Letter to the Editor: Tuesday December 13, 2016

Missionaries planted the gospel

When Joseph Matthews, along with William Gilbert Puckey and Nopera Panakareao, established the Kaitaia Mission Station in 1834, the purpose was to plant the gospel in this area.

Their hope was also to plant a number of skills which the missionaries and their wives possessed in order that they might be of use to those already living in the area.

In this they were remarkably successful.

The mission station developed and expanded, and through it schools, a hospital, orchards, a dairy and a creamery, a blacksmith's shop, an apiary, fields of European-sourced grains, milling in the windmills, sewing classes, a printing press, a boat used for trading with Auckland, and a number of churches were made available to the people of the area.

Timber houses were introduced, as were roads and wharves that enabled small trading vessels to dock.

Bridges were built and modern (for the time) farming methods were used on local farms.

So successful was this joint venture that as far as I have been able to establish, the Kaitaia Mission Station was the only one in the North Island not to close at all during the New Zealand Wars.

The legacy of their effort lives on today in any number of ways.

A major effort is currently under way at St Saviour's Church to acknowledge its heritage and the legacy of the founders.

Those who now complain about the removal of the hoop pine did not attend the blessing of the newly-installed memorial and three information boards in the church yard, and have not written to the Northland Age indicating their appreciation of the work being done towards having the site established as an historical precinct.

The removal of any tree is of concern, and should not be done lightly. However, I note that the respondents in this matter are not members of the congregation.

I am certain that the desire of the missionaries and their wives would be for the gospel to live on in Kaitaia.

While it does indeed live on, it is without the ongoing Sunday-by-Sunday support of most of those whose lineage connects to the establishment of the mission station.

Perhaps those who complain should consider turning words into action and actively seek that gospel message which was planted here in Kaitaia by Panakaraeo, Matthews, Puckey and their families of the time?

REV MICHAEL WITHIEL
Kaitaia