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PART   2   of

Extracts pertaining to New Zealand from the

'History of The Church Missionary Society' Vol. 1

by Eugene Stock, published 1899

CHAPTER XXVIII (28)   NEW ZEALAND: The Bishop, the Colony, and the Mission
Advent of Colonists  -  Annexation of New Zealand  -  Arrival of Bishop Selwyn: his Testimony, Travels, and Trials  -  His difficulties with C.M.S.  -  His tardy Ordinations  -  Colonial Encroachment and Maori Discontent  -  Governors Fitzroy and Grey  -  The Missionary Lands Question  -  Grey's Secret Despatch  -  Archdeacon H Williams disconnected and reinstated  -  The Maori Bible  -  Romanist Mission  -  Extension and Success of C.M.S. Mission  -  Sir G Grey's Testimony  -  The Melanesian Mission

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    Reference has already been made to the trouble caused by runaway convicts and other reckless and unprincipled people who settled near some of the Mission stations, set up scores of grog-shops, and tempted the Native women into sin. The evil grew so rapidly that in 1833 Government sent out a Resident, Mr. Busby, to keep order. But the Consul had no force behind him, and his "moral suasion" was simply disregarded and laughed at. Then as news reached England of a beautiful country with a healthy climate being now accessible, and of the once-ferocious Natives having been tamed by the missionaries, the rush of settlers began.
A New Zealand Association was formed, which sought parliamentary powers for regular colonization. This scheme was opposed by the Church Missionary Society, Dandeson Coates throwing all his great energy and ability into the struggle. It is easy now to see that opposition in such a case was hopeless, and therefore inexpedient; but the Committee had before them the cases of aborigines elsewhere, who had been barbarously treated by colonists, driven from their lands, and mercilessly slaughtered, as

1833

Ungodly settlers in New Zealand

Brit. Govt. sends out Mr. Busby as Resident to keep order

Busby has no sway.

The NZ Association formed and seek Parliamentary powers for Colonization of N.Z.

C.M.S. opposes colonization and petitions Parliament.

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in the old American Colonies, in the West Indies, in South Africa, and in Australia, and they resolved to fight for those whom they naturally now regarded as their Maori children. Their petition to the House of Commons in 1838 gives a striking account of the external results of the Mission. It mentions the thirty-two agents, the 2500 Natives in the congregations, the 1500 in school, the wide observance of the Lord's Day, the reduction of the language to writing, the Bible translations, the printing-press, the farm, the water-mill, the introduction into the island of cattle and sheep and horses, also of new plants and seeds, the influence of the Mission in checking war and cannibalism, &c., &c.

 
 
 
C.M.S stands for 'Church Missionary Society'

    The opposition was successful, and the bill was defeated; but a new body came into existence, the New Zealand Land Company, which proceeded, without a charter, to send emigrants out, and agents to purchase land from the Natives. The people thus sent out were mostly respectable labourers, and upon the whole this branch of the colonization was fairly well conducted. The southern districts of the North Island principally were selected, and the present capital of New Zealand, Wellington, was founded by the Company's colonists. The testimony of Colonel E. G. Wakefield - a famous name in New Zealand history, - who was the chief agent, to the character of the Maoris in those districts, is very striking:-

C.M.S. opposition a success. N.Z. Association ended.

New Zealand Land Company formed, and proceeded to N.Z. without a charter.

"The whole of the Native population of this place profess the Christian religion, and although there are no missionaries among them, they are strict in the performance of their religious exercises. As is to be expected, they are but imperfectly acquainted with the doctrines of Christianity, and are superstitious in many of their observances. But, compared with what they must have been before - and this is obviously the true standard of comparison - the improvement effected by their conversion to Christianity is most striking."

    The annexation of New Zealand to the British Dominions now became an absolute necessity if law and order were to prevail; and in 1840, Government sent out Captain Hobson, R.N., to negotiate with the Maori chiefs for the establishment of the Queen's supremacy over them. They were very reluctant to surrender any of their rights; but they trusted the missionaries, and on Henry Williams assuring them that in no other way could they be protected from the immigrants, they entered into the negotiation. The French Romish priests used all possible influence to get them to refuse; but in the end the famous Treaty of Waitangi was signed, on February 6th, 1840, by forty-six chiefs. More than four hundred others in all parts of the country afterwards signed, chiefly through the instrumentality of H. Williams, who travelled for three months to interview all the tribes. The New Zealand Company's agents, who were at Wellington, were very angry, regarding the treaty as impeding their proceedings. It contained

1840

Captain Hobson
 
 
 
Forty-six Chiefs sign Treaty of Waitangi on Feb. 6th, over 400 afterwards signed.

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three articles, (1) ceding to the Queen full sovereignty over the islands, (2) guaranteeing to the various tribes all territorial rights, with the right of pre-emption of lands reserved to the Crown; (3) extending to the Natives the rights of British subjects. In an official letter Captain Hobson warmly acknowledged the ''efficient and valuable support," the "very zealous and effective assistance," of the missionaries, in bringing the negotiation to a happy conclusion. The Government then formally proclaimed New Zealand a British Colony, and nominated Captain Hobson the first Governor; and he at once appointed one of the C.M.S. lay agents, Mr. George Clarke, to the office of Protector of the Aborigines.

Treaty Articles.

New Zealand proclaimed British Colony

Hobson Governor.

George Clarke 'Protector of the Aborigines'

    The way was now clear, as before explained, for the establishment of a bishopric; and in due course arrived the Bishop introduced in the preceding chapter. On May 30th, 1842, Selwyn landed at Auckland, the infant capital, and on Sunday, June 5th, he preached in the court-house, for lack of a church, on the words of Ps. cxxxix. 9,10, "If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall Thy hand lead me." In the afternoon, to the astonishment of all, he conducted a service in the Maori tongue, so quickly had he learned it while on his voyage out. A few days after, he sailed northwards for the Bay of Islands, and on the evening of June 20th, after dark, Henry Williams, while teaching his Bible-class at Paihia,had a card brought to him bearing these words, "The Bishop of New Zealand on the beach." Hurrying down, Williams found Selwyn and one of his clergy dragging up a boat, having steered their course to the shore by a pocket compass. The Bishop quickly charmed everybody. "I am quite afraid," wrote Henry Williams, "to say how delighted I am."

