THE CHURCH IN NEW ZEALAND

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVI, Issue 25, 25 June 1908, Page 12

THE CHURCH IN NEW ZEALAND

MEMOIRS OF THE EARLY DAYS

(Contributed.) WANGANUI. The beginning of European settlement at Wang&nui dates back to the early ' forties ', and was brought about mainly by the inability of the New Zealand Company to fulfil its engagements with those who had purchased land orders in England. The small extent —comparatively speaking— of available suitable territory at Wellington proved insufficient to meet all the Company's liabilities ; lands therefore were offered at Wanganui to those who were too late to obtain them at Wellington. A few, finding their way thither, were so impressed with the nature of the country, thait they accepted the Company's offer, and so settlement was commenced. Colonel Wakefield formed so high an opinion of the locality that he laid out the site of a town there, and gave it the name of Petre, after the Hon. Mr. Petre, another director of this colonising company. This name was subsequently dropped and the present one substituted. During the early settlement of Wanganui, access thereto by land was along the sea coast from Wellington. And some startling adventures are related by Wakefield of his journeyings to and fro. In sea transit, somewhat primitive vessels were employed in the service, numbers of which were wrecked at the b"ar entrance to the river and along the coast. Wakefield describes in his ' Adventures ' a trip thus made : lOn the evening of the sth March, I sailed again for Wanganui in the " Sandfly," a schooner of ten' tons, which had been built on the banks of the Hutt, and which I had chartered- for three months for the Wanganui trade. I beat out against a, fresh southerly breeze . which fell calm when we had reached Sinclair Head..' After describing a visit to various settlements

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across the Strait, he continues :-' I have calculated our course for Wanganui and steered straight for the mouth of the river. The next morning at break of day we were off the river's mouth, from which a cloud of mist was drifting out before the cold morning land breeze. I he sea was q.uite smooth, so I beat up into the fog till the water shoaled and then anchored in nine feet until I could make out the passage over the bar The peaks o longariro glowing with the sunshine towered over the top of the mist as we advanced, and Mount Egmonl s snowy cap peeped out of the clouds to the westward as the sun spread its light that way ' For the information of present-day readers, I give hereunder extracts from an excellent and comprehensive article on the early Catholic missionary effort at Wanganui and up-river Native settlements,' contributed to fn <i n* 11 \ Oclober > 18 99, by a ' Clerical Visitor' : Father Bernard, S.M., was the first Catholic missionary who preached by the Wanganui— far down its course His visit was a flying one, but he instructed and baptized four Maoris, and found the field so promising that he induced Father Lampila, S.M., to found a mission on the river in 1832. Father Bernard, after being sent as a missionary to New Caledonia, was drowned whilst attempting, in a heavy sea, to reach a dying Christian. Father Lampila took up his quarters in the Maori village of Kaiwaiki, which is situated on the left bank of the rhcr, about ten miles from Waneunui His aim was to

Civilise as well as to Christianise the Natnes— a wise policy pursued with marked success by the other French missionaries in the Colony and notably at Olaiii by Father Comte, whose name is still held m \eueration by the Maoris of all the districts aiobiid. In pursuance of this plan of operations, Pather Lampila-with the aid of a lay Brother and his Maori coin eits— built and equipped a flour mill at Kaiwdiki, and introduced other improvements in the condition of the local tribe that attracted the notice of a chief of Kawaeroa (about a mile below Jerusalem) who united the white Father to settle among the people. The pious missionary took advantage ot this newdoor that opened to his zeal. He visited Kawaeroa and other places up and down the river, built other flour mills, introduced the cultivation of wheat, planted in suitable places along the banks gardens of plums, pears, apples, ({unices, and vines, which are still to be seen as jou go up and down the river, and which, despite neglect and Lick of cultivation, still produce crops of fruit in which the Maoris do a considerable trade. Father Lampila had been preceded in his missionary effoits by a Piotestant clergyman, a Rev. Mr. Taylor, who had made comeits along the river. The good Father, however, won a great number of the Protestants as well as the pagan Maoris, and in a short time had instructed and baptised about a thousand converts. He built a small church on the river bank at Kawaeroa. This was soon too small for his fast-growing congregation, and he erected another, and larger one on higher ground. This in turn proved qi.ite inadequate for the needs of his wonderfully successful missionary work, lie therefore proceeded with the erection of a large church, furnished with aisles, and handsomely ornamented throughout with Maori can ings and paintings. The moment of the greatest success of the zealous missionary's labors, however, was close to the hour of its fall". The fierce wars of the ' sixties ' broke out. They aroused a fury of racial passion against which the fickle heart of the Maori was not proof. The fanatic llau-haus invaded Father Lampila's mission. The famous battle of Moutoa was ftfught on the island of the name a few miles down the river from Jerusalem. The Hau-haus were driven off by the Christian Maoris, and a grim old warrior— still a member of the true fold— showed us in his whare the mere with which he sliced off, in single combat, the top of the skull of the Hau-hau leatder. This victory saved Wanganui and the lower reaches of the river from the Hau-hau invasion from that quarter. The Hau-haus were subsequently driven from the pah in which they had entrenched themselves on a spot near where the convent now stands. This is locally known as the battle of Houtahi. These were, however, . Pyrrhic Victories for the faith in and about Jerusalem. Father Lampila's best and most influential catechists and converts were among the dead at Moutoa and Houtahi. This was, considering the character and work of the catechists, a great blow to the mission. It was followed by another. Government induced the Maoris of the district to invade Taupo, Tauranga, etc. They did feoort service there— captured the Hau-hau chief, Akaria (a 1 feat which the whites failed to perform), and received

(it is said) £500 for his head. One of Akaria's capJf'V? NTV 11 * ha J? °!d! d age at Jerusalem. The loss of his catechists, the demoralisation of the long-con-tinued wars, and tribal and racial hate soon destroyed the best results of Father Lampila ' S mission.. Some clung with touching fidelity to the faith. The best of them continued in later years to bring their children for Baptism to Wanganui, but others were carried away into indifference or hostility by the passions of the time. Father Lampila took charge of Wanganui, and the fine new church at Kawaeroa was destroyed Among the other zealous French missionaries who labored in that part of the Colony during those troubled times were father Pertuis, S.M., Father Rollin, S.M Pather Pezant, S.M., and Father Sauzeau, S.M. When the troubled times were over, and the lapse of time had begun to mellow the bitter memories of the war Pather Pertuis returned to Jerusalem. He also spent a few months there in (I think) 1879, gave instructions, and baptised. Father Soulas paid a six-weeks' visit to Jerusalem in 1883, baptised 52 children and adults, celebrated several marriages, and found a (harvest of souls ready for the reaper. The Maoris petitioned the Bishop to leave him in Jerusalem. Their request was granted, and in June, 1883, Father Soulas left Hawke's Bay, took up his abode permanently in the shattered mission, and set to work to repair the evils of the past, with a real and energy which God has blessed with an abundant measure of success.

(To be continued.)