1838: Fanatical Flogger Founding Father Falls
May 5, 2020
By AHNZ
Today in New Zealand history, 12 May, 1838, the death of Samuel Marsden (72yo.) Marsden had been a major player in the New South Wales sphere of influence (which included New Zealand) since arriving in our part of the world around 1800. Like men before him and after, Marsden tried to be the Big Boss of New Zealand.
Samuel’s position in NSW was not restricted to Sunday sermons or performing marriages; He was the linchpin of many enterprises in the colony with many irons in the fire. (For a hint at what extensive powers and back-stage passes a priest of old had, consider Marsden’s equivalent 100 years later- Colin Scrimgeour.) One of a priest’s powers in the colony was to help form the judicial branch of government by being a magistrate. This, of course, made Marsden a very unpopular figure among the convict members what was, after all, a penal colony. Marsden was the judge to ordered floggings to those convicts Transported to Australia.
The Anglicans had finally decided to join other religions when it came to evangelism and missionary work and get in on it too in the year 1799, forming the Church Missionary Society (CMS.) Marsden, already in the territory, became Point Man for the CMS. He became the Senior Chaplin of NSW in 1800; The right man in the right place at the right time to be the conduit of Britannia’s and God’s will! With great responsibility comes great power.
Marsden found that Australia’s Aboriginal people most unsuited to the word of God but this problem could be solved by directing his attention to some far sharper tools in the South Pacific box: New Zealand’s natives; The Maoris. Marsden may have figured out for himself, thus, that to get to Anglicanism requires a cultural journey of progress; It’s not an operating system (OS) you can simply install with no regard to the basic input/output system (BIOS) your given heathens are running off when you meet them. Marsden’s contemporaries had already made this mistake in Tahiti¹ too. So, Alpha Missionary knew he had to walk his heathens through some wonders and miracles, some technological wonders, through paganism, through basic literacy, and only then to the Jesus of the English.
‘King of New Zealand’ (as he was presented in England) Hongi Hika and nephew. This oil painting (below) generated from Hika’s big OE in 1821 to visit the King of England.
By September 1822 Hika was back in New Zealand, sweeping south with the best-armed horde these islands have ever seen.- AHNZ; NZH&NH
Marsden his sights on New Zealand, although events, such as the Boyd Massacre (1809,) meant he had to keep his would-be Missionaries benched for years before finally getting a green light to proceed. Using the chess pieces of Ruatara, William Hall, Thomas Kendall, and others, Marsden had a good go at making New Zealand into his own vassal Christian colony. There were high hopes that his Magistrate Priests would bring law and order to the awe-inspired Maoris.
Instead, it blew up in Marsden’s face dramatically. Kendall went rogue. Worst of all, the great chief Hongi Hika visited England for himself to gaze behind the curtain of the Wizard of Oz called King George IV. Being radically Honour Culture, Hika was utterly practical and epistemologically-concrete so he simply had to check out the facts for himself. Hika had an almost religious revelation but not the one Marsden had in mind! He realised at last that King George didn’t know Kendall at all! He didn’t even know Marsden! Hika was now in possession of the Missionary’s and the “Pakeha’s” true standing in his world. He took this gospel home with him and New Zealand was never the same again. For a follow up, of course, Hika led the greatest slaughter invasion New Zelaland had ever seen. Indirectly, this was all on Marsden’s head.
Founding Father? Or Fanatical Flogger?
Wouldn’t lean too heavily on some of these things being said about Marsden. He was a man of his time and must be judged by his huge success as well as what he was up against out there on the frontier.
“The flogging parson I do believe. Imported many Maori to Parramatta to do all the work on his property”²
“Are the Aussies right to see Samuel Marsden as a fanatical flogger, or do Kiwis justly revere him as a founding father? A new book suggests he was a man of his time.”- Samuel Marsden: Fanatical flogger or founding father?; Noted
Typical silly conceit that these two things are opposites; Flogger and Founder. Such vanity! That our leaders and celebrities must also be innately good!? It’s usually the other way around as anarchists know.
He’s a Fanatical Flogger Founding Father. It’s all one.
When the sun did go down on the old lion his enemies leaped upon him and it is their word on his reputation that has lasted. Bit like John Lee having the last word on Labour 2.0 because he lived longest. So, for Australia in particular, Marsden was reduced from an administrative giant on a Mission to the mean old Yorkshireman who whipped their Irish convict great-grandpa. Or, some jerk who made Maoris work on the farm or do his chores…
Context is very important. Marsden’s Mission took the outlook that the way to Christ was through passing on technology, skill, knowledge, language etc to the Maoris first and through this the Gospel would come. This was the calling in action, not simply conning some natives back to Sydney to do his chores! Marsden was attempting to transmit civilisation and benevolence but, unfortunately, he lacked the people skills. The next men in line to try would be James Busby then William Hobson but if they were more successful it was perhaps because they were not as ambitious.
—
1 London Mission Society sent its first mission to Tahiti in 1796 and tried to upload Jesus all at once without the proper preparation. It was a dismal failure; The Legacy of Guilt, J.Binny (1963)
2 From a bit of a yarn in the OLD NORTH AUCKLAND / NORTHLAND FB Group
Image ref. CMS Logo; RTP Archive Press
Image ref. King George IV in Blackadder the Third
Ref. also Good, long, interview with the author Andrew Sharp; The life of Samuel Marsden; RNZ
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