U. H. DI.i^l;r.. ew an.l Stcond-hand Booksei i - ■ Chaucer's Head " }iookroo:i! REV W. WILL, Moderator of Synod of Otago and Southland, 1897 1898. FIFTY YEARS SYNE. A JUBILEE MEMORIAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF OTAGO. BY REV. JAMES C HIS HOLM. 1848 1898. DUNEDIN : J. WiLKiE AND Co., Printers and Publishers, Princes Street. New ZE.viiAND Bible, Tract, and Book Society, George Street. 18 98. stack Annex PREFACE. &6C4f The Synod set me the task of writing a Jubilee Memorial of our Church, and left me perfectly free as regards the method and contents of the book. From the first it was evident that a bare recital of facts, in connection with the immediate origin and growth of our comparatively small Church, so far from being stimu- lating, might become very wearisome, and lend itself to Provincial conceit. I have thought it necessary, therefore, to widen the horizon and introduce a good deal of what in one aspect may be deemed extraneous matter. This may help to counteract the belittling effect of narrow surroundings, and show that we are closely linked to a glorious ancestry that has won for itself a foremost place in the ranks of the Church Catholic. Though small in numbers, we need not be pigmies in spirit, but great in humility, in loyalty to truth, and in saintly devotion to every holy enterprise. There has been a touch of romance in the effort to procure some of the illustrations. It seemed at one time impossible to complete the group of the first Session. It was known that the only likeness of Mr. Blackie was in the form of an oil painting that had been sent Home to his father over forty years ago. It is now in the possession of his brother in America, and the illustration is from a photograph of the painting taken in Chicago. The Church is greatly indebted to the Publishers for the pains they have taken in working up the illustrations, and reproducing so many objects of interest 2088275 iv. PREFACE. with such artistic skill and taste. Owing to the number and variety of the illustrations it has been found imposs- ible to place them either in exact chronological order or in those parts of the book which they are meant to illustrate. In gratitude for the abundant fare critics will perhaps overlook the arrangement of the dishes. I have very heartily to thank all who have shown a readiness to assist me in the work. If I have not made use of all the information they kindly sent, it is owing rather to want of space and a desire to preserve the proportion of things, than to any lack of interest in their communications. To my own office-bearers and congregation for their forbearance during my enforced absence while engaged on this task, and to my brother ministers in the Presbytery of Clutha, who so generously filled my pulpit for two months, and thereby enabled me to devote my whole time to a work in which they felt equally interested with myself, I am deeply grateful. I desire also most unfeignedly to thank Him who has enabled me to put unworthy hands to this work. In His abounding grace. He can cleanse our endeavours from the littleness of self, and use them for the further- ance of His own Kingdom of light and holiness. Unto Him be the glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus unto all generations for ever and ever. — Amex. J. C. The Manse, Milton. 1st March, 1898. PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. The sale of this book has exceeded expectations, and a Second Edition is already necessary. The one thing that causes regret to all concerned is the inability of the Publishers to keep pace with the increasing demand for the book. The small number of experts available in a young community for the kind of work that is required in producing such a book, along with the necessity that arose for procuring further material from Home, has resulted in vexatious delay. It is to be hoped that delay will whet desire, and that the difficulty of getting the book will add a keener zest to the reading of it. I have very heartily to thank those who have by letter or speech acknowledged their interest in the book. An esteemed correspondent exactly expresses what I ventured to hope might be the case : " I always," he says, " loved the Church of my fathers ; your book acts as a stimulus to renewed love and action." The Press reviews, so far as I know, have been highly favourable. One of them especially — that of The Christian Outlook — has been eminently sympathetic. The value of its generous appreciation is enhanced by the fact that the writer's own work stands in the front rank of Colonial literature. Several corrections have been made, and a few more illustrations introduced. It was intended at one time to draw up an Index ; but the method of the book does not seem to make that very urgent, and time is pressing. The Manse, Milton, J. C. 30th March, 1898. CONTENTS. Chap. I. PROEM .. II. MAORIS AND OTHERS . . III. THE LAND PURCHASED . . IV. THE PEOPLE PREPARED V. THE LAY ASSOCIATION OF THE FREE CHURCH .. VL THE EXODUS VII. CAPTAIN CARGILL Vm. REV. THOMAS BURNS ., IX. THE FIRST SERVICES .. X. THE FIRST PRESBYTERS AND THEIR SUCCESSORS XL STOUT HEARTS TO STEY BRAES XII. DAFFIN' .. XIII. NEW METHODS OF SUPPORTING CHURCH AND SCHOOL XIV. THE MACEDONL^N CRY AND THE RE SPONSE XV. REVS. W. WILL AND W. BANNERMAN XVI. THE FIRST PRESBYTERY XVII. IN JOURNEYINGS OFTEN IN PERILS OF RIVERS XVIIL REV. D. M. STUART XIX. SOUTHWARDS TO THE BLUFF .. XX. NORTHWARDS TO THE WAITAKI XXI. OFF TO THE DIGGINGS . . XXII. THE FIRST SYNOD XXIII. INLAND TO THE MOUNTAINS AND LAKES XXIV. MISSIONS XXV. PUBLICATIONS .. XXVI. THEOLOGICAL HALL XXVII. CHURCH PROPERTY XXVIIL UNION .. XXIX. PRESBYTERIANISM XXX. CONCLUSION Page. 1 5 11 23 32 42 51 59 70 80 88 95 101 109 116 126 135 142 152 161 171 181 189 196 205 210 215 219 228 238 ILLUSTRATIONS. Will, Key. W., Moderator of Synod of Otago aad Southland . . . . . . . . Frontispiece Prayer used at Opening of Provincial Council. Written by Rev. Dr. Burns. (Fwc .sm/ie Handwriting) .. xi. Token used at First Communion . . . . . . xii. Ministers and Elders Attending Meeting of Synod OF Otago and Southland, October and November, 1897. 147 Portraits Folding Sheet facing Page 1 Facing Page Alexandra Church Anderson's Bay Church ,, ,, First Session Arnott, Rev. A. B. Arrowtown Church Balclutha Church Bannerman. Rev. W., Clerk to Synod of Otago and Southland . . Bluff Church Caversham Church Chinese Mission Buildings, Dunedin Church Property Board Clark, Rev. J. . . Clinton Church . . Clutha — Original Church and Manse Columba Church, Oamaru . . Connor, Rev. C. . . Don, Rev. A. East Taieri — Original Church and Present Church AND Manse . . Ferguson, Rev. J. First Church and Original Church and Manse „ ,, Ministers ,, ,, Session (Dunedin) 192 104 10.5 209 240 209 120 217 241 200 216 169 224 121 176 232 200 113 184 65 72 73 ILLUSTRATIONS. Facing Page Pkesen FiKST Pkesbytery . . ,, ,, Associates of First Session Gillies, Rev. W. . . Gore — Old and New Churches Green Island— Old and New Churches Inchclutha and Ovvake Churches . . Invercargill — First Church and Maxse Johnston, Mr AD. Kaikorai Church and Manse Kelso Church Knox Church— Old Church and Manse Present Church and Manse Ministers . . Session Dr Stuart's Handwriting (Fac simile Extracts) KuRow Church Lawrence — Old and New Churches Lindsay, Eev. G., and Elders of St. Paul cargill MacGregor, Rev. Dr McAra, Rev. McNicoL, Rev. J . . Michelsen, Rev. 0. Milne, Rev. P. . . Milton — Old and New Churches MoRicE, Rev. G. . , Mornington Church Naseby — New and Old Churches New Hebrides Mission Scenes North-East Valley Church Otautau Church . . . . Otepopo Church . . PALMERbTON ChUBCH Port Chaljiers — First, Second, and PORTOBELLO RoAD MaNSE . . Pioneer Ministers of the Church Queen stown s, Inver Churches 128 129 80 137 225 136 153 184 209 136 224 144 14.'5 233 177 160 176 209 152 200 200 152 209 241 193 200 241 217 161 168 112 104 88 240 ILLUSTRATIONS. Facing Page EivERTOM Church . . 217 Eoss, Kev. C. S. .. 192 Boss, Eev. D. 240 EoxBUKGH Church 192 Etlet, Eev. J. . . 161 Shaw, Mr J. 153 Smaill, Eev. T. . . 200 Smith, Eev. J. Gibsox, Eev. A. H. Stobo, a ND EtPURS OF First Church, Invercakgill 185 Some Pioneer Members 89 South Dunedin Church 104 St. Andrew's Church 208. ,, ,, Ministers 208 St. Paul's Church, Oamaru 232 Sutherland, Eev. J. M. . 137 Tapanui Manse 224 Todd, Eev. A. . . IGl Todd, Eev. A. B. . . 152 Waiaeeka Manse . . 238 Waikouaiti Church 168 Wairuna Church . . 224 Waitahuna Manse 177 Waitati Church . . 168 West Taieri Church 137 Wilson, Mr H. . . 193 Wyndham Church 225 i m- \ FIFTY YEARS SYNE. xi. PRAYER USED AT OPENING OF OTAGO PROVINCIAL COUNCIL. The following prayer in the handwriting of Dr. Burns was composed by him, and read by Mr. Speaker at the opening of every sitting of the Otago Provincial Council, from its first sitting on 30th December, 1853, till its last on 3rd May, 1875 — thirty-four sessions : — ^/ SiHoiv.— MrR.LeishmaD Mr M'NicoIl Mr W. Leslie MrW.Coustoa Rov.Dr. Watt Dr. Waddell Mr C. Moore Mr J- Tait Mr W. Scotl Rev. A Don. Rev. R.BIuir Mr Hutchison Mr W. Hain RevJ G.Smiih MrMacdonald Mr J. Don Rev. W.M'Laren Mr Christie Rev. W. Brown Mr M'Gregor 4Tn Row.— Rev. T. Pauiin Rev M'Inljre Rev. A. Greig Rev. J. Gibb Rev. HewilsoiJ Rev. Tennent Rev. Porter Rev. Campbell Mr H. Ross Rev, W. Nichol Rev.J.Sleven MrGoodall Mr Youngson Rev. P. Hay MrA.Fmser Hev.W. Wright Stb Ro«.-Mr G. Reid Rev. I. Jolly Mr Somerville Rev. Cameron Rhv. W. WILL, Mr J, Waddell Re\.Dutton Mr Bendeison Rev. J. Christie MrR. Jackson Rev. J Slaiidring Mr RuUrt^^un Rev. A. Thomson Rev W. BANNEKMAN Mr. R. Sleel Rev.J.CIarke Mr. J. Bruce Rev J Cumminir Moderator of Synod Tlcikof SvnuJ. ' ' ^i % ¥iM^ ^^^^^^WB5>« WrilnUfvorlh t Binnt. . B ^ ^^^^^^^^^^ B 6TuRow.-MrW.Begg Mr J. M'Lay Mr T. Adam Mr M'Corkindiik- Mr A. McNicol MrT.Tait Mr J. JohDaton Mr W. PalerEon Mr Cbisholm Rev. J. Gellie Rev.M'C.SmJth Mr Johnson Mr Cargill Rev. J. Lolhian MrA.C.Begg Rev. W. Grant TthRow.— Rev. W.H. Gray Rev. Somerville RGv.J.S.Reid Rev. Chisholm Rlv. J. Will Rev. Kilpatrick Rev.Fairmaid Rev. Dali-j-mple Mr J. Bremner ^rW.H.Rose Rev. J.Davidson Rev. P.Ramsay MrM-Kinna Rev. J.A. Aahtr Dr. Copland Rev. A. Begg MrC. Knowles Rev. 0, Miller 6tb How.— Rev. O. Hall Rev. SmelJie Rev.JSmaill Rev. J. M. Allan MrClark Rev.J.U.Spence Rev.Micbelsen Rev. Currie Rev. Telford Rev. J. Milne Mr Stewart MrW.M'Kay Rev. W. Kyd Rev. A. B. Todd Mr M. Dickie Rev. Carter Mr W. Aysod 'JTO Row.— Rev. P. B Fraser Mr J. Tavlor , Mr J. I'ullar Rev. J. Johnatoo • PRESB'VXERIAN S'VNOD OF" OXAGO AIfr> SOU'r»i:.ANX>, 189T. FIFTY YEARS SYNE, A JUBILEE MEMORIAL OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF OTAGO. CHAPTER I. PROEM, Full fifty years syne, in the roomy kitchen of a cottar's house in the heart of Scotland, a woman was busy ironing at a long deal table. It was Saturday evening, and she was preparing for the morrow. She had finished a mutch for herself and a dickey for her husband. Several other articles of clothing hung on a cord that w^as stretched across the bright fireplace, a little below the mantel shelf. Two pairs of little boots stood at the side of the hearth, highly polished for Sabbath use ; their wearers were asleep in bed. She was smoothing the folds of a print dress. It had been worn by a little girl — the first born of the flock — but she was dead, and it was now to be used by her sister. The mother's fingers moved tenderly amongst the folds, as if she were handling a hving creature sensitive to the slightest touch. Her thoughts were sometimes with the tiny grave in the kirkyard, and sometimes in the happy land about which her girl was wont to sing and ask puzzling questions. The tears ran down the mother's cheeks as memory recalled the prattle 2 FIFTY YEARS SYNE. of her child. She became conscious of them only when they fell hissing on the heated iron ; then she hurriedly brushed them away, and set herself more energetically to work. After finishing her task, she reached up to a shelf by the side of the chimney and took down the family Bible, and laid it on the table for use. She then blew out the candle, and sat down amidst the flickering shadows caused by the expiring embers to wait for her husband. He had been at a lecture on " Otago,"in the village school, and was just returning. It was an evening in the late autumn. There was a touch of frost in the air ; a film of white mist lay along the carse ; a rank smell came from the decaying shawsof potatoes in a field close at hand ; and the spirits of the man were somewhat low, as, Avith bent head, he walked wearily along the well- known road. Ere he reached his home, however, his head was elate ; he walked with a resolute step, and a new hope was dawning in his soul. She heard his footstep, and then the latch was lifted, and he entered. The cement floor recently whitened, the blackened jambs brightly polished, and shining in the glow of the fire-light ; above all the winsomeness of the woman who had walked bravely with him for the last ten years in sunshine and shadow, filled him with gladness. The quietness, and comfort, and subtle grace of a Christian home crept about his spirit and lapt him as in an atmosphere of heaven, and he shrank from speaking about his newly-formed purpose. At last he said, with startling abruptness, — " I think we should go, Jean." Her head sank, for she saw by his face, and knew from the tone of his voice, that while his words were tentative his mind was resolute. She said nothing, but FIFTY YEARS SYNE. 3 her eyes were on the Httle dress, and her thoughts were in the kirkyard \vhere the rime was slowly whitening the green sod. " If half of what yon man says about Otago be true, it's a far better place than this. Times are hard for folk like us. We've been gaun back for the last year or twa. Sin' that dark day when we had to sell the cow to bury little Jean I hae lost hert, an' feel sick o' the place. The laird hasna been the same sin' we left the auld kirk, an' he mair than hinted the other day that he wud raise the rent unless I left the Nous, an' gaed back to my seat in the auld kirk again. I told him plainly that tho' I micht feel sair at leavin' the place that had been for sae mony generations in the family — tho' every burn, an' dyke, an' tree seemed like a pairt o' mysel' — yet, rather than wrang my conscience, I'd gang oot penniless the morn. He ca'd me a dour, misguided fellow, but I kent God was my helper, an' I had nae fear o' man." "Ay, John; but the laird's near hand, an' we feel his anger ; but God seems often far awa', an' we hardly ken at times whether it's His love that's lowein' or His anger that's burnin'." " Love aince, love aye, Jean ; wi' Him there's nae variableness nor shadow o' turning." He followed her eye as it turned again to the print dress, and he knew where her thoughts were. The past years had taught him how surely he could count on the tender- hearted woman by his side ; and so he said nothing further, but lighted the candle, opened the Bible at his elbow, and began to read from the eighth chapter of Deuteronomy, and the fifth verse — " Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chastenethf his son so the Lord 4 FIFTY YEARS SYNE. thy God chasteneth thee. Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him. For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths, that spring out of valleys and hills ; a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pome- granates ; a land of oil olive and honey ; a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it ; a land w'hose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou raayest dig brass. When thou hast eaten, and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which He hath given thee." FIFTY YEARS SYNE. CHAPTER II. MAORIS AND OTHERS. The Maoris were then in the land. In Otag.o they were scattered along the seaboard, chiefly in the vicinity of boat harbours. Their principal chief was called John Tuhawaiki, but he was known by Europeans as Bloody Jack. The gruesome designation is suggestive of carnage and cannibalism ; but it had a less offensive origin. He had been in the habit of associating freely with the sailors who visited the coast in whaling ships, and had proved himself to be an apt scholar in the use of their boisterous talk. It seemed to him to add a cubit to his stature when he could swagger about and supplement his native authority with the white man's forceful adjectives. The epithet " bloody " thus came to be often on his lips, hence his name. One is pleased to know that he grew to be ashamed of the practice that had won for him his equivocal title. By the time those who cared for their well-being came amongst them the Natives were fast dying out. This was the effect of several causes. Many were slain in tribal wars. On one occasion, during the first quarter of the present century, the southern Natives were hard pressed by a tribe from the north, under the famous chief Te Rauparaha. Most of them sought shelter on the Island of Ruapuke, in Foveaux Strait. Their pursuers came overland to the mouth of the Mataura. They made rafts of corradies and crossed the river. They attacked a band of peaceful Natives there, and slew most of them. 6 FIFTY YEARS SYNE. A Maori mother, who had passed through the horrors of the massacre and its subsequent orgies, was wont to tell Europeans some of the sickening details. She saw her own children thrown upon the glowing stones of a Maori oven, to be cooked for the cannibal feast. Had she ventured to interpose on their behalf her life would have been speedily ended by the swift blow of a mere or the sudden thrust of a spear. While the invading warriors lay there, gorging themselves with the flesh of their victims, tidings of what they had done came to the chiefs of Ruapuke. They rallied their men, crossed the Strait in their canoes, and, by a rapid and unexpected onset, completely overpowered their foes. Many of these were in turn cooked and eaten. A few were kept alive as slaves. Several years afterwards they became con- verts to Christianity, and were baptised by one of the missionaries. Besides such wars there were other influences of a more subtle, but not less effective, kind at work destroying che Maoris. Many of the men in the numerous whaling ships that frequented the coast were the very off'-scourings of society. They had fit associates in the waifs and strays that drifted, like scum, from the penal Colonies of New South Wales and Tasmania. Together they con- stituted one of the best equipped regiments in the hosts of evil. They introduced the vices and diseases of older lands among the Natives. They supplied them also with fiery liquor and strong tobacco, and led them on to excesses that proved speedily ruinous alike to soul and body. Two-thirds at any rate of the younger women lived with such men, and were dragged down to lower levels of heathenism than their ancesters had known. In many cases their stock of English words consisted of oaths FIFTY YEARS SYNE. 7 and ribald jests and blasphemies. At the beginning of the present century there were supposed to be about 2000 Natives at Taiaroa Heads. Before the century was half run out they had dwindled down to less than 50 souls. The full thousand that lived at the Molyneux, within the memory of white people not long dead, was represented in 1844 by a shrunken remnant of about a dozen. At one small bay near the Molyneux about 300 died of measles. Some of the parents, ere dying, are said to have buried their children alive rather than leave them to linger on through the disease to its fatal end. The engrafting of new fashions on old tendencies generated other kinds of disease, against which they were powerless to cope. Sometimes all the clothing which a Native happened to possess was worn without any regard to temperature. The consequence was that he sweltered under a stifling pressure during intense heat ; at other times he might have to go well nigh naked and shivering in the cold, either because he was unable to replace his worn-out apparel, or because he had bartered articles of clothing that were still serviceable for rum. Hacking coughs fretted the night watches of their miserable huts ; and many of them died of consumption. They pined away from their haunts like the streaks of snow in the hollows of Mungatua before a hot nor'-wester. Chris- tianity came too late to do more than lift the veil, and allow somewhat of the glory of the heavenly places to illumine the narrow pathway of the few survivors of a rapidly-vanishing race. Those who received the Gospel were indeed drawn away by its mighty spell from evil practices, but traces of former habits still clung to them. Their new life was far in advance of the old, and showed clearly by its fruits that it was rooted in Christ. As was 8 FIFTY YEARS SYNE. to be expected, however, it fell far short of the ripe results of an age-long training among the sanctities of pious homes and the institutions of Christian civilisation. Their poetic temperament was led into the ample store-house of divine grace by a simple faith, and it made touching use of parable. With a pathos befitting their temporal decline they viewed Christ as the Rock of Ages, stable and enduring. They were as shells cleaving to the rock, abiding unharmed despite the swelling waves that crashed and broke against its unyielding front. Or, again, they were like sea birds on the wing, driven hither and thither by the buffeting winds, or on the water, tossed about by its restless waves, until weary of turmoil and storm they fly at last to the solid rock to smooth their ruffled feathers and rest securely there. It seems a rebuke to our British Christianity that one of the most devoted missionaries amongst the ^Maoris in Otago should have been sent by the Bremen Society. His name was J. F. H. Wohlers. He was put ashore from the little schooner "Deborah" on the Island of Ruapuke, in May, 1844.'' The inventory of his posses- sions is not large ; items — " a portmanteau, two woollen rugs, a fowling piece, a little axe and hand-saw, a big sack of flour, and some salt." With this slender store of goods — his earthly all — he began a work which was carried on with untiring zeal and a fair measure of success for many years. Very few of the ^Maoris were then dressed in European clothes. Some of them wore blankets, others a kind of mat woven with their own hands from the "Watkin went to Waikouaiti m 184 1. He was succeeded by Creed in 1844. FIFTY YEARS SYNE. 9 native flax. They lived in low grass huts, with doors about two feet high, through which they had to crawl on all fours. A httle above the door there was another opening that let the light in and some of the foul air out. They were very filthy in their habits. When the missionary got a house of his own he set apart a room to serve as audience chamber. There the Natives came to learn to read the New Testament and to air their grievances. The partitions enclosing the room had to be made proof against certain undesirable belongings of his visitors. After they had gone the floor was invariably swept and strewn with fresh sand. Their food consisted of fish from the sea, eels from creeks and lagoons, pigs that roamed at large, feeding on roots of fern and on the marine life thrown up by the waves or generated among the rotting kelp by the shore. They had also potatoes and young mutton-birds. These last were preserved in a very primitive fashion. They were taken from their holes in the sand just before they were fledged, when they had the appearance of flufify, unshapely lumps of fat. They were cooked in that state ; then lengths of kelp were cut from the rocks and the cellular tissue removed, leaving only the tough skin or rind. These were tied at one end and stuffed with the birds, the melted fat being poured in along with them. When the kelp was filled, the end that had been left open was also firmly tied. The product had the appearance of a great sausage, fitted to nourish the thews of Anakim. About twenty years before Mr. Wohlers went to Ruapuke a sealing station on Stew^art's Island had been attacked by Natives, and all the Europeans slain. The provisions and other articles in store puzzled the Natives. They knew nothing about the uses of most of them. lo FIFTY YEARS SYNE. They amused themselves by throwing the flour at each other, whitening their brown skins as with a shower of snow. They tasted the soap, and instantly spat it out with disgust. They chewed the tobacco long enough to judge of its quality, and called it, scornfully, anrangi (heaven's gall). The gjunpowder they flung about in handfuls, with a vague wonder as to what strange plant would grow from such seed. In the evening, as they lay sated with a cannibal feast around a large fire, some sparks got to the gunpowder that had been strewn on the ground, and soon the whole space became a kind of inferno, with jets of flame spurting up everywhere and yelling savages leaping about and jostling each other in utter frenzy. There were a few converts belonging to the Anglican and Wesleyan Churches on Ruapuke. They had built their places of worship quite close together. When Bishop Selwyn first visited them they asked him what name should be given to the primitive structure. He told them to call the place Babel, and they did so, quite unconscious of the Bishop's irony. They were eager to get Wohlers' opinion about the relative merits of their respective beliefs and modes of worship. They insisted that their relation to Hahi and Weteve (the Church and Wesley) was like that of a man and two wives — one of them must be a favourite. Which was it ? He laboured to show them that the great thing was to be Christian, and that in Christ Jesus these outward distinctions were seen to be of comparatively little value.* *See " Autobiography of J. F. H. Wohlers " ; translated from the German by John Houghton. FIFTY YEARS SYNE. CHAPTER III. THE LAND PURCHASED. Hood had sung " The Song of the Shirt," and set before the eyes of Christian England that haunting figure of the starved and ragged seamstress among her grimy- surroundings, " sewing at once with a double thread a shroud as well as a shirt." Mrs. Browning had un- burdened her own pitiful spirit, and given startling utterance to the inarticulate sobs and speechless weari- ness of thousands of little factory workers, in her " Cry of the Children." Carlyle, too, like some Titan, was at his glowing forge, hammering out, in infinite scorn of all quack remedies, some more feasible scheme than Poor Laws to elevate the people and provide remunerative work for able and willing hands. He got very definite hold of two things, and threw them before the public in a half-contemptuous mood. These were that universal education, with vital godliness at the heart of it, and systematic emigration were of the first importance in any scheme for elevating the toiling masses, and relieving the crushing competition and widespread pauperism of Britain. He had a vision of Britain as the family hearth to which, as the years rolled by, representatives of the Anglo-Saxon race would come from the Antipodes and elsewhere, on great occasions, to acknowledge their kin- ship and have their affections and interests more firmly welded in the fervour of patriotism. The recent Diamond Jubilee of Victoria's reign has given proof that the dreams of a seer are often nearer reality than the selfish 12 FIFTY YEARS SYNE. calculations of immediate profit and loss, among which narrow-minded economists delight to burrow. " What a future," he exclaimed, as the vision grew upon him, " if we had the heart and the heroism for it ! " And in the fervour of his imagination he struck these jocund sparks of Goethe from his ringing anvil : — Keep not standing fixed and rooted, Briskly venture, bri<=kly roam. Head and hand, where'er thou foot it, And stout heart are still at home. In what land the sun does visit, Brisk are we whateVr betide. To give space for wandering is it That the world was made so wide. It did seem an anomaly that in this wide world there should be, as Seeley puts it, " On the one side men without property, on the other side property w^aiting for men." The problem was how to provide outlets for the starving people, and open up waste lands for their possession and use. The New Zealand Company had set itself to solve this problem. Its moving spirit was Edward Gibbon Wakefield. He was very clever, and had crowned a somewhat reckless youth by deceiving a lady and inducing her to elope with him to Gretna Green. For this crime he was sentenced to three years in New^gate. He thought of emigrating when his term of imprisonment expired. This led him to study various schemes of colonisation, and gradually the system afterwards known by his name assumed definite form in his mind. He saw clearly that some previous attempts to colonise new lands had in a measure failed because large areas of the soil had been acquired by comparatively few settlers, for the purpose of depasturing flocks and herds. Care had FIFTY YEARS SYNE. 13 not been taken to have such a proportion of capital and labour as would secure that mutual dependence which lies at the basis of society, and gives rise to the varied industries and reciprocal interests of civilised life. The remedy for such a state of things, he thought, lay in disposing of the land in small areas at a fair price, and applying part of the proceeds to introduce people, and open up the land by roads and bridges for productive uses. The scheme, as was afterwards seen, would be all the more complete and likely to prove successful if the Colonists were bound together, not only by descent from a common ancestry, and the traditions of the same father-land, but by the ties of a like religious belief and of similar forms of worship. To carry out any such system of colonisation, it was neceseary that the Company should gain some foothold in New Zealand. The only way of doing this at the time was to deal with the Natives, and make a pretence, at any rate, of buying their ancestral lands. Prior possession may not seem a very philosophical claim to absolute ownership, but it constitutes the only valid title to property that most races possess. The fine country held by the Maoris excited the greed of neigh- bouring Colonies, and drew many adventurers to its shores. Some of these " bought '" large tracts of land at prices that sound ludicrous in modern ears. The transfer of land, indeed, from earliest times has furnished' scope for many questionable practices. The Phoenician Dido seemed to be making an honest bargain, with those who occupied the site of Carthage, when she paid for as much land as could be enclosed with the hide of a bull. But when she began to cut up the hide into the narrowest possible stripes, and tie these deftly together, and then, 14 FIFTY YEARS SYNE. with the long measuring Hne thus formed, proceed to enclose a sufficient area for building the citadel of Byrsa, the original owners got quite a new insight into the ways of a commercial people. In view of all such practices, one is constrained to admire the straight- forward and dignified behaviour of Abraham, as he stood up before the children of Heth, and brushing aside their palaver of generosity, insisted on giving full value for the possession of a burying-place. A certain Baron de Thiery, whose name one comes frequently across in the complicated histories of early settlement in New Zealand, professed to have bought 40,000 acres for three dozen axes. He frankly acknow- ledges that it looks a one-sided bargain, but he asserts that an axe was of incalculable value to a Maori, whereas the land was lying waste. He justifies his purchase by precedent as well. To quarrel about standards of barter, and apply the rules that govern exchange in civilised communities to transactions with savages, is virtually, he holds, to condemn Captain Cook and other early navigators, whose praise is in everybody's mouth ! They replenished their failing stores by giving strings of glittering beads and scraps of hoop-iron in exchange for live stock and produce of the soil. Another adventurer who had made a lortune by land speculation in New South Wales, laid claim to almost the whole