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NOTE TO READER: Chapter 38 of Vol 2 totally involves New Zealand, but has been omitted from waitangi.com as it deals virtually entirely with the organisation of the Colonial Church, both English and Maori
It is important to realise that these works were published in 1899, 40 years after the name 'Maori' began being used to refer to a people.
[p. 623]
CHAPTER LXVII [67] WAR, APOSTASY, FIDELITY:
CONTENTS: Veteran Missionaries - Progress and Trials of the Maori Mission - Land Disputes - King Movement - Taranaki War - Sir G. Grey and Mr. Fox - Pai Marire Movement - Hau-hau Outrages : Murder of Volkner - Widespread Apostasy - The Bright Side : Chivalry of Maori Chiefs , Tamihana and Hipango : their Conversion; their Visits to England; Death of Hipango - Other Christian Deaths - Maori Clergy - Death of Archdeacon H. Williams : Peace proclaimed over his Grave - Bishop Selwyn's Farewell - Harvest of Maori Souls gathered in.
It is long since we reviewed the Maori Mission in New Zealand. In our Sixteenth and Twenty-fourth Chapters we traced its early history, and in our Twenty-eighth Chapter the events in the decade commencing with the establishment of the British Colony in 1840 and the arrival of Bishop Selwyn in 1842. Then our Thirty-eighth Chapter was devoted to the subject of the organisation of the Colonial Church, comprising both English and Maori, as illustrating (along with the Twenty-seventh and Thirty-third Chapters) the difficulties which in the middle of the century beset all efforts to promote Church life in Greater Britain. But the actual work among the Maoris since about 1850 has scarcely been noticed in our pages. We have now, therefore, a long period to review.
No Mission in the world has retained its veteran workers to old Veteran age like the New Zealand Mission. The men whose names will come before us in this chapter are, for the most part, the men we have met before. Throughout the 'fifties and 'sixties, W. Williams (Archdeacon, then Bishop), W. G. Puckey, C. Baker, A. N. Brown (Archdeacon), T. Chapman, J. Matthews, B. Y. Ashwell, R. Maunsell (Archdeacon), R. Taylor, O. Hadfield (Archdeacon, then Bishop), R. Burrows, all of whom went out before Bishop Selwyn, and eight of whom ultimately exceeded half a century in their service, were actively at work; while R. Davis died in 1863, Hamlin, Morgan, and Archdeacon Kissling in 1865, Archdeacon H. Williams in 1867, after forty, forty, thirty-three, thirty-three, and [p. 624] forty-five years' service respectively. S. M. Spencer, too, who went out a year after Selwyn, laboured all through the period, and long after; and S. Williams (now Archdeacon), who joined the Mission in the country in 1846, is still at his post today. Very few new men were sent out after the Jubilee. The C.M.S. Committee considered that, the whole Maori nation having been brought under Christian instruction, and the permanent Colonial Church organization being in course of establishment, the Society ought to be relieved from responsibility beyond the support, moral and material, of the missionaries already in the field, and that all further work should be done by a Native Pastorate, backed by the rising Colonial Church. During the quarter of a century following the Jubilee, only four new men were sent out - i.e. men not already connected with New Zealand. There were, however, in addition, four sons of missionaries in the field, viz., W. Leonard Williams (now Bishop), from Oxford; B. K. Taylor, from Cambridge; E. B. Clarke (now Archdeacon) and G. Maunsell, who were at Islington; also one Islington man already connected in a remarkable way with New Zealand, W. Ronaldson. Of these five, Taylor died after sixteen years' service, and Ronaldson took colonial work after fourteen years; the other three are still labouring, after forty-five, forty-two, and thirty-four years respectively (including a few years of lay agency as young men before definite enrolment, in the case of Clarke and Maunsell). The four new men were T. Lanfear, A. Stock, and J. W. Gedge, all from Cambridge, and T. S. Grace, a St. Bees' man. Stock soon took colonial work; Gedge returned home; Lanfear and Grace fulfilled many years' service.
We have before seen how great a change came over the Native Christian community as the British Colony developed. It was, of course, impossible to keep the Maori Christians in the simplicity and fervour of their first acceptance of the Gospel, amid such surroundings. They had to be adapted to their new environment, and the process was one that sorely damaged their religious life. The C.M.S. Committee, by the pen of Henry Venn, again and again, in the Annual Report, pointed out the disappointment already experienced and the danger of further backsliding; and Ridgeway did the same in the Intelligencer. Thus, in 1855, the Committee dealt very gravely with the subject. "The god of this world," they said, "has not withdrawn himself from the field where he has been so signally overthrown. He only changes his mode of operation, that those who no longer serve him as Heathen may yet continue to serve him as professing Christians." "Christianity," they continued, "has taught the Natives to lay aside their wars and to cultivate their lands. The discovery of goldfields in Australia, and the increase of settlers there, have immensely increased the [p. 625] value of the agricultural produce of New Zealand, and the Maoris obtain highly remunerative prices. At this moment the ungodly white man presents himself with his low vices and grog-shops. The reports of the missionaries convey mournful intelligence that drunkenness, with its attendant evils, is on the increase. In some instances disease and death have thinned the population, and a withering blight has come over many a hopeful congregation."
Yet, all the while, the disappointment felt was only the inevitable reaction from too sanguine expectations in earlier days. All the while, spiritual fruits were being reaped which would have caused transports of joy in less fertile fields, such as North India. All the while, most touching narratives were coming home of the Christian deaths of old converts, once ferocious cannibals, after years of faithfulness and consistency in daily life. On earth there was much to cause pain; yet, all the while, heaven was being peopled. Is not that the true purpose of missionary work? Moreover, new stations were opened, particularly on Lake Taupo in the centre of the Island, - where T. S. Grace settled in 1855 with a warm welcome from a tribe scarcely reached before. Fresh agencies, too, were being started as need arose. Schools of various kinds for young and old were opened; R. Maunsell had an important industrial school on the Waikato River; Leonard Williams, on joining his father in the East District, began a theological institution for training Maori evangelists and pastors; a similar institution for the Northern District was begun at Auckland by Kissling (in which the Chief Justice, Sir W. Martin, took a much-valued part), and a third at Tauranga by Archdeacon Brown; while a fourth was projected at Otaki for the South-West District, to start which J. W. Gedge was sent out. Translational work also was being prosecuted as far as time and strength allowed; and in 1856 R. Maunsell was able to announce the completion of the whole Bible in the Maori language, the New Testament revised from W. Williams's edition, and the Old translated by himself. The Society also hoped much from the establishment of the new 7 dioceses of Waiapu and Wellington in 1859. Bishop Williams of Waiapu was keener on the Native ministry than Selwyn had been; and as we have before seen, the increase of the Maori clergy, which afterwards proved so great a blessing, was mainly due to his initiative. Moreover, he gave priests' orders to two veteran missionaries whom Selwyn had left as deacons for several years, and thus provided for the Holy Communion, of which many Native congregations had long been deprived, - an example which, in one other case, Selwyn then followed.
