A GREAT MISSIONARY

Waikato Times, Volume 122, Issue 20498, 14 May 1938, Page 6

A GREAT MISSIONARY

During the week the centenary of the death of Samuel Marsden was commemorated, and rightly so for he was the outstanding figure in the very early history of the Dominion. He first landed in New Zealand in 1814 —prior to the conclusion of the great Napoleonic wars, for Waterloo came in 1815 —and he had a sincere liking for this country and its Native people. The hold he won on the affections of the Maoris was instanced in many ways. On his last visit it was obvious to them that he would never come again. The long life of arduous work was drawing to a close. He met an assembly of the Maoris at a pa, probably somewhere on the Coromandel peninsula, and as the party had to journey on his companions urged him to depart. But a Maori chief, realising the position, asked that he might stay with them a little longer, for, said the chief “we shall never look upon his face again.” But so great was his attachment to this country that even when lying ill he wrote to say that he hoped once more to visit New Zealand. His coming had always been an inspiration to the missionaries, and his influence was always for peace among the tribes. The man seemed to knotv neither fear nor physical weariness. His journeyings under the roughest conditions would have broken a weaker man, but Marsden disregarded hardships and allowed nothing to interfere with the great work to which he had set his hand. Among those who served this country in its earliest davs he will ever hold an honoured place, for he was a great servant of his church and of the people among whom he came as a gracious influence.