Sermon - The story of Thomas Grace Taupo 4 Feb 07

Today I am going to select three themes from events in the life of the CMS missionary Thomas Grace. Thomas Grace took a quite different stance from his missionary colleagues on these issues involving the economy, the acquisition of land, and the war between the British Army and the Maori. Last week I talked about Alfred Brown, the Archdeacon in Tauranga. Today we will consider the mission at Lake Taupo.

Fair trading in Gisborne.

Grace worked as a missionary in Gisborne from 1850 on for three years. During this time he learned the language. North of Gisborne there were two missionaries, whom Grace found strong advocates for the Europeans. Grace was to take a different view from them and other settlers with regard to trading with the Maori. Grace took the view that he would pay the same amount to either Maori or European. There were two problems that Grace faced. The first was that the settlers and the missionaries were grazing their horses on Maori land without payment. The Maori responded to this by stealing the horses. The second issue was that Grace decided to sell calico or print at the same price as in Auckland. The local settlers were bargaining using half the value. Grace saw this as the local settlers exploiting a monopoly situation by underpaying – a situation in which the Maori was the loser.

The settlers responded to this by petitioning for Grace’s removal. Grace decided to defend the charges against him, and when no-one would give him a place on a ship, he walked from Gisborne to Opotiki, and sailed to Auckland from there. Once in Auckland he set about defending his view.

The Committee resolved that the missionaries were at liberty to make their purchases on what principles they please. It was the beginning of a stormy relationship in which Grace and the Committee were to be at loggerheads for the rest of his ministry.

The historians WH Oliver and Jane Thomson put it this way:

“Threats and petitions to the bishop had no effect upon this missionary with a social conscience. He feared that Maoris would be exploited by shrewder and more experienced settlers, so he set about educating them in arithmetic, the use of money and commercial skills. He encouraged them to ask good prices, to buy boats and ploughs and generally aim at material prosperity.” P54

We should note that one of the best Maori pupils taught by Grace at Gisborne was Te Kooti, who was to become one of the most feared – and brilliant – fighters for the land and the people in the 1860’s.

The Auckland pamphlet and land.

With regard to land deals, Grace took the view that legal advice should be given to the Maori to instruct and protect them from selling their land in one-sided deals. In this attitude, Grace was an exception amongst the other missionaries and certainly the settlers.

When in Auckland, after leaving Gisborne but before going to Taupo, an anonymous pamphlet was published in Maori with the title “Some questions to the Maori people about the selling of land”. The general theme was that Israelites had a law governing the land, which belonged to the people and their children. Those who wish to purchase land should explain the English law on inheritance. The white men leave their wealth for their children, so the Maori should leave their wealth – their land – for their children.

Thomas Grace was the suspected author. Grace in effect did not deny the views in the pamphlet. It incurred the anger of the Auckland CMS committee and his fellow missionaries, with the exception of the Rev John Telford, who had helped Grace. There were 250 copies printed, but because of the furore, only a few were distributed. There is no copy of the pamphlet today. Donald McLean, who Grace described as a “deadly enemy of the natives” was the land purchase commissioner. McLean saw the pamphlet as seditious. Grace however, continued to advise the Maori on the means to retain their lands.

Grace moved from Auckland to Taupo in 1855, choosing Pukawa as the base in which to establish his mission post. He began by negotiating peace between the warring iwi, and then built a mission base. Grace was keen to develop the educational opportunities for Maori, he opened a boarding school in addition to an industrial day school. Grace encouraged sheep farming, and had great demand for the ploughs he brought. He was to spend about 8 years there. Isolation from the coast made obtaining supplies difficult. His wife, Agnes was in frail health at times, yet managed to bring up children in a very basic environment. A fire in 1856 destroyed their first raupo mission house, and led to a two storied building erected in its place, with mission school, cottages and other buildings.

Grace’s view on the Taupo Maori at the time was that they had armed neutrality. Grace believed that the gospel and the farming of sheep had a restraining influence.

About 1862 there was an assembly of chiefs at Taupo at which the merits of the Catholic and Protestant faiths were discussed. Grace was not at this meeting. The Catholic priests, some speakers argued, had no allegiance to the Queen and no opposition to Maori nationalism and the Maori King. By contrast, the Protestants were friends of the Governor, owed allegiance to the Queen and prayed she might vanquish her enemies – including the Maori. The meeting accepted this and sent letters to the Waikato recommending the King movement turn Catholic. This was resisted by the Waikato chiefs, but indicates that the political factors could not be avoided in the missionary work. Simply praying for the Queen was, in this context, a political act.