But meanwhile, the environment was becoming more and more unfavourable, and the difficulties were increasing in every [p. 626] direction. Continual disputes arose about the sale of land by the Maoris to the settlers. The tenure of land had always been tribal. A tract of country occupied by an individual Maori was not his property, but the property of the tribe; and the individual, according to old Maori custom, had no power to alienate it without the consent of the tribe. This the settlers did not understand; and they were not at all disposed to pay attention to the complicated "rights" of "savages." During Sir George Grey's first Governorship, 1845-54, his sympathy with the Maoris and appreciation of their character enabled him to settle many disputes satisfactorily. But in 1853 the Colony was invested by the British Parliament with powers of self-government, and representative institutions were set on foot. The Governor was no longer a benevolent despot, responsible only to the Colonial Office at home; he had to be guided by a ministry, dependent on the votes of the legislature. This in itself was not only inevitable, but right. But the Treaty of Waitangi of 1840, between the Queen and the Maori chiefs, by which alone England had come into peaceful possession of one of the finest of her colonies, should have been remembered, and provision made for the due observance of the native rights which that treaty had recognized. So far from this being done, the new legislature and ministry were composed of men who for the most part thought that the sooner the Maori disappeared from the earth the better for New Zealand. [Book footnote reads: One lawyer seriously proposed, in a newspaper, that when "the savages were entirely subjugated," the males should be sent over to Australia "to serve as slaves for seven years," and the females be "carried away and dispersed as wives for the Chinese and for well-conducted white convicts."]. Bishop Selwyn, and the Chief Justice, Sir W. Martin, and other men like William Fox (brother of H. W. Fox of the Telugu Mission) and J. E. Gorst (the present Educational Minister in the British Government), constantly pleaded for just dealings with the Maoris, but only brought unpopularity upon themselves - as also did Archdeacons H. Williams and Hadfield, for the same reason, viz., that they had the courage to speak out. As for the Maoris, they said, "The Gospel came to us first, and we embraced it, and found it good, without any mixture of evil, for it was from God. After, came the Law [meaning the Queen's sovereignty]: that also was good, but it brought with it some evil, for it came from man."
[p. 627] The Maoris only knew one book - the Bible; and they were wont to apply its words in the most unexpected way to the circumstances of the time. "We have heard," said one, at a tribal meeting, "of Japhet's dwelling in the tents of Shem; and we were very willing to receive him - nay, we opened our tent door and said, ' Come in, Japhet.' But what we do not like is this: now that Japhet is inside, he spurns us" - and the speaker struck out with his foot as he spoke - "and says, 'Get out, Shem.' " But now the Maori "Shem" proceeded to take Israel in Samuel's day as their example. "Nay," they said, "but we will have a king over us."
The "King Movement" was at first by no means intended to express any lack of loyalty to the Queen of England. Its promoters, in suggesting the election of a king for the Maori people, had principally in view the importance of uniting them together. In the olden times, each tribe had been independent of all the rest; and when disputes arose, there was no supreme authority to appeal to. "In those days there was no king in Israel: every man [at least every tribe] did that which was right in his own eyes."The more enlightened of the chiefs professing Christianity quite realized that British rule of itself made for peace, and they valued it on that account. But in view of the increasing number of "pakehas" (white men) in the country, and of the unfriendly attitude of many of them towards the old owners of the land, it was felt that the Maori people should be one, and speak with one voice. Ephraim and Judah, Reuben and Dan, should no longer indulge in tribal disputes: let them stand together. "Japhet" had the Governor and his ministers: let "Shem" have a king; and let both acknowledge the Queen as ultimately supreme. This was the letter sent all round the country in 1853:-
"Listen, all men! The house of New Zealand is one: the rafters on the one side are the Pakehas; those on the other, the Maori. The ridge-pole on which both rest is God. Let therefore the house be one. This is all."
Four years, however, elapsed before any overt action was taken. The leading chiefs were reluctant to give occasion for complaint or suspicion. But now appeared another influence. The French Roman Catholic priests saw their opportunity. They could truly say, " We are not English; no settlers or soldiers follow us hither "; so they added, "We come in the name of God only: you can safely take our advice." They quietly went about, encouraging the Maoris in their discontent. One showed an egg, and likened it to New Zealand, saying that the English were only the shell or exterior, because they held the coast; the Maoris were the chicken; why should not the shell be broken, and the chicken come out? But the Maoris interpreted the illustration differently:
[p. 628] "Let the Queen and the Pakehas occupy the coast, and be a fence round us"; and when in 1857 they elected Te Wherohero, the great chief of Waikato, as king, with the name of Potatau the First, they hoisted the union jack and the king's flag (a cross and three stars) side by side. The real leader of the movement, Wiremu Tamihana (William Thompson) Tarapipipi, called the "king-maker," was a true patriot, without personal ambition, and only seeking the welfare of his race.
