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A History of the English Church in New Zealand
A History of the English Church in New Zealand
To the RIGHT REVEREND WILLIAM LEONARD WILLIAMS, sometime Bishop of Waiapu. THIS BOOK is respectfully dedicated in memory of the eminent services rendered to the New Zealand Church by himself and others of his name. REV. SAMUEL MARSDEN. BY H. T. PURCHAS, M.A. Vicar of Glenmark, N.Z. Canon of Christchurch Cathedral, and Examining Chaplain to the Bishop. Author of "Bishop Harper and the Canterbury Settlement," "Johannine Problems and Modern Needs." SIMPSON & WILLIAMS LIMITED CHRISTCHURCH,
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PREFACE.
PREFACE.
If asked why I took in hand a task of such difficulty and delicacy as that of writing a History of the Church in our Dominion, I can really find no more truthful answer than that of the schoolboy, "Please, Sir, I couldn't help it." From boyhood's days in the old country, when a copy of the Life of Marsden fell into my hands, I felt drawn to the subject; the reading of Selwyn's biography strengthened the attraction; the urging of friends in later years combined with my own inclinations; and thus
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INTRODUCTION.
INTRODUCTION.
Beginning from Jerusalem. —Acts. A commercial message of trifling import may now be flashed in a few minutes from Jerusalem to the Antipodes: the message of Christ's love took nearly eighteen centuries to make the journey. For a time, indeed, the advance was direct and swift, for before the third century after Christ a Church had established itself in South India. But there the missionary impulse failed. Had the first rate of progress been maintained, the message would have reached our shores a
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CHAPTER I.
CHAPTER I.
THE PREPARATION. (1805-1813). Every noble work is at first "impossible." In very truth: for every noble work the possibilities will lie diffused through immensity, inarticulate, undiscoverable except to faith. —Carlyle. For the seed-plot of Christianity and of civilisation in New Zealand we must look away from the present centres of population to the beautiful harbours which cluster round the extreme north of the country. Chief among these stands the Bay of Islands. This noble sheet of water, wi
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CHAPTER II.
CHAPTER II.
THE ENTERPRISE. (1813-1815). —R. Browning. The fourth year of waiting brought signs of approaching change. The Society at home, encouraged by Marsden's hopeful letters, sent out another catechist, Thomas Kendall. They were less sure of him than of King and Hall, but he pleaded earnestly to be sent, and, being a schoolmaster, he was a man of more education than the two others. During the last days of the year 1813, Marsden organised an influential meeting in Sydney, and succeeded in carrying fift
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CHAPTER III.
CHAPTER III.
THE RECEPTION. (1815-1822). He that soweth discord among brethren. —Proverbs. The position of the missionaries when left alone at Rangihoua was not an easy one. Ruatara was dead, and there was no one to fill his place. His successor at Rangihoua, though friendly and genial, seems to have had but little influence. Korokoro cared for nothing but war. The real ruler was Ruatara's uncle, Hongi, who lived some miles away; and Hongi's character had yet to disclose itself. His behaviour was quiet and g
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CHAPTER IV.
CHAPTER IV.
THE NEW BEGINNING. (1823-1830). —Legend of Maeldune. "When I reflect upon the evils which have crept in among the missionaries, I am astonished that the mission has not been completely annihilated. That it should continue to exist under such difficulties affords a proof, in my judgment, that God will still carry on the work." Such was Marsden's reflection in 1823—the year which saw a beginning of better things. Out of the midst of the failure and the shame this man of faith was able to gather ho
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CHAPTER V.
CHAPTER V.
THE FORWARD MOVE. (1831-1837). Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward. —Exod. Unlike their brethren in Africa and some other parts of the world, the New Zealand missionaries did not attempt much in the way of exploration. Marsden discovered the Manukau Harbour in 1820; Kendall and King were the first white men to visit Hokianga; Henry Williams' little Herald was the first European vessel since Captain Cook's Endeavour to enter the Bay of Plenty. Greater expeditions were prevente
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CHAPTER VI.
CHAPTER VI.
"YEARS OF THE RIGHT HAND." (1838-1840). The right hand of the Lord bringeth mighty things to pass. —Psalms. We now approach the climax of the missionary period. The plant which had been rooted with so much difficulty, nursed with so much care, watered with so many tears of disappointment, was now to break into sudden and wonderful bloom. The check caused by the Rotorua-Thames (or "bonnet") war was but of short duration. Long before its close, Chapman was back at Rotorua, with Morgan as his colle
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CHAPTER VII.
CHAPTER VII.
RETROSPECT. (1814-1841). The native bent of the Maori mind caused the people, as they embraced Christianity, gradually to place themselves as a matter of course under the guidance of a sort of Christian theocracy. It was under the auspices of this mild missionary regime—which, if a government, was a very singular one, seeing that there were no laws, and an almost total absence of crime—that the first British Governor set foot on the shores of New Zealand. —Judge Wilson. The first act of the new
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CHAPTER VIII.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE BEGINNINGS OF THE NEW ORDER. (1839-1842). Replenish the earth, and subdue it. —Genesis. The missionaries had worked wonders in New Zealand, but the very success of their work proved to be its undoing. Now that the islands were safe and quiet, they attracted a rush of white settlers who were eager for land and gain. Instead of whalers and flax traders, whose settlements were only temporary, there appeared farmers and artisans who had fled from the misery of the mother country to found for the
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CHAPTER IX.
CHAPTER IX.
ADJUSTMENT. (1843-1844). Unreconciled antitheses are prophecies and promises of a larger future. —Westcott. With Bishop Selwyn there appeared in New Zealand a type of churchmanship which was new to the Maoris, and even to their teachers. Much had happened in the mother country since Marsden and the brothers Williams had left it. The Oxford, or "Tractarian," movement had drawn men's minds to the thought of the visible Church; the old Missionary Society, which had been founded under Queen Anne "fo
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CHAPTER X.
