More Heroes of the Faith*;

MORE HEROES OF THE FAITH*;

THE TWO METHODIST MAORI MISSIONARIES MARTYRED

NEAR MANGATAIPA IN THE HOKIANGA IN 1837

Two Wesleyan “Native Teachers” Matiu (Matthew) and Rihimona (Richmond) are two very early Maori heroes of the faith who were killed on 22 January 1837 near Mangataipa beyond the upper Hokianga Harbour, by the Mangamuka River. Along with the four Maori evangelists killed at Whanganui on two occasions between 1836 and 1839[1], their deaths are the first recorded instances of Christian martyrdom for the Wesleyan Mission (WMS) in New Zealand. The story of Matiu’s and Rihimona’s deaths was included in The Rev William Morley’s History of Methodism in New Zealand of 1900. But their courageous witness has not filtered into the corporate memory and life of the Church since, as has, for example, the killing of The Rev John Whiteley in North Taranaki in 1869. I wish to change that.

A letter of 13th April 1837 to The Rev Samuel Leigh written by The Rev William Woon is the earliest account of this tragic event. Woon was the Wesleyan’s printer at their Mangungu Mission station. He states that when Matiu and Rihimona were killed he was leading a service at Mangataipa inland of the Mangamuka River beyond the upper Hokianga Harbour.

“On the 22nd of January last I went to a place called Mangataipa for the purpose of holding worship with the natives; but just before the service commenced, guns were heard in the distance, and apprehensions were entertained that the heathens had attacked the Christians, which turned out to be the case; two having been mortally wounded by musket balls, and a fine young Chief had a most narrow escape, the ball having entered his garment and passed by his shoulder. The friends of the parties hastened to the spot, and found two of our most interesting young men, Matthew and Richmond, in dying circumstances, the former literally praying for his murderers and exhorting his friends not to be revenged. The same evening the brethren went up with a party to endeavour to find out the murderers to bring them to punishment, but were unsuccessful, as the murderers and their party had prepared means of defence and thereby defied them. The injured party on returning home, determining to punish the aggressors, stormed the place, killing 15 persons, and wounded the principal offender in the ancle [sic] and made him prisoner, but he has since been liberated to the annoyance of all who are friendly to peace.

The young men went to persuade this party to embrace the truth; but they were imprudent, as they were cautioned by their elders. This affair set the whole district in an uproar, and we were apprehensive of a general war; for when a fire breaks out in this district, it is very difficult to put it out. However, after a great deal of musket firing, haranguing, &c. &c. peace was proclaimed and the people went quietly to their homes.”[2]

______

*This article is intended to be the first of three to be published in subsequent issues of the WHS Journal

which examine early Methodist Maori “Heroes of the Faith”. In forthcoming articles it is intended to cover

the stories of two southern Maori missionary “Heroes”, Taawao, the first missionary at Port Levy in Banks

Peninsula, and Minarapa Te Rangi-hatu-ake, the first to bring the Gospel to Te Aro pa in Wellington.

A letter by Woon’s New Zealand Superintendent, The Rev Nathaniel Turner, to the Mission’s London Secretaries of 17 April 1837, just four days after Woon’s letter[3], explains that “three promising young men”, Matiu, Rihimona, and WiremuPatene (William Barton), went to the village of chief Kaitoke to “instruct them in the truths of Christianity”. “Matiu, who died on the spot exclaiming, ‘Don’t seek for payment for me’, was an excellent young man and promised fair to be a very [valuable?] assistant to the mission.” Rihimona lingered between life and death for eight days then “died in peace”.

The story is further elaborated by William Morley in his history. In 1837 the Wesleyan Mission was being opposed by a “heathen” chief named Kaitoke who lived in “a small clearing in the bush” mid-way up the Mangamuka River beyond the Hokianga Harbour. He was under the influence of a powerful and influential traditional ethnic Maori tohunga (shaman-like priest), named Papa-huri-hia. Kaitoke had previously made threats to kill any Christian missionaries who again entered his territory. According to Morley, “this tohunga” (Papahurihia) claimed divine inspiration and gave Kaitoke some muskets and ball cartridges from which Kaitoke would always remain invulnerable in a conflict.[4]

