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Rangihoua missionary settlement

A fanciful painting of the missionary settlement and Nga Puhi village at Rangihoua in the Bay of Islands, home of Nga Puhi chief Ruatara

Ruatara had described Rangihoua as paradise. Not all agreed: 'Had Marsden and his catechists searched the whole coastline, a more dismal location could scarcely have been found.' James Belich, Making peoples, 1996, p. 142.

Alexander Turnbull Library
Reference: Curios-021-008
Further information and copies of this image may be obtained from the library through its 'Timeframes' website, http://timeframes.natlib.govt.nz.
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa must be obtained before any reuse of this image.

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Te Pahi

Te Pahi was a prominent chief from Rangihoua in the Bay of Islands who was blamed for the Boyd incident.

Read more about Te Pahi

Alexander Turnbull Library
Reference: A-092-007
Further information and copies of this image may be obtained from the library through its 'Timeframes' website, http://timeframes.natlib.govt.nz.
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa must be obtained before any reuse of this image.

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Maori intermediaries: Ruatara

Several Maori men travelled the world after joining the crews of ships visiting New Zealand.

In 1805 the Nga Puhi chief Ruatara, from Rangihoua in the Bay of Islands, left New Zealand on the whaling ship Argo with the intention of meeting King George III. Over the next four years he served on several whaling ships and received mixed treatment. He never met the King, but in 1809 he encountered the missionary Samuel Marsden, who was returning to Port Jackson (Sydney) on the convict vessel Ann.

Marsden ensured that Ruatara, who was in poor physical condition, was cared for and supplied with clothes, and he invited Ruatara to stay with him when they arrived at Port Jackson. Ruatara spent eight months with Marsden at Parramatta, studying European agricultural techniques, carpentry and other skills with the aim of introducing wheat production to New Zealand.

Marsden arranged a passage home for Ruatara aboard the whaling vessel Frederick. Ruatara took tools and a quantity of seed wheat but was defrauded of these items and abandoned on Norfolk Island. He was eventually rescued and taken back to Port Jackson before finally returning to Rangihoua in 1812.

Ruatara returns to New Zealand

Rangihoua

In his absence Ruatara found that his influence had waned and Nga Puhi took some convincing that this new crop had any merit. In 1814 Marsden sent Thomas Kendall to consult Ruatara about establishing a Church Missionary Society (CMS) mission at Rangihoua. Kendall presented him with a hand-powered flour mill that convinced his fellow chiefs of the value of wheat and re-established Ruatara's mana.

Ruatara then returned to Port Jackson to further his study of European agricultural techniques. Governor Macquarie of New South Wales supported Marsden's plans to establish a mission station and gave Ruatara gifts including a mare, a cow and other livestock, and a military uniform to help further this aim.

When Ruatara returned to Rangihoua on 22 December 1814, he made it clear that he was the protector and patron of 'his Pakeha' – the CMS missionaries Samuel Marsden, Thomas Kendall, John King and William Hall – who had now arrived in New Zealand and would live under his protection at Rangihoua.

Warning signs?

In Port Jackson, Ruatara had been warned that the missionaries were the forerunners of settlers and soldiers. He had seen for himself that the Australian Aborigines had not prospered through European contact.

Marsden was aware of Ruatara's reservations and offered to abort the mission before it was established. Ruatara cautioned that other Maori might harm Marsden and his mission and that only by setting up at Rangihoua could he protect them. A relieved Marsden failed to appreciate how this placed the mission firmly under Ruatara's control.

Ruatara was never completely convinced that allowing the missionaries to settle was a good idea. His decision probably reflected a sense of inevitability about European contact and a desire to control proceedings.

On whose terms?

A once popular belief regarding European contact with Maori in the 19th century stressed the fatal impact of this contact and the inability of Maori to withstand the technologically advanced European culture. Maori society was given little credit for its ability to adapt and manage contact on its own terms.

Ruatara's story, however, illustrates that Maori sought to ensure that interaction was on their terms as much as possible. They did not passively sit back and allow contact to wash over them. In this early period Europeans were still dependent on Maori for their physical and economic well-being. Maori actively pursued and engaged with Europeans who, they believed, could increase the personal mana of individuals or the collective interests of hapu and iwi. Interaction with Europeans was dynamic and reflected Maori cultural values and expectations.

Contact with Europeans was increasing but it was still rare; by the early 1830s there were perhaps only a couple of hundred permanent European residents in New Zealand.

Men of vice or virtue? - missionaries

Thomas Kendall

On 12 August 1816 Thomas Kendall opened the first missionary school at Rangihoua, with a roll of 33 students. Education was an important way of introducing Maori children to the scripture and European ways. This first school closed at the end of 1818 due to a lack of supplies and trade, but another opened in 1823 under the auspices of James Kemp and George Clark. This time adults were allowed to attend.

The temperamental and driven Kendall was not popular with his fellow missionaries, and he clashed with the more pragmatic and secular approach of William Hall and John King. Kendall increasingly saw himself as the leader of the mission, in part because of his friendship with the powerful Hongi Hika. The dysfunctional nature of the mission was cited as another factor in the slow conversion rate of Maori.

Victims of 'Maoriness'

A constant fear of Marsden and the Church Missionary Society (CMS) hierarchy was that single men and missionary children were vulnerable to 'Maoriness'. Men so far from the safety of civilised society could give in to temptation.

