History of the New Zealand Church Missionary Society
In 1892 the New Zealand Church Missionary Association was formed in a Nelson church hall and the first New Zealand missionaries were sent to Japan soon after. Funding from the UK stopped completely in 1903. The association subsequent changed its name to the New Zealand Church Missionary Society (NZCMS) in 1916.
In 2000 the NZCMS amalgamated with the South American Missionary Society of New Zealand. The NZCMS works closely with the Anglican Missions Board, concentrating on mission work outside New Zealand and has been involved in Pakistan, East Africa, the Middle East, Cambodia, South Asia, South America and East Asia. It is part of the CMS Mission Network and the global network of mission agencies Faith2Share.
Founding of the CMS mission in New Zealand
The CMS founded its first mission at Rangihoua in the Bay of Islands in 1814 and over the next decade established farms and schools in the area. Thomas Kendall and William Hall were directed, in 1814, to proceed to the Bay of Islands in the Active, a vessel purchased by Samuel Marsden for the service of the mission, there to reopen communication with Ruatara, a local chief; an earlier attempt to establish a mission in the Bay of Islands had been delayed as a consequence of the Boyd Massacre in Whangaroa harbour in 1809. Kendall and Hall left New South Wales on 14 March 1814 on the Active for an exploratory journey to the Bay of Islands. They met rangatira (chiefs) of the Ngāpuhi including Ruatara and his uncle Hongi Hika; Hongi Hika and Ruatara travelled with Kendall when he returned to Australia on 22 August 1814. Kendall, Hall and John King, returned to the Bay of Islands on the Active on 22 December 1814 to establish the mission.
In 1819 Marsden made his second visit to New Zealand, bringing with him John Gare Butler as well as Francis Hall and James Kemp as lay settlers. William Puckey, a boatbuilder and carpenter, came with his family, including William Gilbert Puckey to assist in putting up the buildings at Kerikeri. The protector of the Kerikeri mission station was the chief Ruatara and following his death in 1815, Hongi Hika accepted responsibility for the protection of the mission.
Butler and Kemp took charge of the Kerikeri mission, but proved unable to develop a harmonious working relationship. In 1820, Marsden paid his third visit, on HMS Dromedary, bringing James Shepherd. In 1823, Marsden paid his fourth visit, bringing with him Henry Williams and his wife Marianne as well as Richard Davis, a farmer, and William Fairburn, a carpenter, and their respective families. In 1826 Henry's brother William and his wife Jane joined the CMS mission and settled at Paihia in the Bay of Islands. The immediate protector of the Paihia mission was the chief, Te Koki, and his wife Ana Hamu, a woman of high rank and the owner of the land occupied by the mission.
Work of the CMS mission in New Zealand
The CMS Mission House in Kerikeri, completed in 1822, ranks as New Zealand's oldest surviving building. In the early days the CMS funded its activities largely through trade; Thomas Kendall, like many secular settlers, sold weapons to Māori people, fuelling the Musket Wars (1807–1842). Kendall brought Māori war-chief Hongi Hika to London in 1820, creating a minor sensation. When Henry Williams became the leader of the missionaries at Paihia in 1823, he immediately stopped the trade in muskets. The mission schools provided religious education as well as English language practical skills. The first baptism occurred in 1825. However the evangelical mission of the CMS achieved success only after the baptism of Ngāpuhi chief Rawiri Taiwhanga in 1830. His example influenced others to be baptised into the Christian faith. In 1833 a mission was established at Kaitaia in Northland as well as a mission at Puriri in the Thames area. In 1835 missions were established in the Bay of Plenty and Waikato regions at Tauranga, Matamata and Rotorua. The possessions of these missions were plundered during an inter-tribal war between the Māori people of Matamata, Rotorua and the Waikato river. In 1836 a mission was open in the Manukau Harbour region.
Henry Williams commissioned a ship to provision the Paihia Mission and to visit the more remote areas of New Zealand to bring the Gospel to the Māori people. The Herald, a 55-ton schooner, was built by the CMS missionaries: William Hall, William Puckey (Senior) and William Gilbert Puckey. Gilbert Mair, who became the sailing master of the Herald, and Māori carpenters also work on the construction of the Herald.