of the Middle Island. He had given the stipulated number of coarse blankets, of Brumagen muskets, of kegs of gunpowder, besides a " variety of unsaleable articles from some warehouse in Sydney." Expressed in money value, he had paid at the rate of a farthing a hundred acres. FIFTY YEARS SYNE. 15 Sometimes, indeed, the Maoris were reluctant to dispose of their land, but a tempting display of the articles of barter, in most cases, overcame their scruples. The easy road to victory over their enemies, and to rapine and plunder which fire-arms would open up ; the sweet music that could be flung from a Jew's harp to win the favour of coy maidens ; the delight of beholding one's natural face in a glass, and being able to deck oneself for conquest in love or war ; the pleasure that might be got from pipes and tobacco, especially the access of dignity that would surround a man who was able to belch forth clouds of smoke like the summit of Tongariro — these, and such like considerations, won their land from Maori tribes. It appeared, however, in the light of after events that they were not so simple as they seemed to be. " The land belonged to the purchaser, it is true, but there was nothing in the deed to say that the tribes had parted with any of their rights in the trees, the grass, the streams, the fish, the birds, or anything else except the soil. Thus the Pakeha found himself exposed to incessant trespass, or claims of entry, which practically nullified his title.'"'' It is easy enough to believe that the New Zealand Company consisted of very estimable and well-meaning gentlemen, who doubtless sat in their easy chairs at Home, and took credit to themselves for a most dis- interested philanthropy in opening up new fields of enterprise for their poor neighbours. At the same time, it is just as easy to believe that their agent in New Zealand was not over scrupulous at first in the methods by which he acquired a precarious title to the land which *" Story of New Zealand." By Edward Wakefield. i6 FIFTY YEARS SYNE. was offered for sale to intending Colonists. He may have been spurred to boasting by Thiery's brilliant transactions, and eager to show what a bargain he had made for his directors when he said to the Baron, " We got upwards of 1,000,000 acres in the south for less than /'50 in trade." In any case, he said it, and there can be no doubt that at Port Nicholson or Wellington the Company were settling people on land for which they had only the faintest shadow of a title. All such practices, however, were brought to an end by the Treaty of Waitangi. Chafing under the refusal of the Home Government to sanction the pro- ceedings of the Company, its manager sent out his brother. Col. Wakefield, in the Tory, to arrange for the settlement of Port Nicholson. He was closely followed by Capt. Hobson, and, in the beginning of 1840, the famous Treaty w^as signed by which the sovereignty of New Zealand and the pre-emptive right to all the land, were ceded to the British Crown. The Company was fairly dealt Avith. For every five shillings they could show they had spent in reasonable ways, they received an acre of land. Other pretenders to the ownership of large tracts of country had to make good their claims before a Board of Commissioners legally constituted. Even when a claim seemed just, it was shorn of its huge dimensions. All past abuses were thus swept aside, and the way was clear for fair dealing with the Natives under the impartial sway of British rule. Acting under instructions fiom the Company, and with the sanction of Captain Fitzroy, who had been directed to that effect on his appointment as Governor, by Lord Stanley the Colonial Secretary, Col. \A'akefield FIFTY YEARS SYNE. 17 dispatched Mr. Tuckett and two assistant surveyors to select a site for a Scotch Colony in the Middle Island. They sailed from Nelson on the 31st March, in the Deborah, a schooner of 120 tons, commanded by Capt. Wing. They proceeded to Wellington, and finally left on the 2nd of April. Among others on the little craft were the two missionaries Wohlers and Creed. Mr. Symonds accompanied the survey party as the repre- sentative of the Government. His knowledge of the Native character and habits, his previous experience as Sub- Inspector of Aborigines, and his own personal conduct, recommended him for this special service. Amongst other things. Governor Fitzroy wrote : " You will inform the Aboriginal Native population that you are sent to superintend and forward the purchase of land which they wish to sell, and that you, on behalf of the Government, will not authorise or in any way sanction any proceedings which are not honest, equitable, and in every way irreproachable." It was intended at first that the site for the Scotch Colony should be somewhere about Port Cooper (now Lyttelton) " provided that a better site could not be found in the Middle Island." A discretionary power of choice was left with Tuckett. He would be able to decide after seeing the places and ascertaining their capabilities. He did not form a very high opinion of Port Cooper, and so he sailed further south. " Had Moeraki Bay," he wrote, in his interesting diary, " been accessible to emigrant ships, a better site for a settle- ment could hardly have been desired." He was also favourably impressed with the country about Waikouaiti. He was not misled by the " poor crop of smutty wheat that had been harvesced " on a farm there, nor by the i8 FIFTY YEARS SYNE. " shadow of a crop of turnips " that was still on the ground. The scanty produce, he considered, was owing to bad farming rather than to poor soil. Sending the schooner on to Otakou, under the pilotage of Edwin Palmer, he walked overland with three Maori guides. After passing Waitati, he left the circuitous Maori track, and struck into the bush, in order, if possible, to reach the head of the Lower Harbour. He almost despaired for a time of getting through the well nigh " impenetrable forest, with its labyrinth of briars and supplejacks, fallen trees and narrow gullies." The Maoris, however, spurred him on by twitting him with the enquiry, " Where is the road now ? Maoris know no road here. This is Tuckett's road." He notes with thankfulness that there is only one species of briar to punish invading man in the woods of New Zealand, " but that one scratches cruelly." It is now known by the significant name of lawyer. He descended to the water's edge exactly opposite the schooner, which was anchored, as he had ordered, at the head of the Lower Harbour. Next day, 27th April, 1844, he went to the head of the Upper Harbour. This was the site he had in his mind's eye for New Edinburgh. =•' " On either side of the harbour," he says, " the forest continues unbroken, good timber is abundant ; the soil, notwithstanding that the surface is often rocky and stony, appears to be fertile." The great drawback seemed to him the difficulty of making roads, and the consequent drain upon his Com- pany's fund for public works. He resolved, therefore, * The name was happily changed to Dunedin— the Gaelic word for Edinburgh. FIFTY YEARS SYNE. 19 to proceed overland to the south, in the hope of finding a still more suitable site. He passed the Saddle-back mountain, and notes that it is wooded to the summit, and is "a great pig cover." His guides are disappointed at not finding any Maori huts in either bush in the Taieri plain, "one of which is of great extent." He had a somewhat disagreeable experience at the mouth of the Taieri river, which he reached late at night, after a tiresome scramble along its north bank. He expected to get quarters for the night at the whaling station on the island at the mouth of the river. After he had attracted attention by making a fire and discharging a gun, a Maori came and spoke to him across the water, giving him " cold comfort by the assurance that a boat would come for us in the morning." He got to the island the following afternoon. The people were busy cutting up a recently-captured whale of large size. " Mr. received us," his diary relates, " with hospitality. His wife, a sister of Taiaroa, is one of the lew Maori women that I have seen capable of being a helpmate to a civilised man, and they keep a very comfortable fireside, not the less so from the bleak barrenness which surrounds their dwellings. Nowhere, perhaps, do twenty Englishmen reside on a spot so comfortless as this naked, inaccessible isle." From Taieri he pushed on along the coast to near the Molyneux. He detected the footprints of a bullock and a pig at the mouth of the Tokomairiro River. The smacking of his lips can almost be heard as he eats his supper by a camp fire on Wangaloa beach. His very face, also, can almost be seen as a certain memory becomes too vivid. It is all graphically described as follows : — " Made an excellent supper of roast ducks, 20 FIFTY YEARS SYNE. which the Maoris basted carefully, catching the dripping fat on feathers, and dressing the birds constantly, but licking off the surplus after each stroke by drawing the feather between their lips — this part of the process was not gratifying." He saw the great seam of coal on the coast ; met the schooner in Molyneux Bay, and showed the kindness of his heart by presenting an old Maori woman there with a hundredweight of sugar, a blanket, and a shirt. He speaks of the wooded richness of Catlins, and of the prosperous whaling settlement at Tautuke ; tells us that a little island near that place is well stocked with rabbits, six of which he caught, with the assistance of a capital beagle. He comes across two whaling schooners at the Bluff, the crews of which had just taken a fine whale, and were busily engaged landing the blubber. He explores the New River and its neighbourhood, is stopped by a deep and sluggish stream : walks over a bed of peat, into which he can thrust a spade to the handle without touching ground ; sees plenty of bush and grass, with numerous tracks of cattle. He lands on the east bank of the Aparima, on the grass land, and with a spade examines the soil inland for two or three miles. He regrets that he cannot form the settlement hereabouts, " where there are so many facilities and beauties to recommend it for selection, but my duty is clear to me. I had seen far better land, with a better climate ; the frequent recurrence of rain at all seasons of the year reduces the number of working days. The degree of cold also is extreme." He hastened away back, asking the Maoris as he passed along to meet him at Otago, and arrange for the purchase of land there. He reported in due course to p-IFTY YEARS SYNE. 2r Col. Wakefield, who came from Port Nicholson to ratify the selection and complete the purchase of the block. He thoroughly agreed with Tuckett in his choice of Otago. "At Port Cooper," he wrote afterwards, 31st August, 1844, to the Secretary of the Company, "half the labourer's time would be consumed in bringing fuel from a distance to any suitable site for settlement. And it may be safely asserted that a section of 50 acres there would not pay the cost of fencing and building on it in the course of an owner's life. The neighbourhood of Otago is, on the contrary, essentially a poor man's country, containing good land and plenty of wood." Along with Mr. Symonds, Mr. Clarke the Sub- Protector of Aborigines, and six Maoris deputed by the assembled Natives of the district, Col. Wakefield walked round the boundaries of the block, or so much of it as enabled them to see the outside features which consti- tuted its natural limits. It consisted of 400,000 acres, and extended from the Heads to the Nuggets. The price Mr. Tuckett had agreed to give was ^2400. The Natives, to the number of 150, men, women, and children, from all parts of the coast, assembled at Koputai, where Port Chalmers now stands. The boundary of the land was defined in their hearing, the terms of purchase were explained and ample time was allowed them to talk over the matter. On the 31st July, Mr. Clarke addressed the Natives. He told them that " they had now only to receive the payment to complete the transaction for which they had assembled ; that they were about to part with the land described in the deed, with all growing on it or under it ; that it would be gone from them and their children for ever ; that they must respect the white man's land, and the 22 FIFTY YEARS SYNE. white man would not touch that reserved by the Natives." The deed was then read in ^laori, and agreed to by the Natives. John Tuhawaiki, the principal chief, signed it first. After him Karetai, then Taiaroa, and all the others who had tribal interest in the land. The distribution of the money then took place. ;^iooo was given to Tuhawaiki in settlement of his own claim and the claims of other Natives in the district of Molyneux. ^^300 was paid to Taiaroa, and the same amount to Karetai. The rest of the Natives about the Heads received ^"600, and the Taieri Natives, through Tuhawaiki, ;^2oo. " The affair," wrote Col. Wakefield, in a letter already referred to, " was concluded during the forenoon, without any disagreeable occurrence, and I have never seen a more satisfactory termination of any New Zealand bargain." FIFTY YEARS SYNE. 23 CHAPTER IV. THE PEOPLE PREPARED. Some people seem to have great difficulty in understanding the questions that agitated the Church of Scotland through her long struggle of well nigh three hundred years — from the Reformation to the Disruption. Clever people have not hesitated to say that the phrases in common use among the Scottish peasantry — such as the Headship of Christ, the supremacy of conscience, spiritual independence, co-ordinate jurisdiction of Church and State — are meaningless. Now and then sneers are heard from certain quarters at the Nonconformist conscience, as if it were a morbid condition of human nature at variance with sweetness and light. " It's a puir conscience," said a bastard Scotchman, " that'll no rax." But bastard Scotchmen and conceited Englishmen are a degenerate brood which the wholesome parts of the British nation contemptuously disown. It is a signal triumph of truth over error and prejudice to find that principles which were characterised as irrational and visionary have worked themselves into the creeds and practices of almost all the evangelical Churches that are at liberty to govern themselves and shape their polity in accordance with what they hold to be the truth of God. A free Church in a free State is a popular enough watchword now. The Scottish people started at the Reformation with the s:reat and luminous facts that there is a living God 24 FIFTY YEARS SYNE. whose authority is supreme ; that He is revealed to men, reconciled to men, accessible to men everywhere and always through Jesus Christ ; that conscience, when enhghtened by the Word and Spirit of God, is a sufficient guide for its possessor, and ought to be followed at all hazards. In carrying out His purposes among men, they believed that God had instituted two great departments of human activity — the Church and the State. These, though having separate spheres of work, were never to be regarded as hostile. They were rather to be viewed as embracing the entire circle of human interests, the State being specially entrusted with the outward and temporal conditions amid which the Church was to carry on her distinctive mission. The "civil magistrate" — using that phrase meanwhile to express the visible form which the governing power might at any time assume — was the representative of God in all civil matters. As such, he was to be honoured and obeyed so long as he did not forfeit all claim to allegiance by intruding within the spiritual sphere, and usurping an authority foreign to his office. The loyalty of the Scottish people to properly constituted authority has often been pathetic in its constancy. They clung with patient devotion to their sovereigns long after it had become clearly manifest to eyes less fond than theirs, that the prerogatives of sovereignty, as in the case of the Stuarts, were being used in the service of the devil. While the State, as befitted an earthly kingdom, had