It was not the King Movement that led to the distressing and sanguinary war of 1860-65, though when hostilities had commenced, it undoubtedly tended to give cohesion to the revolt. The origin of the war was a land dispute. A chief sold to the Government some land at the Waitara on the west coast, in the province of Taranaki, which was in the occupation of another section of his tribe. The Governor, Colonel Gore Browne, proceeded to occupy the land, whereupon the occupants resisted, and the women pulled up the pegs used to mark it out. The Governor at once proclaimed martial law in the district, sent for troops from Australia, and on Sunday, March 4th, 1860, began the campaign. "Bishop Selwyn and Chief Justice Martin earnestly vindicated the Maoris, but only increased their unpopularity with the colonists. Sir William Denison, Governor-General of Australia, wrote to Governor Browne as a friend, warning him of the danger of his policy. "It would," he said, "lead to steps which, if backed up by England, would in a short time annihilate the Maori race, and permit the occupation by the white man of the rich land yet in native hands, upon which for years past greedy and longing eyes have been cast." "It is savage frenzy," wrote Archdeacon Henry Williams, " to the extermination of the Maori race."
The war went on in a desultory way, and was practically confined to the Taranaki country. The great majority of the Maoris held aloof, though in their hearts sympathizing with their brethren. Tamihana, the king-maker, wrote an admirable letter to the Governor, proposing that the forces on both sides should withdraw from the territory in dispute, and that the whole question should be referred to the Queen's Council in England, all parties undertaking to abide by the decision; but this sensible advice was rejected. A suspension of hostilities occurring in the summer of 1861, the missionaries, headed by Bishop Selwyn, presented a memorandum to the Governor; and the Bishop, in another communication, thus defended their right to be heard:-
"While all other classes of Her Majesty's English subjects are [p. 629] expressing their opinions upon the native question, and supporting a policy which we believe to be unjust, we should be guilty of betraying the native race, who resigned their independence upon our advice, if we did not claim for them all the rights and privileges of British subjects, as guaranteed to them by the Treaty of Waitangi. As the earliest settlers in this country - as agents employed by Government in native affairs - as intimately acquainted with the language, customs, and feelings of the native race - and above all as ministers of religion having the highest possible interests at stake, - we assert the privilege, which the law allows to every man, of laying our petitions before the Crown and the Legislature."
Meanwhile the C.M.S. Committee at home had, in January, 1861, gone on deputation to the Duke of Newcastle, then Secretary of State for the Colonies, and found him, though officially cautious, decidedly sympathetic; and in June they were delighted to find that he had superseded the Governor, and was sending Sir George Grey once more to his old post. This appointment was also received in New Zealand with enthusiasm. There was, in fact, some reaction among the colonists, and the ministry which had encouraged Governor Browne in his combative policy was defeated, and a new one was formed with Mr. Fox, the advocate of conciliation, as Premier. Sir G. Grey issued reassuring proclamations; Fox, after making an admirable speech in the Legislature, went and met the Maoris, and proposed reasonable terms; the Bishop and the missionaries used all their influence to soothe their offended feelings; and all looked hopeful again. But the English troops, of whom there were now 10,000 in the country, although in no one fight had there ever been more than a few hundred Maoris - still remained ready for action; and this kept suspicion and disaffection alive. Then, in 1863, an unfortunate thing occurred. The lawyers at length decided that the Maori claim to the land at Waitara, which was the cause of the original dispute, was a just one, and Sir G.Grey resolved to give up the land honourably; but before announcing this, he proceeded to eject them from some Crown lands which they had seized as security for it. "It would have been better," said the Duke of Newcastle afterwards, "if the two things had been done simultaneously." This mistake caused the renewal of the war. The Maoris, unconscious that the Waitara land was to be restored, resisted the ejection from the other land; and Grey, perhaps badly advised (Fox was not now Minister), made up his mind that a real struggle was unavoidable. On July 13th - a Sunday again! - General Cameron and a large British force crossed a certain river, to put down the King movement. "The Rubicon is passed," wrote Selwyn, "and war is declared against New Zealand." Desperate fighting ensued, with heavy loss on both sides. The British were always the [p. 630] stronger, but they were not used to bush fighting, and they sometimes failed in their assaults on the Maori pahs or stockades. The mission stations in the Waikato districts were destroyed, and the missionaries were sometimes in great peril. Archdeacon Maunsell and his family had to flee from his ruined house and take refuge in the forests, where they lived for several days until they could escape.
Even now, a large part of the Maori people held aloof from the conflict, notwithstanding that many tribes, previously quiescent, caught the war spirit, and, impelled by the race feeling which is always such a motive power, joined the insurgents. The settled congregations in the far north, under Archdeacon H. Williams and other veterans, and those in the Waiapu district in the east, under Bishop W. Williams, remained quiet; yet while in the south-west, the tribes under the influence of Hadfield and R. Taylor were openly loyal to the Government. It was at this very time that the first two Native Synods in the new Diocese of Waiapu were held, as described in our Thirty-eighth Chapter. Moreover, the fighting Maoris continued to show noble chivalry in their warfare. Many touching incidents are recorded of their saving wounded English soldiers at the risk of their own lives; and all the time, fully believing in the righteousness of their cause, they prayed and read the Scriptures before fighting, and regularly kept their Sunday services. On the other hand, Bishop Selwyn and some of the missionaries, while unpopular with the colonists on account of their sympathy with the Maoris, to some extent lost the confidence of the Maoris because they ministered as chaplains to the British troops. The Bishop held that this was his plain duty. The soldiers were part of his flock, and must not be neglected. "It was my rule," he wrote afterwards, "to minister to the wounded Natives as well as to the British. They were both part of my Christian charge. Indeed I ministered to the fallen Maori first, to give a practical answer to their charge against me of forsaking and betraying them."
At two points in the long struggle, after British victories, Sir G. Grey wished to hold out the olive-branch to the unhappy people whom he loved and desired to save; but his ministers would not consent, and, on the contrary, and against the earnest protest of Sir William Martin, decreed the confiscation of large territories, partly owned by Maoris who had taken no part in the conflict. Grey complained bitterly to the Home Government, and Mr Cardwell (who had succeeded the Duke of Newcastle at the Colonial Office) wrote admirable despatches, exhibiting minute knowledge of New Zealand affairs, and supporting Grey's conciliatory policy. Here is one sentence:-
"The Imperial and Colonial Governments are bound so to adjust their proceedings to the laws of natural equity, and to the expectations which the Natives have been encouraged or allowed to form, as to impress the [p. 631] whole Maori race at this critical moment with the conviction that their European rulers are just as well as severe, and are desirous of using the. present opportunity, not for their oppression, but for the permanent well-being of all the inhabitants of New Zealand."