1842
Bishop Selwyn lands in the capital Auckland.

    Selwyn himself was not less pleased. " I have imbibed," he wrote to the Society, "the strongest regard for the Native people, and a very high regard and esteem for the members of the Mission in general." And in a private letter, - "I am much pleased with the missionary clergymen whom I have seen here. They seem to be very zealous and able ministers, and I think myself happy in having under me a body in whom I shall see so much to commend and so little to reprove. The state of the Mission is really wonderfully good." On June 26th, he preached a sermon at Paihia in which occur his oft-quoted and memorable words :-

Selwyn pleased with the Mission.

"Christ has blessed the work of His ministers in a wonderful manner. We see here a whole nation of pagans converted to the faith. God has given a new heart and a new spirit to thousands after thousands of our fellow-creatures in this distant quarter of the earth. A few faithful men, by the power of the Spirit of God, have been the means of adding another Christian people to the family of God. . . . Young men and maidens, old men and children, all with one heart and one voice praising God; all offering up daily their morning and evening prayers; all

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searching the Scriptures, to find the way of eternal life; all valuing the Word of God above every other gift; all in a greater or less degree bringing forth, and visibly displaying in their outward lives some fruits of the influences of the Spirit. . . .Where will you find, throughout the Christian world, more signal manifestations of the presence of the Spirit, or more living evidences of the Kingdom of Christ?"

His memorable testimony.

    The Bishop took up his residence at Waimate, in the north of the North Island, that his headquarters might be among the Maoris, rather than at Auckland, which was the seat of Government, or at Wellington, which belonged to the Company and where there was a growing population of settlers. He occupied one of the Church Missionary Society's houses; and hard by he started "St. John's College," for the training of both English and Maori divinity students. Here, within a few months, died one of the men who had come from England with him, the Rev. T. C. Whytehead, Fellow of St. John's, Cambridge, whom he looked to being his right hand, and the loss of whom he deeply felt. Here on February 23rd, 1843, he held his first confirmation, laying his hands on 325 Maoris: "and a more orderly and I hope more impressive service," he wrote, "could not have been conducted in any church in England." Here, on Trinity Sunday, Richard Davis, one of the lay catechists, originally a young farmer in England, was ordained, after twenty years' faithful and uninterrupted service; and on September 24th, S. M. Spencer, a new arrival, originally an American.
In the following year he ordained five other of the Society's lay agents, J. Hamlin, T. Chapman, W. Colenso, J. Matthews, and C. P. Davies. He appointed Alfred N. Brown to be Archdeacon of Tauranga, and William Williams to be Archdeacon of Waiapu. Of the latter he wrote, in a letter to the S.P.G., "He is a man universally beloved, and one who, during twenty years of residence in a savage country, has lost nothing of that high tone of feeling which distinguishes the best class of English clergymen." And, a little later, he appointed Henry Williams Archdeacon of Waimate. With untiring energy he travelled over the whole country, either on foot, or coasting in miserable trading schooners. Concerning the latter he only said that a Government brig which brought a new governor was "a floating palace" in comparison. "He has laboured hard," wrote Henry Williams, "and set us a noble example. He does the work of the best two missionaries I have ever known." His very first visitation, in 1842-3, lasted six months, in which he travelled 752 miles on foot, 86 on horseback, 249 in canoes or boats, and 1180 in ships; total 2277 miles. "When I form my plan for the

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summer," wrote the Bishop himself, "I write down all the days in my journal, with 'D.V.' against the name of the place which I hope to reach on that day. If I succeed, I add a 'D.G.' to the name. Almost all my marks of 'D.V.' have this year been changed into 'D.G.'"

    Everywhere the Bishop found the happy results of the Mission. Of one Sunday on his tour he wrote:-

Selwyn makes residence at Waimate, rather than at Auckland (the seat of Government), or Wellington, which 'belonged' to the N.Z. Land Company.
 
St. John's College begun
 
7 C.M.S. men ordained.
 
Henry Williams,
Alfred Brown,
William Williams     appointed Archdeacons
 
S.P.G. stands for 'Society for the Propogation of the Gospel'.
 
Selwyns travels.
 
NOTE: Re Auckland or Wellington as Seat of Government: It was the very same untoward motives for greed and control, that earlier opposed Marsden and later the Williams', which overturned the truly in-order and ordained selection of Auckland as the seat of Government in favour of Wellington which was under the influence of the New Zealand Company.

"We enjoyed another peaceful Sunday. The morning opened as Among usual with the morning hymn of the birds, which Captain Cook compares to a concert of silver bells, beginning an hour before the sun rises, and ceasing as soon as it appears above the horizon. When the song of the birds ended, the sound of native voices round our tents carried on the same tribute of praise and thanksgiving; while audible murmurs on every side brought to our ears the passages of the Bible which others were reading to themselves. I have never felt the full blessing of the Lord's Day, as a day of rest, more than in New Zealand, when, after encamping late on Saturday night with a weary party, you will find them, early on the Sunday morning, sitting quietly round their fires, with their New Testaments in their hands."

    Even where old tribal feuds were ranging professedly Christian Natives in hostile camps, their religion was not forgotten. For instance, hearing of a probable war between two tribes, Selwyn hastened (as Henry Williams had done before) to the place, and, arriving on Saturday, pitched his tent between the two parties, and prevented the fighting:-

"On the next morning, Sunday, the whole valley was as quiet as in the time of perfect peace, the Natives walking about unarmed amongst the cultivations, it being perfectly understood that neither party would fight on the Lord's Day. Going early in the morning to one of the pahs, I found the chief reading prayers to his people. As he had just come to the end of the Litany, I waited till he had concluded, and then read the Communion Service, and preached to them on part of the lesson of the day, ' A new commandment I give unto you that ye love one another.' I spoke my opinion openly, but without giving any offence; and the chief, after the service, received me in the most friendly manner."

    The Mission had been entirely confined to the North Island, the Maoris being few and scattered in the others; but when Selwyn visited the coasts of the Middle Island, and even the in the small South Island, he found every little Native settlement professing Christianity. No missionary had gone there; but two young chiefs from Mr. Hadfield's station at Otaki had travelled southward a thousand miles in an open boat to carry the Gospel to them all; and the Maoris at every settlement attributed their conversion to these two zealous volunteer evangelists. All this while, the pages of the G.M. Record and the Missionary Register were filled with the most touching and delightful narratives of

Middle Island: At that period the South Island was known as the 'Middle Island', and Stewart Island as the 'South Island'.

