Māngungu Mission was the second mission station established in New Zealand by the Wesleyan Missionary Society. Located near

Horeke Horeke () is a settlement in the upper reaches of the Hokianga Harbour in Northland, New Zealand. Kohukohu is just across the harbour. The Horeke basalts are located near the town, and can be viewed on an easy stroll through the Wairere Boulde ...

, in the

Hokianga Harbour The Hokianga is an area surrounding the Hokianga Harbour, also known as the Hokianga River, a long estuarine drowned valley on the west coast in the north of the North Island of New Zealand. The original name, still used by local Māori, is ...

, it was founded in 1828 by the missionaries John Hobbs and James Stack after the first WMS mission station in the country had been sacked the previous year. Māngungu Mission was abandoned in 1855 when Hobbs, the sole missionary at the site, relocated to

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

. The residence that Hobbs built and lived in at the mission has been preserved by

Heritage New Zealand Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga (initially the National Historic Places Trust and then, from 1963 to 2014, the New Zealand Historic Places Trust; in ) is a Crown entity that advocates for the protection of Archaeology of New Zealand, ancest ...

and is now a museum.

Background

The Wesleyan Missionary Society (WMS), following the advocacy of Samuel Leigh, a WMS missionary in Australia, sought to establish itself in New Zealand. The first WMS mission station in New Zealand was duly founded at Kaeo, near Whangaroa Harbour, in June 1823 by Leigh and William White. It struggled to gain the patronage of local

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...

and after it was sacked in 1827, the missionaries abandoned it.

Foundation

The WMS missionaries, led by John Hobbs and James Stack, relocated to the

, where the following year, the Māngungu Mission was founded. Soon half a dozen buildings had been erected on the site, near

, for the missionaries and their families. The mission was now led by William White, who had arrived in January 1830 to take over from Hobbs. White's objective at Māngungu was to expand the reach of the WMS, and he duly established further missions at Kāwhia and Waingaroa, on the west coast of the

North Island The North Island ( , 'the fish of Māui', historically New Ulster) is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but less populous South Island by Cook Strait. With an area of , it is the List ...

. He wanted to set up a station at Whangape but this did not eventuate due to a lack of personnel.

History

Tensions soon arose between White and Hobb over the running of the station and Hobbs sought and received a posting to

Tonga Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania. The country has 171 islands, of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in the southern Pacific Ocean. accordin ...

. White also came into conflict with the European colonists in the area, seeking to reduce their influence on local Māori and prevent them from being exploited. He controlled access to the mission stores, only allowing those colonists deemed acceptable to enter into trade. He came to an arrangement where he purchased land and returned it to the local ''

iwi Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori, roughly means or , and is often translated as "tribe". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, and is typically pluralised as such in English. ...

'' (tribe) in return for the saw milling and selling of timber on WMS land. The monies gained would be set against that paid for the land. The colonists were upset at being disadvantaged by this tactic but White also annoyed his fellow WMS missionaries, who had to perform the saw milling work and considered it compromised their preaching. He was eventually recalled to England in 1836. The original mission house burnt down in August 1838. John Hobbs, now back at Māngungu Mission, had in his youth been an apprentice carpenter and set about building a replacement, assisted by volunteers from the European population in the area. Nathaniel Turner, who had taken over the running of the mission from White, moved into the new house the following year. It was constructed with a rectangular floor plan having seven rooms, one of which was a large parlour, a pair of dormer windows and a verandah along the front. The first honey bee hives in New Zealand were established at the mission in March 1839; Mary Bumby, who had arrived at the site with her missionary brother that month, had brought two hives with her. This led to the production of the first honey in the country. On 12 February 1840, the mission was the site of a meeting for a number of '' rangatira'' (chiefs) to sign the

Treaty of Waitangi The Treaty of Waitangi (), sometimes referred to as ''Te Tiriti'', is a document of central importance to the history of New Zealand, Constitution of New Zealand, its constitution, and its national mythos. It has played a major role in the tr ...

William Hobson Captain William Hobson (26 September 1792 – 10 September 1842) was an Anglo-Irish officer in the British Royal Navy, who served as the first Governor of New Zealand. He was a co-author of the Treaty of Waitangi. Hobson was dispatched f ...

, the

Governor of New Zealand A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the type of political region or polity, a ''governor'' ma ...

, stayed at the house for the ceremony. Around 3,000 people were present, and around 70 ''rangitara'' signed the treaty. Following the departure of Turner for another WMS mission, Hobbs moved into the mission house in late 1840 with his family and by 1846, were the only missionary family at the site. By this time Māngungu Mission had decreased in importance to the WMS. The WMS headquarters in New Zealand was now in

, having moved there two years previously. It was still a pleasant site; a visitor in late 1851 noted the presence of a windmill, a chapel, a cemetery and a number of outhouses, as well as the well appointed mission house. In 1855, it was decided to close Māngungu Mission in the face of a decline in the Māori population in the surrounding area. Hobbs and his family relocated to Auckland while the mission house was disassembled and shifted to

Onehunga Onehunga is a suburb of Auckland in New Zealand and the location of the Port of Onehunga, the city's small port on the Manukau Harbour. It is south of the city centre, close to the volcanic cone of Maungakiekie / One Tree Hill. Onehunga is ...

. It was subsequently used as a parsonage for Methodist priests for a number of years and then became a private residence.

Museum

In 1972, the mission house built by Hobbs was shifted from Onehunga back to the site of the Māngungu Mission and restored by the Historic Places Trust, the predecessor of

. A single story building, constructed from kauri timber, it was opened as a museum in 1977. Among its contents is a table, built by Hobbs, on which the Treaty of Waitangi was signed by those present at the ceremony that took place at the Māngungu Mission. The mission house was listed by the Historic Places Trust as a Historic Place Category 1 on 1 September 1983, with the list number 75. It is deemed to be of significance due to being the oldest surviving Methodist building in New Zealand as well as for its connection to the WMS's early presence in Northland and the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. As well as the mission house, the site also includes a small church, St John's Community Church, which was relocated to the site from Kohukoku.

Notes

References

* * * *{{cite book, last1=Laws, first1=C. H., url=, title= The Methodist Mission to New Zealand: First Years at Hokianga 1827–1836, year=1977, orig-year=1943, publisher=Wesley Historical Society (NZ), location=Auckland, oclc=276729552 Far North District Heritage New Zealand Category 1 historic places in the Northland Region History of the Northland Region Museums in the Northland Region Historic house museums in New Zealand 19th-century architecture in New Zealand 1820s establishments in Oceania 1820s in New Zealand 19th-century establishments in New Zealand Wooden buildings and structures in New Zealand Historic homes in New Zealand Religious buildings and structures in the Northland Region 1828 establishments in Oceania