Mr. Cardwell's despatches produced immediate effect. On the one hand, the ministry of the day resigned; on the other, a large section of the Maori insurgents heard of them, and at once laid down their arms, in the assurance that they would be fairly treated. Practically the war came to an end; the British troops were withdrawn; and the colonists were left free to manage their own affairs. Under the guidance of some of the kindly men who now came into office, "peace and happiness, truth and justice, religion and piety," might again have been established. But, alas! it was not to be.
For the great Enemy and Adversary of God and man had already produced a new weapon. It was in the summer of 1864 that the submission of some of the tribes took place, and the new policy of conciliation was announced. But before that, in April of that year, arose the strange Pai Marire or Hau-hau movement, a Satanic device indeed to destroy the last hope of revival and restoration for the Maori people. In one of the latest skirmishes, Captain Lloyd of the 57th Eegiment was killed, and - according to an old Maori custom, which had been abandoned along with cannibalism - his head was cut off. This head was embalmed, and carried about as an oracle, that the captain's spirit, speaking through it, might become the medium of communication from the Unseen. At the same time a half-insane chief named Te Ua, who was a ventriloquist, and had some notions of mesmerism, was suddenly put forward as a prophet, commissioned by the Angel Gabriel. The real leader of the movement, however, was a man of bad character named Patara, with a lieutenant named Kereopa. With extraordinary rapidity a new superstition was developed. "Pai Marire"** was a strange mixture of the old Heathenism and new Romanism. Gabriel, it was said, had told them to cast off the English teachers, to burn their Bibles, to abolish Sabbath observance, and to adopt "the religion of Mary"; while with these ideas, derived from the French priests, came a revival of many of the old barbarous Heathen customs, and a justification of them based upon misinterpretations of passages in the Old Testament. A kind of worship of God was instituted, in which remnants of the Christian services they had been used to were mingled with much that was blasphemous.
[p. 632] This sad apostasy was accompanied by further desultory warfare and fresh outrages, although "the war," properly so called, was at an end. While the old "king" party remained sullenly in the fastnesses to which they had retired in the centre of the island, the new Hau-haus - so named from their barking like dogs - set about inciting the still loyal Christian tribes to join them. At first they met with rebuffs and resistance. In the south-west especially, they were defeated and driven back more than once by the loyal Maoris under the command of a famous chief, Hoani Wiremu (John Williams) Hipango, who fell in the moment of victory, and of whom more presently. But in the eastern districts they were unhappily more successful; and the revived savagery culminated there, on March 2nd, 1865, in the murder of a missionary.
The Maoris at Opotiki were already excited by letters received from the Hau-hau leaders, brought to them by a French Roman Catholic priest named Garavel. The Rev. Carl Sylvius Volkner, a German missionary who had been taken up by the C.M.S. in the country and ordained by Bishop Williams, reported this to the Government; and the Roman bishop shipped his too-zealous follower off to Australia. Then appeared the Hau-hau fanatics at Opotiki under their leader Kereopa, and quickly won over the Natives of the place, who had been left a long time without a resident missionary, and were among the least well instructed of the Maoris. Volkner was away, but on his return, with Mr. Grace, the two missionaries were seized, and Volkner was put to death by the Hau-haus in the presence of his own people. They allowed him to kneel down and pray; then he shook hands with his murderers and forgave them; then he said, "l am ready"; and they hanged him from a willow tree under which he was standing. Unspeakable barbarities were perpetrated on his remains; and his head was stuck on the pulpit in the church, in revenge, it was said, for the removal of Pere Garavel. Why they spared Mr. Grace is not apparent. He was kept a prisoner; but Bishop Selwyn, ever brave and self-denying, sailed off at once to Opotiki in H.M.S. Eclipse (commanded by the present Admiral Sir E. Fremantle), and with the help of the naval officers contrived to rescue him.
This horrible crime naturally caused a great sensation in England, and was held to justify all the hard things that had been said of the Maori race; while of course it was the text for many homilies on the "failure of Missions." "Behold," exclaimed the Times, "the measure of the depth to which this much-talked-of Christianity has penetrated!" In vain did the C.M. Intelligencer point to the many warnings that had appeared in its pages for several years past against a too sanguine estimate of the Maori Christians. In vain did it point out that the Opotiki people in particular, who had let their own missionary be cruelly killed [p. 633] before their face, had always been spoken of as "an ill-instructed, unsettled people, now carried away by the love of gain, now yielding themselves to the influence of old superstitions." It is ever so. Nobody notices at the time the carefully-guarded language in which the C.M.S. is wont to speak of even the most flourishing and hopeful Missions; and when some grievous exhibition of poor unrenewed human nature occurs, the Society is taunted with it, and accused of publishing coulcur de rose Reports. But even touching the Opotiki murder, the last word had not yet been spoken. Seven years passed away: then Kereopa was captured, tried, and sentenced to death. Mr. Grace earnestly interceded for him, but the Government did not think it right to spare him, and he was executed. In his last days he was visited by Bishop Williams, and by the Rev. Samuel Williams (now Archdeacon). He thoroughly understood the Gospel, God's way of forgiveness and salvation for the vilest of sinners; he confessed his crime, and appeared truly penitent. "If," wrote Bishop Williams, "we are right in hoping that Kereopa died in the faith which was possessed by the thief on the cross, shall it be said that the attempt to Christianize the Maori is a failure?"
But to return to 1865. From Opotiki the Hau-haus went on to Turanga [now Gisborne] on the East Coast, where Bishop Williams lived, and where his son, Archdeacon Leonard Williams, had his Theological Institution. The station was broken up, and the Bishop and his family had to retire, though the Archdeacon remained in the neighbourhood. In 1868 a party of Maoris under Te Kooti who had escaped from prison in the Chatham Islands committed further outrages in this district, massacring several settlers. Turanga in after years became the pleasant little town of Gisborne. Meanwhile Bishop Williams had changed his headquarters to the town of Napier, the capital of the eastern province of Hawke's Bay.
