The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-05-19 00:00:00

did not rest. It was a solemn thing to say of our great
Creator that he blessed a eause or that he approved a mis-
sion ; but most solemnly did he (Mr. Noel) believe that
Almighty God had been -blessing and did-bless the mission
to New. Zealand. The meeting had heard from the report
that various charges had been made against the missionaries
in that island—charges most eagerly received and most se-
dulously circulated : he had met with them in the Morning
Chronicle, had seen them stated in the Colonial Register,
and he had two pamphlets before him in which they were
repeated. We were told that the missionaries held large
tracts of land in that country, that consequently they were
secularised in their tempers, and greatly impeded in their
labours, and that as they turned their attention to secular
pursuits, there was very little improvement in civilization,
and that the moral and spiritual improvement of the natives
hid been lamentably slow. These charges, he believed, were
altogether erroneous, with the exception of that which was
made the ground of delinquency—he meant the possession
of land, upon which the committee did not possess all the
information which would qualify them to pronounce ultimately.
Far be it from him to screen any man from the just cen-
sures of his fellow men, far be it from him to screen the
conduct of any institution from the most rigid scrutiny of
their constituency, or to say it was not perfectly right, when
anything wrong had been done, that it should not be nar-
rowly examined (Hear.) lie must add, that although
many charges were made against the missionaries, the parent
committee were involved, and in the pamphlet before him
the anonymous author inculpated them for having, on the
2i th of July, 1830, not very wisely, passed a resolution, that
ueder the peculiar circumstances of New Zealand, land
should be purchased from the natives to a moderate extent,
as a provision for their children above 15 years of age, the
nature and extent of the purchase to be approved by the
committee. The author added, that as each son of the mis-
sionary should attain 15 years of age, the parent would be
entitled to purchase additional land. Two charges were here
made against the parent committee; first, that they had di-
rected their missionaries, as making secondary to the great
object of evangelising the natives ; and secondly, that they
voted that their missionaries should be allowed to make a
provision in land for their children after they should be 10
years of age. It was prudent, perhaps, in our author to in-
sert the words " not very wisely," as it gave him a favour-
able footing in the minds of his readers ; but if the case were
investigated a little further, we should find, that to pay at-
tention to what was prudent, was not necessarily to be so. I
Now he thought that the two regulations which our author
thought unwise, completely justified the confidence placed i
in the committee. With regard to the first point, that they
should make the civilisation of the natives subservient and
secondary to their evangelization, we had heard just the op-
posite charge brought against the society, that it did not civi-
lise before they attempted to introduce Christianity. The
two charges seemed to destroy each other. Now he believed
that the uniform experience of missions, as well as common
sense, was that both should be applied together. On that
principle the missionaries to New Zealand had gone. They
set themselves to learn the language and to translate it;
they gave to the people the example of a blameless life; they
built houses and planted gardens ; they made bricks and
formed their furniture ; and both the processes thus pro-
ceeding together, won the attention and affection of the
people, and opened the way for the greater message. The
other regulation upon which our author pronounced an un-
mitigated censure, was, that the committee should allow
their missionaries to provide for their children of fifteen years
of age, by making purchases of land. Sometimes this was
pronounced a most cruel regulation ; and one man said the
largest seignories were in the possession of the missionaries
or their sons. The reason was, that there were no other
persons to purchase them, as the rest of the inhabitants were
convicts. Another author, in order to attack the committee,
availed himself of a false analogy between the state of
New Zealand and the American tribes, and he drew a
lamentable picture of the way in which one tribe was
thrown back upon another who despoiled them of their hunt-
ing lands and forced them into wars, which was the cause of
the depopulation he affected to lament. Nothing could, be
more extravagant than this. The north island contained
100,000 square miles according to Mr. Polack, a Jewish
trader, and by the testimony of Mr. Williams it contained
100,000 inhabitants, or one to every square mile. Now if
they lived by hunting, the loss of a large tract of country by
scaring away the wild animals might cause great depopula-
tion; but the fact was there were no quadrupeds there, but
such as had been introduced by Europeans : they had
no cattle which they could pasture ; for the whole of their
agricultural produce was of three kinds—rice, potatoes, and
yams—two of which had been introduced by the calumniated
missionaries. Mr. Trap, in his evidence on oath before a
committee of the House of Lords,—the very person who
brought the information home about the quantity of land
held by the missionaries, said that he had frequently passed
over fifty miles of uncultivated land at once ; yet the com-
plaint against the missionaries was, that they had 3,000 acres.
Mr. Noel then referred to the evidence of Dr. Lang and
others, which shewed that a hundred acres of land near the
sea might be had for a barrel of powder and some tobacco.
In the interior it might be had for much less; and these facts,
he conceived, would be a sufficient answer to the charge that
the charitable contributions of the British public were spent
upon the purchase of large estates for the missionaries in
heathen lands, and especially in New Zealand. There was a
still more curious charge against the missionaries, namely,
that because of these large estates they were exposed to secu-
larity of temper, and so engrossed in the management of
their farms that they could not devote themselves to the mis-
sion. In this there was much to deceive. In this country
an estate of 4000 acres carried with it the idea that it would
require much time; but 4000 acres in New Zealand were
something like the sheepwalks in the Highlands, which
only require the attention of two men, and none from
the farmer himself. The reverend gentleman then referred
to the testimony of Mr. Polack, Captain Fitzroy. Mr.