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conversions, Christian lives, and peaceful deaths. It would be impossible in this History to give even specimens of them; but no Mission in any part of the world has witnessed more conspicuous illustrations of the power of Divine, grace. One feature of the work, however, must not be omitted, so strikingly similar is it to what we have seen in recent years in Uganda. R. Taylor, one of the ablest of the missionaries, writes as follows in his interesting book, Past and Present in New Zealand (p. 20):-

"I was present when the first case of Maori New Testaments sent to Tauranga arrived, early in 1839. The whole stock was at once disposed of. One man said he had now a telescope on board his ship which would enable him to see the rocks and shoals afar off. Old men of seventy learned to read; whenever they had a spare moment, they might be seen clustering round some one who was reading."

    Then of his own Wanganui district, a few years later:-

"It was wonderful to see how many could read, and write likewise. Every day generally brought its Maori mail, with letters on all subjects: one asking for books or medicine; another from a teacher, giving an account of his last sermon, and the heads of it, asking if he had treated the subject properly; some inquiring the meaning of texts, or as to the right line of conduct under certain circumstances."

    Taylor also mentions that many could read a book upside down, owing to their habit of sitting in a small circle with a book open in the middle. This also is like Uganda.

    Thus all began happily for the new Bishop. But difficulties soon arose between him and the Society. It does not seem necessary to adjudge blame now. It would be easy to make out a case against the missionaries, or against the Committee at home, or against Selwyn himself. In fact, difficulties were practically inevitable in the circumstances. They would arise from very small causes. Little varieties in worship, or even in phraseology, are always apt to irritate. A good deal is revealed in a casual sentence in an unpublished letter from a missionary, that the Natives "did not understand the Bishop's fast-days and saints' days." The Bishop, in his strict observance of them, was only following the Church rules he was used to; while the Maoris, in the simplicity of a religion whose ecclesiastical correctness had been confined to Sunday observance and the regular use of the Prayer-book in its plainer outlines', would quite naturally be perplexed. But in fact there were more serious causes of difference than small things like these. The Bishop would not ordain the English lay missionaries unless he might also locate them without reference to the Society, and he required them to sign a pledge to go wherever he told them; and as this would have been contrary to the procedure arranged with the Bishop of Calcutta and embodied in the "H. V." document, the Committee would not ''present'' candidates while that condition was insisted on. Here,

Selwyn's ecclesistical upbringing clashes with the simplicity of the Gospel.

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again, it may fairly be said that the Bishop, regarding himself as the general of an army, would naturally expect to post his clergy out according to his discretion; while on the other hand the Society would naturally desire to work its Mission on its own plans, as it was doing in other parts of the world. The Bishop, again naturally, preferred the S.P.G. arrangements, which gave him unconditional grants of money for clergymen of his own selection. The two systems are both legitimate enough. Both have their merits, and both have their disadvantages. Why should it be necessary to criticize either Society? The difference with the C.M.S. was settled by the formation of a Central Committee of missionaries, with the Bishop as chairman, to which was committed the ordinary arrangements for location, subject to the control of the Home Committee in cases affecting the general policy of the Mission. But again, when the men had been ordained deacons, this still left large districts unprovided with ministers who could administer the Holy Communion; and the Bishop, with his high ideas of the office of a priest, required for ordination to it a more advanced scholarship than could be attained by men in middle life who had been labouring for years as lay agents among a barbarous people, and knew a great deal more of Maori than of Latin or Greek. We can appreciate the Bishop's desire to maintain the standard of learning among his presbyters, while we can see the disadvantage of his policy in an infant Church scattered over a country as large as England; a policy which not only limited the number of English clergymen in full orders, but resulted in the postponement for many years of the ordination of Maoris even to the diaconate. Selwyn was ten years in his diocese before admitting an English deacon to priest's orders; eleven years before ordaining the first Maori deacon; twenty-four years before giving a Maori priest's orders. The dilemma applies to all successful Missions. You cannot maintain anything like an English standard of scholarship for ordination, and at the same time provide a rapidly-growing Native Church with clergy who are either of the Native race themselves or at least fluent in its language. Bishop Selwyn chose one alternative. Other bishops have chosen the other. It is always a difficult task to steer between Scylla and Charybdis.

    On the general question of episcopal authority in details, the

About ordinations
 
 
 
Selwyn's backwardness in ordaining Maori.

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missionaries were by no means of one mind. The brothers Williams, and Hadfield, stood very much by the Bishop. Henry Williams, it is true, was a strong Protestant: he was at this time sending home to his brother-in-law, E.G. Marsh, subscriptions to decidedly combative Protestant societies in England; but as an old naval officer he believed in authority and discipline, and Selwyn owed more to him than he ever acknowledged or even knew. But some of the laymen, and one or two of the clerical missionaries, complained much to the Home Committee; and the result was that when the Bishop desired to rent from the Society, the entire mission premises, buildings and farm, at Waimate, for his own purposes, the committee declined to divert the station from its previous use. Naturally, again, the Society incurred blame for this; and it is impossible to read the letters of the period without sympathizing with Selwyn in having to move from the spot which had been his headquarters for two years, and where his college had been started. At the same time, the Committee could hardly be expected to view with favour the transformation of the most important C.M.S. station in New Zealand,* in the midst of a host of Native Christians who were the fruit of the Mission, into a kind of ecclesiastical collegiate establishment with a tone and colour quite different from the tone and colour of a C.M.S. Mission. How would the Cowley Fathers have liked Mr. Pennefather and his Mildmay Institutions to be set down in their midst at Poona?

Henry Williams referred to as a 'strong Protestant'. [His upbringing was a strong 'Dissenter' background]
 
Waimate C.M.S. Station.
 
* In 1844 there were, at this station, a central church, twelve chapels in neighbouring villages; average congregations, 1000 Maori Christians; communicants, 380; 24 schools with 720 scholars; baptisms in the year, adults 252, children 99.   There being 40 acres of wheat, and 180 sheep; the flour-mill yieldeding 48,000 Ibs. of flour.

    So it came to pass that in 1844 Bishop Selwyn accepted from the Society, as a sort of " compensation for disturbance," one of the two mission schooners, the Flying Fish (which proved very useful to him),and moved to Auckland, the rising seat of Government. He established his headquarters, and St. John's College, at Tamaki, four miles from the town; where the exquisite chapel associated with himself and Bishop Patteson so deeply interests the visitor to-day. The move proved to be really very much to his advantage; for within six months of his leaving Waimate, the mission premises there were occupied by troops, and some of the buildings were burnt down. A punishment on the C.M.S.! says some one. Well; but Waimate revived again immediately, and amid all the wars and apostasies and miseries of subsequent history it never again saw an armed force. It has remained ever since a centre of peaceful Christian work.

1844;

Selwyn at Auckland.

