SAMUEL MARSDEN

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 699, 27 November 1933, Page 2

SAMUEL MARSDEN

LABOURS FOjR N.Z. VALUE QF WORK HAS NOT. BEEN SUITABLY ! RECOGNISED. ADDRESS BY BISHOP BENNETT. Hastings, Wednesday. Regret that the usefulness aiid heroism of the work done in the early days of New Zealand by Sarnuel Marsden had not been fittingly recognised was expressed by Biishop Bennett in an address at to-day's Ro.tary Club . luncheon. The bishop painted a portrait of Marsden as one of the great men of his age and of all time, and as a man who had proved in his work what may be achieved by faith and by gentleness and peace in the face of enemies. The bishop began by- saying that he had recently h'eard a preacher express a wish that the world might be allowed to see what would happen if one nation voluntarily disarmed itself completely. If any nation would SO' far take its faith and its courage in its hands, the preacher said, the difficulties facing the estalblishment of universal peace would undouhtedly be solved. That cr.eed had been exemplified by the life and labours of SamUel Marsden. Marsden — Man of Peace. "New Zealand had not given proper recognition to the wonderful work that Marsden had done, the bishop said — to his wonderfully heroic labours, to the influence for good that he had exercised over the Maori race. Though he paid seven visits to New Zealand, he never once went armed. He went all over the colony, and yet never once was molested. He went into the armed camps and pas of the Maoris and never suffered harm. "It 1 shows," said the bishop, "what faith can do." Literally he had carried his life in his hands. 'Luther, "Kiiox, Cranmer, were men who had been raised to do special work in the world, said Elder, a biographer of Marsden, and Marsden was worthy to be placed immediately 'with those great men. For three ' years no one would venture to bring ' him from' New South Wiales to New Zealand, particularly of the massacre of the Boyd, which followed upon the ill-treatment of a Maori sailor by a ship's captain. Misunderstandings igrew as a result of the incident, and lasted for a considerable time. Eventually some of the whaling sailors resolved to make an at'tack on the Maoris responsible for the Boyd incident, but the pakeh'as mistook the identity of the Maoris concerned, and practically exterminated every meraber of several Maori families. Courageous Voyage. Yet Samuel Marsden chose these times and circumstances to come to New Zealand and work among the Natives, and to move unarmed among them. He came on the Active, a vessel of 100 tons, with a party of 35 people, including- Eunopean tradesmen, women, children, Tahitians, Maoris, and even a runaway convict. Also he had several horses, cows, sheep and poultry — i"a regular Noah's Ark," said the bishop. It was really a desperate journey in such a ship. Wlhen he arrived he went to a place where he found two parties fighting, and in the same community he found escaped convicts and people of the ! lowest type's. All th'e way through he spoke of the difficulties that he had among the European people of the degraded sort, and it was remarkable how many escaped convicts ther were from New South W'ales. Though the difficulties were great, Marsden found that at each visit to New Zealand the Maoris were making progress. He induced the Maoris to sow wheat and potatoes, and taught them that whe,at could /be ground into flour. The Maoris' achievcments in agriculture, especially in view df the crudity of their implements (one of which the bishop showed his audience) was marvellous, and yet they planted areas as large as a hundred acres in wheat, or forty acres in potatoes, and so on. They would do their digging and planting to the rhythm of incantations. A Prophecy Come True. The bishop concluded by quoting from a passage written in Marsden's diary in. 1837 by the great man's daughter Martha, and describing the remarkably admirahle and lovable ' traits of the Maori character. The : ■ passage dealt also with the Maoris' devotion to the Gospels, and to their ' ardour towards the Christian faith', • ending with Marsden's prophetic statement that if the Maoris were left to carry on Christian work for fthemselves, they would solve their owni difficulties. "His prophecy has come true," concluded the bishop, "a ■hundred years afterwards."