The Maori Church at Mangere

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 68, 11 June 1927, Page 19 (Supplement)

The Maori Church at Mangere

IN the days of long ago, before the war against the Pakeha, the Maoris of Mangere carried, one by one, the rough stones from the mount, and raised a Church wherein to worship the white man’s God.

(Written for THE SUN by FRANCIS YEW A ft is nDt only a Maori church now. it is a place of worship for both races, 80 established by Act of Parliament. But there is a long road of history up to this point. Let us walk it. In the days before the Maori War, *hen peace dwelt in the heart of the native for the Pakeha, there came to Mangere a missionary, the Reverend Robert Burrows, preaching the Word °I the God of the White Man. Many Were there who believed, and they said: “Why, then, cannot we have a church, the same as have the Pakeha. to worship this great God?** The missionary took a piece of chalk. “Come, then, with me,” he commanded, and he walked with his converts to The Mount, and there he Marked with chalk all those pieces of stone he thought would be suitable for a church. The Maoi •is, men, women an d children, placed them in baskets °f flax and carried them to the site of the house of worship. Then the missionary drew a plan frbni this plan the Maoris built | eir church of stone, making mortar r °m the sand upon the seashore and l^e hffle obtained by burning shells And the church was blessed in the name of the white man’s God, and the ‘laoris entered, worshipped and gave thanks.

peace smiled upon the land all well, but when came war, off went 1 e greeter number of the Maoris, bolt- * pas t Otahuhu to join the rebels !**• Waikato. It was bad for those ° t°°k arms against the red-coated fn ai f rs of the Great White Queen, those who died not in battle had an ri v an<is ma(ie forfeit to the Crown, they came no more back to smiling n &ere, and to the church that their

toil had raised. These were evil days for the church now known as St. James’s, Mangere. There was no bridge across to Onehunga, though a ferry was to ply between the two shores later, and the only way to reach Mangere was by travelling all the way round, via Ota huhu. No Europeans lived there, and the only worshippers who remained were the handful of loyal Maoris whose descendants live there abouts to-day. And when at last came the bridge and the Europeans, the Maoris, builders and rightful owners of the church, seemed to shrink from their old place of worship until the whites crowded them

out. It must have seemed singular to the Maori mind. But the Maoris did not renounce all rights to the church by any means, though their attendance flagged, and in this connection there is an amusing story. Next to the church was a piece of glebe land and the pakehas grazed their cattle there j paying agistment fees to an old i Maori woman. The other Maoris

thought this money should be shared. Not so the old lady—and not a penny of what she got would she hand over. Fierce disputes raged around this and other points, but in the end adjustments were made. When the Europeans took charge they improved the little church. Under the direction of the Rev. Kirkbride, they reshingled and improved the roof and they put in a good wooden floor. Three years ago the Rev. P. S. Smallfield, who had done much to bring to the church the descendants of the Maoris who built it, retired from the charge, after having seen passed through Parliament as a clause in the “Washing-up Bill” an enactment which

vested the church and lands of St. James’s, Mangere, in four trustees, two Pakeha and two Maori, with an iu dependent chairman, the church to be conducted for the benefit of both races. The present vicar of St James’s is the Rev. A. V. Venables. It is a romantic tale told by the stones chalked on Mt. Mangere nv a missionary eighty years ago for the building of a Maori church.