The Herald was launched on 24 January 1826. The Herald went to Sydney, Australia four times; the Bay of Plenty four times; and sailed three times around the North Cape, to Hokianga Harbour on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand. On 6 May 1828 the Herald was wreaked on the Hokianga bar.
By 1840 William Williams had translated much of the New Testament into the Māori language. After 1844 Robert Maunsell worked with William Williams on the translation of the Bible, with Maunsell working on the translation of the Old Testament, portions of which were published in 1840. In 1845 the Book of Common Prayer was translated by a committee comprising William Williams, Robert Maunsell, James Hamlin and William Puckey. The full translation of the Bible into the Māori language was completed in 1857.
Influence of the CMS in New Zealand
The concern about the European impact on New Zealand, particularly lawlessness among Europeans and a breakdown in the traditional restraints in Māori society, meant that the CMS welcomed the United Kingdom's annexation of New Zealand in January 1840, with Henry Williams assisting Captain William Hobson by translating the document that became known as the Treaty of Waitangi. Henry Williams was also involved in explaining the treaty to Māori leaders, firstly at the meetings with William Hobson at Waitangi, but also later when he travelled to Port Nicholson, Queen Charlotte's Sound, Kapiti, Waikanae and Otaki to persuade Māori chiefs to sign the treaty. His involvement in these debates brought him "into the increasingly uncomfortable role of mediating between two races".
The CMS reached the height of its influence in New Zealand in the 1840s and 1850s. Missions covered almost the whole of the North Island and many Māori were baptised. Māori converts engaged in missionary work. Two were killed in 1847 when they travelled onto the land of hostile Māori. However the murderers later welcomed a Christian missionary to reside in their land.
The CMS missionaries held the low church beliefs that were common among the 19th century Evangelical members of the Anglican Church. There was often a wide gap between the views of the CMS missionaries and the bishops and other clergy of the high church traditions of the Oxford Movement (also known as the Tractarians) as to the proper form of ritual and religious practice. Bishop Selwyn, who was appointed the first Anglican Bishop of New Zealand in 1841, held the high church (Tracharian) views although he appointed CMS missionaries to positions in the Anglican Church of New Zealand including appointing William Williams as the first Bishop of Waiapu.
Early CMS personnel in New Zealand
The CMS in London began to reduce its commitment to the CMS mission in New Zealand in 1854 and only a handful of new missionaries arrived after that year. Members of the mission who arrived before 1854 included:
The Reverend Benjamin Y. Ashwell, arrived in 1835, and worked from 1839 at Otawhao in the valley of the Waipa river; and remained at that mission into the 1840s. In 1846 he was located at the Kaitotehe Mission near Mount Taupiri. Died 29 September 1883.The Rev. Charles Baker and his wife Hannah, arrived on 9 June 1828, and worked at Kerikeri; then at Kororareka (Russell); and they were at the mission station at Uawa (Tolaga Bay) from 1843 to 1851. Died 6 February 1875.The Rev. Ralph Barker arrived in November 1850 and was appointed to East Cape; where he remained until 1852. He ended his connection with the CMS in 1854.The Rev. Alfred Nesbit Brown, arrived in October 1829. He was put in charge of the school at Paihia. In 1835 he opened a mission station at Matamata and from 1838 he was working at the mission station at Tauranga. In 1843 he was ordained as Archdeacon of Tauranga. In 1846 he was assisted by the Rev. C.P. Davies. Died 7 September 1884.The Rev. Robert Burrows, arrived in 1840; He was at Kororareka (Russell) in 1845, and was at Te Waimate mission until 1854. Died 22 August 1897.The Rev. John Gare Butler, arrived 12 August 1819 and ceased working for the CMS in 1822.The Rev. Thomas Chapman arrived in 1830 and established a mission station