in New Zealand. They came here in 1814, and previous to that time only one European, a shipwrecked sailor, is known to have lived among the natives. The Church Missionary Society established a mission in that year at the Bay of Islands, now called Russell—the mission party consisting of Rev. Samuel Marsden, chaplain to the Government of New South Wales, and three other ministers, Kendall, Hall, and King. They were kindly received by the chiefs, and held their first service on Christmas-day, 1814. Eight years later the Wesleyans established missions in New Zealand, and sixteen years after that (in 1838), the Roman Catholics did likewise."
"Then the missionaries were in advance of all Government colonization?" said Fred.
"The Church Missionary Society and the Wesleyans certainly were," was the reply, "as the Government did not send a resident official here till 1833. He had no power beyond that of writing reports of what he saw and heard, and was felicitously styled by somebody 'a man-of-war without guns.' There had been an attempt to form a colony in 1825, but it was given up, and the sixty emigrants who came out from England returned in the ship that brought them. The mission establishment at Kororareka, in the Bay of Islands, became the nucleus around which a good many lawless adventurers gathered. The bay was the resort of whale-ships, and in 1838 it was visited by fifty-six American, twenty-three English, twenty-one French, one German, and twenty-four New South Wales ships. There was so much lawlessness and crime that a vigilance committee was formed, very much like the institutions of that name which have been famous in California history.
"In 1837," continued the Doctor, glancing occasionally at a book he held in his hand,[1] "an association was formed for the purpose of colonizing the country, very much as India had been colonized by the East India Company. It was styled the New Zealand Company, and was founded by Lord Durham, and after some delay a surveying ship was sent out, followed by several ships carrying emigrants. This was the beginning of the colonization of New Zealand; the first settlement was made at what is now Wellington, the capital, though it was then named Port Nicholson. Auckland was founded soon after; and with the foundation of that city and the establishment of a government, the colony was well under way. It prospered for a while, and then, owing to quarrels with the natives, there was a long period of gloom.