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    Captain Hobson had died in 1843, and was succeeded by Captain Fitzroy, R.N., an excellent man and good friend to the Mission. His appointment was a happy response to the following delightful letter from the head chief of one of the tribes :-

Hobson's death.
Captain Fitzroy     replacement.

"GOOD LADY VICTORIA, - How farest thou? Great is my love to you, who are residing in your country. My subject is, a Governor for us and the foreigners of this Island. Let him be a good man. Look out for a good man - a man of judgment. Let not a troubler come here. Let not a boy come here, or one puffed up with pride. We, the New Zealanders, shall be afraid. Let him be as good as this Governor who has just died. Mother Victoria, let your instructions to the foreigner be good. Let him be kind. Let him not come here to kill us, seeing that we are peaceable. Formerly we were a bad people, a murdering people: now we are sitting peaceably. We have left off the evil. It was you appointed this line of conduct, and therefore it is good to us. Mother, be kind.

From me,          
WEROWERO"

A Maori appeal to Queen for new Governor.

    All this time, the relations between the colonists and the Maoris were becoming more and more strained. Disputes about purchases of land were incessant; and the commissioners appointed to see justice done found the native customs of tenure exceedingly complicated, while the Maoris fretted at the consequent delays. Then some of the settlers whose unprincipled designs were thwarted by the Treaty of Waitangi tried to prejudice the Maoris against the Treaty and to stir them up to disloyalty. Drink and immorality, too, were bringing the inevitable misery and bloodshed in their train. "The influence of the immoral English living in the land," wrote the Bishop, "is the greatest difficulty I have to contend with; as the Natives continually object to me the lives and conduct of my own countrymen." The evil was enhanced by the prosperity caused by the sudden and large demand for labour, and the ready market and high prices for produce to be obtained at Auckland and Wellington. But it is touching to find the Christian Maoris who were engaged in the growing traffic doing their best to keep out of the way of ungodly Europeans. In this they were assisted at Auckland by Mr. (afterwards Sir W.) Martin, the Chief Justice, and Mr. Swainson, the Attorney-General, who put up huts round their own dwellings, where the converts could sojourn in peace and engage in daily worship according to their custom. But all Englishmen who befriended the Maoris became unpopular with the bulk of the settlers; and most unpopular of all were the missionaries, especially the Bishop and Archdeacon Henry Williams. "You will not be deeply affected," wrote Selwyn, "by the report of my unpopularity. The real subject of grief is the injury done to religion by the un-Christian feelings and language which many permit and justify in themselves."

Strained relationships between Maori and Colonists.

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    At last outbreaks occurred. In the south, the accidental shooting of a Maori woman led to a massacre of white men by still heathen Natives by way of reprisal, amid shouts from the chiefs of "Farewell the light! Farewell the day! Come hither night!" and in the north, a warlike chief named Heke cut down the flagstaff at the settlement of Kororareka as a protest against British rule. This latter incident led to a little local war; and it is noteworthy that Heke was finally defeated by the English troops through their attacking his fortified pah on a Sunday, while his men inside were engaged in Christian worship. Moreover, when the Maoris captured and burnt the town of Kororareka (March, 1845) they behaved with a forbearance that would have done credit to European troops, and was in striking contrast to their own customs only a few years before. The Bishop thus described it:-

Outbreaks occur.
 
 
Heke and flagstaff

English troops attack Heke's pah on Sunday.

"Two officers captured and sent back unhurt; one woman taken and sent back with an escort under a flag of truce; the bodies of the slain respected; the inhabitants of the town allowed to land during the plunder and take away such portions of their property as they wished. ...The wounded and the women and children allowed to embark without molestation; after the explosion of the fortified house, the whole force suffered to retreat on board the ships without a shot being fired; guards placed to protect the houses of the English clergyman and the French bishop."

    But the respect paid by the insurgents to the missionaries only made the latter more suspected by the colonists and by others. Lieutenant Philpotts, a son of the famous Bishop of Exeter, "to whose hasty and ill-judged order to fire upon the town the disasters at Kororareka appear to have been in a great measure due," called Archdeacon Henry Williams "Traitor" to his face, when, at the risk of his own life, the Archdeacon was conveying the wounded captain of the ship from the shore in a boat. The lieutenant was killed in the same war; and Williams, again at personal risk, went into the native pah, and though not allowed to take away the body, cut off a lock of the dead man's hair and sent it to his friends. Higher officers thought differently of the Archdeacon. Governor Fitzroy, who had laboured hard in the cause of peace and justice, indignantly repudiated the charge of treachery which some were copying the lieutenant in suggesting, and called Williams "the tried, the proved, the loyal, the indefatigable." And no wonder; for Williams and his brethren undoubtedly saved the Colony from destruction. At one point of Heke's War the British troops were defeated with heavy loss, and for some months the white settlements were practically defenceless. The excitement among the Maoris was great; and they could easily have overwhelmed by the mere force of numbers the scattered and discouraged colonists. What was it that warded

Henry Williams is misjudged.

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off so disastrous a stroke? It was Christianity. The same gentle, unobtrusive, yet powerful influence which prepared New Zealand for colonization, preserved the infant settlements from destruction. The missionaries unceasingly exerted themselves to tranquillize the various chiefs; strongly tempted as they were to join Heke, they remained loyal to the Queen and to the Church; Heke was left alone, and was easily crushed when reinforcements arrived.

    Peace was restored; but the little war had called the attention of the British Parliament to New Zealand, and a Select Committee, presided over by Lord Howick, pronounced, by a majority of one, against the Treaty of Waitangi, to the dismay of the Church Missionary Society, the Bishop, the Governor, and all who valued the cause of fair and truthful dealings with the Maoris. The Society made a strong protest to Lord Stanley (afterwards the Earl of Derby, and Premier), then Colonial Secretary; and he practically threw over the Select Committee's Report. But Fitzroy was recalled, and Captain (afterwards Sir) George Grey sent out as Governor. England has never had an abler proconsul in her colonies than Sir George Grey, and to this day he is justly honoured. But he began unfortunately in New Zealand. He came at once under the influence of the New Zealand Company, reversed many of the best acts of his predecessor, gave credence to the jealous and bitter accusations brought against the missionaries, and charged them - especially Henry Williams - with being the real cause of Heke's War. He indited a "secret despatch" to Mr. Gladstone, who had succeeded Lord Stanley as Secretary for the Colonies, embodying this and other serious charges against them.

British Parliament select committee condemns the Treaty,
George Grey sent as Governor,
is sadly influenced by N.Z. Company,
accuses missionaries.

