Sermon - The story of Archdeacon Alfred Brown and Gate Pa       Taupo 28 Jan 07

 

The story of the battle of Gate Pa contains some fascinating insights about Christian history.  In this first sermon I want to describe the work of the missionary in Tauranga, Archdeacon Alfred Brown, and next week, I will compare him with the life and work of the first missionary in Taupo, the Rev Thomas Grace.

 

Tauranga was among the first areas of NZ to be settled by Polynesian immigrants.  The Arawa canoe is associated with the early occupation in the bay, tradition says the canoe landed at Maketu.  The Arawa descendants occupied the region from Papamoa to Matata, and south down to Atiamuri.  The land has been continuously occupied and fought over by many generations of Maori tribes and hapu.

 

The Ngai-te-rangi tribe from Opotiki invaded and fought with the Arawa, and as a result of their conquests became the dominant tribe in the Tauranga area.  At the time of the invasion, the tribes that were in the Tauranga area were Ngati Ranginui and Waitaha.  The Waitaha moved east out of the area, to leave the tribes of Ngati ranginui and Ngai-te-rangi.

 

In 1834 Alfred Brown, an Anglican missionary along with William Williams visited Tauranga and selected a site called Te Papa as a location for a mission station.  Te Papa is the small peninsula at the top of what is now the main town area of Tauranga.  Just across from what is now the domain is the historic site of the Elms, where the original mission site is found.  This site was first occupied in 1835, and in 1838, two years before the Treaty of Waitangi was signed, the Brown family moved in.  Alfred Brown was ordained in England in 1827, and arrived in New Zealand in 1829.  From 1838 on he worked as a missionary in Tauranga for over 50 years.

 

Evelyn Stokes, from whose book I have obtained this history, described him this way:- 

“Archdeacon Brown was a man of extraordinary calibre, thoroughly honest and with a well developed sense of justice.  He worked indefatigably and conscientiously for what he considered to be the advancement and well-being of the Maori people.  He certainly earned considerable respect and his advice was frequently heeded.  His efforts contributed greatly to the eventual peace established between Arawa and Ngaiterangi in 1845.  His leanings were Low Church evangelical of an austere kind.  There was no doubt of his evangelical zeal but he abhorred frivolity, and in many ways was the epitome of a puritanical Victorian cleric.  He was a kind man but he had no really close friends.  The Te Papa mission station gained a reputation for hospitality commented upon by a number of visitors.  John Joliffe, surgeon of the survey ship Pandora, described the Brown family in 1852 as 'pleasant sort of people and had more life in them than most of the missionaries' families that we have seen'.  Brown's major defect was his intolerance, whether of flowered hats and rouged cheeks, or of Roman Catholicism.  He bitterly resented the encroachment of Marist missionaries into what he regarded as his territory.  But within these limitations he was undoubtedly a zealous and faithful servant of his church.”

 

It was in 1840 that Roman Catholic presence in the person of Father Viard was established at Otumoetai, today a suburb in Tauranga, although there were frequent changes of priests in the next few years.

 

In 1838 The Church Misionary Society purchased 12 ½ hectares of land, and then one year later, one year before the Treaty, the CMS purchased the whole of the Te Papa peninsula up to Gate Pa.

 

In 1840 Major Bunbury came to Tauranga to obtain signatures to the Treaty but found that several of the Ngai-te-rangi chiefs had already signed a version brought by the CMS missionaries.  However the chief at Otumoetai refused to sign.

 

The effect of the church missionaries on the local people was beginning to have constructive effect.  The school and hospital were important means of bringing benefit to the local people.  A significant effect was how the missionaries tried to mediate to avoid conflict, especially the practice of revenge or utu, and to challenge the practice of cannibalism.

 

The contact was though, one way.  Archdeacon Brown saw himself bringing the gospel and the light of civilisation to the Maori.  Although the missionaries learned the Maori language and spoke it well, there was usually no effort to learn Maori customs or their spiritual understanding.  In fact Best, who wrote down the Maori songs and chants, was very caustic in his criticism of the missionary paternalism.

 

However from 1840 for the next 20 years Christianity had a significant effect in bringing peace from tribal conflict.  In the 1860’s, this peace was to change, and the cause was the European demand for land.  The Maori were opposed to losing their land, especially the Maori in the Taranaki and Waikato.  As the two local tribes were allies of the Waikato, they sent warriors over for support.  In 1864 the Government sent troops to Tauranga with the intention of creating a diversion to stop this support going across to the Waikato.  The local tribes however interpreted this as the beginning of a local land seizure, and the warriors in the Waikato hastily returned.