Satan surrounded the early missionaries in the form of naked Maori bodies. Marianne Williams spent her first night in New Zealand thinking of them. "The tall muscular forms of the New Zealanders flitted before my mind's eye whenever I endeavoured to sleep." Missionary women are not known to have succumbed to temptation but some of their menfolk did. They included William White, William Colenso, Charles Creed and Thomas Kendall.

James Belich, Making peoples, p.136

The musket trade: men of vice or virtue?

Of greater concern to Marsden was the trade in muskets and, in particular, the active role played by CMS employees. This was the era of the Musket Wars, and the missionaries were forced to engage in this trade by their Maori patrons. Sitting on the fence proved difficult. On several occasions Marsden had to remind his settlers not to take part in this trade. All except William Hall agreed to desist, but before long other members of the CMS community were at it again. Forced to take action, Marsden dismissed two of the settlers in 1819 and again banned the arms trade.

Marsden had suspended Kendall when he found out about his adulterous affair with a Maori woman. The latter's dismissal by the CMS in August 1822, however, resulted not from this affair but from Kendall's arms dealing. In a letter to the CMS, Kendall maintained that the settlers could not dictate to Maori what 'they must receive in payment for their property and services. They dictate to us! … It is evident that ambition and self-interest are amongst the principal causes of our security amongst them.'

Wesleyans and Catholics - missionaries

Wesleydale mission station at Kaeo

In 1823 the Wesleyan Missionary Society (Methodist) established a mission at Whangaroa, initially under the leadership of Samuel Leigh, a friend of Samuel Marsden. Leigh and his wife arrived in the Bay of Islands in January 1822 and lived with William and Dinah Hall of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) until the arrival of William White in May 1823. Leigh and White then established the Wesleydale mission at Kaeo, near Whangaroa Harbour.

The two missionary societies quickly worked out their spheres of influence, with the Wesleyans based on the east coast. Both groups confined their activities to the Far North until the early 1830s. On the eve of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, there were some 170 CMS missionaries and their families and approximately 69 Wesleyan missionaries.

Ruatara made it clear that he was the protector and patron of 'his Pakeha', the first CMS missionaries at Rangihoua. After his death in 1815 patronage of the Rangihoua station passed to his uncle, Hongi Hika, who was also patron of the CMS station established at Kerikeri in 1819. The need to secure the patronage of a local Maori leader was something that the Wesleyans failed to recognise. They were eventually forced to abandon their first mission station in 1827 when local Maori sacked it. They relocated to the Hokianga in 1828 under the leadership of William White.

The arrival of Roman Catholicism

Bishop Pompallier

There were concerns in Protestant circles when Jean Baptiste François Pompallier led a Roman Catholic mission into the Bay of Islands in 1838. Religious rivalry was matched by national rivalries as the Catholic missionaries at work in the Pacific were French.

Maori responded to this rivalry in various ways. If one tribe or hapu adopted Catholicism, a rival often adopted Anglicanism. Maori sometimes covered their bets, with different members of their community becoming Anglican while others chose Wesleyan or Catholic faiths.

Establishing the Church Missionary Society

Samuel Marsden and the Church Missionary Society

Samuel Marsden

A key figure in the establishment of the first Christian mission in New Zealand was Samuel Marsden. During his time in Australia as chaplain to the penal colony, he met many visiting Maori and developed a close association with the Rangihoua chief Ruatara.

Marsden returned to England in 1807 to secure support from the Anglican Church Missionary Society (CMS) and to recruit lay settlers to prepare the way for ordained ministers. He was convinced that 'commerce and the arts have a natural tendency to inculcate industrious and moral habits. The attention of the heathen can be gained and their vagrant habits corrected.' It was not until 1809 that he was able to return to Sydney with the first lay missionaries or 'mechanics' – William Hall, a joiner, and John King, a rope maker. Ruatara, befriended by Marsden in Britain, was also on board the ship.

Rangihoua

When news of the attack on the Boyd reached the Colonial Office, any settlement in New Zealand was vetoed. It was not until June 1814 that Hall and Thomas Kendall finally arrived in the Bay of Islands as the first missionary mechanics. Marsden arrived on 22 December at Rangihoua, Ruatara's home, where, on Christmas Day, he gave the first Christian service in New Zealand.

Marsden believed Maori were perfect candidates for conversion as they had grasped the benefits of trade, a key aspect in terms of accepting European ideals and beliefs. Trade would make them dependent on Europeans and thus open the way to salvation.

The natives of New Zealand are far advanced in Civilization, and apparently prepared for receiving the Knowledge of Christianity more than any Savage nations I have seen … The more I see of these people, the more I am pleased with … They appear like a superior Race of men.

Claudia Orange, The story of a treaty, p. 9

'Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy'

Marsden's first service

The theme of Marsden's first sermon on Christmas Day 1814 largely fell on deaf ears. Maori were clearly in a position of strength, so there seemed little reason for them to heed the new message. Some aspects of the Old Testament might have been seen as incorporating Maori values such as utu, but, as historian Gavin McLean noted, while men such as Ruatara and Hongi Hika 'listened politely and let children attend the stations' schools', they 'rejected the low-church mechanic missionaries' gloomy emphasis on an angry God' looking to damn their souls to eternal fires. Furthermore, conversion to Christianity was considered to be a blow to the mana of a chief – and to convert the people, the chiefs had to be won over.

Despite increased missionary activity during the 1820s, there were no Maori baptisms before 1830. Maori had their own beliefs and customs, and from a spiritual perspective the missionaries had little to offer. The missionaries were seen largely as another trade opportunity to be manipulated. Missionaries could do little about this as their economic and physical welfare were dependent on the goodwill and patience of Maori.