The Reverend Samuel Marsden, Chaplain to New South Wales, (1765-1838) was the driving force behind the establishment of Anglican mission stations in New Zealand in the early nineteenth century. He was born in England and based in New South Wales, and he was a member of the Church Missionary Society (CMS). His work and that of his missionaries helped build up a relationship of trust with Maori chiefs, paving the way for the acceptance of an official Crown presence in New Zealand.
The Anglican missionary Samuel Marsden noted in his journal that he had just planted 100 vines at Kerikeri and that New Zealand 'promises to be very favourable to the vine.'
Ururoa, the brother-in-law of Hongi Hika, responded to a rival who had cursed him and his Ngāi Tawake people after a fight between young women on the beach at Kororāreka. Many were killed in the conflict that followed.
At Oihi Beach in the Bay of Islands, Marsden preached in English to a largely Māori gathering, launching the Christian missionary phase of New Zealand history.
