Christmas in New Zealand is less about snow and sleigh bells and more about sun, sand and backyard barbecues. Over the holiday season we explore the Kiwi Christmas experience –
from Abel Tasman’s first New Zealand Christmas in 1642 to the declining
reign of the Queen’s message
Henry Williams, who had been ordained a priest in 1822 'for the cure of souls in his majesty's foreign possessions', inherited a mission beset by problems.
French Bishop Jean Baptiste François Pompallier, a priest and brother of the Society of Mary, arrived at Hokianga. His party celebrated their first mass three days later.
The Christian missionaries of the pre-1840s have been described as the 'agents of virtue in a world of vice', although they were not immune to moral blemish themselves.
