Sarah's slippers survive as footnote on history for mission station

An unusual pair of shoes will be on display at Te Waimate Mission Station over summer.
The delicate silk and leather slippers dating back to about the 1790s will take pride of place at the NZ Historic Places Trust property throughout January.
"The story behind the slippers is intriguing - not so much for what the slippers are but for what they represent," says Te Waimate Mission property manager Debbie Land.
The slippers originally belonged to Harriet Richardson, the mother of Sarah Selwyn, and had been brought out to New Zealand by a Mrs Gingell to be given to Sarah.
As luck would have it, Mrs Gingell arrived too late. Both Sarah and her husband, Bishop George Selwyn, had already departed for England by the time Mrs Gingell arrived in New Zealand in March 1865. Sarah never did catch up with her petite footwear.
The question remains though - why would somebody go to so much trouble for a pair of slippers? The answer probably lies with Sarah.
"Contemporary accounts record that Sarah Selwyn was keen to maintain English standards in the wilderness. In order to keep slap-dash colonial ways at bay she insisted on evening dress at the evening meal, and that young men visiting her had to behave like gentlemen in her drawing room," Ms Land said.
"It's likely that Sarah's slippers would have been part of her attempts to keep up standards, even in a frontier outpost like Te Waimate Mission."
Sarah's time at the mission was not particularly happy. Indeed, when she saw Te Waimate Mission for the first time in 1842, she may well have shed a tear.
"It's a beautiful place now, but back then it was pretty primitive and swampy."
In 1842, however, Te Waimate was the centre of the Anglican Church in New Zealand. And the beautiful but basic Te Waimate Mission was to become the "Bishop's Palace", for a brief time anyway. In a bid to make it a little more homely, the Bishop organised for the house to receive its first coat of paint 10 years after its completion.
"For a woman like Sarah Selwyn, who knew what a Bishop's Palace ought to look like, this was probably a bit much. She complained that living in the house was like living in a wooden box. Given the planking on the floors, walls and ceilings that was probably not far from the truth," Ms Land said.
Although supportive of her husband and his work, Sarah appears to have taken her frustrations out on the house, describing the interior colour scheme  as a "dismal shade of green" and complaining that when it rained outside, it rained inside too.
Ironically, fellow missionary Richard Taylor had  described the house at Te Waimate as "the finest in New Zealand".
 "Some women came out to New Zealand and thrived on the lack of restrictions that held them in check in England, others possibly felt more comfortable with those restrictions in place. It's probably fair to say Sarah was probably more the latter," said Ms Land.
She returned to England with her husband in 1868, dying there in 1907.
Her elusive slippers remain at Te Waimate Mission.
Te Waimate Mission is open daily  from 10am-5pm at 344 Te Ahu Ahu Rd, Waimate North, between Kerikeri and Kaikohe.