What we know, then, is on Sunday 22 January four young Wesleyan chiefs, Matiu, Rihimona, WiremuPatene, and also HohepaOtene (Joseph Orton), “Native Teachers” of the Mission who lived in the nearby village of Rotopipiwai, against their elders’ advice, but in accordance with Jesus’ command to preach the Gospel to all, set out to visit Kaitoke’s village in an attempt to “break through his resistance”. When they went to enter the village they were fired on. Matiu was mortally wounded and died almost immediately, becoming our first confirmed Wesleyan martyr. With his dying breath he prayed that his death should not be avenged. Rihimona lingered on in agony for several days and died praying forgiveness for his murderers. Patene escaped injury, though three bullets passed through his blanket and out past his shoulder. He bravely “remained to watch by his companions”. Meanwhile, HohepaoheopaHOtene, out of range of the shots at the rear, raced back to Rotopipiwai to convey news of the incident to his people.

Subsequently, both Wesleyan and pagan tribes met to debate the consequences. The English missionaries and Christian Maori urged that James Busby the British Resident should be called to adjudicate a peaceful settlement. But while the issue was being debated, Kaitoke and his party entrenched themselves within a defensive position nearby and opened fire upon the Wesleyans, killing Himeona (Simeon) a Christian chief. Thereupon the Wesleyan Maori who numbered about five hundred overran the heathen party, killing ten, and capturing the

others, including Kaitoke who was wounded in the fighting with a musket ball through his ankle. He was taken to the Wesleyan village of Otararau where the English missionaries nursed him to recovery. Kaitoke began to attend the Wesleyans’ services at Mangungu. On his first attendance, WiPatene gave a “deeply moving prayer for his would-be murderer”.

Some years later states Bronwyn Elsmore in, Mana from Heaven (1989), Kaitoke apparently professed a Christian faith. Papahurihia who died in November 1875 never did.[5]

According to Nathaniel Turner:

“It emerged that this affair originated in an old grudge concerning a very valuable timber district, which Kai-Toke and his friends [say?] that our people unjustly took from them some time ago…[and] sold to Mr White [The Rev William White the Mission’s Superintendent] in whose possession it now is in the person of his brother [Francis White]. Kai-Toke recently obtained a musket and keg of powder, loudly declaring he would use it to destroy or resist the cause of Christianity and raise that of Papahurihia”.

We know very little about this little party of martyred “native missionaries”.

It appears that Matiu was a young Wesleyan “Native Teacher” in charge of a Mission outpost at Oruru, beyond the Mangamuka River towards the Mangonui Harbour. Nathaniel Turner had visited Oruru in mid-1835, finding Matiu holding classes there and teaching the Christian faith to the people. Turner supplied Matiu with books, and urged him to begin a school “forthwith”. Of Rihimona, however, we know nothing more.

WiremuPateneKairangatira was a son-in-law of TamatiWaka Nene the great Hokianga chief and friend of the Wesleyan Mission. He was one of eleven converts whose baptisms are recorded by The Rev William White the New Zealand Mission Superintendent, in hisJournal entry of 23 December 1833.[6] The others were Simon Peter Matangi (who later served at Kawhia), Tarapata named David, Reinga named Nathaniel Turner, Henake named Samuel, Tautoto or Tainui named Abraham, Kahika named Daniel, John Leigh (HoaniRi) Tutu (who later served in Kawhia and Taranaki), Rakairi or Kotia named Morley (More), Tahata named Joshua Simon (HohuaHaimona), and Watu named John James (Hone Hemi).

After his narrow survival, our WiremuPatene of Mangataipa may have gone on to become a “Native minister”. If so, he was born around 1810. An Obituary[7] in the New Zealand Conference Minutes of 1885 states that he was originally from Whaingaroa (Raglan). There he was one of The Rev James Wallis’s original converts, along with chiefs like, Te Awaitaia (baptised William Naylor or WiremuNera), John Beecham or HoaniPihama (named after Dr Beecham one of the London Mission Secretaries), and from the Manukau, Te RangitahuaNgamuka baptised EpihaPutini (Jabez Bunting) after another of the London Secretaries.