For several years - certainly from 1864, when Hau-hauism arose, to the end of our present period, (1872) - New Zealand was for the most part a grief and a distress to both the missionaries in the field and the C.M.S. circle at home. It was true that in the country north of Auckland the numerous Maori Christians were never affected either by the war or by the apostasy; yet they were affected by evils accompanying increasing trade and consequent pecuniary gain, and the white man's drink-shops were the ruin of many a professing Christian Maori. It was true that in the south-west, under Hadfield and Taylor, the Natives remained loyal; yet they too were subject to the same unhappy influences. It was true that in the north-east, the congregations under the Native clergy ordained by Bishop Williams remained [p. 634] for the most part outwardly faithful, and gave large sums to maintain their own churches and pastors; yet there was little of the old fervour. But in all the central districts missionary work was practically suspended; and the missionaries, most of them now old men, were at Auckland or Tauranga, waiting and praying for opportunities to resume it, and meanwhile doing useful work in other ways, helping in the settlers' churches, revising Maori translations, &c. The old "King Movement" and Hau-hauism were now closely allied, and together kept the disaffected Natives in the forests and mountains, something like the Highlanders of Scotland in old times, not interfered with by the Government, but holding aloof from the life of the Colony and allowing no white men to pass through their country; though Mr. Grace did get to them occasionally, and so did Heta Tarawhiti. "The Hau-hau superstition," wrote Bishop Selwyn, "is simply an expression of an utter loss of faith in everything that is English, clergy and all alike. The only wonder is that the whole people did not become Romanists, as the missionaries of that persuasion are chiefly from France." And again he wrote : -
"I have now one simple missionary idea before me, of watching over the remnant that is left. Our native work is a remnant in two senses : the remnant of a decaying people, and the remnant of a decaying faith. The works of which you hear are not the works of Heathens : they are the works of baptized men whose love has grown cold from causes common to all Churches of neophytes from Laodicea downwards."
But he knew that besides the tendency of "neophyte Christianity ' ' to backsliding, there was another important cause of the apostasy. What was that? Let the words of his most trusted lieutenant, Hadfield, answer: - "When a race of noble, honest men, recently converted and brought from darkness to light, are treated with injustice and cruelty by men of the same race as that of those preachers of the Gospel under whose teaching they accepted it, how could it be expected that their confidence would continue unimpaired?" Yet, after all, it was but a minority of the Maori race that openly apostatized. In 1870, Bishop Williams estimated the whole "remnant" of the Maori nation at 35,000, of whom about 9000 were either Hau-haus or of the disaffected "king" party. Even the Hau-haus as a whole ought not to be judged by the shocking outrages of some of them. They were a fanatical sect, but they were not a band of murderers. The account of them by Lady Martin, the accomplished wife of the Chief Justice, is worthy of being carefully noted : -
"Some people in England suppose that our Natives gave up Christianity when they formed themselves into the sect called Hau-haus. It was only embraced by a certain number in the middle and south of the Northern Island, and grew up when the people were maddened by defeat, disease, and confiscation of their lands. . . . But, wonderful to [p. 635] say, they never went back, as the Northmen to the worship of Odin, or as the British to Druidical rites. There was no calling on Papa, the earth-mother, nor on Rangi, the sky-god, nor on Tane, who protects the forests. From the Bible, which was their only literature, they got their phraseology. The men who excited and guided them were prophets; Jehovah was to fight for them; the arm of the Lord and the sword of the Lord were on their side, to drive the English into the sea. There was wild talk about angels, and much superstition, but no relapse into Heathenism pure and simple."
It was, nevertheless, a rejection of the pure Christianity they had been taught. One chief said to Bishop Williams, "Bishop, many years ago we received this faith from you : now we return it to you; for there has been found a new and precious thing by which we shall keep the land." Yet there were those who from time to time felt like the spouse in Hosea: "I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now." Many were like a party visited by Archdeacon Maunsell, who said, " We are glad to see you and to have our old service again. We get no benefit from our Hau-hau karakia : it is like a person trying to cross a river in a large square box. There is neither head nor stern, and when we try to steer we cannot get it to move rightly." There were, in fact, two things to be done: to win them back to the Queen and to the Church. The efforts to do either were successful only with individuals, within the period we are now reviewing. The work of after years will come before us in a future chapter. But there was another task, no less important, and no less hard: to save from sin the more numerous loyal and professedly Christian Maoris. Let one illustration be given. Writing of the Maoris who joined the colonial troops in fighting the Hau-haus, R. Taylor says:-
"What has been the effect of this alliance upon the Natives? Has it benefited them? Has it raised them in the moral scale of society? Alas! it has been quite the reverse. They have had their rations of, rum, and have acquired a love of ardent spirits, and now curse and swear, literally, as a trooper. They may now be seen haunting the public-houses, a disgusting and painful proof of their new teaching. Having had no Sabbath observance, they have learned to neglect it, and to believe it is of no consequence. And thus those men who have jeopardized their lives in our defence, and been signally instrumental in preserving our provinces from destruction, have been ruined in return; and from being, many of them, high-principled men, have become besotted, worthless characters. Nay further, the best way we have found out of showing our admiration and good feeling towards them has been by inviting them to resuscitate the past customs of barbarous life, to dance their revolting war-dances, which even our colonial ladies attend with as much apparent gusto as the Spanish dames do their disgraceful bullfights."
We have looked at the dark cloud: let us now look at the silver lining. First, take one instance - one of very many - of the chivalry of the Christian Maoris even when fighting on what [p. 636] was called the rebel side. There was a chief named Henare Taratoa, who had been educated at Bishop Selwyn's College for the ministry, but whom the Bishop had hesitated to ordain because of his excitability. He joined his countrymen when the war broke out, and was in command of the Maoris at the famous Gate Pah, near Tauranga, when the British forces met with their most serious repulse, and when twenty officers fell. The officers had got inside the pah (the native stockade) but were deserted by their men, and remained, dead or wounded, in the midst of the Maoris. Henare himself carefully tended the wounded all night, at the peril of his life. The English colonel, who was dying, begged for water. There was none in the pah, nor within three miles on the Maori side of it; but there was water within the English lines on their side of the pah. Henare crept out, and cautiously felt his way in the darkness to the place, close to where English sentries were on duty, filled a calabash with water, and crept back again - but hit, and wounded. Next day the English attacked again, and drove out the remnant of the Maoris, killing most of them as they fought with desperate courage to the last. The wounded Henare fell with the rest, and on his body were found the "orders of the day" for the fight. They began with a form of prayer, and ended with the words, in Maori, "If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink." The dead English colonel and his men, and the dead Maori chief and his men, were buried in two great graves, Archdeacon A. N. Brown, the veteran missionary, officiating. In memory of Henare's chivalry, Bishop Selwyn afterwards put a window in the chapel of the Bishop's Palace at Lichfield, representing David pouring out the water which his three mighty men fetched from the well of Bethlehem.
