A FAMOUS MISSIONARY.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 October 1918, Page 8

A FAMOUS MISSIONARY.

KEV. JOHN WHITELEY. 'A correspondent writes to the Auckland Star on Friday: "Your reference in Wednesday's issue to Mrs John McElwain, a daughter of the famous missionary, Rev. J. Whiteley, would he read with a good deal of interest by the elder portion of the citizens, and no doubt Mrs MeElwain is, as stated, one of the oldest residents in the North [lsland at the present time. The Rev. I John Whiteley was, without doubt, one of the most remarkable missionaries who ever labored in this Dominion. He used to wear his hair rather long, as was the fashion with many in the early and middle days of the last century; he was clean shaved and altogether a man of striking appearance. He knew no fear, and labored as few men labored to bring about goodwill not only between the natives themselves, but also between the pakeha and Maori. When we realise that after he left Hokianga in 1838 he labored in Kawhia for sixteen years, we can realise to a small extent the great dangers and troubles he came through. While he was there he wandered through much unknown country, and got a knowledge of the native customs that made many of the early settlers remark that he had almost become a Maori himself; and it was this fact that influenced him in going to Taranaki in 1856 to see what he could do to bring the turbulent tribes together. He succeeded wonderfully, and it was only when the natives quarrelled with the Government that his great useful life went out by the shot from a native's gun because he refused to go back when ordered to do so by some natives who had formerly been slaves at Kawhia, and who did not fully appraise their new-found liberty at its proper worth, and recognise their responsibility to one who had proved for 40 years to be one of their best friends. Mr Whiteley had gone out to the White Cliffs to visit the military settlers, and to hold a service at the redoubt; for, after the Maoris, the military settlers had a very warm corner in their heart. On the following Sunday he was due to meet the military settlers at the blockhouse at Okato, an outpost sixteen miles on the opposite side to New Plymouth to Waihi, or the White Cliffs, as the place was then called, and there baptise two of the settlers' children—people from Scotland who belonged to the Presbyterian Church, but this made no difference to Mr Whiteley. If he could help an outblock pioneer it gladdened his big, generous heart, for he was a man who, it is said, probably never had a mean, or narrow thought in his mind. It is interesting to note that one of the children to be baptised was the youngest sister of Mrs Baskiville, of Clarence street, Devonport, whose father wan one of the pioneers of Okato, and who for a considerable time occupied a seat in the old Privincial Council in Taranaki; and the other was Mr W. K. Howitt, of Stanley Bay, who was only three weeks old at the time. Mr Whiteley's death was considered by the military settlers a very sad calamity for them all, and from every point of view his loss was sadly deplored, and the whole province for many decades never really recovered the 'blow, for many of the outsettlers really owed their lives to his personal influence among the turbulent natives. The Whiteley Memorial Church in New Plymouth is a small monument to his revered memory. The story of his great life will yet be told by many unborn thousands in. the Taranaki district and all over the Dominion.