at Rotorua in 1835; and remained at that mission into the 1840s. Died 22 December 1876.The Rev. George Clarke, his wife Martha and family (including their son George Clarke jr.) arrived on 4 April 1824. George was trained as a blacksmith and was appointed to Kerikeri, then he worked at Te Waimate mission from 1830 to 1840. Their son Edward Bloomfield Clarke joined the CMS in 1849.The Rev. William Colenso arrived in December 1834 to work as a printer and missionary. William and Elizabeth Colenso worked at the Waitangi Mission at Ahuriri, Napier from 1844, until William Colenso was dismissed from the CMS in 1852.Elizabeth Fairburn Colenso was the daughter of Sarah Tuckwell and her husband, William Fairburn. She was born at the CMS mission at Kerikeri. She became fluent in Māori. She married William Colenso on 27 April 1843. Following his ordination as a deacon in September 1844, they established the Waitangi mission station at Ahuriri in Hawke's Bay. She became aware that William was the father of Wiremu, a child born in 1850 to Ripeka Meretene, who was a member of the household. Only after William’s adultery became public knowledge in 1853 did they separate. Elizabeth continued to work for the CMS as a teacher at the Kaitotehe Mission near Mount Taupiri in the Waikato. In the 1860’s she work on the manuscripts of the translation of the Bible into a Māori, including correcting proofs and suggesting alternative translations.The Rev. Richard Davis, a farmer, arrived on 7 May 1824. He established a garden at the Paihia Mission. In 1830 he established a farm at Te Waimate mission and remained there until 1845. He was ordained on Trinity Sunday 1843. He was appointed to Kaikohe from 1845 to 1854, then he returned to Te Waimate Mission from 1854 to 1863. Died 28 May 1863.The Rev. Christopher Pearson Davies, a surgeon, studied for his ordination in 1844 at St John’s College, when it was located at Te Waimate. He married Marianne Williams, a daughter of Henry Williams and his wife Marianne. In 1846 Davies was at the Tuaranga Mission, and after that until 1856 he was at the Opotiki Mission. Died 2/3 March 1861.The Rev. William Charles Dudley and his wife Elizabeth arrived in 1942. Dudley worked at Tauranga, Wairoa and the Kaweranga Mission on the Hauraki Gulf in 1846. His connection with the CMS ended on 28 October 1854.William Thomas Fairburn, a carpenter, and his wife Sarah accompanied Marsden on his second visit to New Zealand in 1819. In 1823 he was in Sydney and returned on board the Brampton with Henry & Marianne Williams; In October 1833 he went with John A. Wilson, James Preece and John Morgan to establish a mission station at Puriri in the Thames area. In 1840 he was at the mission station at Maraetai, and was at the Puriri Mission in 1842. His daughter Elizabeth married William Colenso.The Rev. Thomas Samuel Grace replaced William Williams at Tūranga in Poverty Bay from 1850-1853, during the latter’s trip to Britain. He established a mission station at Taupo. In 1865 the Pai Mārire ransacked his house. Grace, who had fled from Taupo to Opotiki, was caught up in the Völkner Incident. In the 1870s he rebuilt the Taupo Mission. Died 30 April 1879.The Rev. Octavius Hadfield, arrived in December 1838 and was ordained a minister at Paihia on 6 January 1839, and in November of that year he travelled to Otaki with Henry Williams, where he established a mission station. He was appointed as Archdeacon of Kapiti, then Bishop of Wellington from 1870 to 1893 and Primate of New Zealand from 1890 to 1893. Died 11 December 1904.Francis Hall, arrived 12 August 1819 and remained until 1823.William Hall, a ship-carpenter, arrived on the Active on 22 December 1814. He drew the plans for the Herald and worked on the construction of that vessel. He left for Sydney in ill-health in 1824 on the maiden voyage of the Herald.The Rev. James Hamlin, flax dresser and weaver, and his wife Elizabeth arrived in March 1826 with William and Jane Williams. He served as a catechist at Te Waimate mission and later at the mission stations at Kerikeri and Mangapouri, (near Te Awamutu on the northern bank of the Puniu River, near where it