a visible head, no mortal man could be head of the Church, or gather up into himself the spiritual forces that are available for holy living. Jesus Christ is its only King and Head. He is full of grace and truth. His will is clearly revealed in the Holy Scriptures : and away from all the puddles of FIFTY YEARS SYNE. 25 human tradition, the hving Church must ever come to Him as the primal and unfaihng source of pardon and life and light. From the very first, the Reformed Church of Scotland asserted her spiritual independence and her right to order her own affairs without the interference of the State. The State, on the other hand, was continually assailing the Church and seeking to capture her ministry and her offices, in order to prostitute them to its own purely secular and often unhallowed ends. There were three ways in which the State sought to strip the Church of the liberty wherewith Christ has made her free : by popery, by prelacy, and by patronage. In 1560, the Scottish Parliament passed an Act prohibiting the administration of the mass, and abolishing the jurisdiction of the Pope in Scotland. The year following, Queen Mary, fresh from the French Court, with her dazzling beauty set amid a halo of romance, was eager to re-impose the yoke of popery on shoulders long galled by its cruel exactions. Her soft manners and purring, guileful ways won over many of the nobles to her side. The common people, however, under the leadership of John Knox, stood four-square to every smooth blandishment and rude assault. They had learned a better way than popery from the few Bibles they possessed, from the Hps of their living teachers, and from the dying testimony of such martyrs as Hamilton and Wishart. Along with Knox, they deemed the mass " more fearful than if ten thousand armed enemies were landed on any part of the realm of purpose to suppress the holy religion." With a vigilance that never wearied ; with a stern courage that could neither be broken by threats nor made pliant by tears or smiles ; 26 FIFTY YEARS SYNE. with an unselfish devotion to God and to his fellow- countrymen that shrank from no sacrifice ; with the spiritual insight and political sagacity of a Christian statesman ; with deep wells of tenderness in the heart* and the austerity of a saint stamped in every line of his attenuated body — Knox guarded the rights of Christian manhood and the purity of the Church, and secured for his country the inestimable boon of civil and religious liberty. All honour to John Knox ! The impact of his great qualities on Scottish history has been felt through all succeeding ages. As Froude has said, he created a nation while he reformed a Church. During the full century covered by the reigns of James VI. and his descendants, from 1580 to the Revolution in 1688, persistent attempts were made to introduce prelacy into Scotland. In the forefront of opposition, towering above all others, like a mighty crag rising sheer up from the breaking waves, breasting the full brunt of the storm, and sloping away into the quiet, landward fields, Andrew Melville may be seen. His famous words, spoken in the ears of the King in his own palace at Falkland, served as a guiding light to the Covenanters of later times. " Sir,' said the intrepid presbyter, " I must tell you there are two Kings and two kingdoms in Scotland. There is King James, the head of the Commonwealth, and there is Christ Jesus, the Head of the Church, whose subject James the Sixth is, and in whose Kingdom he is not a King, nor a lord, nor a head, but a member. We will yield you your place, and give you all due obedience, but again I say you are not the head of the Church." It was simple, and unflinching loyalty to Christ, unswerving obedience to Him, in maintaining the doctrine and polity which FIFTY YEARS SYNE. 27 they in every fibre of their bein<^ believed He had prescribed, that brought upon them the long-drawn anguish of " the killing times." Then it was that large spaces of Scottish soil were soaked with the blood of her noblest sons, and her barren moors made to flower with martyrs' graves. It was easy then, and it is easy still, to minimise truth and reduce it almost to a vanishing point, and then taunt people who cleave to it as to the very skirts of God with being too scrupulous, and righteous over much, and martyrs by mistake. But the via crucis is not easy ; and those who have walked therein have not, as a rule, been fools scattering dust and chaff, but big-browed, true-hearted men, sowing for future reaping the seeds of holiness and liberty and peace. The records of Scotland's brave and saintly martyrs were stored up in such books as " The Scots Worthies," " The Cloud of Witnesses," and in many a legend and fire-side story, and through these channels the spirit of the martyrs got into the very life-blood of the Scottish people, and prepared them for the last great travail of Disruption, to which Otago owes its birth. At the Revolution in 1688, and again by the Treaty of Union between Scotland and England in 1707, the Scottish Church was left free to carry on her work under the sole guidance of her Supreme Head. Five years afterwards, the State interfered, and restored the right of patronage. The patron was usually the largest landlord in the parish. He claimed the right of presenting a minister to a vacant congregation. He might be the most disreputable man in the whole country-side, and the minister he presented might be utterly unfit for his office, but the people had no redress. The evangelical section of the Church never hesitated to affirm that the State 28 FIFTY YEARS SYNE. was acting within its proper sphere in deahng with the temporahties of the Church — such as the manse and glebe and church and stipend — but they resolutely protested when, through the patron, it usurped a power that had been delegated by Christ to the Christian people alone. " It appertaineth to the people and to every several congregation to elect their minister."" " There is a two-fold call necessary for a man's meddling as a builder in the Church of God : there is the call of God and of His Church. God's call consists in qualifying a man for his work. . . . The call of the Church lies in the free choice and election of the Christian people."! Under the leadership of Thomas Chalmers, an attempt was made to find a kind of middle way whereby the civil claims of the patron and the spiritual rights of the people might be conserved. This was called the Veto Act. It provided that in cases where a clear majority of the male communicants of a congregation objected to a presentee, the Presbytery of the bounds should not induct him to be their minister. Even this concession was refused by the State, speaking through its highest court. After this, Chalmers and his followers got to see, with a clearness of living conviction shorn of all doubt, that if the Church were to be free to obey the will and conform to the ordinances of her Redeemer and Lord, she must sever her connection with the State, and sacrifice the buildings, the lands, the stipends, over which the State claimed administrative right. They proved themselves worthy successors of Knox and Melville. On the ever memorable i8th of May, 1843, the protesting *" First Book of Discipline." 1560. t Ebenezer Erskine. 1732. FIFTY YEARS SYNE. 29 majority of the Church, with a calm majesty of purpose that awed beholders, bowed their acknowledgments to the Queen's Commissioner, turned their backs upon the Established Church, walked quietly through a lane of people whose hearts thrilled as with the paean of a mighty victory ; gathered together in the hall at Canon- mills, elected Thomas Chalmers as their Moderator, and in the name of their glorious Head, whose presence seemed nearer and more real than ever before, constituted themselves into the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland. Four hundred and seventy-four ministers gave up manses and churches endeared in many cases by the associations of a life-time. They signed away stipends that amounted in the aggregate to ;^ioo,ooo. Above all, they set an example of religious heroism that quickened the pulse of Christendom, and made it easier for men everywhere to believe in the Cross of Christ and its redeeming issues. The common people in Scotland were moved to generous emulation ; and alike in sharing hardships with their ministers, in erecting churches and manses, and in providing all the ecclesiastical equipment that was necessary for carrying on the work of Christ at home and abroad, they clearly showed that they were possessed of high and enduring qualities. This rapid sketch of the religious elements that helped to mould the character of the first settlers and prepare them lor founding a Church in Otago, and building it up on lines drawn in the very heart's blood of their forefathers, would be incomplete without some reference to the educational ideals of Scottish Reformers and Churchmen. " The First Book of Discipline," addressed " To the great Councell of Scotland," in 1560, has these noble words : " Of necessity it is that your 30 FIFTY YEARS SYXE. honours be most careful for the virtuous education and godly upbringing of the youth of this realm, if either ye now thirst unfainedly the advancement of Christ's glorie, or yet desire the continuance of His benefits to the generation following ; for, as the youth must succeed us, so we ought to be careful that they have knowledge and erudition to profit and comfort that which ought to be most deare to us, to wit, the kirk and spouse of our Lord Jesus. Of necessitie, therefore, we judge it that every several kirk have one schoolmaster appointed, such a one, at least, as is able to teach grammar and the Latin tongue, if the town be of any reputation. And, furder, we think it expedient that in every notable town, and especially in the town of the Superintendent, there be erected a colledge, in which the arts, at least logick and rhetorick, together with the tongues, be read by sufficient masters, for whom honest stipends must be appointed, . . . Next, we think it necessary that there be three universities in the whole realm, established in the three towns accustomed : The first in St. Andrew's, the second in Glasgow, and the third in Aberdeen." That in Edinburgh came after in 1582. But this was not all. There might be " lads o' pairts," smit with a love of learning, capable, if only taken by the hand and made the most of by competent teachers, of rendering noble service to Church and State in their generation, whose poverty might prevent them from attending the seats of learning. And so " we think it expedient that provision be made for those that be poore, and not able by themselves nor by their friends to be sustained at letters, and, in speciall, those that come from landward."' Surely a noble aim : that every child should have a public school provided for it ; and that FIFTY YEARS SYNE. 31 every youth of promise should have an open way through a system of graded schools to the universities. While the system of national education sketched in Knox's book " was realised only in its most imperfect fashion, its system of religious instruction was carried into effect with results that would alone stamp the ' Book of Discipline ' as the most important document in Scottish history.'"'' The national system, however, was not by any means allowed to sink out of sight. In the first half of the Seventeenth Century it was frequently before the Parliament. In 1645, it was enacted "that there should be a school founded and a schoolmaster appointed in every parish not already provided." In 1696, definite provision was made for imposing a rate on the owners of land, to erect and maintain school buildings and pay the schoolmasters' salaries. From that date the parish system of primary schools became established. " From these parish schools," it has been truly said, " there have issued forth, generation after generation, ever fresh flights of young, humble, adventurous Scotsmen who, whether in England, India, America, Australia, any- where, everywhere, wherever intelligence and enterprise were needed, have done honour to their country, and proclaimed that they were the children sprung from the land of Knox." Church and school — the minister and the schoolmaster — have been the chief moulding agencies of Scottish character. By these were the people that founded Otago prepared ; by these will people of equal worth be perpetuated. ''John Knox." By Taylor Innes. 32 FIFTY YEARS SYNE. CHAPTER V. THE LAY ASSOCIATION OF THE FREE CHURCH. The Lay Association of the Free Church consisted of about fifty gentlemen," " many of them distinguished and influential members of the Church, noted for their philanthropy, patriotism, or general talent and business habits. They agreed to co-operate gratuitously, and from purely disinterested motives, in the project of colonising Otago." The Association was the outcome of a movement that appeared at intervals during two centuries of Scottish history. During the persecuting times, many people had been driven from their homes and compelled to seek refuge in other lands. Not a few, also, had been induced by love of enterprise and the hope of gain to push their fortunes not only in the lone lands of the New World, but in the crowded cities of Europe. The Church at Home kept her eyes on the scattered members of her flock, and sought in various ways to minister to their spiritual welfare. There were, for example, in the first half of the 17th Century, congregations in Holland comprised almost entirely of Scottish merchants. These were supplied with ministers from the mother Church, and their Kirk Sessions sent representatives to her General Assembly. At the " plantation of Ulster " by settlers from Ayr, Wigton, and the neighbouring Scottish counties, *The number varies somewhat in different lists. FIFTY YEARS SYNE. 33 ministers accompanied the pioneers to their new homes, and laid the foundation of the Irish Presbyterian Church. In answer to an earnest request for assistance from the Ulster Presbyterians, the General Assembly of 1642 sent some of its ablest ministers to visit them and labour among them for a season. Looking further afield, the Church saw thousands of her sons scattered about as sheep having no shepherd, and she addressed a pastoral letter to them in 1647. In its fervent love and yearning solicitude for their eternal well-being, it reminds one of St. Paul's epistles. " Unto the Scots merchants and others our countrymen," it begins, " scattered in Poland, Sweden, Denmark, and Hungary, the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland wisheth grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ." The letter concludes with this generous assurance : " We are ready, upon your desire known to us, to provide some able and godly ministers for you, as likewise to communicate to you our directory for the public worship of God, and our form of ecclesiastical government and discipline, together with the Confession of Faith and Catechism." The same rooted conviction that it profits men nothing though they gain the whole world and lose their own souls, and the same Christ-like desire to follow men everywhere, amid their dreams of wealth and eager strivings after greatness, with the ministrations of the Church, are very strikingly brought out in the history of the ill-fated Colony of Darien. That was the one great attempt at colonisation made by Scotland as a nation. It seemed to turn the heads of some of her most sagacious men. Yet amid the outward frenzy of excite- 34 FIFTY YEARS SYNE. ment that seized all classes of the community, there was a heart of calmness to remember that it was an intelligent godliness alone that gave permanence to national life. And so, with the 1200 who went out in the three ships in i6g8, there were ministers and teachers, among the rest Alexander Shiels, author of "The Hind Let Loose."