EARLY MISSIONS IN NEW ZEALAND
Selwyn might speak of New Zealand as a land of promise, but he knew well
that it had not yet emerged from barbarism. Its inhabitants, the Maoris,
were a race splendidly gifted both physically and intellectually, but
they were constantly involved in internecine warfare, tribe fighting
against tribe, and all alike delighting to feast on the bodies of their
captured foes. New Zealand had been discovered by Jasman, the Dutch
navigator, in 1642, but no European had landed on the islands till
Captain Cook sailed round them in 1769. His reports led to visits from
traders, whose treacherous treatment of the natives was followed by
cruel retaliations, so that the Maoris got a very bad reputation for
barbarism. Their intercourse with some of the settlers in New South
Wales, brought them to the notice of Samuel Marsden, a Government
chaplain sent out to the convicts in Botany Bay. Marsden was a true
evangelist, labouring under most adverse conditions and in face of
bitter opposition, to do what he could for the unhappy convicts. His
heart was large enough to make him wish to help the Maoris also. He
welcomed such of them as came over to New South Wales to his house in
Paramatta, and put up huts for them in his garden, where sometimes he
had as many as thirty at once. One of the Maori chiefs struck by what he
saw of more civilized ways, implored Marsden to send someone to teach
his countrymen, and when Marsden Visited England in 1806 he went to the
office of the Church Missionary Society and told the committee of the
rich field that New Zealand offered for their work. The C.M.S. was then
in its infancy. So far it had only sent out five missionaries, who had
gone to West Africa. Marsden asked them to send three mechanics to New
Zealand. He thought then that the first thing to do was to teach the
Maoris something of the arts of civilised life. It was not long before
he discovered his mistake and realized that the first thing needed was
the work of the evangelist, and that it was through the teaching of the
Gospel that the foundations of an ordered life must be laid. At first
the mission seemed doomed to failure, but Marsden never lost heart, till
in 1822 Henry Williams, the man who was to lay the foundations of
Christianity in New Zealand, was sent out with his wife and two
children. He had been an officer in the navy before his ordination, and
his knowledge of seafaring ways proved of immense use in his new work.
The C.M.S. sent him out with the injunction “to bring the noble but
benighted race of New Zealanders into the enjoyment of the light and
freedom of the Gospel.” With this object he laboured till his death in
1867, never once returning to England. Neither did Marsden forget the
Mission. He visited New Zealand seven times, giving constant help and
encouragement to the missionaries. His devoted work earned for him the
title of the Apostle of New Zealand.
Henry Williams with his wife and children settled on the Bay of Islands,
in the North East of New Zealand, at Paihai, a great resort of whalers.
It was in this district that most of the early missions were
established, Wesleyan and Roman Catholic as well as Anglican. Henry
Williams was soon after joined by his brother William, and together,
with wives and families they lived for nine years at Paihai. William
showed at once an extraordinary aptitude for learning the language. His
brother said of him he “appears not to learn it but it seems to flow
naturally from him.” His presence at Paihai enabled Henry to travel and
visit distant parts of the island with the view of extending the
mission. The experiences of these two brothers and their families belong
to the romance of missions. They gained a remarkable knowledge of the
Maoris and their customs, and won a great influence over them.
Absolutely fearless in the way in which they exposed themselves to
danger, they were often able to make peace between the tribes in the
fierce conflicts which were constantly breaking out. The wrongdoing of
an individual was punished by the most bloody vengeance on his whole
tribe, and defeated enemies were killed and eaten. Unfortunately
fire-arms had been introduced among the Maoris by the traders, and this
made their warfare much more deadly. They hoped at first that the
missionaries also would provide them with fire-arms, and by refusing to
do so, the Williams were at the beginning reduced to great privations
for want of food. They not only refused to give fire-arms in exchange
for the necessaries of life, but never carried them themselves. The
Maoris soon recognized the difference between them and the traders, but
the beginnings of the mission were full of dangers and difficulties.
The savage attacks of the Maoris threatened several times to destroy the
mission, but amidst all dangers, not only to himself but to his wife and
children, Williams remained calm and unafraid. He gained an amazing
personal ascendency over the Maoris, and exposed himself fearlessly
again and again in order to stop their feuds and bring an end to their
repeated and cruel wars. It was not only the Maoris he had to fear, he
met with much opposition from the settlers also, who objected to the
efforts of the missionaries to secure fair treatment for the natives,
and threatened to turn them out of the country. Williams was in no hurry
to make converts. He would have no hasty baptisms. For each there must
be a long period of probation; but when, after due preparation and
testing, the first had been baptized, the number of Christians increased
rapidly. Williams gave himself with great energy to language study. He
found the Maori dialects very corrupt and difficult to reduce to order.
In this work he was greatly helped by his brother William, who was an
Oxford scholar, and who helped to fix the language and give it its
grammar. Portions of the Bible were translated and the Maoris, old
chiefs as well as young boys, after being taught in the schools set up
by the missionaries, became eager readers.