Next take an incident showing the reverence of the Maori Christians for Divine ordinances, and especially for the Holy Communion. In 1865, Mr. Taylor went up the Wanganui River to conduct services for a large party of loyal Maoris who had just fought and defeated a Hau-hau band. He found them anxiously doubtful whether they could rightly approach the Lord's Table after they had been fighting and shedding human blood:-
"I told them that their cause being a just one, having fought against those who came with the avowed intention of killing and eating them, and of destroying the European settlement, and likewise of putting an [p. 637] end to the Christian faith, they were perfectly justified in taking up arms in their own defence. Still, they said, their hands were defiled with blood: was it right they should partake of the Lord's Supper? I told them I thought they might, and that the Bishop of Wellington had said the same.
"They said that another thing troubled them, viz., the way their foes were treated when slain, not by themselves, but by their Popish allies, who took their ear-ornaments and other things: therefore they ought to make an atonement-offering to God; for although they knew that the ancient offerings of bulls and goats were only typical of Christ, still they should give some token of their sorrow; and they proposed to rebuild their church, both as a memorial to Hoani, their late teacher and chief, who had first built it, and also as a token to God of their sorrow."
It was at one of the many remarkable Christmas Communions which Taylor used to hold, and which were attended by hundreds of Maori Christians from all parts of his wide district, that a chief, kneeling at the rail, suddenly found that he was kneeling next to another chief who had in the old days killed and eaten his father. He rose up trembling, and went back to his seat, feeling that he could not forgive such an act, and could not partake of the sacred feast without forgiving it. Twice he went up, and twice he returned, overcome by his feelings. At length he reflected how the Lord had forgiven him: that melted his heart, and he went up the third time, and partook, with every shade of natural resentment gone from his mind.
On two occasions, leading Christian chiefs visited England. In 1851 William Williams brought over Tamihana (Thompson) Te Rauparaha, and in 1855 R.Taylor brought over Hoani Wiremu (John Williams) Hipango. Both were remarkable men, and in one respect their stories are most singularly alike. Te Rauparaha was the son of a very great and warlike chief of the same name at Otaki in the south of the Island. Before any missionaries had visited that part, a Maori from there came back, who had been a prisoner in the North and had been in a mission school, and could read; and be bad with him a torn copy of St. Luke's Gospel in Maori and a Prayer-book, not indeed received at his school, but taken from the body of a little Christian girl who had been killed by his tribe, and her remains horribly ill-treated. He had not himself embraced the Gospel: he only carried the books (then rare) to add to his importance; and when young Rauparaha and another young chief asked him to read to them the white man's book, he only replied that it was a bad book, teaching them not to fight, not to drink rum, not to have two wives. Yielding, however, to their importunity, he did read to them night after night. The result was that the two young men secured, by the payment of some pigs and potatoes, a passage in a small vessel going north to the Bay of Islands*, then the headquarters of the Mission, and went straight to Henry Williams and begged for a missionary; in response to which call, Hadfield, who had just arrived from England (it was in 1838), [p. 638] went to the scenes of his life-long labours. But this is not all. H Williams accompanied him to Otaki, and then returned by land; and on his way back, passing Wanganui, he found a young chief of another tribe, named Hipango, who had been awakened by a single leaf of the Church Catechism, containing the Ten Commandments, which (as in the other case) he had got a Maori who had been at school to read to him. He and his people had already cast away their images, and were worshipping the One God, keeping the seventh day, and obeying the other Commandments, without ever having seen a missionary. In these strangely similar ways, the Gospel was planted at the two south-western events stations, Otaki and Wanganui; there, for many years, laboured respectively O. Hadfield and R. Taylor; there the Maori Christians were loyal throughout the war; and there the young chiefs, Rauparaha and Hipango, baptized as Tamihana and Hoani Wiremu, faithfully served the Lord.
Tamihana and Hoani Wiremu both lived in Islington College when in England, as before mentioned. The latter was commissioned by his tribe to make presents to the Queen, and he and Mr. Taylor were received by Her Majesty and Prince Albert at Buckingham Palace. He was greatly interested in the Jews, and went to the London Jews' Society's Mission at Bethnal Green, where he spoke to them himself; and when some were baptized, they specially asked that he should be present. He was shocked at the Sabbath-breaking in London streets, and in one case brought an apple-woman to tears by his exhortation to her. When taken leave of on his departure for New Zealand, he addressed the C.M.S. Committee in Maori. "He stood," wrote Ridgeway, "like a tower in the strength and firmness of his frame, and his self-possession and forcible manner of address were very striking."
On his return to New Zealand, John Williams desired to be prepared for holy orders, and went to St. Stephen's College at Auckland under Archdeacon Kissling; but his industry in studying by dim candle-light affected his eyes, and he had, to his great sorrow, to forego his wish. Then the Governor appointed him to an office of trust and responsibility at Wanganui, where he won general respect. When the Hau-haus came into the district, threatening to destroy the town, he took command of the loyal Maoris to resist them, - the English force under General Cameron [p. 639] being some miles away, waiting for reinforcements. The enemy sent four men to lie in ambush and kill John Williams: he caught them, fed them, and sent them back unhurt. The next night ten men were sent for the same purpose; they too were caught, and they too were released. "I will not," said the brave Christian Maori, "be the first to shed blood." Next day, February 23rd, 1865, the Hau-haus came forward in open attack. They were completely defeated, and their chief captured; but in the moment of victory a ball struck John in the chest. He turned and walked away erect with the ball in him, but presently fell, was carried into Wanganui, and died the following morning. He was buried with military honours, white men insisting on carrying their deliverer's body to the grave, and all the English officials following. Here is John Williams's last letter, written two days before he fell :-
"Respected Mr. Taylor, - Health to you and all your children. Your word is good, very good, to all our hearts. Strive constantly in prayer to God for us, that He may preserve us from the deceitful and hostile men who are striving to destroy and cast down the dwelling-place of the Spirit of God. Do you strive day and night. But we too have urged the teachers of every pah to pray to God that He may go in the midst of us. This is all from your loving son,
"HOANI WlREMU HlPANGO."