 

The British soldiers, under Cameron’s command, constructed fortifications on the mission land, and used some mission buildings.  The early maps show the proximity of the redoubts to the mission buildings, and the army fortifications were on church land.  We can speculate here that probably at this point the church and the army were seen as working together.

 

The Maori response to the build up of British troops was to prepare a series of defenses, and they sent an invitation to the General to come and fight.  No response came immediately.

 

So the Maori moved to the edge of the mission land.  The boundary was marked by a post and rail fence between the estuaries, and at the point where the road to Oropi passed out of mission land, there was a gate.    The Maori built here a fortified pa, hence Gate Pa.  They drew up a set of rules for the conduct of the war, and these rules showed Christian influence :-

The wounded would be treated with kindness, the dead would be treated with respect, prisoners would be handed over to the authorities, women and children would not be molested, and a church was regarded as a sanctuary to all who sheltered therein.

There is some evidence that this letter came from Maori who were Roman Catholic, and who joined the Maori at Gate Pa. 

 

The night before the British attacked Gate Pa, Archdeacon Brown entertained nine officers to dinner and administered communion following the meal.  Twenty four hours later all but one of his guests were dead.  

 

On the 29 April 1864 the British opened fire on the pa.  They had troops in front and at the rear of the pa.  Inside were 250 defenders.  In the fighting, many of the officers leading the assault were killed or wounded, but as night fell, the pa remained in the hands of the defenders.  During the night the Maori left the pa, leaving only a few behind. 

 

A wounded soldier during the night could be heard calling for water.  In spite of sentries, a Maori crept down to the spring on the hillside, and returned with water for the dying soldier.  Colonel Booth was sure the benefactor was a woman, although there was some confusion because a scrap of paper was found on one of the men with the injunction:  “if thy enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him to drink”. 

 

The irony here is that the very people to whom Archdeacon Brown was bringing the gospel were living it while he was acting as chaplain to the troops. 

 

Because the Maori had evacuated, the victory was a rather hollow one.  Further land wars were to follow.

 

In July 1884 a large number of Ngai-te-rangi surrendered.  As a consequence of their support of the Waikato tribes, one quarter of their land was confiscated, and in addition it was arranged that the Government would purchase additional lands at a price the Government set.  And I guess it is those set of actions which are the basis for Maori grievance to be resolved before the Waitangi tribunal.

 

Archdeacon Brown acknowledged that the war had undermined much of the work and influence of the mission.  In 1873, just under ten years after the battle at Gate Pa, the Anglican missionary from Taupo, the Rev Thomas Grace lamented the passing of missionary influence, chiefly as a result of the quick succession of colonization, war, confiscation and English vices.  He wrote:

“Now a change has come over the Maori.  Formerly they consulted us in all matters connected with their teaching and worship, and invariably abided by our directions.  Now they assume the entire management of their own affairs and seem to consider they have a perfect right to do so.”

I guess the days of benevolent paternalism were gone.

 

Fifty years later, in the 1920’s the spread of the Ratana movement into Tauranga occurred.  It was joined by many local people, and became permanently established.  It could be seen as a comprehensive determination to preserve Maori cultural identity in spite of the considerable pressures to become European.

 

I want to draw out three things for you to think about.

The first thing to note is how the missionaries taught the Christian message of peace and conflict resolution.  Particularly from 1840 on, the Maori heard the message that war - fighting between tribes - was unacceptable and unchristian.  Yet 20 years later when the Pakeha wanted the land, they used war to gain it.  Now you might say, Archdeacon Brown did not bring about the land wars.  But he did not disassociate himself from it either.  Archdeacon Brown let the army build its forts on church land, and used church buildings for the army.   His actions of acting as chaplain to one side of the dispute, as we shall see next week, were something that Thomas Grace would see as hypocritical.

 

Secondly there is no way that you could describe the land war as an exercise of bringing civilisation, or of the war being necessary to stop the spread of evil.  There is no doubt that the act of the Maori woman at the battle of Gate Pa was one motivated and inspired by Christian charity.

 

Thirdly we might ask some questions about the approach of the missionary work.  Archdeacon Brown saw himself as bringing the gospel, but it was delivered in a paternalistic manner, which within 20 years the Maori came to reject.  Both Archdeacon Brown and the Rev Grace came to acknowledge the diminishing influence of their work.  There are a whole set of questions here about the relationship between Christ and culture. 

 

Christian history raises this question about the cultural baggage we bring with the gospel.  The story of Gate Pa raises some interesting questions for us about how we live the gospel in a multicultural world. 

The sermon next week will compare and contrast the life and work of the first missionary in Taupo, Thomas Grace.

 John Howell