It was the constant recurrence of native wars that weighed most heavily
upon Williams’ mind. In 1832, he wrote of himself as “in much distress
of mind at the present state of things in this land. All is dark, dreary
and in dire confusion.” But he was not often cast down. The chief
mission station, Paihai in the Waimate, where he lived, was a centre of
education and industry. Charles Darwin, visiting it during his voyage in
the _Beagle_ in 1835, wrote of it: “The lesson of the missionary is the
enchanter’s wand. I thought the whole scene admirable and to think that
this was the centre of cannibalism, murder and all atrocious crimes.”
In time some of the most bloodthirsty old chiefs died and the young ones
were more ready to listen to the new teaching. They became eager readers
of the Bible, they attended the schools, were ready to learn simple
handicrafts and after their baptism gave up their desire to fight and
seek revenge for every provocation.
After a time the missionaries who now had amongst their converts some
who were eager to help in the work of teaching, were able to start other
missions further south than the Bay of Islands, in the neighbourhood of
the Waikato and the Thames rivers. Richard Taylor, one of the early
missionaries, writes:
“The Gospel could not have made the progress it did or have obtained
such a permanent hold upon the native mind, had it not been for the
agency of the native teachers. In many places they were the first
bearers of the Gospel, and some laid down their lives.”
In 1838 Bishop Broughton came from Australia to confirm the candidates
taught and prepared by the missionaries. He reported to the C.M.S.
committee at home on the flourishing condition of the Mission. The
Christians were said to number thirty thousand, and Bishop Broughton
urged the desirability of sending out a Bishop to superintend the work
of the Church in New Zealand. The special conditions of the country
demanded that the influence of the Church should be felt in all the new
circumstances that were arising. Settlers were pouring in, many of them
convicts from Australia, unprincipled men with no desire for anything
but their own gain. Contact with them was teaching the Maoris their evil
ways, and leading to much corruption and drunkenness. To the settlers
the natives with their old established customs of land tenure, their
great attachment to their lands, and their constant tendency to fight
for their rights, were hindrances in their way. They desired only to
exterminate them. The home government realized that this was not a state
of affairs that could be left to settle itself. In the interests of
peace, they determined that New Zealand must be made into a British
Colony. This was strongly opposed by the C.M.S. who encouraged by the
progress that Christianity had made amongst the Maoris, believed that
before long the whole people would become Christian and believed that
the arrival of colonists would only disturb the peaceful development of
the natives. It was, however, impossible to imagine that a country as
full of resources as New Zealand could be left to its scanty native
population. Settlers were sure to come, and it was better for all that a
good and stable government should be set up in the land. An English
officer, Captain Hobson, was therefore sent out to enter into peaceful
negotiations with the chiefs, in order to establish the sovereignty of
the Queen in New Zealand. This was not an easy matter, for the chiefs
feared that to agree to this would mean that they would have to give up
to the Queen of England the ownership of their lands. They had heard of
what had happened in other countries and how the people had been reduced
to the position of slaves by the coming of the white settlers. A great
gathering of the chiefs was held at Waitangi early in 1840, when Captain
Hobson explained to them what was proposed, and told them that “the
shadow would go to the Queen and the substance would remain, and that
they might rely implicitly on the good faith of Her Majesty’s
Government.” The question was long discussed. The missionaries urged the
chiefs to trust in the words of Captain Hobson. At last one of the
chiefs said to him, “You must be our father, you must not allow us to
become slaves; you must preserve our customs, and never permit our land
to be wrested from us,” and the majority of the chiefs ended by signing
the treaty of Waitangi. Captain Hobson fixed the seat of government for
the new colony at Auckland in the northern island, where the Maori
population was densest, and which possessed splendid water
communications in every direction.
The implications of the Treaty of Waitangi were by no means recognised
by the settlers who were arriving in New Zealand in ever increasing
numbers. They were attracted by the promises of the New Zealand Land
Company. The Company had little understanding of the Maori customs of
land tenure. It ignored the fact that in the opinion of the Maoris the
whole land already had owners, with boundaries well known to the
different chiefs, and it sold lands to intending settlers before it had
duly acquired their ownership. In consequence, there were abundant
possibilities for discontent on the part of emigrants when they arrived
to take possession of lands which they believed were theirs by purchase,
and for hostility on the part of the natives who felt that they had been
betrayed. In this way the seeds of many future wars were sown.
In those early days of the life of the colony, natives and settlers
alike needed Christian teaching and education to show them how to live
in peace and develop the country. The newly set up government needed
help from those who had lived and worked amongst the natives, in their
important task of establishing order and justice. New Zealand with its
beautiful climate and its rich resources was bound to become a great and
prosperous country. It was necessary that the foundations of its future
greatness should be laid in principles of righteousness and justice. The
labours of Marsden, the two Williams and others had established
Christianity throughout New Zealand, what was needed now was
organization to make their work permanent. Selwyn as he viewed the task
before him felt the full joy of a born organizer and administrator. He
wrote, “I find myself placed in a position such as was never granted to
any English Bishop before, with a power to mould the institutions of the
Church from the beginning according to true principles.” The ground was
well prepared for his work. The year before his arrival Henry Williams
could write, “The whole fabric of native superstition is gone—their
weapons of warfare are laid by—their petty quarrels are settled by
arbitration.” It was a too sanguine view as later events showed, but
that it could be held at all was a sign of how much had been done.