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James and Mary Wallis were Wesleyan missionaries and the first European Settlers in Raglan, New Zealand.
| | This article needs additional citations for verification .(April 2016) |
James and Mary Wallis were Wesleyan missionaries and the first European Settlers in Raglan, New Zealand.
Born on 18 April 1809 in Blackwall, London, [1] James Wallis felt the call to ministry at a young age after a personal spiritual awakening. On 16 April 1834 - after being accepted for a position to the Pacific via the Wesleyan Missionary Society - he married Mary Ann Reddick (born 26 May 1802). [2] A few weeks later they were aboard a vessel bound for Australia en route to the fledgling Mission at Mangungu, in the Hokianga, New Zealand.
After several months in Hobart, Australia, James and Mary arranged a vessel to carry them to the Hokianga Harbour, New Zealand whereby they arrived on 1 December 1834. Immediately upon entering the harbour mouth, their ship was caught by a gust of wind and laid
“nearly on her beam ends and the rocks. Recovering from this danger the captain ran his vessel a mile or two up the river and dropped anchor at the pilot station . A few minutes after the anchor was down a large number of natives came on board whose wild antics and unitelligable jargon gave us an insight into the kind of people among whom out lot was to be cast for an indefinite time [3] ”
After several months at Māngungu Mission, where a new mission house was under construction, James was surprised at the practical nature of his work "A New Zealand Missionary was to be a man of all work". Eventually becoming frustrated at the lack of spiritual input he was able to contribute he pushed for a new mission base to be established under his leadership in the Kawhia and Whaingaroa (now known as Raglan) regions further south on the west coast of the North Island. [4]
In April 1835, James and Mary Wallis, along with another missionary couple and a number Maori Chiefs from Hokianga arrived – via a three-day sailing journey at Kāwhia Harbour. The Hokianga Chiefs spoke in favor of the missionaries and a crowd of about 1,000 were present to celebrate their arrival.
While Mrs Wallis stayed at Kawhia with the other missionaries, James journeyed on foot to Raglan, a distance of about 30 km across very rough terrain with his local Maori guide who had been expecting his arrival - some 12 months previous, the establishment of a mission station had been agreed between Maori Chiefs and members of a Wesleyan reconnaissance tour of the region....
“Here [at Raglan] I was met with a warm reception from the natives who from various considerations welcomed me as their future instructor. A rush hut about eight feet by five feet was assigned to me as my residence.... Building of the Mission House was undertaken by some fifty or sixty men, only about a third of whom worked at one time all the rest looking on, and occasionally suggesting an improved style of architecture. In the course of a few weeks, the house was finished so far as labor was needed..... As soon as the house was habitable Mrs. Wallis was fetched by a dozen natives who carried her in a sedan of their own construction." [3]
Immediately upon arrival - in between the practicalities of establishing a mission station complete with gardens and home, religious services began with the attendance of as many as 200 people at one time. Initially, services consisted of the reading of passages of Scripture and commentary by a Maori interpreter and assistant to Wallis who had been trained at Mangungu. It was not long before James and his Wife has a full grasp of the Maori language and could converse fluently without an interpreter. On 23 November 1835 the Wallis’ first child was born, Elizabeth Reddick, the first European born in the district.
The Mission to Raglan was successful in converting many local Maori people who were very receptive to the message of the Bible. By January 1836, several large and influential tribes had professed faith with the most notable conversion being that of the notable local warrior and chief Wiremu Neera Te Awaitaia.
This first Raglan Mission was established at Te Horea on the north side of the Raglan Harbor.
Around about May 1836, word was received from the London Secretaries of the Wesleyan Missionary Society that it had been agreed that the area south of the Manukau would be occupied by the Church Missionary Society and that all the Methodist Missionaries around Kawhia and Raglan were to withdraw. This news was a great shock to James and Mary – as well as local Maori as their work in Raglan was flourishing. On 1 June 1836, Wallis wrote:
“Left Waingaroa this morning with heart overwhelmed with sorrow and not without some doubts relative to the propriety of the steps we are taking. The Lord has been please own our labors at Waingaroa in a measure far surpassing anything we had anticipated and the people have regarded us as their principal friends.... Several of them accompanied us to sea as far as they safety could then threw themselves into their canoes returning to land with hearts overwhelmed. [4] ”
It was decided that the Wallis’ would now pioneer a new mission station that was some distance into the Kaipara region and up a branch of the Wairoa River (Northland) at Tangiteroria. Here they labored, building a new mission house and gardens etc. As the Maori settlements were some distance away, and the local people of this area “manifested no desire for religious instruction” James had to travel considerable distances to preach the message. After 12 months of rather fruitless labor in the Kaipara region, a visit from Raglan Maori encouraged him to return to their region with reports that many were still attending worship and were learning to read and write under the leadership of their own people. Wallis petitioned the Secretaries in London for permission to return to Raglan and about October 1838, seeing as the area had still not been occupied by the CMS, his return was approved. [5] The work at Tangiteroria had, by now, had some success with a local Chief beginning to attend worship and learning to read and write and the work there continued after the Wallis’ left under the leadership of James Buller.
