THE MISSIONARY v. COLONISATION.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 5, Issue 273, 2 June 1865, Page 3

THE MISSIONARY v. COLONISATION.

From the N. Z. Herald. We recollect how, in our more youthful days, we attended a missionary meeting at one of the minor towns in England, at which a great missionary star, just arrived from New Zealand and other islands in the Pacific, was the grand attraction. The rev. gentle* man’s fervid eloquence made a deep impression on the audience—touching was the narration of hardships and self-denial which he, in common with his brother-laborers in the vineyards, had passed through; inspiriting were the accounts of converted heathens, won over to the truth fry the examples of self-denial and Christian charity working so disinterestedly for them in their midst. How , touchingly he spoke of the single-hearted men who had devoted themselves to the *• missionary cause—-how they had given themselves up to the duties of their calling, spending their lives in hardship and poverty, travelling from village to village like the Apostles of old, preaching the gospel, taking with them neither purse nor scrip, but trusting for all things to him whose work they were performing. Truly, we thought, if any men , deserved the respect and support of their fellows it was these. So thought the audience, for when the plate came round —as plates always do on such occasions—each vied with the other in pouring in his contribution for the support of men who took no heed for themselves, but gave up houses and lands and whatsoever they had, for the cause, counting it as gain. Some twenty years have passed since that day, and the men of whom we then heard we now see—not through the medium of the speaker on a missionary platform at a distance of 16,000 miles from the scene of their labor—but on the spot itself and in the .presence of those in the civilisation of whom we were once led to suppose they had been so zealously employed. We look around for the work of some thirty years, but how different upon the spot to that pictured to us from the missionary platform of twenty years ago. Before us now are the remnants of broken tribes, on whom has been impressed the form but not the spirit ofi Christianity,; who mingle prayer and murder almost in the same act; who, with the outward show of some of the forms of the new religion, retain all the. love for the rituals of their tohangas and the barbarous customs of a past generation. We find them as prejudiced as ever against civilised habits and customs, filthy in mind and person, living in a state of . communism from which their teachers have made no effort to elevate them—and more than all this, we find the New Zealand native forsaking even the forms of Christianity, from a contempt for and distrust of its teachers, .and from a belief, which the actions of the latter have confirmed, that self and not religion was at the root of the last thirty years missionary teachings among them. To so great a pitch of revulsion against the missionary has the native mind been brought, that a layman can, at the present moment, travel unharmed in parts of New Zealand where a missionary would meet the same fate as did the late lamented Mr Volkner. And we would here observe that while we feel it our duty to condemn in no sparing terms a very large proportion of, the missionary body, we are also bound to say that there are men among them who, like the late worthy minister alluded to above, have won a very different character by their upright conduct, simplicity of life, and zeal in the good work before them. .Even in the Church Mission itself such men may be found who, opposed to what is called the Bishop’s party, have labored conscientiously in missionary cause; but we regret to add, these gentlemen form the exception to the rule. It is not our intent here, nor should we have space in a single article to point out all the shortcomings, the selfishness, the uncivilising tendency of the teaching of a large majority of the missionary body. We have a specie! instance before us at tfre present time, in which a powerful section of that body is exemplifying the justice of the inflictions of those hard but merited castigations which the colonial press, here and in Australia, has found it its duty to deal out to New Zealand missionaries. ■ The Church Missionary Society is the owner of large tracts of fertile land in various parts of the Northern Island, and one of these is TePapa* block at Taurango. This block consists of 1500 acres,: and is the oidy suitable site for a township at Tauranga.

One of the greatest obstacles to the settlement of Tauranga and the Ist Waikato Regiment, is the want of this block which lies upon the harbor. The Government have Applied to the Church Mission, offering other lands in exchange for it, but the Mis” sion Society. demands £20,000 cash for it, and will part with it on no other terms. It will be instructive, to the admirers at home of the-self-denying, missionary in New Zesland to " learn ■ what price the Church Mission gave' for t his land to the native owners. Accordingly, if- ,we turn to the Gazette of the year 1842, we shall find the following reference'to the purchase of this piece of land, for which tfre Society now asks a sum of £20,000.' Case No. 444 (d). — T. Chjjpman, of Tauranga on behalf of the Church. Missionary Society, claim-’ ant. 1000, acres, more or less, situate at Tauraiiga, extending from Tanmatakakawai to Herikura, thence to Kapuare, along the rirer to Warepapa, Papeka, Okekuroa, Taikau, Waiareki, Tuki o te Waiheki, Waiparapara, Omarori, Opohue, Tahataharoa, Inetaweta, Waipuna, Heremaro, Rangiora, Tarangepo, Ora, Ohine, Tare; thence crossing the land to Pukahihahina j thence to Pokorau, Pukehouhou, Ware d te Ao ; thence along the ridge to the embankment of the Pa; thence to Ririeti, Taupairua, Maeanui, Waihirere Puharakeke, going on to Tanmatakakawai. Alleged to have been purchased from the native chiefs Taharangi, Rerefaewenua, and twentythree others, by claimant, on the 30th March, 1839. Consideration given to the natives—One heifer and a quantity of merchandise, value not stated. Nature of conveyance—Deed in favor of claimant. To he Continued.