WiremuPatene of Mangataipa is often confused with a later nineteenth century Wesleyan Maori minister, The Rev WiremuPatene, but they may be one and the same man. If this is so, from 1857-1859 WiremuPatene attended the “Native Theological Institution” at Grafton Road in Auckland, qualifying to become an “Assistant Missionary” who worked for the Mission as a Catechist and teacher “…chiefly among the tribes along the banks of the Waipa River”. “In the year 1871 he was received into the full work of the ministry.” He died aged 74 in 1884. “His last utterances were those of a Christian man, and his end was peace.”

HohepaOtene (Joseph Orton) was regarded by Nathaniel Turner as “a young man of some real ability”.[8] He was baptised and named after The Rev Joseph Orton of Sydney who journeyed to Mangungu in 1835 to investigate the land dealings and matters concerning William White. It is probable he was a son of Te PakekeTitokowaru the principal chief of NgaRuahine in South Taranaki. If this is so (and in, ‘I Shall Not Die’, his history of RiwhaTitokowaru’s war of 1868-1869 in Taranaki, James Belich has little doubt),[9]Otene was enslaved by Ngapuhi and taken to the Hokianga where he became a Christian convert. Like many enslaved early converts he became a “Mission Maori” and attached himself to the Mission settlement at Mangungu to learn of the ways of the Europeans. Later he attended the Three Kings Native Institution. William Morley then lists a “J. Orton” as one of eight “Native local preachers” in 1855 in the newly formed Manukau Circuit, along with WiremuPatene and Samuel Ngaropi. A “J. Orton” is also listed in the stationing record of the Australasian Wesleyan Conference Minutes as having “travelled” as a Wesleyan “Native Preacher on Trial”for three years from 1857 to 1859at Pehiakura, Manukau.[10]

If this HohepaOtene is indeed the very same South Taranaki chief, during the Taranaki Wars of the late 1860s he reverted to his pre-baptismal name of RiwhaTitokowaru and led a devastating guerrilla war against colonial militia and government-supporting kupapa Maori forces in 1868 and 1869. He spent his later days with the prophets Te Whiti O Rongomai and TohuKakahi at Parihaka. HohepaOteneTitokowaru died at Parihaka in 1888.

When we add the Whanganui martyrs Te Putakarua, Te Awaroa, Te Matoe, and Te HauMaringi to the Mangataipa martyrs, Matiu and Rihimona, we find that we have in New Zealand Methodism at least six very early Maori Methodist missionaries who gave their lives in the service of the Gospel. Their courage and sacrifice deserves to be remembered in our Church’s year-by-year liturgical life.

The Anglican Church in New Zealand annually commemorates their two NgatiRuanui martyrs, Kereopaand TeManihera, each 13 March. They were killed near Tokaanu on 12

March 1846 to avenge some NgatiTuwharetoa deaths by NgatiRuanui and NgaRauru in fighting at Patoka on the Waitotara River in 1840.

In the deaths of Matiu and Rihimona, unlike the deaths of the Whanganui four, we have an exact date to commemorate. Could we not therefore declare 22 January as our “Martyrs Day” when each year we in the Methodist Church in New Zealand remember the courage and zeal for the Gospel of our own six early Maori missionary martyrs?

APPENDIX: OBITUARY OF WIREMU PATENE, 21 JANUARY1885. “III. – WIREMU PATENE,

A Native minister who prior to the commencement of the Wesleyan Mission at Whaingaroa, in the year 1835, was a stranger to the requirements of the Gospel, and, like the generality of his countrymen at that time, took delight in the heathenish and barbaric practices of the Maori race. It was on an occasion of bloodshed that he was brought face to face with the missionary who had been appointed by the British Conference to labour in that part of the Mission Field, and whose efforts were successful in restoring peace among the contending tribes. From that time he became a regular attendant at the the Mission church, and soon gave evidence of being useful as an instructor of his countrymen. Having proved himself to be a young man of considerable talent as a public speaker, and given evidence of spirituality of mind, he became a local preacher, and in that capacity rendered good service to our Mission in the Waikato district. When the Native Theological Institution at Grafton Roadwas established under the superintendence of the late Rev Thomas Buddle, he received a training which qualified him the become an Assistant Missionary., and in the year 1871 he was received into the full work of the ministry. His ministerial labours were chiefly among the tribes living on the banks of the Waipa River, over whom he exerted powerful influence for good. During the illness which terminated in his death he had the support and comfort of true religion, and expressed himself as trusting in Christ for reception into the heavenly world. His last utterances were those of a Christian man, and his end was peace. He was 74 years of age. ”

END NOTES:

1Gary Clover, “Te Putakarua, Te Awaroa, Te Matoe, and Te HauMaringi –Why Methodists Should Know and

Commemorate Them”, in: Wesley Historical Society, Journal 2010, Proceedings 92, December 2010.

