Maori Bible History (3)

**List: Maori Ministry

the Bible ( [te] Bible )
Maori...
NEW ZEALAND.

"I.--GEOGRAPHICAL EXTENT AND STATISTICS.

NEW ZEALAND, the nearest considerable land to the antipodes of Britain, consists of a group of islands
lying in the South Pacific, to the eastward of Australia and Van Diemen’s Land.   From the nearest
point of the Australian continent it is separated by a distance of 1150 miles, and from Van Diemen’s
Land by upwards of 900 miles.   The group embraces two large islands-- called respectively North
Island and Middle Island--with a third of smaller dimensions, lying to the southward of the
others, and named South or Stewart Island, besides many adjacent islets.   The two larger islands are
separated by the channel of Cook’s Strait.   The superficial extent of the entire archipelago is about
99,500 English square miles.
   Since the year 1840, New Zealand has been a recognised possession of the British crown.   Settle-
ments have been made at several places on the shores of both the larger islands--the six principal of
them being Auckland (the seat of government for the entire colony), New Plymouth, and Wellington
--on the North Island; with Nelson, Canterbury, and Otago, on the Middle Island.   The settlement
of Canterbury was established so lately as 1850, and was organised strictly as a Church colony.   The
Otago settlement (founded in 1847) consists chiefly of natives of Scotland.
   In 1858, the colonial population of New Zealand numbered about 61,000, and at the present time
(1860) probably exceeds 80,000.   The native population is estimated at little more than 70,000, show-
ing a very considerable decrease within recent years--the number having formerly been calculated at
more than double that amount.   The native population of New Zealand-- like the Polynesian races
in general--is diminishing, and at a rate which, unless circumstances should arise to check it, promises
at no distant period its extinction as a distinct race.
   The Maori dialect differs only from the Tahitian in the interchange of certain consonants; and a
native of Tahiti, immediately on landing for the first time in New Zealand, is capable of conversing

with the inhabitants.   Even a native of Hawaii can render himself intelligible in New Zealand,
although the two islands are between sixty and seventy geographical degrees apart, and the respective
inhabitants had no communication with each other before the period of European discoveries.
   The New Zealand or Maori language is the most cultivated of all the Polynesian dialects.   It is
richer in sounds, and more copious in expression, than any of the others; although the main features
of its grammatical construction agree with the general outline of Polynesian idiom.
   In the Northern Island of New Zealand alone, there are seven principal dialects; i.e. the Rarawa,
Ngapuhi, Wackato, Bay of Plenty, East Cape and Rotama, Port Nicholson and Wanganui, and Mokau:
but the Wackato dialect is reckoned the purest.   The New Zealand language has five vowels, eight
consonants, and the nasal sound ng; and like the Tonga dialects, etc., it also possesses the twofold dual
and plural forms of personal pronouns.   In general, it is a sonorous and energetic tongue; which forms
the extreme division of the Polynesian dialects to the southward.

II.--VERSION OF THE SCRIPTURES IN THIS DIALECT.

   The attention of the Church My. Society was early directed to New Zealand by the repre-
sentations of the Rev. Samuel Marsden, senior chaplain of the colony of New South Wales; three
mies. from this Society effected a landing in New Zealand in 1814, and, after reducing the
language to writing, they commenced a translation of the Scriptures.   In 1831, the Rev. Mr. Yate
spent upwards of six months in New South Wales, occupied in carrying through the press the first
publication in the Maori dialect; it consisted of 117 closely printed pages, containing selections from
the Scriptures, the Liturgy and Catechism of the Church of England, and Hymns.   This attempt
proved so successful, that in 1832 Mr. Yate printed 1800 copies of the Gospels of St. Matthew and
St. John, the Acts, the Epistle to the Romans, and the first Epistle to the Corinthians: paper was
provided for this purpose by the British and Foreign Bible Society.   The translation of the entire New
Testament occupied seven years in preparation, and during this period it underwent several revisions,
in which all the agents of the Church Mission assisted; but the principal translator was Mr. Yate.
This version was drawn immediately from the Greek original, and is accounted a very literal and
idiomatic translation.   Although it was completed in 1835, the first edition did not appear till 1840,
when 5000 copies were printed at the expense of the British and Foreign Bible Society.   A second
edition, consisting of 20,000 copies, was printed by the same Society in 1842, and a third, of the like
extent, in 1844.   More recently, an impression of 15,000 copies of the Maori New Testament has been
completed, under the revision of Archdeacon (now Bishop) Williams and the Rev. T. W. Meller.
This swells the total amount (including portions of the Old Testament, as referred to below) to
118,930 copies of portions of the Word of God, which had, up to the close of 1858, been placed by
means of the British and Foreign Bible Society in the hands of the natives of New Zealand.
   The first portion of the Old Testament committed to the press in the Maori tongue was the Psalter,
of which 20,000 copies were published by the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1848.   This edition
was printed by permission of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge from the Psalter forming
a part of the New Zealand Common Prayer Book, then in course of publication by that Society; the
translation being conformed to the Bible version of the Psalms.   In the same year, the Bible Society
undertook an edition of 10,000 copies of the Pentateuch and the book of Joshua, in Maori.   A suc-
ceeding portion of the Old Testament Scriptures, from Judges to Psalms inclusive, from a translation
made by the Rev. Mr. Maunsell, a resident my. in New Zealand, was printed by the Society in
1855; the edition consisting of 5000 copies.   Mr. Maunsell has since sedulously devoted himself to the
task of completing the translation of the remaining portions of the Old Testament into Maori, a work
which, by divine grace, he has been permitted to accomplish.   "The whole Word of God is now (he
wrote in 1856) in Maori. . . . . . I have, through God’s great goodness, been spared to assist in the
revision of the New Testament and Prayer Book, and to finish an original translation of the Old
Testament."

