The Missionary work of the Rev. Richard Taylor at Wanganui

Abstract

The work of such a missionary as Richard Taylor has been submerged in the general history of New Zealand. Historians have concentrated on the origins of missionary activity among the Northern tribes. Very little is written about conversion in the south, apart from noting that it began to take place in the late 1830's, that it was a rapid process compared with that in the north, and that it was hastened by the agency of Maori teachers who often acted independent of missionaries, before mission stations were established. A pattern emerges from the general histories of the first European arrivals in New Zealand. With whalers, traders and the earliest settlers, the missionaries fit into the frontier that preceded annexation. This is the prologue; the curtain comes up in 1840 and the missionaries fade from the limelight. Richard Taylor is one of the most important of the "submerged missionaries". His period as an agent of the Church Missionary Society in New Zealand spans more than thirty years, from before New Zealand officially became a British colony until after the close of the Maori Wars. He was present at a number of important occasions and recorded comments on most of the major events and developments of this period, although his own work was of significance for a rather shorter time.