On 4 March 1839, the barque Elizabeth which had been charted by Wallis arrived at Raglan to be greeted by a large crowd of Maori who had gathered to express joy at the return of the Missionaries. The old mission house at Te Horea on the north side of the harbour had fallen into a state of disrepair. The Wallis's therefore made arrangements for the future of the mission to be at Nihinihi on the south side of the harbour and so land was purchased and James began construction of...
“The third station, the entire of which in planning and building etc, has exclusively devolved upon myself, and when I look back on the years I have spent in NZ, I am grieved that a greater portion of my time has not been more directly devoted to the spiritual interests of the perishing...”
On the first Sunday after his return Wallis preached twice at the old Chapel at Te Horea to a congregation of nearly 500 and married and baptised two couples. Later, at a local village he preached to a crowd of 800 and performed 65 baptisms. James and Mary were to serve in the region until 1863 when they were transferred to Onehunga for health reasons – there was a large gathering of local Maori and Europeans to pay respect to the Missionaries as they departed.
James and Mary Ann Wallis moved to Auckland in 1866. Mary Ann Wallis died on 8 February 1893 in Mount Eden. [6] She was buried in the Symonds Street Cemetery.
Rev. James Wallis died in the Mount Eden home [7] of his son Robert Martin Wallis (1844-1919) and Emily Sarah Wallis (later Pearce, died 1935) who was a member of the Auckland chapter of the Women's Christian Temperance Union New Zealand. [8] He was buried next to his wife in the Symonds Street Cemetery.
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Raglan is a small beachside town located 48 km west of Hamilton, New Zealand on State Highway 23. It is known for its surfing, and volcanic black sand beaches.
The Hokianga is an area surrounding the Hokianga Harbour, also known as the Hokianga River, a long estuarine drowned valley on the west coast in the north of the North Island of New Zealand.
Hongi Hika was a New Zealand Māori rangatira (chief) and war leader of the iwi of Ngāpuhi. He was a pivotal figure in the early years of regular European contact and settlement in New Zealand. As one of the first Māori leaders to understand the advantages of European muskets in warfare, he used European weapons to overrun much of northern New Zealand in the early nineteenth century Musket Wars. He was however not only known for his military prowess; Hongi Hika encouraged Pākehā (European) settlement, built mutually beneficial relationships with New Zealand's first missionaries, introduced Māori to Western agriculture and helped put the Māori language into writing. He travelled to England and met King George IV. His military campaigns, along with the other Musket Wars, were one of the most important motivators for the British annexation of New Zealand and subsequent Treaty of Waitangi with Ngāpuhi and many other iwi.
Jean-Baptiste François Pompallier was the first Roman Catholic bishop in New Zealand and, with priests and brothers of the Marist order, he organised the Roman Catholic Church throughout the country. He was born in Lyon, France. He arrived in New Zealand in 1838 as Vicar Apostolic of Western Oceania, but made New Zealand the Headquarters of His Catholic Mission.
English Wesleyan Mission was a British Methodist missionary society that was involved in sending workers to countries such as New Zealand in the 19th century and China during the late Qing Dynasty.
The following lists events that happened during 1835 in New Zealand.
Whangaroa Harbour, previously spelled Wangaroa Harbour, is an inlet on the northern coast of Northland, New Zealand. Whangaroa Bay and the Pacific Ocean are to the north. The small settlements of Totara North and Saies are on the west side of the harbour, Waitaruke on the south side, and Whangaroa on the east. State Highway 10 runs through Waitaruke. The name comes from the lament "Whaingaroa" or "what a long wait" of a woman whose warrior husband had left for a foray to the south. The harbour was formed when rising sea levels drowned a river valley about 6,000 years ago. Steep outcrops remain from ancient volcanic rocks.
Wiremu Neera Te Awaitaia was a Māori chief in New Zealand during first contact with European traders, the 1820s Musket Wars up to the 1860s New Zealand Wars. Born in or around 1796 into the Waikato Tribe of Ngāti Māhanga, he has been described as a "friend of Pākehā and a Chief of great influence" in the region of Raglan, New Zealand. He witnessed the coming of Christianity to Māoridom in the mid-1830s, the sale of native land to the first European settlers, and the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in the 1840s. Te Awaitaia also witnessed the Māori King Movement in the 1850s, and the New Zealand Wars in the 1860s. He died on 27 April 1866.
Annie Jane Schnackenberg was a New Zealand Wesleyan missionary, temperance and welfare worker, and suffragist. She served as president of the Auckland branch of the Women's Christian Temperance Union New Zealand 1887 to 1897, and national president for WCTU NZ from 1892 to 1901 – overseeing the final push for petitioning the government to grant women the right to vote in national elections. She also was a charter member of the National Council of Women of New Zealand.
John Hobbs was a New Zealand missionary, artisan and interpreter. Along with James Stack, he co-founded the Māngungu Mission.
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Mary Anna Bumby (1811–1862) was a British missionary and beekeeper. She was significant for introducing the first honeybees to New Zealand in March 1839.
Māngungu Mission was the second mission station established in New Zealand by the Wesleyan Missionary Society. Located near Horeke, in the Hokianga harbour, it was founded in 1828 by the missionaries John Hobbs and James Stack after the first WMS mission station in the country had been sacked the previous year. Māngungu Mission was abandoned in 1855 when Hobbs, the sole missionary at the site, relocated to Auckland. The residence that Hobbs built and lived in at the mission has been preserved by Heritage New Zealand and is now a museum.