* During the dreary period of moderatism in the i8th Century, the Church gave very little attention to the Colonies. With the evangelical revival there came a wider outlook and a larger philanthropy. A society was formed in Glasgow in 1825 for the purpose of promoting the spiritual good of the provinces in British North America, whither so many Presbyterians had gone. The commercial relations of Glasgow with these distant Colonies furnished an opportunity, which was gladly welcomed, of pressing their claims on the whole Church. As the result of a growing interest in her expatriated offspring, the Church instituted a Colonial scheme in 1836. In glancing round the wide territory already embraced within the Colonial Empire of Britain, the difficulty of providing Presbyterians with the means of grace became apparent. They were scattered about among other Colonists very much as gold is sometimes scattered in some of our creeks and river-beds. There is just enough of it to show the colour ; but it does not exist in sufficient quantities to attract the miner. If the forces of nature had stored the same quantity of gold within narrow limits, there would have been a rush and the opening up of a payable goldfield. "Under Macaulay's flashing rhetoric there is great distortion of fact about the faikire of Darien. FIFTY YEARS SYNE. 35 There were about 4000 people filtering out of the country every year. They went in all directions, and were apt to be absorbed in the communities where their lot was cast. Their national traditions, their religious convictions, their ancestral forms of worship, were ready to vanish amid their new surroundings. In many cases their numbers were too small to justify the Church in following them with her ministries. If the many driblets of emigrants could be brought together to form one great stream, and be directed to some suitable place, to form a homogeneous society, with common beliefs and practices, then, indeed, the means of religion and education could be provided and made available for them with comparative ease. This was the religious aspect of things that moved the Lay Association, and guided its members in their scheme of colonisation. They were also, no doubt, influenced by a desire to relieve the destitution that was so clamant around them, by settling willing workers on waste lands. They disclaimed any wish to transplant those who were rooted amid favourable circumstances at Home. But they were desirous of opening up a hopeful future for those who could not find work, or were struggling to make an honest living under the exhausting pressure of unremunerative toil. They were animated, also, by the laudable ambition of furnishing an example of successful colonisation ; of affording the spectacle of free com- munities working out highest issues, unhampered by what was bad, while loyal to all that was good in their fatherland ; producing amid fresh surroundings a nobler Christian society and a better national life than had been hitherto attained. They had the history of the New England Colonies often in their minds and on their 36 FIFTY YEARS SYNE. lips. The aims of the Pilgrim Fathers were also theirs. They would have added a hearty " Amen " to Cotton Mather's words : " The whole earth is the Lord's garden, and He hath given it to the sons of Adam to be tilled and improved by them. Why, then, should we stand starving here for places of habitation, and in the meantime suffer whole countries as profitable for the use of man to lie waste without improvement ? What can be a better or nobler work, and more worthy of a Christian, than to erect and support a reformed particular Church in its infancy, and unite our forces with such a company of faithful people as by timely assistance may grow stronger and prosper." The Lay Association very gladly, therefore, joined hands with the New Zealand Company, whose eyes were directed to the same end. The scheme was brought before the General Assembly of the Free Church in 1845 by a passage in the Colonial Committee's report, sub- mitted by Dr. Candlish in the absence of the Convener. It ran thus: "The General Assembly is aware that a project for the colonisation of the interesting islands of New Zealand has been before the public for several years, and has already been partially carried into effect. In particular, a Scotch Colony to New Zealand was projected two years ago, under the name of New Edinburgh ; but all proceedings in relation to that Colony have hitherto been suspended by circumstances to which it is unneces- sary to refer in this place. It now appears, however, that all difficulties in the way of this undertaking have been removed, and matters have at length been brought to such a point that there is an immediate prospect of the Colony being established in the most favourable FIFTY YEARS SYNE. 37 circumstances, and with every security for the colonists being provided with the ordinances of rehgion and the means of education, in connection with this Church. " Your Committee have recently had laid before them the proceedings and resolutions of an Association of lay members of the Church formed at Glasgow on the 1 6th inst. for the establishment of this Colony, together with various other documents ; and the Committee having carefully considered the documents, and obtained full explanation on the subject to which they relate, took the opportunity of recording their high sense of the liberal and enlightened views which appear to have guided the New Zealand Company in relation to this business ; and without expressing any opinion regarding the secular advantages or prospects of the proposed undertaking, which do not fall under their province, and are best left in the hands of the intelligent and honourable gentlemen who comprise the Association — they had no difficulty in stating their warm and cordial approbation of the principles on which this settlement is proposed to be conducted, as making due provision for the religious and educational wants of the colonists ; and their anxious desire in these respects to co-operate with the Association, and to countenance and aid their efforts to the utmost of their power." A deliverance cordially endorsing the report was, on the motion of Dr. Candlish, unanimously agreed to. The Terms of Purchase, or Articles of Agreement, as they are sometimes called, entered into with the New Zealand Company, provided for the Association being recognised as the party to promote the settlement. Emigrants were to be selected, and lands were to be sold 38 FIFTY YEARS SYNE. to persons approved by the Association. Along with the purchasers of land, the Association was to carry out the enterprise on its own principles, and, so far as possible, in its own name, " looking only to the Company for such assistance and acts of trusteeship in the matter of surveys, emigration, and general process of founding the settlement, as may be requisite." Part of the block of 400,000 acres purchased from the Natives and secured by Crown grant was to be divided into properties, and the proceeds of sales appropriated as follows : — 1. The Settlement to comprise one hundred and forty-four thousand six hundred acres of land, divided into two thousand four hundred Properties ; and each Property to consist of sixty acres and a quarter, divided into three Allotments ; namely, a Town Allotment of quarter of an acre, a Suburban Allotment of ten acres, and a Rural Allotment of fifty acres. 2. The 2400 Properties to be appropriated as follows, viz. : — 2000 Properties, or 120,500 acres, for sale to private individuals. 100 Properties, or 6025 acres, for the estate to be purchased by the Local Municipal Government. 100 Properties, or 6025 acres, for the estate to be purchased by the Trustees for Religious and Educational Uses ; and, 200 Properties, or 12,050 acres, for the estate to be purchased by the New Zealand Company. 3. The Price of the land to be fixed in the first instance at forty shillings an acre, or ;^i20 los a Property ; to be charged on the estates of the Municipal Government, of the Trustees for Religious and Educational Uses, and of the New Zealand Company, in the same manner as on the 2000 Properties intended for sale to private individuals ; and the purchase money, ;^289,2oo, to be appropriated as follows, viz. : — Emigration and supply of labour (three-eighths, 7s 6d in the £, or 37J per cent.) . . . . ;^io8,45o FIFTY YEARS SYNE. 39 Civil Uses, to be administered by the Company, viz. : — Surveys and other expenses of founding the Settlement, Roads, Bridges, and other improvements, including Steam, if hereafter deemed expedient, and if the requisite funds be found available (two-eighths, 5s in the £, or 25 per cent.) .. ' .. .. .. ^'72,300 Religious and Educational Uses, to be administered by the Trustees (one-eighth, 2s 6d in the £, or 12J per cent.) . . .. .. .. 36,150 The New Zealand Company, on account of its capital and risk (two-eighths, 5s in the £, or 25 per cent.) . . . . . . . . 72,300 It is to be observed, that from the sum of /^36,i50 to be assigned to the Trustees of Religious and Educational Uses, will be defrayed ^'12,050, the price of 6025 acres to be purchased as the estate of that Trust. The Association was allowed five years from the date of the first embarkation to sell the 2000 properties to private individuals. If it failed in this, the Company- reserved to itself the option of disposing of the remaining properties as -it might see fit. In the first draft of the agreement, it was stipulated that 400 properties were to be sold each year, and the despatch of emigrants regulated by such sale. This provision was afterwards cancelled. The order of selecting properties was to be determined by ballot. Article 24 of the Agreement specified that the Association, along with the purchasers and Colonists whom they might bring forward, were to prepare a Constitution for Church and schools. This Constitution, as afterwards prepared, embraced two documents — A Deed of Trust, and Institutes for Church and School. Under the former, four trustees were appointed, viz. : — The Rev. Thomas Burns, Messrs Edward Lee, Edward 40 FIFTY YEARS SYNE. McGlashan, and William Cargill. These Trustees were to have control over the moneys received for religious and educational uses. They were to apply these moneys as directed by the Deed — amongst other things, for the erection of churches and manses, and the payment of ministers' stipend and schoolmasters' salaries. They vi^ere to act in all matters with the concurrence of the minister of the first church, or the Presbytery as soon as it was formed. The Institutes declare that the Church of the Otago Settlement, with the schools attached thereto, is planted as a branch of the Free Church of Scotland, and is to be formed upon the model of that Church, and governed according to its doctrines, polity, and discipline, as these are presented in the Standards of the Westminster Assembly. They provided that until the formation of a Presbytery the Church should be under the judicatory of the Free Church of Scotland. They provided, further, for the formation of a Presbytery or Presbyteries, " to be composed of ministers in connection with the Free Church of Scotland in Otago, and the other settlements in New Zealand, and of the elders representing the Kirk Sessions of the several congregations." The Institutes also provided for the appointment of ministers and teachers ; for the management of schools, and the fixing of fees. Deacons' Courts were to have the right to admit to the schools such orphans and poor children as they might think fit, without charge. The great advantages held out by the Association attracted not a few who had families for whom they wished freer scope than their native land afforded, along with, at least, equal facilities for religious and moral FIFTY YEARS SYNE. 41 training. They also attracted young people — farm- servants and tradesmen — who were indulging day dreams of love and marriage, but were prevented from attaining their very modest aspirations by the galling restraints of insufficient work and poor pay — such young people as were humming with more desire than hope — Gin I had a wee house an' a canty wee fire, An' a little wee wifie to praise and admire ; Wi' a bonnie wee yardie beside a wee burn, Farewell to the bodies that yammer an' mourn. 42 FIFTY YEARS SYNE. CHAPTER VI EXODUS. At a meeting of the Lay Association held in Glasgow on the loth of August, 1847, it was unanimously agreed to issue an address to the people of Scotland. This address takes note of the delay that had arisen in connection with the scheme for colonising Otago. "The state of New Zealand affairs was such that it became necessary to pause until certain grievances should be redressed, and the birthright of British emigrants should have been properly and substantially secured." It goes on to specify how one by one barriers had been removed and a clear way opened up for the safe progress of even the most cautious feet. A Crown grant, or charter, had been issued on the 13th April, 1846, whereby the " Otago Block " was conveyed to the New Zealand Company. An Act of the British Parliament, passed in August of the same year, had secured for the Colony the right so dear to the British race, of governing and taxing themselves. This " Constitution Act," as it was afterwards called, was suspended for some years, at the instance of Governor Grey. At the time the address was issued, however, there seemed every prospect of the form of representative government, by Provincial Councils and General Assembly, which afterwards pre- vailed, being immediately carried into effect. According to the address, the reports concerning the internal survey of the Block were also entirely satisfactory. Mr. Chas. H. Kettle, with two assistant surveyors and a FIFTY YEARS SYNE. 43 staff of twenty-five men, had been for some time at the work, and was expected to have the various properties mapped off and ready for selection and occupation by the end of 1847. The Home Government was no longer opposed to the New Zealand Company, but had granted it a charter as a colonising body, so that in all future attempts at colonisation the Home Government w^ould be responsible for the maintenance of peace and the security of life and property. Every Colonist would be under the protection of British rule. The delay of about four years had thus been eminently fruitful in all the elements fitted to impart freedom and stability to the projected Settlement, and provide the outward conditions necessary to its success. The Association was now able to set an open door before the struggling population of Scotland, and direct their attention to a promising outlet for their energies. They were invited to look carefully into the provisions that had been made and the home that had been secured for an offshoot of the Free Church community, in all its integrity and with all its institutions. There was a ready response to the appeal of the Association on the part of not a few. It was no easy matter, however, for some of those who had little difficulty in making up their own minds to overcome the fears of their relatives, and break away from the clinging affections of loved ones. A near relative of one who intended to leave with his wife and family by the first ship burst into the house one day with an old newspaper, containing a report of the massacre at Wairau, near Nelson, in 1843. He read the details of that disaster with as much effect as possible. His voice and manner gathered an urgency of dissuasive appeal 44 FIFTY YEAKS SYNE. as he proceeded with the burning of the surveyors' huts by Rauparaha and the members of his tribe, who regarded themselves as the rightful owners of the land that was being pegged off; the futile attempt of armed men to arrest the incendiaries ; the accidental discharge of a gun that hurt nobody, but at once roused the Natives to active hostility ; the parley under a flag of truce, with the surrender of the Europeans ; then the sudden passion of Rangihaeta on discovering that one of his wives had been killed by a stray bullet, and the murder of twenty-five unarmed prisoners. After all that, surely no one would be so lacking in ordinary prudence as to venture his own life in such a place, or so utterly