bis party, with one only weapon, the Word of God! It was then arranged that two of Mr. Taylor's companions should return to Whanganui, accompanied by one of Herekiekie's people, and ratify the peace which was thus favourably progressing.

Mr. Taylor proceeded thence to Waiariki, where their departed friends had last slept, and near to which place they were buried. A neat double fence inclosed the sacred spot. They sang a hymn standing around it, and Mr. Taylor then addressed the party from the words, "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth." Many a tear was shed. They knelt down and offered up prayer, that the same hope which had sustained Manihera and Kereopa might support them also in their dying hour and that their precious blood, here poured out, might

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not fall to the ground in vain, but lead to the conversion of those by whom it was shed.

While the preachers of the simple Gospel of Christ were toiling onward in their vocation, the emissaries of Rome were assiduous also in their endeavours to disseminate their tenets. They lost no opportunity of turning to advantage any event which was passing. After peace had been made with Heke at the north, while the natives were yet sore by reason of their discomfiture, a priest lately arrived from France paid a visit to Heke, bearing with him the present of a gown for his wife. "John Heke," he said, "the Queen sent you missionaries, and the Queen has sent soldiers to destroy you." Thus they tried not only to prejudice the Maoris against the missionaries, but also against the government. They had tried their utmost at Hokianga, and in the Bay of Islands, but the Gospel was there before them, and the Scriptures were in extensive circulation, and they gradually withdrew from a contest which did not promise much for them. At Waikato they obtained a stronghold, particularly at Rangiawhia. But when God's word is allowed to speak, it is quick and powerful as of old. Tihinui, a young chief of influence who had joined the Romanists, determined to leave them, and at the close of the Protestant service at Ngauhuruhuru, he stood up and openly renounced the errors of Popery. He was soon followed by many others. This caused much irritation among the Roman Catholic party, and they sent a challenge to the Protestant teacher to

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meet them in open discussion. The priest wrote out a list of subjects to be brought forward, which were agreed to by the Rev. J. Morgan, but it was arranged that natives only should be present. Four days were to have been occupied, but at the end of the third day, Kahawai, chief of the Romanist party, proposed to Hori Te Waru, the Protestant chief, that they should discontinue the discussion, to enable them to prepare for starting on the morrow for a visit to Taupo.

Wise in their generation, the priests turned to the open district of Taupo. The natives there had long been asking in vain for missionaries to reside among them, but there were none available for the post. Promises had been held out, and expectation grew impatient. A second Romish Bishop had lately arrived at Wellington, accompanied by sixteen Priests of the order of Mary. They were thus in a position to gain a footing on the Western side of the lake, where they preached, as elsewhere, not the Gospel of Christ, but that of Mary.

It was much to be regretted that those who seemed ready for instruction should thus have another Gospel pressed upon them, which indeed is not the Gospel; but let us not forget that there is One who orders and overrules all things for his glory, and the strenuous efforts of the Roman Catholics had the good effect of stirring up the Protestant missionaries to more activity. The spirit of emulation ought not to be needed, but our weak nature requires it. After a while a missionary was found for Taupo. The two systems of

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instruction were thus brought side by side. In this way a spirit of inquiry was called forth among the people, and they were led to look into the difference which exists, and the grounds upon which the respective systems rest. This is the very thing which is wanted, and there is no fear that when Scripture is made the criterion, the truth will speedily prevail.

The advance of Christianity on the East Coast had hitherto been without interruption, but a circumstance occurred in the year 1847, which appearing at first to he of little account, afterwards produced a great amount of evil, not however without its attendant good. It was one of those cases, which are the fertile source of trouble among uncivilized tribes, the arrangement of a marriage connexion. A young woman had become a widow, and her husband's relatives wished her to marry her late husband's brother. This she refused, under the sanction of that liberty which had lately followed upon the introduction of Christianity, and at the same time she declared the name of a person of another tribe, that of Ngatimara, whom she would prefer. This only increased the opposition which was made to her wishes, until at length she ran away to the tribe where the young man lived upon whom her affections were placed. Not only was she gladly welcomed by him, but the whole tribe, which was a powerful one, espoused her cause. This produced a general gathering, and a numerous body were under arms for the purpose of demanding the restoration of the lady.