    In the very month when this despatch was written, June, 1846, Peel went out of office; the Whigs came in under Lord John Russell; and the Colonial Office was given to Earl Grey, the very Lord Howick who had carried in the Select Committee the condemnation of the Treaty of Waitangi. He at once proceeded to carry out his own views and those of the New Zealand Company.
A new Charter for the Colony was sent out, with certain famous Instructions appended, which virtually took the greater part of the lands that belonged to the Native tribes and were guaranteed to them by the Treaty of Waitangi, and made them Crown lands, saleable to the highest bidder for the profit of the State. Details, of course, cannot be explained here; but this description is substantially correct. The right-minded part of the colonist community were aghast; the Chief Justice, the Bishop, the missionaries, all protested; Archdeacon H. Williams declared that the Instructions gave the lie to all his assurances to the chiefs which had induced them to acknowledge the Queen's sovereignty; and the Bishop said he would no longer be identified with the Government by taking a salary from them. Mr. Joseph Hume, the economist M.P., called him a "turbulent priest.".

 
 
Earl Grey's perilous policy.
 
His views influenced by the New Zealand Company.
 
 
Charter sent out that took the greater part of the lands that were guaranteed the Maori under the Treaty of Waitangi!
 
Chief Justice, Bishop, Missionaries object!

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Lord Grey, indeed, sent him out a personal complimentary message; but he wrote, "I would rather he cut me in pieces than induced me by compliments to resign the Natives to the tender mercies of men who avow the right to take their land, and who would not scruple to use force for that purpose." He and the missionaries, however, did their best to reassure the alarmed Maoris, and thus averted another war; and Governor Grey found himself obliged to let the Instructions lie dormant, and not act upon them at all.

A new Charter drawn up that allowed much of the Land guaranteed to Maori under the Treaty, to become Crown Land.

    Meanwhile, the action of Governor Grey and Earl Grey in another matter brought fresh and serious trouble upon the Mission; which brings us to the Missionary Lands Question.

    The question arose in this way. The New Zealand Mission was from the first in a totally different position from those in tropical countries, in that the climate was one in which the missionaries might expect to live in health without furloughs in England, and in which their families could be brought up with a view to the permanent settlement of succeeding generations. It will have been seen from previous chapters in this History that even in India and Africa a considerable proportion of the early missionaries lived and died in their fields of labour without ever coming home; but, except in very few cases, they could not settle their children there. New Zealand was different. The Society, indeed, undertook to care for such children as might be sent home; but the parents very reasonably preferred to bring them up there. Then the healthy climate and the temperate habits of the missionaries naturally resulted in the rearing of large families; and this proved a great advantage to the rising Colony, providing it with young men and women brought up under Christian influence and teaching, many of whom carne in after years to be in the front rank of the colonial population. The Williams families, in particular, have grown in seventy years into quite a clan, and many of the members are now amongst the most highly respected in the country and the Church. But how were the children provided for in the first instance? The Society, according to its practice, made small allowances for them during childhood; but as the boys grew up, how were they to be occupied? A few became mission teachers and ultimately missionaries; but naturally the majority needed secular occupation. Trades and professions had little opening in the early days; but the vast stretches of uncleared land invited the industrious settler and farmer. The natural and the right course was to place the young people upon the land; and the land had to be bought from the Maori owners. At this point, rather than copy from the statements on the subject from time to time put forth by the Society, it will

The missionary 'Land' question.
 
 
New Zealand climate different that other missions
 
 
 
How were missionaries to provide for children?

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be well simply to extract the explanation by an impartial writer, Dean Jacobs :*-

* Church History of New Zealand, p. 142

" Who shall say that [the parents] were blameworthy if ...in preference to seeking for their sons any chance employment that might be found in the vitiated atmosphere of the irregular settlements that fringed the coasts, they desired to settle them upon the land, and train them up as useful colonists, practical teachers, and patterns of civilization to the surrounding Natives ? Had they taken advantage of their position and influence to possess themselves of an exorbitant quantity of land, they might well be deemed deserving of censure; but if the amount acquired defraud the by them seemed large in the aggregate, it was simply because the Natives families of the missionaries had so increased as to form no inconsiderable portion of the community. In 1844 the families numbered twelve, and the children [and grandchildren] one hundred and twenty. It should be borne in mind also that the missionary purchases were made at a time when the colonization of New Zealand was not dreamt of.
"But what was the case in New South Wales? There, in an already thriving colony, we find that no lands were purchased by the clergy; but that was for a very sufficient reason: the Government made a free grant to its chaplains of land at the average rate of 1000 acres for each child - a very much larger amount than was ever claimed by any missionary in New Zealand, and very nearly double the quantity unanimously awarded by the council under Governor Fitzroy to the Rev. Henry Williams.
"If, again, they had abused their opportunities to acquire land at an unfair price, they would have been entitled to no mercy. But so far from this being the case, it was proved upon inquiry that they gave for their land more than thirteen times as much as the agents of the Government gave at a later period, when, owing to colonization, land had grown in value; and no less than eighty times as much as was given by the New Zealand Company. Neither was the land they purchased specially good; it was mostly bush land, which had been cultivated and abandoned by its original possessors, as supposed to have been worked out. Besides all this, it must be added that in no solitary instance did the Natives complain of being unfairly dealt with by the missionaries."

 
 
 
 
 
 
Did the missionaries defraud the natives?

    It will be gathered from this extract that complaints had been made of the amount of land that had been purchased by the missionaries. This was so; and the Society at home had had to publish a full explanation of the circumstances, and had also issued, when the Colony was first established, and before the Bishop went out, stringent regulations for the missionaries' guidance. In two or three cases, individuals among them - one especially, a lay agent from Sydney, not known personally to the Committee - had purchased tracts of land at the request of the Natives, with a view to the settlement of quarrels among them. This, though done with the best motives, was not approved by the Committee, being likely to increase the hostile feelings of the colonists. In 1843 a Court of Land Claims was established by Governor Fitzroy, which heard all complaints; and the result was that the various cases were easily and satisfactorily settled. The quantity of land the pos-

 
 
The real facts of the case.

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session of which by C.M.S. missionaries was confirmed by the Court came out less than half what was allowed in New South Wales for girls and less than one-fourth what was allowed for boys; and it was shown that the average price they had paid for it was 3s. 1d. per acre, most of the purchases having been made long before the Colony was established, and while war and savagery still prevailed. But the regulation price fixed when the Land Court was formed, and which was paid by many purchasing colonists, was threepence an acre. Here the narrative ought to stop. The upright and honourable dealings of the missionaries had been vindicated, and there should have been an end of the complaints. But the young men, their sons, to whom the various holdings were now transferred, were industrious and clever, and farmed them so successfully that they were becoming prosperous men. This caused jealousy; and the great trouble was yet to come.