destitute of natural affection as to expose his wife and children to the tender mercies of such savages ! Another of the first settlers tells how difficult it was for him to break away from " the loving hearts of a father's home." His wife even took sides against him, and tried to get his minister to dissuade him from his rash enterprise. The minister was so far w^on over as to withhold a certificate of character for a time, thinking thereby to suppress what he, too, doubtless regarded as a passing whim, or a hot-brained fantasy that time and cool reflection would dissipate. x\s a rule, however, the men w'ho made up their minds to go forth to the promised land were not creatures of impulse. They acted deliberately, getting all available information, and praying to God for guidance ; and so they were not to be turned aside from their purpose by the airy phantoms conjured up by fond and less enterprising relatives. They saw a vision, and heard a voice in the privacy of their own being, and with clear eye and resolute step they followed its beckoning. FIFTY YEARS SYNE. 45 The John Wickliffe, commanded by Capt, Daly, sailed from Gravesend in the last week of November. She had on board Capt. Cargill, the Rev. Mr. Nicholson (a Free Church minister en route to Nelson), and ninety passengers, about a score of whom were bound for Wellington. After being driven back into Portsmouth by stress of weather, she finally left the shores of England on the 14th of December. She held on in the teeth of a gale that swept other vessels on the same course back into the shelter of the English Channel. Her sea-going qualities were, however, put to a severe test. The straining of her timbers made her leaky, and as the passengers were cooped up below during the protracted storm, their lot was by no means enviable. Clothes and bedding got soaked. There were no means of drying them, and for a time the steerage and its berths were cold and comfortless enough. The women and the children suffered most. Soon the ship sailed into sunnier and calmer latitudes, and the storm and its hardships were speedily forgotten. The Captain shaped his course vvell to the south, in order the sooner to run down his easting, but having met icebergs in 49 deg., he hauled about due east. The vessel was becalmed for two days close to Kerguelen Land. Capt. Cargill procured a sketch of the Island, which he sent Home, with a vivid description of its changing appearance, as seen from the deck. On the first day, it rose up like a dark, massive wall, lofty, rugged, and sublime, with its summits veiled by a dense cloud that hung down to within about 800 feet of its base. The second day, under a bright sun the veil was gradually lifted, and ridge after ridge, peak after peak, came into view, with many a receding hollow full of the glistering whiteness of untrodden snow. It was a pleasant break in the 46 FIFTY YEARS SYNE. monotony of che voyage to lean over the bulwarks of the becalmed vessel, and gaze at the shifting panorama a few miles away. Indeed, after the first rude buffeting, the rest of the voyage seems to have been like a summer excursion. The " Rime of the Ancient Mariner " had no restraining effect upon the passengers, begat no reverence in them for the mysterious albatross. They had twelve of them on board at one time. It w^as in no way owing to superior courage that they captured so many of these noble birds. One of them relates how he went into the fore chains for a harpoon that was fastened there, and saw a huge shark gliding below^ and looking up at him with a cold, hungry eye, so that he was fain to creep back on deck as quickly as possible. Several of the passengers were in delicate health w^hen they embarked, but so pleasant was the voyage that they became quite robust. They arrived in the Otago Harbour without mishap on the 22nd of jNIarch. The Philip Laing, a vessel of 400 tons, sailed from Greenock on the 27th November, 1847. She was under the charge of Captain Ellis. She had on board the Rev. Thomas Burns the first minister, Mr. James Blackie the first teacher of the new settlement, and 234 other passengers, 87 of whom were children under fourteen years of age. Ere leaving " the Tail of the Bank," a farewell service was conducted by the Rev. Patrick Macfarlane. He was a man of note in the annals of the Free Church. He belonged to a family that had for four generations in succession held office in the Church of Scotland. His living was the richest in the Church, and his name was the first adhibited to that Deed of Demission whereby so many ministers gave up their earthly all for conscience sake. The mere presence FIFTY YEARS SYNE, 47 of such a man, apart from his wise words of guidance and encouragement, would be a powerful incentive to that little band always to set the claims of duty before pleasure or the love of ease or the lust of gain. At the close of the service they sang together the second paraphrase, of the old Scottish collection, " O God of Bethel." It hardly needs to be said that as the eyes of the singers looked round on the features of the dear Fatherland which they might never see again in their waking hours, or gazed into the faces of loved ones from whom they were soon to be parted, perhaps never more to meet on earth, their voices became tremulous with deep emotion, even while their hearts gathered more resoluteness of purpose to cling to every high quality that had made their native country great. Some thoughtless lad wading in the shallows of that western firth heard the voice of the singer, and listening intently, caught the familiar words and felt his soul touched to higher issues — O spread Thy covering wings around Till all our wanderings cease, And at our Father's loved abode Our souls arrive in peace. They, too, were tried at the outset of the voyage by stormy weather, and had to seek shelter in Milford Haven. It's an ill wind, however, that blows nobody good. Some complaints were made about the dietary scale that led to improvements, of which succeeding vessels got the benefit. It may be inferred that the fresh breezes were more conducive to sleep than the narrow bunks and the lean mattresses. One of the passengers afterwards wrote very feelingly to a friend at Home, urging him when he came to bring " two good pillows and a mattress, as the ship's ones were too thin." The , 48 FIFTY YEARS SYNE. utmost cleanliness was observed amongst the passengers, under the skilful supervision of Dr. Ramsay, But for this, the little vessel, so crowded in every part, would soon have become a floating pest-house. Strict discipline was also maintained. The Captain and minister were clothed with magisterial powers ; and when on one occasion a serious offence was committed, they gave further impressiveness to their authority by the form- alities of a trial. The mimic trial was regarded as very dignified and salutary by some. Less reverend spirits made fun of it below. The cramped space furnished ample scope for the manifestation of the finest qualities of character. It became also a theatre for the display of all that was selfish and mean in human nature. It was a miniature world of loves and hates and hopes and fears. There were three marriages on board, and rumour was kept busy with other matrimonial projects. 1 he voyage might have been smarter, some were inclined to say, if the Captain had not found it so pleasant to walk the deck, or watch the stars come out in tropical skies, with the minister's eldest daughter by his side. However, they walked and watched to good purpose, as their after union testified. There were three births and four deaths during the voyage. All who died were little children. Greater even than the pang of leaving the old home must have been the anguish of the mothers as the bodies of their little ones dropped with a sullen plunge into their vast and wandering graves. As they lay awake in the dark nights and heard the cold water breaking and gurgling against the ship's side, how their motherly hearts must have wished that what was mortal of their loved ones had been resting under the daisied sod in FIFTY YEARS SYNE. 49 the quiet churchyard ! How often, too, in the quiet evenings, as the passengers sat practising Psalm tunes or singing the songs of their native land, while the children romped about the deck or played hide-and-seek round the galley or in the forecastle, these bereaved mothers would revert to their little ones, mayhap thinking of the time when the sea, too, would give up its dead ! Time passed, however, with its daily rounds and brovight fresh interests to sorrowing hearts. Divine service was held regularly twice a day and three limes on Sunday. Certain hours, forenoon and afternoon, five days a week, were devoted to school work, in which Mr Blackie was assisted by several of the passengers. There was also a Sunday School under the superintendence of the teacher, and a Bible Class con- ducted by the minister. After the routine of daily duty, high and far-reaching thoughts came occasionally to most as they sauntered on the deck or lounged about the bulwarks. On a fine star-lit night in the Tropics the minister was asked why he had left useful work and good prospects for himself and family at Home to come on such a venture to an unknown land. " Well," he virtually replied, " I don't often speak of it, but I had a great wish to be instrumental under God in founding a branch of our Church in Otago, which I hope will leave a Christian impress on the Settlement long after I am called away." " After the lapse of nearly four months," wrote Mr Burns, " without seeing aught but the heavens above us and the wide waste of waters all around us, the ship like a thing of life and of more than mortal sagacity, glided with perfect precision and without hesitation or 50 flfTY YEARS SYNE. mistake into its destined place at the farthest corner of the earth." So He bringeth them to their desired haven- They were all delighted with the scenery. The hills were clothed to their summits with sylvan beauty, and the blue waters of the little bays that indented the shore lapped peacefully their beaches of yellow sand. Some, however, who were more deeply interested in the practical than in the picturesque aspect of things wondered how such steep and densely-wooded slopes were to be made tractable to the plough. They were soon reminded that they had only entered the portals of the new land, and that, away beyond the girdling hills, there lay great stretches of fertile plains that with little effort would break forth into smiling corn-fields or rich pastures to cheer the heart and reward the toil of the husbandman. It was felt to be in every way becoming that the minister should give an opportunity to all of meeting together, and unitedly thanking God for His goodness in bringing them safely to the promised land. And so the voyage that began with supplication and an eager straining of desire, closed with thanksgiving and a larsfe measure of satisfaction. FIFTY YEARS SYNE. 51 CHAPTER VII. CAPTAIN CARGILL. The thirtieth clause in the original Terms of Purchase or Articles of Agreement between the New Zealand Company and the Lay Association ran thus : — " William Cargill, Esq., to be recognised as the Company's agent for the settlement of Otago ; the sentiments of the Directors of the Company with regard to that gentleman being in entire unison with those expressed by the Association in its seventh resolution of the i6th of May, 1845. Their high opinion of Mr. Cargill has been formed upon a personal observation for a course of years of his integrity, energy, efficiency, and perseverance ; and their confidence in his fitness for organising the first party of settlers, upon the constitution of which must depend so materially the future character of the Settlement, is confirmed by the able and judicious manner in which during that period, and in recent negotiations with Her Majesty's Government, he has represented in London the views and wishes of the Association and other parties m Scotland." He was a descendant of Donald Cargill. It is an honoured name in Scotland. It is closely associatecf with Bothwell Brig, that Flodden Field of Covenanting times, when the disciplined troops of England, under the Duke of Monmouth, cut down the raw volunteers of the Covenant, many of whom prayed frequently, but disputed :oo much and drilled too seldom. The old ballad shows low unequal the combat was — 52 FIFTY YEARS SYNE. They stelled their cannons on the height, And showered their shot down on the howe, And beat our Scots lads even down Till they lay slain on every knows. Alang the brae, ayont the brig, Brave men in heaps lie cauld and still : Oh, lang we'll mind, and sair we'll rue The bludie battle o' Bothwell Hill. Donald Cargill was present there and taken prisoner, but as his wounds seemed fatal, he was left by his captors. He lived on, however, and did noble service afterwards in the cause of freedom. He had a hand in the drawing up of the famous Sanquhar Declaration, which virtually raised the standard of rebellion against Charles H., and denounced him as a tyrant and usurper over the heritage of God. The twenty men who rode info Sanquhar and read the famous Declaration at the Market Cross in 1.680 may be laughed at or sneered at, as one or other easy exercise happens to fit the mood of their critics, but it was a deed done calmly in face of death ; and their example was followed not long after by the Kingdom that threw off the successor of Charles in the year of the Revolution. These Covenanters were pioneers in the march of progress, and had often to walk in toilsome and lonely ways marked out only by the footprints of the Crucified One. It was Donald Cargill, the same fearless man, clad in the panoply of heavenly mail, and speaking with dignity as a messenger of God, that pronounced sentence of excommunication against Charles at Torwood in Stirlingshire. A reward of 3000 merks was put upon his head, and he knew that he could not long escape. When at last taken prisoner, he was condemned to be hung on a gallows in the Grass- FIFTY YEARS SYNE. 53 market, Edinburgh. On the scaffold he was not allowed to address the crowd of onlookers, but he sang with firm voice part of the 11 8th Psalm — The mighty Lord is on my side, I will not be afraid ; For anything that man can do, I shall not be dismayed. AfterThe was dead, the hangman " cut off his hands and hashed'and hagged his head off " to fasten them on the Nether Bow. His body was laid in Greyfriars Churchyard, and the Martyrs' Monument still marks his resting-place there. Hugh Miller was wont to^^notice after a fall of snow that the first footprints were in the direction of that old gray monument. Donald Cargill was gentle as he was bold. To his personal virtues his friends bear the most glowing testimony. " He was abstemious, self-denying, tender- hearted, generous to the poor, and most sympathetic, as well as full of devotion and faith." From such a stock Captain Cargill sprung ; and those who knew him best saw in him precisely the same qualities, somewhat softened to suit their new setting amid more peaceful times. He was born in Edinburgh in 1784. His father was a Writer to the Signet. He attended the old High School in Edinburgh, under the rectorship of Dr. Adams. To be under that prince of teachers was, as with Arnold of Rugby, an education in itself. The future rector was the son of poor parents, and from his boyhood had to work hard for a living. In order to make time for study he was wont to rise early. During the dark winter mornings he conned his little Elzevir edition of Livy, and did other self-imposed tasks, 54 FIFTY YEARS SYXE. by the light of spHnters of resinous wood dug up from the adjoining moss. V\'hen he became a student at the Edinburgh University he lodged in a small room, for which he paid fourpence a week. His breakfast con- sisted of oatmeal porridge with small beer ; his dinner often of a penny loaf and a drink of water. His attain- ments as a scholar were only excelled by his fame as a teacher. He was even more enthusiastic in imparting knowledge than in