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The chief of Ngatimaru went over to the aggrieved party before the tribes had met, taking with him a very handsome greenstone "mere," which was the payment he had received for a large war canoe, and might be valued at about one hundred pounds. Entering the Pa he threw down this "mere" before the chief. His object was understood, and the man replied, "I do not wish for your 'mere,' only let the woman be sent back to us." There was much angry altercation throughout the day, and both parties continued under arms. It was in vain to urge that the woman was free, and ought to be allowed to choose for herself. At length the demand was modified, and those who felt themselves aggrieved, said that, if the woman was now given back to them, and then should a second time make her escape, they would not offer any further hindrance to her marriage with the person of her choice. This proposal was agreed to, and the people soon dispersed. All went on quietly for a fortnight, when early one morning there was a general clamour in the Pa of Ngatimaru. The lady had suddenly made her appearance in a way which showed the strength of her determination. She had been removed to a village at some distance, and all the intermediate ground was occupied by those who were interested in preventing her escape. But she avoided the usual road, and swimming the deep river twice, she contrived to throw herself once more on the protection of those who were watching for her return. At the end of the week, I paid a visit to the party

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who had lost the prize. Three chiefs, all of high rank were at work in the woods, with a number of their followers. I told them that as the woman had been given up on certain conditions, and had now fled a second time, Ngatimaru proposed that the banns should be published on the morrow. The chiefs replied angrily, that they would not consent; that some unfair means had been used to decoy the woman away, and that they would not stand to the agreement. I reminded them that the stipulations had been fulfilled, and that it was wrong in them to oppose any longer. They continued obstinate, and at length it became necessary to tell them that the banns would be published on the morrow, whether they approved or not. When Sunday morning came there was much excitement. The people assembled in large numbers, and the church was thronged. It was clear that a disturbance was contemplated, and both parties were equally urgent to have their own will gratified. Towards the close of the second lesson there were evident marks of anxiety; one side triumphing in expectation of the wished-for banns, and the other ready to make a disturbance. Another course was adopted, the service proceeded without the publication at the usual time, and now again there was a change of feeling, and the dissatisfied natives thought they had gained the victory; but it was of short continuance. When the sermon was ended, the banns were duly published, and the hymn which followed tended to prevent the confusion which other-

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wise would have taken place. As the congregation was dispersing there was some angry altercation, but it was hoped that all further trouble was at an end. This however was not to be. On the morrow we were startled by the report of a small cannon. This was the signal for strife. The discontented party had laid their plan. "Let the woman be married as she likes," said they, "but we will have our revenge." The firing of the gun was to give notice that the heathenish practice of tattooing was going to be revived, for the purpose of annoying the members of the church, and a young man was that morning submitted to the operation. They continued the tattooing daily for some weeks, and so strong was the inclination of the young people to be made like their elders in appearance, that very many went off to receive the marks, in spite of the opposition of their friends. The Christian party made a vigorous effort to prevent their relations from falling into the snare, and subsequently they refused to hold intercourse with them, when those efforts had proved fruitless. This state of things continued more than six months, and the separation which it was necessary to make drew together more closely a number of the more disreputable part of the community. At length they expressed a wish for reconciliation. They had gained their object, and would now like to be received again by their friends. Some of the number might perhaps feel regret for what had taken place, but in many a spirit of apathy and indifference had taken deep root.

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Te Whata, one of the leading men in this late movement, was a heathen chief, but all the members of his family, and his wife also, had embraced Christianity. He now expressed a wish to join them, but after a while he cast off his wife and took another woman. His relatives remonstrated, but to no purpose, and when they withdrew from his company, he went off to Wairoa, where there was a small party of Papists, and there he took refuge under a more lenient discipline, which allowed him to throw aside the restraint which had been put upon him. In a few months he returned to Turanga, bringing with him as his chaplain, a shrewd Roman Catholic native from Ruatahuna, which was the stronghold of the Romanists. Renata, a chief of Ruatahuna, living at Turanga, went to this teacher, who was his near relative. When he entered the house it was supposed that he would go through the usual ceremony of crying, and his relative made a motion to him to do so. "We will dispense with that," he said; "it is sufficient that I look at you, and that you look at me. I am come to send you away; why do you come with your rotten seed to the farm of another man?" He replied, "There is no fault in what I have done; it is your missionary who has neglected to fill the whole of the ground." "No, our missionary has been urging this man for these ten years, and it is his wickedness which has kept him back." "But why do you call our seed rotten; we belong to the true Church, and yours is the rotten one?"