There were other deaths, more peaceful, but not less touching. Wiremu Tamihana (William Thompson) Tarapipipi, "the king-maker" has been already mentioned. No more remarkable figure appeared among the Maoris. The son of a cruel cannibal chief, he himself was a gentle Christian, a diligent teacher of his people, a firm lover of peace. Although the real head of the 'king party,' his purpose, as before explained, was entirely loyal and peaceful; and he resisted every inducement to join in the war, until that fatal day when Sir G. Grey, overborne by his advisers, permitted the British forces to cross the river. "Now," said Tamihana, "I am absolved from my promise: it is a defensive war." Yet again and again he tried to restore peace, advocating submission on the one side and pleading for considerate terms on the other. When the Hau-haus murdered Volkner, he instantly separated himself from their alliance, and gave himself up to the Governor, who received him with great honour. He went back to his people, but took no further part in public affairs, and died in the following year, holding in his hands a Bible, which he read to the last. His final words to his tribe were, " Stand by the Government and the law: if there is evil in the land, the law will make it right." When near death, he was carried some distance to a place where the whole tribe could be assembled to see him; and each time he was lifted this prayer was said:-
"Almighty God, we beseech Thee, give strength to Wiremu Tamihana, [p. 640] whilst we remove him from this place. If it please Thee, restore him again to perfect strength; if that is not Thy will, take him, we beseech Thee, to heaven."
Here are three other deaths, in the very district afterwards desolated by war, reported in one year by one missionary, Ashwell:- (1) Wesley Te Pake, a once leading medicine-man, for ten years a faithful and influential Christian, a specially gifted speaker; when dying, repeating text after text, and exhorting his people to "hold fast Gospel principles," "be decided for Christ," "pray without ceasing," "hear what St. Paul says, 'If God be for us, who can be against us?'" "O Christ," he exclaimed with his latest breath, "Thou art my Sav - " - the word was not finished, and he entered into rest. (2) Thomas Rangiunoa, a teacher, once a cannibal; "my devoted fellow-helper," wrote Ashwell; "a man whose consistent conduct, cheerful disposition, sterling uprightness, deep humility, and unwearied perseverance in doing good, gained the esteem and love of all who knew him." (3) Levi Mokoro, "formerly a most desperate, bloodthirsty cannibal, and licentious beyond the generality." The first time he was visited he was "feasting on the bodies of his enemies." He received the Gospel message at once, was baptized after due instruction, became one of the most consistent of Christians, was made an assessor by Sir G. Grey, and died after ten years of faithfulness, saying, "Christ only is my support, my hope, and my salvation."
But the most conspicuous fruits of the work were the Maori clergy. Rota Waitoa was ordained in 1853, and Riwai Te Ahu in 1858; Raniera Kawhia, Hohua Te Moanaroa, Heta Tarawhiti, and Pirimona Te Karari, in 1860; Tamihana Huata, Ihaia Te Ahu, Matiu Taupaki, and Piripi Patiki, in 1861; Matiaha Pahewa, in 1863; Mohi Turei, Hare Tawhaa, and Watene Moeke, in 1864; Rihara Te Rangamaro, in 1866; Renata Tangata and Raniera Wiki, in 1867; Wiremu Katene Paraire and Hone Pohutu, in 1870; Rawiri Te Wanui, Heneri Te Herekau, Wiremu Turipona, and Wiremu Pomare, in 1872;* - twenty-three up to the end of our present period, of whom three died within that period. Nine of these were ordained by Bishop Selwyn; ten by Bishop Williams; two by Bishop Hadfield; two by Bishop Cowie. Not one of these failed in the hour of trial. That is one of the great facts of the history of the New Zealand Mission, to the praise of God's grace.
[p. 641] The year 1867 saw the departure from the scene of their labours in New Zealand of two great men, Bishop Selwyn and Archdeacon Henry Williams, the former to an English diocese, the latter to his heavenly rest. Throughout the war period, Henry Williams had lived on quietly at Pakaraka in the far north, where, under his influence, the tribes always remained loyal both to the Queen and to the Church. As age and infirmities increased, he built a small vessel for himself, to save the fatigues of overland travelling; and he happily named it the Rainbow, "in memory of God's mercy and promise after the destroying flood." He and his family built and endowed a church; and he raised funds for other small endowments in aid of the Maori ministry. But the most wonderful triumph of his influence was achieved by his death. In June, 1867, a strange thing happened in that peaceful part of the country. A local dispute between two tribes led to a sudden outburst of excitement, and on July 16th, after a violent meeting, at which Williams's sons strove hard but in vain to reconcile the tribes, it was agreed to fight it out next day in open battle. But after darkness fell that evening, the word went round both camps, "Te Wiremu is dead! " Although the Archdeacon had been very weak for some days, no immediate danger had been apprehended; but that evening he suddenly fainted, and died in a few minutes. The Maoris were paralyzed; a truce was at once proclaimed; the chiefs on both sides came forward to carry the great benefactor of their race to his grave; and after the funeral, one of them said, "My hand has touched the pall; I can no longer go back to fight."A day or two afterwards the two tribes met on the intended battle-field. One of the chiefs took out his Maori Testament, and read several texts, concluding with, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God." Then they all knelt down, and he offered up a prayer to the God whom, after all, they did honour. Then both sides went through the old war-dance, with every demonstration of mutual defiance; but as it closed, instead of rushing upon each other in fury, as of old, they again fell to prayer. After this, speeches were made for several hours, and then each side made valuable peace offerings to the other. The day closed with the whole body wailing and weeping as if their hearts would break for their departed friend.