   This great work has now, by the blessing of God, received its fitting consummation, an edition of
5000 copies of the concluding portion (from Proverbs to Malachi) having been completed in London
(under the careful superintendence of the present Bishop of Wellington) in 1858, at the cost of the
British and Foreign Bible Society.   Another triumph will thus be gained to the cause of truth.   "If
(said his Excellency the Governor of New Zealand, in 1857, at a meeting of the Auckland Auxiliary)
any of the three hundred gentlemen who met at the London Tavern early in this century, to form a
Society (or distributing the Bible, had ventured to predict that in fifty years a branch of it would spread
over the antipodes, his hearers would have smiled incredulously; but if he had added that two-thirds of
that fierce race of cannibals, known to Englishmen only by Captain Cook’s report, would by that time
be converted to Christianity--that they would receive the Bible translated into their own language--and
that in those unknown islands alone 1500 copies of the Bible would be distributed in one year by
this branch of the Society--he would have been regarded as a speculative enthusiast.   That such
wonders have come to pass we are living witnesses, and that we are so, must be a subject of congratu-
lation and a cause of thankfulness to us all."

III.--RESULTS OF THE DISSEMINATION OF THIS VERSION.

   The Maori Testament has proved a powerful weapon against popery, and has been known in
several instances to have been the means of enabling the converted natives to withstand the insinuations
of Romish emissaries.   So deeply, indeed, is this felt by the agents of the Roman Catholic Church,
that they were said some time since to be preparing a translation of their own in this dialect.   The
district of Hokianga, at which Romish priests had been stationed for the previous twelve years, was
at length abandoned by them in despair; they having been unable, during the entire period, to succeed
in making the smallest permanent impression on the native population!
   The greater number of the New Zealanders, formerly cannibals and gross idolaters, are now
walking in the light of truth, and, although some disappointment, as is natural to all human efforts,
may have been experienced, yet the recent reports received from this highly interesting region
contain much that is encouraging.   "Several of the chiefs (writes the Rev. J. Warren, to the
Wesleyan My. Society, in 1851) have within the last few months renounced heathenism, and
are diligently endeavouring to learn to read the sacred Scriptures.   I believe the Spirit of the Lord is
powerfully at work on many of their hearts."   The testimony of the Rev. Mr. Puckey, of Kaitaia,
to the blessed results of the diffusion of the Scriptures among the native population in this distant
part of the world is strikingly interesting.   "Europeans say that they think the New Zealanders
a very tame and inoffensive people.   So they are; but they should have come to live among
them thirty years ago, before the influence of the Gospel manifested itself.   I remember to have
been in bodily fear for a month at a time, and was not sure of my life for half an hour; but the case is
vastly different now.   The Saviour is loved by many hundreds, and God is worshipped in spirit and
in truth."--"You will rejoice to hear (says the Rev. R. Burrows, in 1859) that the Word of God is
still read and prized by many of our native converts.""--The Bible of Every Land. (1860, Second Edition)   Samuel Bagster   [Info only]

NEW ZEALAND.--1860   S. Bagster   [Info only: n.d. John 1:1-14 unknown.]

[Christian Helps Ministry (USA)] [Christian Home Bible Course]