joins the Waipa River). In 1836 he became the head of the Manukau Mission. In 1844 his son Ebenezer Hamlin was born and Hamlin was ordained a deacon and sent to Wairoa, Hawkes Bay; in 1863 he was ordained a minister. Died 15 November 1865.John King, arrived on the Active on 22 December 1814. He was a shoemaker by trade; with the CMS he was employed as a catechist, teaching the Māori at Rangihoua. King was also engaged in work to effect improvement in the dressing of flax (harakeke in Māori). He was still with the CMS in 1845.James Kemp, arrived 12 August 1819. Blacksmith, keeper of the mission stores and catechist, and school teacher at Kerikeri.The Rev. Thomas Kendall arrived on the Active on 22 December 1814. He was dismissed from the CMS in August 1822.George Adam Kissling and Margaret Kissling worked at the Kawakawa (Hicks Bay) Mission from 1843 to 1846. His ill-health forced a move to Auckland. In 1846 the Kisslings established a Māori girls boarding school in Kohimarama. George Kissling died 9 November 1865. Margaret Kissling died on 20 September 1891.The Rev. Thomas Lanfear arrived at the Puriri Mission in December 1849 and remained until January 1865.The Rev. Samuel Marsden Knight (a nephew of Samuel Marsden) arrived in June 1835.The Rev. John Mason, who arrived in 1840 and established a mission station at Whanganui. The Revd Mason drowned on 5 January 1843 while crossing the Turakina River.The Rev. Joseph Matthews arrived in 1832. He and William Gilbert Puckey established a mission station at Kaitaia on 3 January 1833. Matthews remained in Kaitaia until he retired. Died 3 November 1895.Richard Matthews was the brother of Joseph Matthews. Richard Matthews arrived in 1835. He married Johanna Blomfield, sister of Mrs Martha Blomfield Clarke who was the wife of George Clarke. He served the CMS in Kaitaia, then was transferred to the Whanganui Mission.The Rev. Robert Maunsell, arrived in 1835 and he was sent to establish a mission station in the Manukau Harbour at Port Waikato in the same year. He continued at the Manukau Mission into the 1840s. He later worked with William Williams on the translation of the Bible. Maunsell worked on the Old Testament, portions of which were published in 1840 with the full translation completed in 1857. He became a leading scholar of the Māori language. His son George joined the CMS. He died 19 April 1894.The Rev. John Morgan, arrived in 1833, and in December of that year he worked with James Preece to establish the Puriri Mission at Thames. He moved to the Mangapouri Mission in May 1835. On 26 August 1835 he married Maria Mathew Coldham, the sister of Marianne Williams. In 1842 he moved to the mission station at Otawhao. In 1846 Morgan helped to construct 3 water mills that were built by the local Māori to mill wheat for sale. Died 8 June 1865.Henry Pilley, catechist and carpenter, arrived in February 1834 and worked in the Rotorua district.James Preece, catechist, arrived in 1830 and in December 1833 he worked with John Morgan to establish the Puriri Mission; and continued at that mission into the 1840s. He moved to Kauwaeranga (near Shortland), then from 1847 to 1856 he was a missionary in Te Urewera. Preece was buried at Coromandel in 1870.William Puckey, carpenter, arrived on 12 August 1819 with his wife Margery, son William Gilbert, and daughter Elizabeth. William and Margery left the mission in 1826.William Gilbert Puckey arrived with his parents in 1819, then joined the CMS in 1821. He helped build, then served as the mate of the 55-foot schooner the Herald He went to Sydney with his parents in 1826 then returned to the Bay of Islands the following year. He and Joseph Matthews established the Kaitaia Mission in 1834. As he had become fluent in the language since arriving as a boy of 14, he was a useful translator for the CMS mission, including collaborating with William Williams on the translation of the New Testament in 1837 and its revision in 1844.The Rev. Charles Lucas Reay arrived in 1842 and was first located in Cloudy Bay and then at Nelson in 1844, then he was transferred to Rangitukia at East Cape in 1847, where he died on 11 March 1848.James