CHAPTER X.
CONFLICT AND TROUBLE. (1845-1850). —Tennyson. When Bishop Selwyn removed his headquarters from the Bay of Islands, he was in no doubt as to whither to betake himself. Auckland was the seat of government, and the most central position from which to reach the various mission stations; it was the strongest church centre of all the European settlements; and it was the home of Judge Martin, with whom the bishop had already formed a close friendship, and who was destined afterwards, as Sir William Mar
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CHAPTER XI.
CHAPTER XI.
SACRIFICE AND HEALING. (1850-1856). We must suffer for the sin of others as for our own; and in this suffering we find a healing and purifying power and element. —Shorthouse. The land-grant controversy did not, of course, occupy the whole of Bishop Selwyn's time during the years of its painful and weary course. The journeys by land and sea were still carried on, and were even extended in their range. In 1848 the bishop sailed away eastward, out of sight of land, in a small schooner of 21 tons, a
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CHAPTER XII.
CHAPTER XII.
ORGANISATION AND PROGRESS. (1850-1859). The inward life must not be separated in practice from the external unity of the body of Christ. The law of unity is the essence of its strength, its purity, and its holiness. —Bishop Selwyn. "The urgent necessity of mutual communion for preservation of our unity ... maketh it requisite that the Church of God here on earth have her laws ." So wrote the judicious Hooker in that immortal work which came to Bishop Selwyn as a legacy from his great predecessor
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CHAPTER XIII.
CHAPTER XIII.
TROUBLE AND ANGUISH. (1859-1862). —M. Arnold. The period which begins with the year 1860 presents an aspect so desolate that it is hard at first to find a single cheering feature. The prospect which seemed so bright in 1859 is quickly obscured by mist and storm. Guiding-posts are hard to find; the faces of friends seem hostile in the gloom; voices of appeal sound dim and confused amidst the moan of the tempest. How little did Selwyn think on that autumn day in 1859 when, from his presidential ch
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CHAPTER XIV.
CHAPTER XIV.
RUIN AND DESOLATION. (1862-1868). —Keble. The armed truce which lasted from June, 1861, to May, 1863, was marked by strenuous efforts on both sides to bring about a lasting peace. To appreciate the gravity of the situation, it is necessary to remember that the European settlements were still but a fringe round the coast, while the whole of the interior of the island was occupied by the Maoris. But that race had so dwindled away during the last half-century, and the Europeans had poured in so fas
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CHAPTER XV.
CHAPTER XV.
MAORI CHRISTIANITY AFTER THE WAR. Many false prophets shall arise, and shall lead many astray. —S. Matt. xxiv. 11. With the departure of Bishop Selwyn, the Church which he had governed entered upon a new phase. It was no longer one in the sense in which it had been one. It still had a general synod, and it soon elected another primate. But no primate could be what Selwyn had been to the Church. He had watched the beginnings of every diocese, and had shepherded in person every settlement before i
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CHAPTER XVI.
CHAPTER XVI.
AFTER THE WAR. THE COLONISTS. (1868-1878). —M. Arnold. If the religious condition of the Maoris was such as to cause lasting grief to their teachers, there was not much in white New Zealand to relieve the picture. For the crash of the war period had been even greater than the foregoing pages have shown. Nothing has been said about the troubles at Nelson, where the earnest and faithful Bishop Hobhouse broke down under the factious opposition of his laity; nothing of the depression which stopped t
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CHAPTER XVII.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE CHURCH OF TO-DAY. (1878-1914). —H. Bonar. The earliest stage of church-life in colonial New Zealand may be called the Eucalyptus or Blue Gum period. These dark-foliaged trees mark from afar the lonely sheep-station, and are often the only guide thereto. It is in the station-house or in the adjoining woolshed that the service is held. Seldom is it conducted by an ordained minister, for the number of such is small, and each priest has a large territory to visit. His arrival on horseback is not
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CHAPTER XVIII.
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE CHURCH AT WORK. Spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes. —Is. liv. 2. The chief part of the Church's work is to keep open the way to heaven. The English Church understands this duty in New Zealand no otherwise than it does elsewhere. That the Lord Jesus Christ, when He had overcome the sharpness of death, did open the kingdom of heaven to all believers—this its people sing and believe. There has been no heresy among the colonists, if by heresy be understood anything more tha
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APPENDIX I.
APPENDIX I.
A TABLE EXHIBITING THE EPISCOPAL SUCCESSION IN NEW ZEALAND. Those to whose names an asterisk is prefixed were consecrated under Royal Letters Patent. DIOCESE OF NEW ZEALAND. *GEORGE AUGUSTUS SELWYN: Consecrated October 17, 1841, at Lambeth, by W. Cantuar (Howley), C. J. London (Bloomfield), J. Lincoln (Kaye), W. H. Barbadoes (Coleridge). (Resigned May, 1869, after translation to Lichfield.) DIOCESE OF AUCKLAND. WILLIAM GARDEN COWIE: Consecrated June 29, 1869, at Westminster by A. C. Cantuar (Tai
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APPENDIX II.
APPENDIX II.
AUTHORITIES FOR THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH IN NEW ZEALAND. The student of New Zealand Church History needs to glean his information, bit by bit, from many quarters, but there are certain outstanding authorities to which he will go at the outset. These are not all of equal value, and they need to be used with discrimination. For the life and work of Samuel Marsden, the promised volume by the late Dr. Hocken should take the first place. Meanwhile, the "Memoirs" published by the Religious Tract Soci
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