Author Description

New Zealand Missionaries Have Been Variously Painted As Heroes, Villains, Or Figures Of Fun; And In This Portrait Of The Origins Of The Wesleyan Mission At Whangaroa In The 1820s The Reader Can Take His Choice. For The Story Is Largely Told In The Missionaries' Own Words, From Contemporary Letters And Journals Which Have Gradually Become Available In Libraries And Archives Throughout New Zealand, Australia And Britain. The First Part Is A Narrative, Beginning With Pious Hopes, Continuing With The Slow Erosion Of Unexpected Stress, Ending Finally With An Attack On The Mission Station And The Missionaries Fleeing For Their Lives. It Is A Dramatic Story, Told With A Day-by-day Human Detail Which Gives It Some Of The Immediacy Of A Historical Novel. The Second Part Of The Book Tackles The Detective Problem Of Why The Mission Station Was Attacked And By Whom; And Goes On To Examine The Range Of Sanctions Controlling Behaviour Of Missionaries And Maoris And The Exchange Of Religious Ideas Between Them. It Challenges Many Accepted Views About The Missionary Role And The Origin Of Race Relations In New Zealand And Is A Case Study Inviting Comparison With Missionary And Contact Situations Throughout The World. -- Inside Front Cover. Origins -- Early Days At Whangaroa -- The Death Of George -- Dreadful Depravity -- The Sack Of Whangaroa -- Why Was Whangaroa Attacked? -- The Social Context Of Missionary Activity -- The Exchange Of Ideas. J. M. R. Owens. Includes Index. Bibliography: P. 179-183.