2 Printed Letter, William Woon to The Rev Samuel Leigh, 13th April 1837, in: “Wesleyan Missionary Society

Letters”, 1820-1867, MS 2625, Folder 1, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington.

3 Letter, Nathaniel Turner, Mangungu, 17 April 1837, “Wesleyan Missionary Society Letters, Folder 1,

Alexander Turnbull Library.

4 William Morley, The History of Methodism in New Zealand, Wellington, 1900, pp.59, & 72; & also: George I.

Laurenson, Te HahiWeteriana; Three Half Centuries of the Methodist Maori Missions 1822-1972, Wesley

Historical Society Proceedings, Vol.27, Nos.1 & 2, 1972, p.47; & A.W. Reed, The Impact of Christianity On

the Maori People, Wellington, A.H. & A.W. Reed, [1955], Wesley Historical Society Proceedings, Volume

12, Number 4, pp.30-31.

5 Bronwyn Elsmore, ManaFromHeaven; A Century of Maori Prophets in New Zealand, Tauranga, Moana

Press, 1989, Chapter 4, “The Papahurihia Movement”, pp.[37]-48, esp, p.46.

6Refer: Morley, History of Methodism in New Zealand, p.135, &, Laurenson, Te HahiWeteriana, pp.32-33.

7The Australasian Methodist Church in New Zealand.12thNew Zealand Annual Conference Minutes, Dunedin,

21-31 January 1885, p.7, Auckland Archives of the Methodist Church of New Zealand. Laurenson, pp.32-

33 & 39, suggests there were two nineteenth century local preachers named WiremuPatene who should not

be confused. WiremuPatene’s Obituary notice suggests that they may in fact have been one & the same.

8 Laurenson, p.32, (who calls him “TimotiOtene”), &, Morley, History of Methodism, p.59. Refer also: The

Dictionary of New Zealand Biography,Vol. One, 1769-1869, Wellington, 1990, pp.541-545, &, James Belich,

‘I Shall Not Die’;Titokowaru’s War New Zealand, 1868-1869, [Wellington, Victoria University Press, 1989],

for the later career of HohepaOtene as RiwhaTitokowaru.

9 Belich, ‘I Shall Not Die’, pp.2-3, & 291.

10 Morley, p.204; &, WesleyanMethodist Church in Australasia, Minutes of the General Conversations between

the Ministers of the Australasian WesleyanMethodist Church at the Fifth Annual Conference begun in

Sydney, Thursday, January 20th, 1859, Sydney, 1859, in: Archives of the Methodist Church of New Zealand,

Morley House, Christchurch, 1856-1859; &, Donald Phillipps, Companion To William Morley’s History of

Methodism in New Zealand; A Guide to Nineteenth Century New Zealand Methodism, Auckland, Wesley

Historical Society, 2006, pp.82-83.

Map of Hokianga & Bay of Islands Mission Fields, T.M.I. Willement, John Hobbs 1800-1883; Wesleyan Missionary to the Ngapuhi Tribe of Northern New Zealand, Wellington, Govt. Print, 1985, p.73,

based on map by Rev G.I. Laurenson, in: Te HahiWeteriana; Three half centuries of the Methodist Maori Missions 1822-1972, Auckland, Wesley Historical Society (NZ) Inc, 1972, Proceedings vol.27, Nos. 1 & 2, opp.p.80.

Rev WiremuPateneKairangatira 1810-1884, “A noted Native minister”.

From: William Morley, The History of Methodism in New Zealand, Wellington, 1900, p.100.

HohepaOtene (Joseph Orton) in later years when he had reverted to his pre-baptismal name, RiwhaTitokowaru.

Image from the Illustrated Australian News, October 1869, Alexander Turnbull Library photo, reproduced in, Ian Church, Heartland of Aotea; Maori and European in South Taranaki Before the Taranaki Wars, Hawera, Hawera Historical Society, March 1992, p.108.

______