Our latest “Document of the Week” was chosen by our Senior Curator, Mary Wills. It is a letter, written in March 1845, from the Bishop of New Zealand to the Secretary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG). Society missionaries first arrived in New Zealand and Polynesia in the seventeenth century, aiming to spread Christianity to indigenous Māori and Polynesian people.
New Zealand became a British colony in 1840, legitimised by the Treaty of Waitangi, a constitutional agreement signed between the British Crown and Māori chiefs. This long letter from the Bishop, George Selwyn, to Secretary Ernest Hawkins, reports on a breakdown in “relations between the English settlers, and the aboriginal inhabitants of New Zealand”. This was largely attributable to land disputes: as British influence extended in New Zealand, so too did the pressures of the British government to exercise their right to purchase Māori land.
In particular, “John Heke”, Selwyn wrote, is “so conspicuous in his opposition to our Government”. Hōne Heke Pokai was a powerful Māori leader of the Ngāpuhi people. He was missionary-educated and baptised a Christian in 1835, taking the name Hōne (John). While he was an influential Māori voice in favour of the Treaty of Waitangi, he later became disillusioned with what he saw as increasing interference by the British government. He emerged as a leading voice of Māori self-determination.
British authority over Māori affairs was symbolised by the British flag flying on Maiki Hill at Kororāreka (now called Russell), a British trading settlement in the far north of New Zealand. The flagstaff had previously flown the colours of the United Tribes of New Zealand. Heke first ordered the cutting down of the flagpole in 1844. Over the following months, the flagpole was re-erected and cut down again three times. The final felling, in March 1845, signalled war between British forces and Heke and his northern Māori allies, which lasted until 1846.
Selwyn’s sketched map shows the “flagstaff”, the chapel, and church in Kororāreka. Out to sea are British naval vessels, including the Hazard and Flying Fish. The letter notes the violence of the rebellion from both sides, the “state of anarchy among the natives”, and how Selwyn felt “very uneasy for the safety of the Northern Missions”. Subsequent years of fighting between Māori and Europeans, in large part over disputed land purchases, lasted until 1872.
Where to find this document
This letter is from our collection, New Zealand & Polynesian Records from Colonial Missionaries, 1838–1958. It features correspondence, journals, and papers from the archives of the missionary organisation, the United Society Partners in Gospel (USPG), held at the Bodleian Library. The collection is one of several hosted by BOA that offer key resources for the study of the history of Christian missionary activity (and resistance to it) around the world. Visit the collection page to learn more.