 
Missionaries found to have paid an average of 3 shillings and 1 penny per acre.

The price fixed when the land court was formed was merely 3 pennies per acre.

    Early in 1847 the C.M.S. Committee were startled and shocked by a communication from Lord Grey, enclosing the "secret despatch" from Governor Grey already alluded to. This "secret despatch" stated that the land claims of several influential persons in New Zealand, some of them Government officials and some of them missionaries, were "not based on substantial justice to the Aborigines or to the British settlers" - although they had been finally settled by the Land Court three years before. And further, that, on account of the discontent of the Natives, the claimants could not "be put in possession of the lands without a large expenditure of British blood and money" - whereas they were at the very time in quiet and undisturbed possession. "The only step," justly observes Dean Jacobs, "which could possibly have led to bloodshed would have been an attempt by the Government to eject them " - so popular were they among the Natives. But the C.M.S. Committee naturally gave credence to official statements, and were greatly alarmed. They immediately sent the copy of the "secret despatch" out to New Zealand, and gave positive orders that every missionary was at once (1) to accept the joint decision of the Governor and the Bishop as to the quantity of land he was to retain for himself, (2) - to transfer the rest absolutely to his children or otherwise dispose of it, (3) except as to any portion claimed by the Natives, which was to be given up entirely.

Governor Grey's Secret Despatch.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Alarm from the C.M.S. Committee.

    These were no doubt excellent instructions, but they were based on insufficient knowledge. First, there was no portion disputed by the Natives; secondly, the possessions confirmed by the Land Court had mostly been already all transferred to the children, some of whom were now married men with families of their own. The receipt, therefore, of the resolutions caused the missionaries no difficulty. Archdeacon H. Williams expressed entire agreement with them, and declared that they would not require the award of the Governor and the Bishop, as they would retain nothing for

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themselves, but transfer all that had not been transferred already. But he and his brethren were indignant at the imputations of the "secret despatch," and still more so when it came out that the Governor had written again to the Colonial Office, and also to the Society, charging the missionaries with being the chief cause of Heke's War, and affirming that "unless some of them were removed, there would never be peace in the Northern District." "The missionaries," wrote the Archdeacon, " shrink with horror from such a charge, and are prepared to relinquish their claims [i.e. the lands in possession; there were no new claims'] altogether, upon it being shown that these claims would render the possibility of such an awful circumstance as the shedding of one drop of human blood."

 
Henry Williams Indignant

    Naturally the Archdeacon, for himself and his brethren, demanded an inquiry into the truth of such serious charges. "Should I fail to scatter them to the winds," he wrote, " I will resign my duties in New Zealand." He appealed to the Governor: the Governor did not answer his letter. He appealed to Lord Grey: Lord Grey refused, saying that an inquiry would be an affront to the Governor. He appealed to Lord Chichester, as President of C.M.S.; but the Committee dared not oppose the Colonial Office, and said it was "impossible to institute inquiries on the subject." He appealed to Bishop Selwyn, who had hitherto defended the missionaries on this land question; and the Bishop's action it would take much space to explain. We must in justice to him bear in mind that he did not like the possession of land by the missionaries and their families at all. For one thing, he desired to attract the young men to his college, in hopes of training them for service in the Church; and then, as before stated, he wished them to be at his own disposal, to be sent to any part of the country at his discretion; and obviously the possession of land by them would, to some extent hinder this. What he did was, first, to appeal to the missionaries to teach their sons "to renounce the barren pride of ownership for the moral husbandry of Christ's Kingdom in the harvest-field of souls," urging that "there is a Christian meekness and an active zeal by which the Christian may inherit the earth, though he have no other possession in it than a grave." Admirable counsel for a missionary; yet if a young man is not a missionary but a farmer, who would think of laying it upon him as a Christian duty that he should abandon his farm? It is no discredit to him to keep and to use what has come to him in a legitimate way. It was one thing to offer to abandon just rights if by keeping them the peace of the country was endangered; it was another thing to be expected to d0 so without a shadow of evidence that there was any such risk, and in the teeth of a refusal even to inquire concerning it. Then the Bishop interpreted the Society's resolutions in a sense different from that understood by the missionaries, and certainly different from what the Committee intended; and thereupon he called on

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them to deliver up the title-deeds unconditionally, and accept whatever the Governor might afterwards allot to them.

    Some of them now gave way rather than have further controversy; but Archdeacon H. Williams declined, so long as the grave charges against the brethren, and himself in particular, were neither proved nor withdrawn. With him it was no longer a question of property, but of character. In the case of one of the lay agents, Mr. G. Clarke, the Governor sued him before the Supreme Court. He declined to defend the action, but quietly awaited the result; and the Chief Judge decided in his favour.* Meanwhile, the refusal of Henry Williams to hand over the title-deeds had been communicated to England; the Bishop had written to the Society strongly against him; the Colonial Office was pressing Lord Chichester; and on November 20th, 1849, the Committee, in deep sorrow, but distracted by the contrary opinions expressed on all sides, and determined at all costs to set the Society right with the Government, passed a resolution dissolving their connexion with Archdeacon Henry Williams.

* This decision was reversed on appeal to the superior court in England; but subsequently the reversal was itself reversed.
 
 
Henry Williams dismissed from C.M.S.

    This is but a very brief and condensed account of a long and painful controversy. Henry Williams's biographer, Mr. Carleton, a New Zealand gentleman, afterwards Vice-Chancellor of the New Zealand University, devotes almost one whole volume to it, and defends him at every point, blaming severely the Governor, the Bishop, the Colonial Office, and the C.M.S. Committee.
Dean Jacobs substantially endorses his view. Mr. Tucker, Selwyn's biographer, passes over the controversy, but quotes the Bishop's advice to the missionaries above referred to. In this History we are only concerned with the Society and its agents.
On the general question of the lands enough has already been said. As regards the charges against the missionaries of endangering the peace of the country, they can only be characterized as utterly absurd; and it is a mystery how Governor Grey came to make such statements. That Archdeacon Williams was justified in the position he took up, and from which he never moved, that the character of himself and his brethren was at stake, is beyond doubt; but it is generally a hopeless task to bring to book persons in official position - or indeed any other position - who make accusations without supplying the evidence. Nothing is harder to bear; but most of us have had to bear it in some form.
Henry Williams would perhaps have won a greater victory than he ultimately did (as we shall see) if, instead of vindicating himself and censuring his accusers in caustic and vehement letters, he had ignored the charges and left the Lord to plead his cause.
As for the Society, it is impossible to feel that the Committee were right throughout. A careful perusal of the Minutes for several years, with side-lights from letters, &c., shows the extreme

Who was to blame?