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Renata replied, "Yours is rotten, because it teaches you contrary to God's word. Why do you pray to Peter, when Cornelius was not allowed to do so? Why do you pray to angels, when the angel would not allow John to do so?" Whata then said, "I will not suffer my teacher to go. Your religion is a bad one. Your people would not hold intercourse with me because I had taken a second wife, but now my sins are all gone. Look at David who sinned; the prophet released him directly from his difficulty." Renata answered, "David sinned and he repented, but where is your repentance?"

A few months after this, I was absent on a journey in the Heretaunga district. On my way home I received a letter, stating that a Romish priest, M. Lampiller, was at Turanga awaiting my return, hoping to convince the natives that hitherto they had been under a false teacher. "I will wait," he said, "for your missionary's return, even if he is six months away." Being unable to go home direct, I wrote to request the natives by all means to detain the priest, in order that the discussion proposed by him might take place. At the different villages on the way, the people were frequent in their remarks about the priest, and it appeared that he had been busily occupied for some weeks endeavouring to establish his own case, and the anxiety of the natives to hear what was to be said in reply to him was becoming intense.

It was late at night when I reached home, but at

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daylight a messenger was sent to apprise the priest of my arrival. Arrangements were made for the meeting to take place on the following day, and the people were invited to come together from the surrounding villages.

By eight o'clock in the morning they began to assemble, and two small tents were pitched under the shade of the willow trees, one being for the accommodation of the priest. A table was placed in the midst, upon which were arranged the Scriptures in the original languages, with the Vulgate and Douay Bibles, and the Maori New Testament. The priest admitted the authority of all except our translation, saying of the Vulgate, "Ah, this is mine." It was agreed that each speaker should occupy half-an-hour alternately. The priest declined to begin the proceedings. It therefore rested with me to repeat what I had been told, that he had proposed that the truth of our respective creeds should be tested by the trial of fire. This he at first denied, but when a number of the people corroborated my statement, he asserted that this was the only way to arrive at a true conclusion; --that this was the course adopted by the Prophet Elijah when all Israel had turned away to the worship of Baal. "If your missionary," he said, "will agree that two oxen shall be provided, we will then each call upon God to send fire to consume the sacrifice which He is pleased to accept. Or, if it be preferred, let two piles of dry wood be prepared, and let your teacher and myself

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each ascend his pile; then let fire be applied, and God will interfere for the rescue of his true servant." I replied, that the Prophet Elijah acted under the authority of God, but that authority was wanting here; and therefore it would be an act of presumption to make the experiment; --that we had a sure test, by applying which we could be sure of arriving at the truth. "To the law and to the testimony," saith the Prophet; "if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." I then attacked the infallibility of the Church of Rome, and spoke of the absence of authority for asserting Peter's superiority to the rest of the Apostles. When he spoke again, he still adhered to his first proposal, expressing his willingness to expose his body to the flames, and quoting as authority that "the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep," while he declared that I was afraid to expose myself to danger. The natives became very impatient while he was upon this subject, and it was difficult to keep them from causing serious interruption. The priest now spoke of miracles, which he said were wrought in his Church, and were a proof that the truth was with them. He was challenged to mention any that had been performed since his residence in the country: and some amusement was caused by a lame man hobbling up to him, and begging that he would restore his limb. The worship of the Virgin Mary and the saints was then brought under discussion, and my references were made to the

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Douay Bible and to the Vulgate to show the absence of authority for such a practice, while the natives were referred to the same passages in their own New Testament. The priest spoke of tradition, and holding the Vulgate in one hand, and our New Zealand Testament in the other, he exclaimed, "I do not find fault with your book; both my book and yours are the Word of God, but do not think you will obtain salvation from the book. It is to the Church you must look, and to those traditions which the Church has carefully preserved. The Protestants have only one eye, but we have two." The priest speaking of the Apostle Peter as the head of the Church of Rome, and declaring that the authority of the keys was delivered to him, I remarked that there was no proof that Peter ever went to Rome, unless it is admitted that where he says at the close of his first epistle, "the Church which is at Babylon saluteth you," Babylon was intended for Rome, as being the chief city in the world. "Of course it means Rome," he said, "and Peter was at Rome when he wrote his Epistle." This was an admission the force of which had not occurred to him, and I directed the audience to refer to the 18th chapter of Revelations, where they would read something about Rome under the name of Babylon, from which it might be gathered that the time was hastening on when her and would come, and the cry would be uttered, "Babylon the great is fallen--is fallen." It was at the end of the year 1849, and I was able to add,