A year later war clouds gathered in the Waikato, Grace was advised that his safety could not be guaranteed, and the family, with Maori protection, began the 28 day journey to Matata on the coast. Although Grace visited on a number of occasions, as it turned out, this was the end of the mission work at Pukawa and Taupo.

Whether to be a chaplain to the British Army.

In 1864 the family returned to Auckland. The town of 7000 was gripped with war fever. There were 12,000 imperial troops in the county, and Bishop Selwyn was looking for Army chaplains. He ordered Grace to the task. Grace refused, was summonsed to Bishopscourt in Parnell.

Alfred Grace, Thomas’ son wrote: “I have heard my mother tell the story. There was a stormy scene. My father said that to comply with the Bishop’s request would be to ruin his work among the natives. The Bishop insisted and threatened to unfrock my father. My father openly declared he could not since he was a CMS missionary who was sent out to NZ to work among the Maoris and not to be a chaplain to the troops. The Bishop, who was a hot-tempered man, completely lost his temper and ordered my father out of his presence. Nothing happened. My father stayed in Auckland and journeyed into parts that were not affected by the war.” P160

In fact the Bishop and Grace had opposing views on the war, on the King movement, and on the sale of Maori land. Selwyn took the side of the British, even to the point of riding his horse at the front line of the troops as they advanced along the Waikato River. Bishop Hobhouse wrote at the time: “The officers greeted the Bishop not only as a comrade who had shared their perils or as a chaplain who had ministered to them in hospital and in the field, but almost as a general – as one who, in addition to a thorough knowledge of the country and of the genius of the Maori opponents, was thoroughly competent to form a plan of campaign.” P161

Worst of all, Selwyn had been seen by Maori carrying a rifle. He was to say that it belonged to a wounded trooper he was assisting, but in Maori eyes the missionaries were now implicated.

After the war, Selwyn lost all credibility with the Maori and so had the missionaries he took with him. Eventually Selwyn recognised his mistake, and told Thomas Grace that he was right in resisting him. By 1868 Selwyn had returned to Britain.

For Grace, it set the pattern for the rest of his ministry. Because of his independent stance, he did have access – although sometimes he was not exactly welcomed – but he did get to visit many Maori in territory other clergy and missionaries were denied. Grace was facing the widespread criticism that the missionaries abandoned the tribes and served the troops in the war. Grace had access because it was recognised that he had not taken the side of the Bishop and the other missionaries.

Some reflections

I want to suggest some things for us to think about as we compare the work of Thomas Grace in Taupo with Alfred Brown in Tauranga.

Firstly Grace was facing great difficulty in trying to establish a mission base at Pukawa. Logistically the isolation from the coast and supplies made it very difficult. However what probably was the telling blow against Pukawa being successful was the Waikato wars. The stance taken by Bishop Selwyn was a fatal blow to Grace being able to return to Pukawa.

In 1860 Grace wrote:

“Had the Treaty of Waitangi been fully and faithfully carried out, the war would not have occurred; instead it has been ignored, until now that it is useful to make rebels of the natives…” p134

Secondly Grace had a vision of believing in the Maori as equals, and believing in their ability to develop as a people if they had education and the access to technology. Grace did not exploit them. In fact it was Grace who sparked the first co-operative Maori sheep-farming venture in NZ – a trail blazer for many later Maori land corporations.

Thirdly, as we know from the story of Gate Pa, Maori were willing and open to adopting the Christian faith. Te Kooti, taught by Grace in Gisborne, was a deeply religious and spiritual person. He modeled himself on King David, and his worship book formed the basis for the Ringatu religion, a religion based on Christianity. He went astray in his fight back against the injustice against him, a fight given the strength of the British military, he could not win. Te Kooti had respect for Grace.

The Catholic missionaries had a strategy which was much more effective than the Protestant, and Grace had more in common with the Catholics on these issues, than the Protestants.

Finally Thomas Grace was a lonely figure amongst his colleagues. His vision of missionary work, when we compare it with say Alfred Brown, was much more profound. Perhaps one lesson that the church could take from thinking about this slice of history is the value in the long run, of listening to the minority, to the voice that is not just interested in growth, but in social justice.

Reference: “A Driven Man” by David Grace, Ngaio Press, 2004

Thomas Grace - biography

Born 1815 in Liverpool, trained in business.

When 31 commenced theological training

1850-53 Stationed in Gisborne.

53 to Auckland

55 occupied Pukawa

56 house burnt down

62 He Heuheu Iwikau died

63 Waikato wars

Grace family to Matata, Auckland

64 in AK