‘Our Infant State’: the Māori Language, the Mission Presses, the British Crown and the Māori, 1814-1838

Abstract

The role of the pre-colonial Protestant missionaries, in convincing the Māori - and other Polynesian peoples - to accept the value of literacy, and to accept the ability to communicate in a written, rather than an oral mode, has been neglected by the historians of New Zealand and of its colonisation. The importance of reading and writing was not that it assisted religious teaching but, rather, that it enabled communication at a distance and across time, instead of being confined to the present place and audience. The thesis exposes the earliest documents written in Māori by Māori (1825-26) including letters and land deeds which were the basis for written diplomatic communications and facilitated political involvement in New Zealand affairs under missionary guidance. The advent of literacy made possible diplomacy, commerce and protection against perceived hostile threats such as France and 'popery'. The period covered is roughly that between the Battle of Waterloo (1815) and the accession of Queen Victoria (1837) with attention to the events of the following year, the first of her reign. This is the period in which literacy became established among the Māori and in which the printing press was introduced into New Zealand. The thesis is divided into four parts: 'Polynesia and literacy' introduces general themes with particular reference to the first mission, that of the London Missionary Society to Tahiti, 1797-1821; 'Mr King Hongi 1815-1828' concerns the New Zealand missions before Māori literacy was established; 'Our infant state 1828-1835' concerns the period in which Māori literacy became established and printing was introduced; and lastly 'Colonisation has commenced 1836-1838' considers the use of printing and publication in the mission against the background of the European influx diplomacy, political change and the inevitable demise of iwitanga. The underlying structure can be considered (using a musicological analogy) as a piece of polyphony through which diverse themes (the history of printing / publication) the problems of translation and the religious and political context are resolved. The four parts will enable political history to be considered part by part in parallel with the narrative of the history of Māori orthography, literacy, printing and publication. The thesis concludes with the death of King William IV ('the parent of our infant state' as he had been called in the Declaration of Independence of New Zealand in 1835) and with the almost contemporary visit of Captain William Hobson (May to July 1837) and the death of Samuel Marsden, the founder of the mission to New Zealand (1838). The methodology used is primarily that of narrative history but attention is given to the cultural syncretism that resulted (inevitably) from the mutual accommodation of Māori traditional culture and Protestant evangelical culture in which 'the Book' and book-based learning was so prominent. This interaction privileges speech (korero) rather than writing (tuhituhinga) for most of the period before 1839. The thesis is based on the printing and publication history of a series of original documents (including manuscripts, printed proof copies, and published documents of the period) in order to establish the practical impact of the European concept of literacy upon the Polynesians (particularly the Māori) by retrieving its physical evidence. The evidence supports the thesis that the advantages of literacy for the Polynesians underwrote the Protestant objectives to exclude Catholic and French interests while promoting the advantages of British trade and British colonisation. 'Holy Persuasion' provided the basis for the 'covenant' between the Māori people and the British Crown which was subsequently formalised in the so called 'Treaty' of Waitangi of 6 February 1840. The principal chiefs approved of this policy as the 'infant state' acquired more and more resident Europeans between 1831 and 1838, but as the Europeans arrived the Māori found their little-regarded 'sovereignty' was ebbing away. The strategy employed for the thesis has been to investigate the provenance and associations of authentic historical documents which are now widely scattered and which, consequently, have remained poorly known to both political historians and historians of print culture.