acquiring it. When the light of mortal life was fading from his eyes he still fancied he was among his scholars, and quietly said with his last breath, " But it grows dark ; boys, you may go ! " and instantly expired, in the sixty-eighth year of his age, on the 1 8th December, 1809. Stirring traditions hung about the gray walls of that old school. Walter Scott just left it the year before Car gill was born. For a while, too, his brother Robert and he had for tutor a youth who afterwards became known throughout Christendom as Dr. Thomas Chalmers. It was surely to the credit alike of pupil and tutor that this passing contact in a world of change ripened into a life-long friendship. In 1802 young Cargill obtained a commission as ensign in the 84th Regiment. He joined the regiment at Calcutta, and shortly after- wards proceeded to Madras. While there he was promoted to a lieutenancy in the 74th Highlanders. This regiment had done gallant service at the Battle of Assaye, when 50,000 Mahrattas, the very iiower of Indian soldiery, drilled by French officers, were completely routed by 8000 men under General Wesley, The brilliant victory was won, however, at great cost to the 74th. ' All the regimental officers, except the paymaster, were killed or wounded. It was into a vacancy thus FIFTY YEARS SYNE. 55 created that Cargill stepped. The prestige of such a regiment, along \vith the stories of heroic deeds told at the mess table and in the barrack-room, was in itself a continual incentive to the young lieutenant, and doubtless helped to foster those sterling qualities which he mani- fested in later life. After serving some time in Southern India, he went Home with his regiment in 1807. Soon they received orders to proceed to the Peninsula, where they joined the army of the Duke of Wellington, after the battle of Talavera. He was actively engaged at Busaco when Marshal Masseno, with over 70,000 men, attempted with great bravery to dislodge Wellington, with full 25,000 men, from the rugged Sierra of that name. The French Marshal had, indeed, well nigh accomplished his design when, at the order to charge, " 1800 British bayonets went sparkling over the brow of the hill," and like an outburst of forked lightning over- whelmed the head of the French column. Cargill was severely wounded in the leg by a bullet. He was invalided, and sent home for two years. The surgeons wanted to amputate his wounded leg, but he stuck out against it, and after a time completely recovered. After rejoining his regiment, he was promoted to a Captaincy. He was present at the occupation of Madrid, and afterwards at the decisive battle of Vittoria. During a critical stage in that battle, his regiment drove the French advanced post through the village of Ariniez at the point of the bayonet. He saw the almost fabulous booty left in the track of the retreating army of Joseph Buonaparte, and listened to the improvised auctions at which even dollars, because they were deemed too heavy to carry, were put up for sale at the rate of eight for a guinea. 7 He shared also in the battles of the Pyrenees, fought on the banks of the Nivelle, and the Nive ; 56 FIFTY YEARS SYNE. contributed to the defeat of Soult at Orthez, and was present at the last victory won over that famous Marshal at Toulouse, on the lothof April, 1814. At the close of the war in the Peninsula, he returned home. When the great disturber of the peace of Europe, Napoleon Buonaparte, escaped from Elba, the Duke of Wellington was sent to the Netherlands ; and the two greatest Generals of their age were moving to decide the fortunes of Europe on the field of Waterloo. The 74th were under orders to join Wellington ; but the vessel in which they had embarked was weather-bound in the harbour of Cork. Before she could set sail, the decisive battle was fought, and the spell of Napoleon for ever broken. And so Capt. Cargill just missed being a " Waterloo man." He retired from military service in 1821, and entered into business in Edinburgh, where he remained til! 1S34. In his desire for a larger life he resolved to emigrate to Canada under the system of military settlements there, which were meant to check the uprisings of the French. He was dissuaded from this step only at the last moment, and went instead to be manager of a branch bank at York. Two years later he became manager of the East of England Bank at Norwich. In 1842 he was drawn to London, and served on the directorate of the Oriental Bank Corporation. From the year 1844 he took a keen interest in the Otago scheme, was gradually drawn into contact with its promoters, earned the high esteem, as has been seen, of both the New Zealand Company and the Lay Association, and at length by general consent was appointed to the leadership of the New Exodus, of which on a small scale he has been aptly termed the Moses. FIFTY YEARS SYNE. 57 The open letter which he addressed, in 1847, to Dr. Aldcorn on the Free Church Colony of Otago is characterised by wide reading and a firm grasp of prin- ciples, as well as by a keen appreciation of the special work in which he was engaged, and its probable issues in the future. A few sentences from that letter will show the end he had in view, and the spirit in which he worked : " We cannot over-estimate the importance of instantly occupying, according to our means and admitted character, that portion of the field which in the providence of our God is laid open to us. In so doing we shall be enabled, amongst other things, to lay the foundation of a Church in which the true Gospel may continue to be preached, down, perhaps, to the remotest generations ; of a system of schools according to the most approved method of the Free Church ; and of an independent Scottish race in the far south, which shall be equally distinguished with their kinsmen in the far north. . . . Nor do we in such anticipations at all over-estimate the sober realities of our position. We profess to adopt the spirit and to follow the steps of the ' Pilgrim Fathers.' What then has been the actual fruits of their enterprise ?" He glances at the wonderful success of the New England States, notwith- standing the difficulties they had' to encounter, and the wholesome influence they have exerted on the religious and educational life of the entire American union; and then proceeds : " It is no small thing, therefore, that lies at our door. We know that it is the religious element which alone can give consistency, and bring down the blessing of heaven upon our undertaking ; and it now seems laid upon us to prove to the world, by a second example, that it was the presence of that element which had yielded so rich a harvest in the case of New England." The same spirit breathed in the address 58 FIFTY YEARS SYNE. which he deHvered to the first settlers on the arrival of the Philip Laing, and the same stimulating history of the hardy New Englanders, amid the rigours of their six months' wintef, was recounted in the hearing of those who, under more favourable auspices, set eyes on a country much fuller of promise than the barren shores of Massachusetts. When the New Zealand Company surrendered its charter in 1850 he was appointed Commissioner of Crown Lands till the Association's term of office expired in 1852. That same year the Constitution Act came into force, and on the 6th September the following year he was unanimously chosen first Superintendent of the Province of Otago. He was re-elected to the same high office, and continued to fill it till i860, about eight months before his death. After the prosperity of the Province was well assured, his Execucive urged him to accept a higher salary, but he firmly declined in view of the still slender revenue of the Province and its clamant need for roads and bridges. No one who saw him moving about the recently-formed streets of Dunedin in the early days, making the most of his 5ft. 5in. of stature by an erect bearing, with a short, firm step, and an alert, kindly eye glancing under pent brows always well shaded with a Scottish blue bonnet, could have any doubt about the interest he took, or the place he filled, in the varied life of the growing community. The people honoured him while he lived, and sought after his death to perpetuate his memory in the well-known Cargill Monument. It may not be very massive or imposing in form, and its details may not be rich in artistic display, but its very presence is expressive of a people's gratitude, and its water is symbolic of the perennial influence which his useful life continues to exert on the Settlement of which he was a chief founder. FIFTY YEARS SYNE. 59 CHAPTER VIII. REV. THOMAS BURNS. The Lay Association were able to hold out many inducements to intending settlers. One ot them was made very prominent. " The Settlement," says one of their reports, " is peculiarly favoured in having for its first minister the Rev. Thomas Burns. To an earnest concern for the interests of religion, and a constant personal sense of it, he unites a large experience, sound judgment and kind disposition." There was much to kindle the patriotism, as well as to fire the religious and emotional instincts of Scotchmen in the fact that, while the leader of the Settlement was a direct descendant of the Scottish martyr, the founder of the Church was a nephew of the Scottish bard. He was born on the loth of April, 1796, at Mossgiel, a farm of about one hundred and eighteen acres of cold, clayey soil, close to the village of Mauchline, in Ayrshire. He was the third son of Gilbert Burns. The opinion which the poet,' in his well-known Autobiography, expresses regarding his brother Gilbert is of high value. " My brother," he says, " wanted my hair-brained imagination as well as my social and amorous madness ; but in good sense and every sober qualification, he was far my superior." No one, surely, had better opportunities of testing a brother's qualities, for Gilbert and he, with the little money they could scrape together from the wreck of their father's fortunes, became partners in leasing and stocking the farm at Mossgiel. During the four years the informal do FIFTY YEARS SYNE. partnership lasted, there was enough to test character in hard work and frugal living and failure of crops, the first year from bad seed, the second from a late harvest. Robert broke away from ceaseless drudgery o 1 ungenerous soil that would only yield an allowance of about £'] a year to each of them. Gilbert toiled on. Thomas was the third in a succession of six sons. It is juieresting to note that he was born just about three months before his great uncle died. During the same April of the future minister's birth, the dying poet wrote to his friend Thomson : " Alas ! I fear it will be long before I tune my lyre again. I have only known existence by the presence of the heavy hand of sickness, and counted time by the repercussion of pain. I close iny eyes m misery, and open them without hope." Thomas, like other boys, would doubtless learn some of his best and most permanent lessons at home, on his mother's knees, or by his father's side, as he walked behind the plough or handled peats in the adjoining moss, or swayed ilie scythe in the harvest field ; at the evening exercise, also, when the Book was taken and the scene so graphically described in the " Cottar's Saturday Night '■ was repeated, with no slackening of intelligence and no waning of devotion. When he was old enough he went with his elder brothers to the parish school, where he laid the foundations of his future scholarship on the low levels where all must begin. His father after a time removed to another farm at Closeburn, in Dumfriesshire. This change brought the family within reach of the famous Wallace Hall Academy, blest then and still with the priceless dower of being able to inspire young souls with a genuine love of learning, and to drill their raw faculties into habits of study that have led FIFTY YEARS SYNE. 6l many of them to High success. When at Closeburn, his father received from Lord Erskine an appointment as factor to his Blantyre estates in the neighbourhood of Haddington. Gilbert Burns knew something of the misery which a priggish factor, dressed in a little brief authority, could inflict on honest folk ten thousand times better than himself. The sight of his good father's bitter experiences had burned itself into his memory, as well as into that of his more sensitive brother — I've noticed on our Laird's court-day, An' mony a time my heart's been wae, Poor tenant bodies scant o' cash How they maun thole a factor's snash : He'll stamp an' thunder, curse an' swear, He'll apprehend them, poind their gear : While they maun stan', i:i aspect humble, An' hear it a', an' fear, an' tremble. Gilbert Burns was of a different stamp, and the opening minds of his sons got the benefit of his sterling rectitude of character, and his utter freedom from the baseness either of fawning on superiors or lording it over inferiors. The burgh of Haddington had old-world legends ready to drop into receptive minds, John Knox was born somewhere thereabout. Thither also in the spring of 1546 George Wishart had come. And it was a sight the people of East Lothian might well rub their eyes to see again when Wishart walked abroad preceded by his faithful attendant Knox, bearing a two-handed sword, which it may be taken for granted was there not for ornament but for use. The story ran that under the shadowing presentiment of his coming arrest Wishart bade good-night to all his friends, as if for ever. Knox pressed to be allowed to stay with him. " Nay," said 62 FIFTY YEARS SYNE. Wishart, " one is sufficient for one sacrifice." And noticing, perhaps, a growing menace in Knox's eye, for he was young and fiery as yet and needed much hard schoohng, he caused the sword to be taken from him. The same night he was arrested, and was soon burning as a heretic in front of Archbishop Beaton's castle of St. Andrews. Those who saw how vigilantly the Rev. Thomas Burns eyed the movements of papal Rome, and marked the vehemence which he threw into his denuncia- tions of ultramontanism in the auld kirk by the beach, can guess how much of all that was owing to the legendary air of Haddington. There was a man cast in the antique mould teaching in the Mathematical School of the burgh. His name was Edward Irving. He had been through an Art curriculum at the Edinburgh University, and had just finished his first year in the Divinity Hall when he got this appointment. " Among those," says Mrs. Oliphant, "who had children at the Mathematical School and opened his house to the teacher, was Gilbert Bums, with whom he is said to have had some degree of intimacy." That young Burns profited by the teaching of Irving is conclusively shown by the prize which he received, bearing the following inscription in the master's own handwriting : — "From Edward Irving to Thomas Burns, this book is presented as a testimony of that esteem which his industry and success, while his pupil, have procured him. Haddington, 12th October, 1812." We may be sure that mathematics was not all he learned from that tall, ruddy, robust, handsome youth, so cheerful and kindly disposed, with an easy knack of winning the confidence of his pupils. Young Burns was doubtless in that famous tramp after school-hours with Irving FIFTY YEARS SYNE. 63 to hear Dr. Chalmers in St. George's, Edinburgh. Under their leader the boys got to the gallery, and were making for an empty pew, when they were stopped by a man who put his arm across the pew and told them it ivas engaged. Irving remonstrated ; at such a time all pews should be open to the public ; but in vain. At last his patience gave way, and raising his hand, he exclaimed with great dramatic effect, " Remove your arm or I will shatter it to pieces." The man shrank back in utter dismay, while the delighted boys took possession of the pew. Many a sleeping bird sitting in the hedgerows wdth its head under its wing would be startled by the ringing laughter of the lads on their way back to Haddington as they recounted, not the merits of the wondrous oratory to which they had listened, but