FIRST MAORI BISHOP

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 434, 16 August 1928, Page 8

FIRST MAORI BISHOP

REV. F. A. BENNETT APPOINTED •A SPIRITUAL LINK” (Frotn Our Resident Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Wednesday. It has been announced that the Rev. Frederick Augustus Bennett, of Hastings, has been offered, and Has accepted, the office of the first Bishop of Aotea-roa. He will be the first representative of the native race to become a bishop. Mr. Bennett will hold office as a suffragan-bishop to th© Bishop of Waipu, whose diocese contains a very considerable Maori population. He will havo episcopal supervision oxer members of the Maori race in the diocese of Waipu, and in the dioceses of those other bishops who wish him to exercise such supervision. It was at a conference in Rotorua in June, 1925. that a report welcoming the appointment of a Maori or pakeha bishop was presented by Maori members of the Anglican Church. Subsequently the desire was expressed by the Maoris that one of their own race bo appointed, and in April last a Bill was passed by General Synod making this possible. The new bishop’s province has been defined as “a spiritual link binding together the Maori people.” The stipend for the new bishop been set down at £SOO a year, a suitable residence, and reasonable travelling allowance are also to be provided. The Maoris intend to provide this money, and Sir Apirana Ngata. and his Ngatipouru and East Coast tribes have agreed to shoulder the financial burden for this year, in order to give the other tribes an opportunity of organising fiieir finances for next year. The A\ aipu diocesan office has received the sum of £330 from the East Coast, and £SO from Lady Carroll. With the subsidy from the Williams Memorial Trust, this gives a total of £76'» for th© eight months remaining of the financial year. In addition. Sir Apirana, on behalf of th© Ngatipouru and East Coast tribes, has guaranteed the sum of £3OO per annum for th© next five years, and th© Araxva tribe at Rotorua has also sent in legal documents guaranteeing the sum of £250 per annum for the next five years. For th© place of consecration, resolutions have been passed suggesting either Paihia, in the Bay of where the Gospel message was first preached: Tikitiki, on the East Coast; Rotorua, or To Aute College.

The appointment of the Rev. Frederick Bennett as the first Bishop of Aotear.-u should meet with the universal approval the Ala or. race. His mother was a chiefraine?»s of high rank among the Arawa tribes, and his father was a son of Dr. John Bennett, of Auckland, the first Registrar-General of New Zealand. Mr. Bennett received his education at St. Stephen’s Maori Boys’ School at Parnell, and at an early age came under the notice of Dr. Suter, Bishop of Nelson, who afterwards took him to Nelson, where he received further education at Nelson College, after reading for his theological course at Bishopdale. He was ordained deacon by Bishop Suter in 1896, and commenced his ministerial work as deacon to Archdeacon Chatterton, vicar of the parish of Ail Saints’, Nelson. He was ordained a priest in 1597. Later Mr. Bennett, at the request of Archdeacon Samuel Williams, of T* Aute, was transferred to assist the Maori Mission in the North Island, where h« performed useful service in reviving the work of the mission, which had been in abeyance owing to the Taranaki war and the" strong opposing influence of Te Whiti and Tohu. Afterwards he was sent to his home district, to take up work among the Arawa people at Rotorua, and to act as Maori superintendent of the mission work in the Bay of Plenty. In 1917, after 11 years’ strenuous work in the Rotorua district, he was removed to Hawke’s Bay. He has been editor for manv years of a Maori newspaper published monthly and read in many arts of the Dominion by the Maori peop.e. Mr. Bennett has been married twice. His first wife was a daughter of Huta Paaka, of Motueka. She died in Rotorua some years ago. and he afterwards married his present wife, who Is a daughter of Hemana Pokiha, a leading chief in the Bay of Plenty. GREAT PERSONAL CHARM APPOINTMENT SHOULD BE POPULAR BISHOP’S HIGH LINEAGE That the appointment of the Rev. Frederick Bennett as the first Maori bishop would meet with the general, approval o£ the native race was the opinion expressed this morning by Mr. George Graham, a member of Te Akarana Association. The new bishop enjoyed great popularity, was a fine speaker, and was possessed of great personal charm, said Mr. Graham. On his mother’s side he came from high lineage in the Arawa tribe, and he was well versed in th© traditions of his people. Not only was he of the opinion thyt his appointment would be very acceptable to the Maori members of the Anglican Church, but he also felt surf that he would receive a great deal of support from Maoris belonging to other creeds.

Bishop Bennett has had extensive experience in the ranks of the clergy, said Mr. Graham, and his organising experience should well fit him for his future work.