MAORI MEMORIES.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 June 1938, Page 5

MAORI MEMORIES.

CONVERTS IN 1830. (Recorded by J.H.S. for “Times-Age.”) Not for 20 years after the first arrival of the missionaries among the Maoris did these teachers realise the need of simplicity in the manner of the Master. Then, in 1830, the seeds of 1810 began to grow. Churches were filled with attentive audiences intent upon learning the secret by which Christians gained mental and spiritual peace and material prosperity. They listened with some difficulty to the grotesque phrasing which we always find in men who speak in one acquired language and think in another.

The schools were crowded with men, women and children, who taught each other the magic arts of our “Three R’s.” The Sabbath became tapu, numbers were baptised, and were thus glorified by their fellows. Bibles became scarce, and rose rapidly in exchange value. In the minds of the clergy, exultation replaced despondency. The recital of the liturgy in the Maori dialect was singularly beautiful and impressive when chanted in unison by a thousand musical voices. The enthusiasm of the new converts and the novelty of the arts of tuhituhi (writing) and ta (printing) caused many to publish the most absurd stories of miraculous healings and happenings, 1 which were subsequently found to be untrue. These, being interlarded with pious phrases and scriptural quotations, gave scope for the Maori love of wit and ridicule, showing that every good cause is harmed by its injudicious advocates more than by its bitter opponents. In 1838 there were 4000 Maori converts, including less than 200 communicants, not a great recompense for nearly 30 years of self-denial, suffering and sacrifice by the clergy and their families, to say nothing of those people in England, mostly poor, who found the cost, £200,000.