the dramatic details which they had witnessed in the capture of the pew. The journey of thirty-five miles to and fro would seem a small price for such fun Burns went to Edinburgh, and became an Arts student in its famous University at the age of sixteen. It seems too early. A boy at that stage can hardly profit by the lectures of learned Professors, but it was no uncommon thing at that time in Scotland. Chalmers went to St. Andrews when he was but twelve. Irving came up from Annandale when he was thirteen. So far as Classics and Mathematics were concerned, they had the benefit of tutorial classes, and as for the mental and moral philosophy, for which the Scottish University was famous, they had just to wrestle with it as best they might. Burns acquitted himself with distinction. All his studies were directed to the ministry, and so after the four years of his Arts curriculum, he entered the Divinity Hall. Theological training in Scotland covers 64 FIFTY YEARS SYNE. four years, and, to speak in a figure — applicable to that era, though happily not to the present — after traversing the ground trodden hard by the passing feet of many generations, with not a blade of dewy grass, or a flower of radiant colour to relieve the barren surface* the student appears before his clerical superiors to unfold his garnered treasures, that they rriay be able to determine whether he is worthy of being promoted to the higher walks of ministerial life. In plain prose, he is carefully examined by the Presbytery on the subjects of his four years' study ere he can be licensed to preach the Gospel Burns passed the ordeal satisfactorily, and was licensed by the Presbytery of Haddington in 1S23. Towards the close of his studies, and for a short time as licentiate, he acted as tutor in several families of note. This was a very necessary part of a student's equipment. It brushed up his manners ; it swept away some " idols of the tribe " ; it fattened his lean purse ; and sometimes it opened up for the young aspirant a pulpit of his own in which to wag his pow. This was the result in Burns' case. He was tutor in Sir Hugh Dalrymple's family j the living of Ballantrae fell vacant ; Sir Hugh was the patron, and he presented Burns to the living. For five years he went out and in among his people with a grace of bearing and a devotion to duty that won their hearts. Some miles away in the same county there was a manse to which he often gravitated. It was the manse of Monkton, where the Rev. John Steele Oughter- stone dwelt. Doubtless the young minister tried hard at first to persuade himself that the company of his older and more experienced friend and brother was of the highest value to him at the beginning of his career ; but the scales soon fell from his eyes, and he saw in the 65a FIFTY YEARS SYNE. 65 minister's niece a more attractive companion. Then came the story old as Eden. The newspaper of the period duly announced that the Rev. Thomas Burns, parish minister of Ballantrae, was married to Miss Clementina Grant, daughter of the Rev. James Francis Grant, Rector of Rodness, England. By and by the uncle died ; Mr. Burns was presented to the vacant parish of Monkton, and he led his wife back in 1S30 to the home where he had wooed and married her. For the next thirteen years he laboured in the holy ministry with fidelity to his Master and much acceptance and profit to his people. He belonged to the Evangelical party in the Church, and the common people heard him gladly. They had grown weary of the dry-rot of moderatism, and longed for a breath of heaven's pure evangel. So wide-spread was his influence throughout Ayrshire — a county blighted more than most at that time wdth the dead-weight of a worldly Church — that when the trying time came at the Disruption, many of the ministers who stayed in found that the bulk of their flock went out to share the fortunes of the Free Church. Partly because others who were capable enough were too lazy, and partly because they had supreme confidence in him, he was appointed Clerk of the Presbytery. Nor did he neglect the externals of spiritual work. He greatly beautified the manse, and brought the experience of farming he had acquired from his father to bear in improving the glebe. A new church was also built under his direction beside the Powburn. Altogether it was a beautiful specimen of earnest work carried on among a responsive people. 66 FIFTY YEARS SYNE, But the sifting time came. He left his home for the '43 Assembly, foreboding the worst. There were no telegrams in those days, and he arranged with his wife to write at the earliest possible opportunity after the crisis and let her know the result. That there might not be even an instant's delay they agreed on words — " It is finished " — that he was to write on the outside of the letter. But, indeed, she had already made up her mind as to what would have to be done, and no sooner was his back turned than she set about her preparations for leaving the manse. He had grace given to be loyal to his conscience and what he deemed the call of the Lord, and so he marched with the protesting majority to the hall at Canonmills, signing away in that heroic hour his earthly all — a beautiful church hallowed by converse with God and the communion of saints, a manse endeared by many tender associations, the social status of parish minister, and a yearly stipend of ;^400. It all went, but better remained. He was God's free man, with the light of life beaming on a conscience void of offence. He went to live in a little cottage in the mining village of Prest- wick. The grimy surroundings of his new abode furnished a striking contrast to the beauty of the manse garden in the rosy month of June. His case was that of hundreds. But they did not whine nor cry over their lot. They took the change lightly, as heroes do ; and we need not pity them. Most of his people adhered to him, or rather to the principles for which he had sacrificed so much, and they retired for worship to a stackyard at the back of the farm of West Orangefield, where, for many months in that memorable summer, they heard the word with gladness.* * Annals of the Disruption, 109. FIFTY YEARS SYNE. 67 His thoughts were turned to New Zealand soon after the Disruption, and when the Otago Scheme was originated he was appointed the first minister of the new Settlement. On all hands he was regarded as eminently fitted for the honourable and responsible position. He resigned his charge as Free Church minister of Monkton with the intention of proceeding to Otago, but owing to the unexpected delays, of which mention has already been made, he felt it to be his duty, after a time, to accept a call to minister to the Free Church congregation at Portobello. In the interval, however, and at every available opportunity, he visited various parts of the country, doing his utmost to set, by public lecture and private talk, the advantages of the Lay Association scheme before all classes of the country. The ultimate success of the scheme was, under God, very much owing to his unflagging zeal along with the ever ready help of Capt. Cargill and John McGlashan. He was 52 years of age, with the disciplined powers of a ripe manhood, when he landed in Otago. He served the land of his adoption with a tireless devotion and a singleness of purpose that secured for him the love and reverence of all his fellow Colonists. His counsel was greatly valued. It was often sought by Government officials as well as by private settlers, and it was always readily given. His public ministrations were of a high order.' As a preacher he was calm and dignified. His sermons were carefully composed and somewhat closely read. At rare intervals, when deeply stirred, he would raise himself from the paper, his eyes flashing, his face glowing with inner light, his voice quivering with emotion, and his apt words winged with a forceful eloquence. At such times his 68 FIFTY YEARS SYNE. hearers were reminded of his l^inship with the poet. He was scholarly in his intellectual tastes, courteous and considerate in his social intercourse, and unbending in his moral rectitude. He was deeply conscious of his own sinfulness and weakness, and all the more on that account cherished as precious beyond telling the atone- ment and Lordship of Jesus Christ. He was careful not to give offence, and was gracious and forgiving in his dealings with those who had offended him. He must often have repeated his uncle's words, for in 'cases of discipline his whole manner embodied their spirit — Who made the heart, 'tis He alone Decidedly can try us ; He knows each chord— its various tone, .Each spring — its various bias : Then, at the balance, let's be mute, We never can adjust it ; What's done we partly may compute But know not what's resisted. His last sermon was preached from a text. Numbers xxxii., 23, that Avas characteristic of his own ways and of the public teaching of a life-time. The tribes that are there addressed had found on the hither side of Jordan a place of rest for their families and rich pasture-lands for their numerous ifocks and herds ; but it would have been cowardly and sinful, and in the long run disastrous, on their part to settle down in self-indulgent ease and leave their brethren to clear the land, on the other side, of its warlike inhabitants, and make homes for themselves there. So he always insisted that those who had, in the good providence of God, been successful here and become possessors of property, with homes where peace and plenty prevail, should not grow selfish and ease-loving, but rather make their wealth an opportunity for serving FIFTY YEARS SYNE. 69 the whole community , and leading the van of an aggressive Christianity till the good land is freed from every curse. Some have followed his teaching and example ; some have forgotten both. In 1861 the degree of D.D. was conferred upon him by his alma mater. When the Otago University was estabhshed in i86g, he was made its first Chancellor. The bulk of his fellow-colonists believed that he was a true man on a right track, labouring unselfishly for the common weal ; and when he died in 1871 there was genuine sorrow throughout the land. The First Church has been served by a succession of able men, but it has never, perhaps, reached a higher level in all its departments of work, or given such proof of its vitality and usefulness, as under the able and vigorous ministry of its present pastor — the Rev. James Gibb. Charges at pi-esent in southern part of Dr Burn's original town district, with Date of Settlement, Names of Ministers, Staff of Elders and Deacons (or Managers), and Number of Members : — First Church ; 1S48 : — Dr. Burns, Sutherland, Lindsay Mackie, Gualter, Gibb.— 20 E.; 18 D. ; 731 M. St. Andrews; 1862: — Glasgow, Meiklejohn, Scrymgeour, Gow, Dr. Waddell.— 10 E. ; 12 D. ; 320 M. Anderson's Bay ; 1863 : — McNaughton, Stuart Ross, Cameron, 9 E. ; 12 D. ; 170 M. Caversham ; 1875— Russel, Eraser, Fraser-Hurst, Dutton — 9 E. ; 7 D. : 226 M. South Dunedin ; 18S0 :— Boyd, Campbell, Jolly.— 5 E. ; 9 D. ; 171 M. Mornington; 1881 :— Michie. Porter. — 12 E. ; 12 D. ; 3-17 M. ^o FIFTY YEARS SYNE. CHAPTER IX. FIRST SERVICES. In his address as Moderator at the opening of the first Synod of the Church in 1866, Dr. Burns said : " Our first party of settlers arrived on a Saturday forenoon ; on Sunday, at twelve noon, the people assembled in Dunedin for public worship under their own minister, and from that Sunday down to the present time, not a single Sabbath has passed without the sariie divine ordinance being faithfully and reverentially observed." This statement is, of course, quite true, but its extreme brevity and consequent vagueness is apt to mislead. A wooden building, of utmost plainness, had been erected in Dunedin for the temporary accommodation of the passengers by the John Wickliffe. There was no place leady as yet for the housing of those who came by the Philip Laing. The bulk of them, especially the women and children, had to remain on board for several weeks. Mr Burns, however, and his eldest daughter went up to Dunedin by boat on Saturday evening, accompanied by Mrs. Cargill and her youngest daughter. His first service on the morrow was held in the wooden barracks occupied by the Wickliffe passengers. The building stood close to the beach. It was afterwards used to form part of the primitive gaol, which amply provided for the almost microscopic criminality of the early days of the Settlement. The text of that first sermon preached amid such novel surroundings seems very striking and memorable in its appropriatness. It was FIFTY YEARS SYNE. 71 the 4th verse of the CXXX. Psalm : " But there is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be feared." The worshippers had broken away from home and kindred, severed themselves from all the associations of their fatherland. They were making a fresh start in a new country. The old life, with its sins and failures, lay behind them, like the blurred and blotted pages of a first copy. Was it not a veritable gospel to be assured that the sinful past might be forgiven, every trace of its guilty hours thoroughly erased, and a clean page provided for setting down a better record. Old offences were not blotted out, however, in order that there might be clear space for running up the same score again, in ihe vague hope that it, too, might be struck out ere the final reckoning came. Forgiveness came only from the Divine heart of holy love, in the line of righteous law through the atoning death of a sinless Redeemer ; and no one looking into the face of God, and receiving pardon freely at His hands, could Hghdy go back to his old ways, or reg?.rd hie as other than a sacred trust to be used for higher purposes, and carefully guarded from the defilement and hurt of sin. The Rev. Mr. Creed, a Wesleyan missionary, whose headquarters were at Waikouaiti, was present. He preached in the evening. " An excellent and devoted man," wrote Mr. Burns of him ; "I hope we shall be able to strengthen each other's hands." On Monday he went over the town, and examined the sections that had been laid off, with a view to make the best possible selection on an early day. He was back again at Port Chalmers by the middle of the week, looking at the town lands there. On the Sunday following he conducted morning and 72 FIFTY YEARS SYNE. evening service, as usual, on board the Philip Laing. Mr. Nicolson preached in the middle of the day, and in the afternoon they both went on board the John Wickliffe, where Mr. Burns baptised the son — born but the week before — of his brother minister, who expected to sail by the Wickliffe in a few" days for Wellington, on his way to his ultimate destination at Nelson. After this, the Survey Office was placed at his disposal for Sunday services. It was a small place, capable of holding about thirty people. It was situated on the triangular piece of ground between Princes street and the beach that sloped down from Jetty street to the little estuary where the Colonial Bank Buildings now stand. There was little need to improvise seats, for there was hardly standing room for the number of worshippers. A large grass-house had been run up hurriedly for the Philip Laing passengers. It was a low building 6oft. long by 20ft. wide. Posts had been hastily cut in the bush, and carried to a site on the beach near to w^here the Custom House now stands. They were sunk a short distance into the ground. On the top of the posts plates hewn from tall trees were laid, and there the ends of the rafters rested. Across the upright posts and rafters long wattles or saplings were tied with strips of flax. Then the rough framework was covered with grass and rushes. There was no window, no iloor, no partition. All the remaining passengers from the Pliilip Laing were brought here on the ist of June. Hither on one occasion also came the minister to hold service. It had been very stormy weather for some time previous ; indeed, it hardly ceased raining for several weeks. The Maoris had never in all their 72a ^ ^^ ii .te.TA A'^>J/r>- 4^ f5 ;'*vy«'X/>;/irf J S'