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Coastwise Voyaging.

The active Bishop did not spare himself in the duty of visiting the southern parts of New Zealand. He went to Tauranga in a hired schooner and walked across the hills and through swamps and creeks to Matamata, where the Ngati-Haua tribe received him with ceremonious hospitality and provided men to carry him in a litter through the swamp between their large pa and the Waihou River. He visited the various tribes along the coast as far as Opotiki and Wharekahika, and on his return to the Bay of Islands he sent Father Viard to Tauranga as the first priest for that district and adjacent parts.

A reinforcement of priests and funds for the propagation of the Faith came from France in 1840, in the corvette “L'Aube,” commanded by Captain Lavaud, celebrated for his association with the French settlement at Akaroa.