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perplexity they were in, and their anxious desire to be just; but they were certainly misled as to facts, and perhaps unduly ready to defer both to the Government and to the Bishop, as well as over-sensitive to public opinion. The "man in the street," the ordinary newspaper reader, of course believed the official despatches; and the Committee, for the credit of the Society, shrank from shielding missionaries from censure which only a close and careful inquiry could prove to be undeserved.

    But the time did come when right was done. In order to finish the narrative, it is necessary to go forward a little into succeeding years. Henry Williams's brother, Archdeacon William Williams, came to England, to explain matters to the Committee. His statement in refutation of Governor Grey's charges was conclusive,* and the Committee, in May, 1851, passed a strong resolution entirely exonerating the missionaries from them, and recognizing to the full the value of their services to the Colony as well as to the Maoris. But they could not see their way to reinstating Henry Williams. In their judgment he had done wrong, and there was "no sufficient reason" for rescinding the resolution disconnecting him. The opinion, however, of many leading friends in the country began to change. The facts gradually became known; and the Committee were beset with appeals from all sides for a reconsideration of the Archdeacon's case. At length an opportunity came for restoring him gracefully. In 1854, Sir George Grey (as he now was) and Bishop Selwyn Selwyn both came to England. The chief subjects of their intercourse with the Society will come before us hereafter. Here it need only be said that Sir George, without confessing his mistakes - that was too much to expect - did his best to remedy them by warmly testifying to the high character and good influence of the missionaries; and that the Bishop [and the Governor] expressed a personal wish that the Archdeacon should be reinstated. The Committee thereupon, on July 18th, unanimously passed a resolution reaffirming their "confidence in Archdeacon Henry Williams as a Christian missionary," "rejoicing to believe that every obstacle is providentially removed against his return into full connexion with the Society," and asking him, "receiving the resolution in the spirit in which it is adopted, to consent to return," so that "all personal questions on every side may be merged in one common object of strengthening the cause of Christ in the Church of New Zealand." And in forwarding the resolution Henry Venn wrote, - "Be assured that if the Committee have in any respect misunderstood

 
William Williams defends Henry.
 
 
 
 
  *This most able document is printed, at length in the Life of H. Williams, vol. ii. p. 261.
 
 
 
 
1854
Sir George Grey and Bishop Selwyn go to Engand and appeal to C.M.S.
 
 
 
 
Henry Williams reinstated.

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your actions or mis-stated facts, it has been unintentional on their part, as they are most desirous of doing full justice to your character, and to the important services which you have rendered to the cause of Christ." Thus the veteran missionary was vindicated and restored, to the satisfaction of all who knew him in New Zealand. He never returned to England, but laboured on with unchanging devotion till his death in 1867.

    It has been felt necessary to narrate these facts, even so long afterwards, partly because there are still allusions in current books to the supposed land-greed of the New Zealand missionaries,* and partly because excellent lessons for our own or any other time may be drawn from the narrative. Moreover, there has probably been no matter in the whole history of the Society that has given the Committee more trouble; and this work would therefore be quite incomplete if it were passed over.

*Mr. George Clarke was also dismissed, but under a misconception. The Government gave him an important post, so he did not rejoin the Society.

    It is right here to say that Sir George Grey, though undoubtedly he fell into mistakes in this matter, proved himself upon the whole a hearty friend to the Mission, and an upholder of the Treaty of Waitangi and the rights of the Maori people. The C.M.S. reports and periodicals at the time frequently spoke warmly and justly in his praise; and we shall see by and by that he afterwards deserved, and received, still more confidence and commendation.

    To revert to the Mission itself. Two features of the work must not be passed over. One is the Maori Version of the Bible and Prayer-book. In 1836, William Williams had completed the translation of the New Testament and the Morning and Evening Services; and a printing-press was busy, under a printer sent out by the Society, Mr. Colenso, in producing thousands of copies.
Then came Robert Maunsell (afterwards LL.D., and Archdeacon), who began the Old Testament, for which his Hebrew scholarship specially qualified him. When Bishop Selwyn went out, he formed a Revision Committee, combining with W. Williams and Maunsell two lay agents who had a singular familiarity with colloquial Maori, Hamlin and Puckey. At a period later than that now under review, further revision was undertaken by the same two leaders, with William Williams's son Leonard (now Bishop of Waiapu), and two Wesleyans; and Mrs. Colenso, a daughter of one of the lay agents from Sydney, rendered great service, being "a very able and intelligent Maori scholar."

Maori Bible and Prayer Book

    The other feature of the period calling for notice is the attempts

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of the French Romanists to pervert the Maori Christians. Bishop W. Williams gives an account of them,* and the journals of the missionaries at the time are full of references to them. The policy of Rome in the nineteenth century is the same everywhere. It is to assail Christian converts rather than go to the unevangelized Heathen. In New Zealand the French priests had two great advantages. First, they could with truth affirm that no land-grabbers or troops were behind them. "Heke!" said one of them, addressing the insurgent chief when the little war was over, "the Queen first sent you teachers, and then sent soldiers to destroy you." Secondly, they could, as in other lands, allow the maintenance of heathen usages which the Protestant missionaries discouraged. The nominal Christians, therefore, who were now becoming numerous, fell an easy prey to them at first. But as the people became familiar with the Maori Scriptures, the priests found themselves foiled with a weapon that never fails. At Waimate the French Bishop said to a Maori Christian, "The missionaries have houses, and wives, and children; all their love is for them; but we have none, therefore our love is for you." "Is it then wicked," asked the Maori, "for a missionary to have a wife and children? " "I am an apostle and bishop of Christ," was the reply, "and I tell you it is." "But," rejoined the Maori, "St. Paul also was an apostle, and he said a bishop ought to be the husband of one wife." A French priest challenged William Williams to the ordeal by fire, proposing that they should both walk into flames, and see which of them God would keep intact. The Maoris eagerly collected wood for the purpose, expecting him, as the challenger, to try first; but this he declined to do. The apparent success of the French Mission was short-lived. Very few Maoris permanently joined the Roman Church; and the victory was unquestionably due to the widespread knowledge of the Word of God. The indirect influence of Rome in later years in aiding the lapse of a part of the nation into semi-Heathenism will come before us hereafter.