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"We have just received news from Europe which tells us that a large body of troops from the nation to which this priest belongs has lately entered Rome, and it is possible that the doom of Babylon is at this very time being carried out." Every time the priest rose to speak he did not fail to recur to his first proposal, the appeal to the trial by fire. The day was advancing, and again I said that an appeal to fire would be an act of presumption, but that if the priest wished to try the experiment he was welcome to do so, and if he received no harm we should all be ready to acknowledge that there was a supernatural interference in his behalf. The natives at once rushed forward to a fence which was near at hand, and brought together a large heap of wood, to his great annoyance. At length, after the lapse of nearly ten hours, their patience was exhausted, and the assembly was broken up in much confusion, the people being abundantly satisfied that the priest was unable to make good his cause.

The priest remained at Turanga for some months, and kept around him a few of those who from different causes were inclined to favour him. In his chapel he had images of the Virgin Mary, and of some of the Apostles, and with a view to impress his disciples the more with the reality of the affection which Mary feels for those who depend upon her, he said, that sometimes she shed tears of love for them. They were led to expect that such a miracle might be wrought now for the strengthening of their faith,

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and while they were upon their knees, the priest directed their attention to the flowing tears. But one of the congregation had detected him pouring water into the head of the image, and after the service was over the trick was exposed, to the great dissatisfaction of his followers. The priest's position was now becoming uncomfortable, and he took an early opportunity of announcing to his supporters that he had received a letter from his bishop, to say that all the priests were to leave New Zealand for some other part of the world, and under this pretext he quietly withdrew, and the Romish party, with very few exceptions, joined the Protestants.

With respect to the spiritual aspect of the Maori Church at this period, it may be well to cite the testimony of the Rev. J. F. Lloyd, who, having recently arrived in the country, had accompanied the Rev. O. Hadfield to Otaki on his recovery from a protracted illness, which had kept him away three years from the scene of his labours. Mr. Lloyd's testimony is the more valuable from the fact which he mentions that on his voyage out, and on his first arrival in New Zealand, he had heard so much to the disadvantage of the Maoris from many apparently well-informed persons, that he was almost tempted for a time to think that the accounts he had read of them at home were highly coloured, and not altogether to be depended upon. After a particular description of the villages of Waikanae and Otaki, with a general notice of the people, he gives the fol-

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lowing account of the Sunday which he spent there:-- "It was the day appointed for the administration of the Lord's Supper. There was a congregation at each of the three services of between seven and eight hundred. The large church was filled to overflowing. Most of the vast assembly sat upon the ground in the usual native posture, and were closely packed together, presenting a dense mass of human faces. Those who adopted European costume sat upon benches, at the east end and along the sides of the church. Never have I seen in any English congregation more reverence or devotion than I witnessed upon this occasion; and I may safely say the same of all the public services that I attended at Otaki, and the other villages along the coast. The responses of our beautiful service were given with a fervour and unanimity, such as I have never heard in any church in our own favoured country. The hymns that have been printed at the end of the Maori version of our Prayer Book were sung by the whole multitude, with a heartiness which rendered them much more grateful to the ear than better performances, which are confined to a few individuals in the congregation. And as I looked along the dense mass of human faces, and saw the eagerness with which they drank in every word of the discourse which was delivered to them, I could not but wonder at the marvellous change which by the grace of God has been effected in so short a time in this people, once notorious through the world for their savage ferocity. After

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the midday service was concluded one hundred and thirty individuals were admitted to the Lord's Supper. These were the choice and most approved members of the flock, and the solemnity, devotion, and intelligence with which they joined in the sacred service was most impressive and affecting.

"The change that has been effected in the social and religious condition of the natives at Otaki, has not been confined to that one locality. I found the same great work going on, though not perhaps with the same rapidity, in all the villages that I visited in the surrounding district."