Author(s): R F Keam

Maori | New Zealand Church History

When the Rev. Samuel Marsden landed near the northernmost extremity of New Zealand and preached his first sermon on Christmas Day 1814, he inaugurated the heroic era of Christian Missionary work in these South Pacific Islands. This is the story of the first Baptist Maori Mission, born from the passionate endeavours of a young Americam semi-invalid to better the conditions of Maori people living in the Rotorua Lakes district. It began almost by accident and was conceived not as a Baptist task at all, and arrived on the scene nearly 70 years after the Gospel had first been proclaimed in New Zealand. Nevertheless for a time it exerted a profound influence on the local indigenous population and briefly claimed the support of a substantial non-conformist denomination. R.F. Keam is an academic staff member in the Physics Department at the University of Auckland.