 
 
 
 
 
 
French Romish priests disturb the Maori converts.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Maoris refute Romish teaching.

    A much more serious obstacle to the growth of true spiritual Christianity was the rapid development of the Colony, with the colony: increase of wealth, particularly when the gold discoveries in Australia caused a sudden demand for agricultural produce. New Zealand could supply the gold-diggers with food. The gold-diggers paid for it with gold. Both settlers and Natives in New Zealand found themselves getting rich; and the grog-shop furnished an easy way of spending money. A younger generation of Maoris was growing up, and falling a prey to the new temptations. "Why," ask the critics of .C.M.S., "were the young neglected? Why was an 'emotional religion' considered sufficient, without systematic teaching and strict discipline?

Growth of the Colony. More difficulties.

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Why were the confirmees presented to the Bishop mostly middle- aged people, while the lads and lasses were running wild?" And why was only religion taught and not industry too?" Here is Bishop William Williams' s reply:-

"The charge of an immense district was often left to one individual. The case would be somewhat parallel if a clergyman were required to itinerate between London and York on foot, and then between London and Southampton, officiating at places on the road varying in distance from ten to twenty miles; and then, when he is at home, having charge, in addition to other matters, of three hundred candidates for baptism, and of seven hundred regular attendants at Bible-classes, who had been left in the interval, not to the care of competent curates, but to teachers who themselves required to be taught the first principles of the oracles of God."

    And, as he goes on to explain, notwithstanding these difficulties and disadvantages, schools were, with Government aid, being established; and these were definitely industrial schools, with farms attached, and the boys were taught ploughing, reaping, threshing, carpentry, &c., and the girls prepared for domestic life; - but unquestionably it was all on an inadequate scale.

    The Eastern District, which was William Williams's own sphere of work, was the most prosperous spiritually, just because it was furthest removed from the colonial settlements; but the Western District (as it was called, i.e. the far south-west) , under 0.Hadfield and E. Taylor, afforded conspicuous examples of high Christian character. At Christmas (the New Zealand midsummer), 1846, the converts to the number of 2000, gathered from all parts of Mr. Taylor's district to Wanganui. Next day a missionary meeting was held, and two Christian chiefs volunteered to carry the Gospel to a hostile and still heathen tribe. They went, and were both cruelly murdered; and soon afterwards their places were taken by two others. At the Christmas of 1848, seven hundred English settlers gathered at Wanganui for horse-races. They were puzzled at the absence of the Maoris. The Maoris, two thousand of them, were at church, 710 remaining for Holy Communion. At the neighbouring English church, the communicants numbered fifteen. The general results of the Mission are nowhere better summarized than in an address by Sir George Grey to the C.M.S. Committee when he came to England in 1854. The official minute, revised by himself, is as follows :-

Flourishing work in East and South- west.
 
 
 
 
 
Taylor's Christian Maoris.

" Sir George Grey stated that he had visited nearly every station of the Society, and could speak with confidence of the great and good work

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accomplished by it in New Zealand; that he believed that out of the Native population, estimated by himself at nearly 100,000, there were not more than 1000 who did not make a profession of Christianity; that though he had heard doubts expressed about the Christian character of individuals, yet no one doubted the effect of Christianity upon the mass of the people, which had been evidenced in their social improvement, their friendly intercourse with Europeans, and their attendance upon Divine worship; that there was in many places a readiness on the part of the Natives to contribute one-tenth of the produce of their labour for the support of their Christian teachers, and to make liberal grants of land for the endowment of the schools; that some of the Native teachers were, and many, by means of the schools, might be, qualified for acting as Native pastors, if admitted to Holy Orders, and might be trusted in such a position to carry on the good work among their countrymen, and even to go out as Native missionaries to other islands of the Pacific; that the great want in the Native Church at the present was a consolidation of the work, and its establishment upon a basis of self-support; that it was impossible for a single Bishop to accomplish such a work, from the extent and geographical isolation of the different parts of the diocese; that he understood that it was the opinion of the Bishop that there should be four Bishoprics in the Northern Island, in which opinion he concurred; that the most suitable persons to be appointed to the new sees were those he understood to have been recommended by the Bishop, namely, three of the elder missionaries of the Society, who had commenced the work, and brought it to its present state: that the appointment of these gentlemen would, hie believed, give satisfaction; that he believed nothing could induce the missionaries to desert the Natives; that they would rather give up their salaries and throw themselves upon Native resources; that they possessed the full confidence of the Natives, and were thoroughly acquainted with their character: but that, if the Society were now wholly to withdraw from New Zealand, the work would, he believed, fall to pieces, and the Mission do an injury to Christianity; whereas, if the work should be consolidated and perfected, as he hoped, the conversion of New Zealand would become one of the most encouraging facts in the modern history of Christianity, and a pattern of the way in which it might be established in all other heathen countries."

Sir George Grey's testimony.

    All this time Bishop Selwyn was displaying the most unbounded energy, travelling all over the country, ministering to both colonists and Natives, never sparing himself, and, while often unpopular with the former, universally honoured by the latter, and also by the missionaries, notwithstanding the occasional differences of opinion. His two greatest works, however, were the organization of the New Zealand Church and the foundation of the Melanesian Mission. The former will come before us hereafter. The latter properly lies outside the range of this History; but it is impossible to pass over without notice one of the most interesting missionary enterprises of modern times. Seven voyages did Bishop Selwyn make to the Melanesian Islands in five years. At first it was very perilous work; but he so completely succeeded in winning the confidence of the islanders that on the seventh voyage he visited fifty islands in perfect safety. He brought several lads, of different tribes and languages, to be trained at St. John's College; but the

Selwyn's untiring energy.
 
 
 
 
 
The Melanesian Mission.

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climate of New Zealand proved too cold for them, and it was not till some years later that Patteson's plan of gathering them in Norfolk Island met with more success. But what gives special importance to the Melanesian Mission is that Selwyn designed it as an outlet for the foreign missionary zeal of the New Zealand Church.
"It seems to be an indisputable fact," he said in his first episcopal charge, "that however inadequate a Church may be to its own internal wants, it must on no account suspend its missionary duties; that this is in fact the circulation of its lifes blood, which would lose its vital power if it never flowed forth to the extremities, but curdled at the heart. "If only every Church, however small, and every parish, however poor, would act on the grand and true principle thus set forth so forcibly by Bishop Selwyn, the whole life of the whole Church would be quickened and invigorated as it has never been yet since the days of the Apostles.

A living Church must be a missionary Church