Thus died the greatest of New Zealand missionaries. We have seen him before as the young naval officer fighting in the battles of his country: we have seen him taking leave of the C.M.S. Committee as he went forth to the Antipodes in the days of darkest Heathenism; we have seen him working for forty-four years without once returning to England; we have seen him misunderstood, disconnected, and restored; we have seen the results [p. 642] of his and his brother William's untiring labours - results marred indeed by the mistakes of others and the malice of the great Enemy; and now we have seen him die, at the age of seventy-five, triumphing by his very death over the evil passions of the race he had so dearly loved, and to whose salvation in body and soul his life had been devoted.
Yet even this was not all. One of the chiefs of those contending tribes, though long an "adherent" of the Christian community, had never been baptized. Now he came forward and announced that for the future he would be a soldier of Christ. He put himself under instruction, and was received into the Church. When he failed to answer some doctrinal question put to him, he said, "You may puzzle me with your questions; but one thing I know: Jesus Christ died for my sins upon the cross, and I depend on Him."
A few years passed away, and then the Maoris, headed by the Rev. Matiu Taupaki, and declining any help from white men, raised £200, and put up a great stone cross in the churchyard at Paihia, the scene of Henry Williams's longest labours, with an inscription in English and Maori, "In loving memory of Henry Williams, forty-four years a preacher of the Gospel of Peace, a father of the tribes. This monument is raised by the Maori Church. He came to us in 1823. He was taken from us in 1867." The monument was unveiled by Bishop Cowie of Auckland on January 11th, 1876, in the presence of an immense throng of Maoris from all parts of the country, several of their leaders speaking; [The speeches are given in an appendix to Carleton's Life of Henry Williams] and among the aged men present was the second Maori convert, David Taiwhanga, the once ferocious cannibal chief baptized by Henry Williams himself in 1830, forty-six years before. The Bay of Islands choir sang Mendelssohn's exquisite chorus, "How lovely are the messengers that preach us the Gospel of Peace!" Has it ever been sang on a more appropriate occasion?
In the same month that Archdeacon Henry Williams died, July, 1867, Bishop Selwyn sailed for England - not to retire, but to attend the first Lambeth Conference. Of that Conference, and of the Wolverhampton Church Congress, at which Selwyn was enthusiastically received, this History has already spoken. Bishop Lonsdale of Lichfield, who presided over the Congress, died only a few weeks later; and the Premier, Lord Derby, offered the vacant see to Selwyn. He said No at once, decisively; but then Archbishop Longley intervened and begged him to accept, and Selwyn, on the same principle of obedience to Church authority that had originally sent him to the Antipodes, bowed his head and said Yes. He went out, however, to New Zealand to wind up various matters and bid them all farewell. He presided over the [p. 643] fourth meeting of the General Synod of the Church of New Zealand, at which six bishops and a large number of clergy and laity were present; and he left the Colony finally amid every demonstration of affection and gratitude. Among the addresses presented to him was the following from the Maori Christians:-
"To Bishop Selwyn, greeting! Ours is a word of farewell from us your Maori people who reside in this island. You leave here these two peoples, the Maoris and the Europeans. Though you leave us here, God will protect both peoples; and Queen Victoria and the Governor will also protect them, so that the grace of Providence may rest on them both. father, greetings! Go to your own country; go, the grace of God accompany you! Go on the face of the deep waters. Father, take hence with you the commandments of God, leaving the peoples here bewildered. Who can tell that after your departure, things will be as well with us as during your stay in this island? Our love for you and our remembrance of you will never cease. For you will be separated from us in your bodily presence, and your countenance will be hidden from our eyes. Enough! This concludes our words of farewell to you.
From your children."
It is fitting that there has been only one "Bishop of New Zealand." The title belongs to Selwyn, and to Selwyn only. His original diocese was already divided into six, and Melanesia made up the perfect number of seven in the New Zealand Ecclesiastical Province. On Selwyn's departure his own reduced diocese was named Auckland; and the bishop sent out to succeed him was Dr. W. G. Cowie, a former army chaplain in India, who knew the Punjab Missions well, and whom we have already found working with Dr. Elmslie in Kashmir. In 1870, Bishop Abraham resigned the see of Wellington, and was succeeded by the veteran missionary Hadfield. Thus the two C.M.S. men who had been the pioneers of Christianity in the eastern and southern portions of the Island respectively, William Williams and Octavius Hadfield, at last both presided as bishops over their own mission-fields.
We now leave New Zealand for the present. When we again visit it we shall find an immense development of the British Colony and a decided revival in the Maori Church. There were signs of better days coming before the close of our present period. The improved relations between the two races were strikingly described by the New Zealand correspondent of the Times (February 6th, 1872). "The policy of conciliation," he wrote, "has triumphed over the jealousy of races. Our fire-eating politicians no longer talk of 'conquering a permanent peace.' The spade, the pickaxe, the telegraph-wire, and the stage-coach are doing what legions of men with ' arms of precision ' failed to do." Then he referred to the able and intelligent Maoris who had been elected to the Legislature. "They demeaned themselves with so much tact and propriety that they became the favourites of the House, and even the few 'British lions' were tamed or [p.644] awed into courtesy. ...We may reasonably predict that 'peace conquered' by such means will be 'permanent.'"
As for the Maori Church, there was still much depression at the time that our period closes. In 1868, Mr. Ridgeway felicitously described the position, as he often did, by an illustration from natural history. "There was a spring-time in the Mission, when the tree was rich in blossoms. A plentiful harvest of golden fruit was calculated upon, perhaps too confidently. Then came an ungenial season, with cutting winds, and very much of the fruit perished while it was yet crude; so much so, that some now doubt whether there be any fruit at all to be found among the branches." But, justly, he went on to observe that the figure failed, like most figures, to express the whole facts of the case. "There has been a blight upon the crop; but a first crop was gathered in and housed." Yes, let that never be forgotten. No one who has read this chapter will doubt that the Great Husbandman had already gathered from Maori New Zealand much wheat into His garner
Rota is Lot;
Riwai is Levi;
Raniera is Daniel;
Hohua is Joshua;
Heta is Seth;
Pirimona is Philemon;
lhaia is Isaiah;
Matiu is Matthew;
Piripi is Philip;
Matiaha is Matthias;
Mohi is Moses;
Hare is Charles;
Watene is Walter;
Rihara is Richard;
Renata is Leonard;
Hone is John;
Heneri is Henry.
Metoikos