Marsden, and the Bishop of Australia, to shew that the mis-
sionaries had not become secularised, from their possession
of this land, but, on the contrary, that they were exceed-
ingly devoted to their duties. The hon. and rev. gentleman
then proceeded to contravert the statement that the measures
of attention to secular pursuits which the committee had
sanctioned, had not been successful in advancing civilization,
and he quoted the journal of Mr. Davies, which was given in
evidence before the committee of the House of Lords. He
next referred to the doctrine that the natives would not imi-
tate our habits, and shewed by the experience of Mr. Shaw,
a Wesleyan missionary, that it was not so. The last objection he
noticed was, that there was no parallel between the means
expended and the smallness of the results, which he com-
pletely answered by facts ; and in conclusion, he made a most
eloquent appeal to the sympathies of the meeting ; but our
time and limits prevent us from extending our report.
The CHAIRMAN said there had been a slight omission in
the resolution. which he could confirm. A young relation
of his own was stationed at Kishnsghur, in the company's
civil service ; and in a letter received from him, touching
upon the progress of Christianity among the natives, he said,
" In the court where I preside, I think the Bible is as fre-
quently called for, for the purpose of swearing, as the water
of the Ganges or the Koran." (Cheers.)
The resolution was then Carried.

Mr. CARPENTER then announced a donation of £25. from
Mr. Tuton (we believe). The sum received from the collec-
tions after the sermons yesterday amounted to £550., but the
return had not been received from one church. He had been
told by one of the deputation that it the collection from the
sermons preached at this anniversary amounted to £600., it
would be treble the annual amount of the ;motile of the so-
ciety the first year of its formation.
The Rev. Dr. BYRTII, of Wallasey, said he rose to make
the only remaining motion of the night. He stated that
he had to move the appointment of the Committeefor they ear.
He took it for granted, as the meeting no doubt did, that the
proceedings of the meeting would soon come to a close ; and
he should not himself interfere with so reasonable an ar-
rangement. He rejoiced that after what had been so ably
said, he was not called upon to make a long speech. He
could not, however, avoid touching upon some parts of the
topics on which he should otherwise have amplified ; and he
should leave it to the meeting to supply tl.e beautiful prop): -
tions and form of the superstructure. It had been noticed
that there were laymen in the committee ; and they had been
noticed in contradistinction with churchmen, on which the
errors of the society were thrown. There was frequently a
most misehievous application of this denomination of
" Churchmen." When the enemies of the church are asked
what is a churchman ? they say—he is a man dressed in black;
receiving money for doing nothing; a man whO sometimes
in public appears to do a little duty. This was the mere
cant of the enemies of the church. But this he would say
the church would not do her duty until laymen as well as
churchmen came forward in support of the cause which they
now had met to support. He implored tbem to come for-
ward. Wonderful things, it was true, had been done fol
the missionary cause, and that by laymen too. But how was
it wonderful ? Wonderful only by contrast with the past ;
wonderful only in the contrast of what they had done, with
that which they ought td'have done. It was said that this
was the richest church in the world. He wished she really
were so, so that she might do more good to society. In an-
swer, however, she was the richest church, and her riches
were in the hands of the laymen. He hoped that the appeal
of this night would bring forth some of that riches : and if
the appeal of next year were as successful in proportion as
that of the present, their funds would be increased ten-fold
above their original amount. It had been said that •the
society came in contact with the Society for the propagation
of the Gospel. That matter had not, he thought, been set
quite right. He would say that if they were not a Church
Missionary Society, none else was so. If they were not a
Missionary Society, then did the deep disgrace attach itself
to their church that had no Missionary Society, which
he denied. The Society for propagating the Gospel,
on the other hand, was not a Missionary Society no
more than he was a missionary of Wallasey, to which he
belonged, or the rev. chairman was a missionary of Chester.
The society, the anniversary of which they had then met to
commemorate, went over the world •, they went where neither
tithes nor taxes were collected, and were essentially a mis-
sionary society. He concluded by moving, that the follow-
ing gentlemen be the committee for the ensuing year :
Mr. Chas. Boutflower, Mr. Wm. Brocklebank, Mr. G.
B. Carter, Mr. Wm. Cook, Mr. Henry Copeland, Mr. T. A.
Dale, Dr. Dickenson, Mr. Thomas Eccles, Mr. John Eden,
Mr. Moses Edwards Mr. Geo. Groom, Mr. T. Gardner, Mr.
T. B. Horsfall, Mr. Howard, Mr. Charles Inman, Mr.
William Jones, Mr. W. G. Leete, Dr. Mackintosh, Mr. R.
A. Payne, - Mr. T. P. Pemberton-, Mr-John• Rigby, Mr.
Thomas Rimmer, Mr. James Robertson, Sir J. S. P. Salis-
bury, Mr. William Smith, Mr. H. Statham, Mr. Edward
Tuton, Mr. Wm. Wainwright, and all the clergymen who
are members of the association.
The Rev. HUGH M`NEux next addressed the meeting
with great power. He had a very small contribution to hand
in coenparisonwith the immense sums they had heard named,
yet it would purchase a great many acres of land in New
Zealand. He had to hand in three sums of ten shillings
each, collected a penny at a time, at intervals of a month
between each penny. (Loud cheers.) He mentioned this
to shew the constancy of purpose and the perseverance of
the collectors who undertook such an office. Another
declined
ltem
in his list was a donation of £2 from a person
whothen went
giving his name. (Cheers.) The
rev* to show
gentlemen
how the
on to urge the claims of the society, and
Church of England should be the real missionary church.
The resolution was adopted ; and after the Doxology had
been sung, the meeting adjourned till this evening.