Shepherd, visited with Marsden in 1817 and was placed at Rangihoua in 1820. He was a skilled gardener, who taught the Māori how to plant vegetables, fruit and trees. He was generally employed among the different tribes, instructing them in the Christian religion, as he understood the Māori language better than any of the other missionaries at that time. He served at the mission stations at Kaeo, Te Puna on the Purerua Peninsula and at Whangaroa.The Rev. Seymour Mills Spencer from Hartford, Connecticut, arrived in Auckland in 1842 with his wife Ellen Stanley Spencer and was stationed in the Tauranga and Rotorua districts from 23 November 1843. Spencer was ordained to be the deacon for the district of Taupo on 24 September 1843, but ended up being posted to the Rotorua Mission. Spencer was at the Maketu Mission in 1844. In 1944 the couple established the first missionary station at Lake Tarawera; working with the local Māori they built a European-styled community called Te Wairoa. He was suspended from the CMS in 1844, then rejoined the CMS in 1849 and was stationed at Opotiki until about 1855; then the couple returned to the Te Wairoa mission station and remained there until 1870. Died 30 April 1898.William Spikeman, a herdsman, arrived in the Bay of Islands from Sydney in 1833.The Rev. James Stack, had been a Wesleyan missionary at Whangaroa; then later joined the CMS and was sent to the Puriri Mission at Thames where his son James West Stack was born. In 1839 Stack and his wife Mary joined William Williams at the Tūranga Mission in Poverty Bay; and in 1859 he was in the Waikato.The Rev. Richard Taylor, arrived in 1836. In September 1839 he succeeded William Williams as principal of the boys’ school at Te Waimate Mission and remained there until 1842. The Revd Taylor moved to join the Whanganui Mission in 1842. Died 10 October 1873.John Telford was stationed at Otaki (from about 1840-1850) and was at Whanganui in 1851.The Rev. Carl Sylvius Völkner was sent to New Zealand by the North German Missionary Society, arriving in August 1849. In 1852 he offered his services to CMS and assisted the Revd Robert Maunsell, by teaching in the school at the Manukau Mission. He married Emma Lanfear, sister of a CMS missionary. Völkner was ordained a priest in 1861 and took charge of the CMS mission station at Opotiki in August that year. On 1 March 1865 he was captured by the Pai Mārire led by Patara, a chief, and Kereopa Te Rau, a Pai Mārire prophet. Völkner was hanged and decapitated at his church grounds on 2 March 1865 in what became known as the Völkner Incident.William R Wade, printer, arrived in December 1834 and worked with William Colenso at Paihia. He later established a mission station at Tauranga in 1835.John Alexander Wilson retired from the navy and in 1832 he joined the CMS as a lay missionary. In 1833 he and James Preece opened a mission station at Puriri, Thames and in 1836 he and William Wade went to Te Papa mission station, Tauranga. His wife Anne Wilson died on 23 November 1838, leaving her four young sons, including John Alexander Wilson to be brought up by their father. In 1840 he established a mission station at Opotiki. He was ordained a deacon in 1852. in 1860 he was a missionary-chaplain to Māori war-parties at Waitara, Taranaki. His connection with the CSM ended on 21 January 1868.The Rev. Henry Williams and Marianne Williams arrived in the Bay of Islands in 1823. Henry Williams was appointed as the leader of the CMS mission in New Zealand. In 1844 Williams was installed as Archdeacon of Te Waimate in the diocese centered at Te Waimate mission.The Rev. William Williams and Jane Williams arrived in the Bay of Islands in 1826. William Williams led the CMS missionaries in translating the Bible into Māori and he also published an early dictionary and grammar of the Māori language. Williams was appointed Archdeacon of the East Cape diocese and later as the first Bishop of Waiapu.The Rev. William Yate, arrived in the Bay of Islands on 19 January 1828. He was appointed to lead Te Waimate mission. His personal life became a matter of controversy and he was dismissed from the CMS on 24 February 1837.
