The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Rare Volume
(2.) Services since the colonization of New Zealand
(2.) Services since the colonization of New Zealand.
The beneficial effects of Missionary influence has never ceased to be felt. The testimony of Governor Grey on this point, and as to the devotion of the Missionaries to their work, is full and explicit. It was given in person to the Committee of the Church Missionary Society in May, 1854, and afterwards embodied in a Minute, which was corrected by himself.
* The result of the census of 1858 gave a native population of only 56,049. But this was an estimate rather than a census; and is generally believed to be an under-statcment. Other authorities give the numbers at from 70,000 to 80,000.—Sec C. M. Intelligencer, Jan., 1861, p. 19.
The Parliamentary Papers are prolific of letters and reports furnished by the Missionaries of different Societies who have been consulted by the various Governors, examined by Commissioners on native affairs, and thanked for information furnished respecting movements in progress among the people around them.
It is sufficient to mention, specifically, that several were examined by a Board of Commissioners on Native Affairs in 1856; and again by a Committee of the House of Representatives appointed in November of last year; and that the present Governor has invited their opinions on matters of native policy, and availed himself of the information their position enabled them to give, up to the date of the latest letters which have been received from them.
"The Government owes a deep debt of gratitude to the Missionaries. Most dilemmas have been solved, more or less, by their interference. When Sutton was assaulted, the agent sent by Government to obtain the surrender of the offenders was insulted and defied. The chief, Te Katipa, who was present, declared his wish that they should be given up, and pleaded his total want of power. Ultimately they were surrendered through the influence of one of Mr. Maunsell's native teachers. The powder stolen by the Manaia natives was, I believe, returned through the agency of the Missionary clergy."†
"The time will come when these Missionaries, the only efficient state police now existing in the country, will be taken by death, or* Report of the Church Missionary Society for 1853-54, p. 153.
page 8 rendered unable by advanced years and much labour to render that assistance to Government which has often and again been their only reliance in the time of trouble;—and we quietly await that time without an effort to supply the vacancy. When we see the great things these men achieved and the influence they have gained, without gifts of money to covetousness or offerings of power to ambition, we must admit that some secret existed in their system which would be a valuable knowledge for Government when they are no more. The secret is simply this: they worked upon Maories with Maories, choosing talent before birth, a new energy rather than an ancient name."*† Fenton's Report, p. 9.
This passage affords incidentally an important testimony to the value and efficiency of native agency; and to the existence of materials for its supply. Mr. Fenton, it need hardly he remarked, is far from having brought out the whole secret of the Missionaries' power, and docs not touch the deeply penetrating tap-root through which it draws its true support. It is, however, an important testimony to the reality, the extent, and the beneficial nature of that influence.
The powder referred to by Mr. Fenton was stolen early in the year 1850, and restored a few months after, through the instrumentality of Mr. Lanfear of Hauraki.
"Now was the time to attack the white people before they were prepared. Happily for the peace of the country, the people of the district had for some time been living under the ministration of one of the most devoted and influential Missionaries in New Zealand; and it is hardly too much to affirm that Wellington owed its safety at that moment to a single individual, the Rev. Octavius IIadfield."†
* Fenton's Report, p. 12.
† Swaineon's New Zealand, p. 118.
‡ See p.18.
These instances are sufficient to vindicate the general conduct of the Missionaries. It is quite true that, in common with the Bishops and other Clergy of the Church of England, they have, for the most part, if not uniformly, taken a position adverse to the Government in respect to the justice of the present war. This they have done, not hastily, or out of preconceived hostility to the Government. On the contrary, the earlier letters of those remote from the scat of war, distinctly reserved the opinion of the writer till after fuller investigation, and it is only as the result of deliberate inquiry and well grounded conviction that they have at length come to the conclusion now openly avowed by them. This obviously was not only a question on which they had a full right to form and express an opinion, but on which it was their bounden duty to do so. The censure directed against them falls with equal weight upon the many independent members of the House of Representatives who have taken a similar view, and as boldly proclaimed it. Neither class of men can be justly charged with having "aided the rebels" or taken part with the natives in the present war.
"It is clear that the attack upon Auckland is altogether different from the Taranaki affair. If the murderer can be discovered, all will be done by British law and justice to convict him, and make him suffer for his guilt; but, even if he were found, to deliver him up to the revenge of natives can never be done. They have been warned by our Missionary Brethren on their course down the Waikato river; but they seem to be reckless of life. They are now warned and admonished by the Bishop of New page 10 Zealand, and no opportunity will be left unimproved to show them their error both from the Scriptures and reason; if in the face of these warnings they persist on adopting and carrying into effect their self-made law, 'that if a native is killed by a white man, the white man must be delivered up to the natives; and if a white man is killed by a native, the native will be delivered to the white men,' there is no other prospect than war between the two races in this province."
"At present things look very dark. Many of whom we had hoped better things join the movement. I wish, poor creatures, they could see their true interests, and that they would remain at home. It is useless to speak with them on this subject. They leave in full confidence of victory. It is not a pleasant thing to see the armed bands passing our home, and to fear that many may never return. All we can do now is to pray that God may open their eyes to see their danger."
"I think you have been misled in the matter of Archdeacon Hadfield'a conduct about the Taranaki war. He told me, months back, that he wished to write to you about the state of the natives at Taranaki, as he had received a letter from William King; but as I then expected you at the General Assembly in February or March, I recommended his waiting till you came, and then to talk the matter over. We had no idea of the sudden coup de main your Excellency was planning, and the proclamation of martial law in the province of Taranaki came upon us before we had any opportunity of remonstrance. Both the Archdeacon and I were out of the country and on the high seas when your Excellency made the speech you allude to at Taranaki; I never saw it or heard of it till last month. But at the same time I should say that if I had seen it, I should never have understood from it that you were going to introduce a new principle in the deciding of native titles to land; and that you were going to ignore the tribal right of ownership, and to accept the usufructuary possession as being a title to the fee simple."
The unprejudiced reader will now be able to appreciate the justness of the imputations against the Missionaries and Clergy generally, as regards their conduct in the unhappy state of affairs in New Zealand.