Waikanae Anglican Parish
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Church office 2 Pehi Kupa Street Waikanae, 5036 New Zealand +6449043018 Fax: +6449043013 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Feel free to contact the office and someone will get back to you a.s.a.p. |
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| octavius hadfield |
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Octavius Hadfield – 2nd. Bishop of Wellington,  was 24 when he arrived in New Zealand, in 1839, to work as a missionary.
After a brief period at Paihia, in the Bay of Islands, he responded to a request to establish an Anglican Mission on the Kapiti Coast. Hadfield's strong sense of social justice often made him bitterly unpopular with the colonial government.     For example, during the Taranaki war, he supported the rights of his Te Ati Awa converts.    Hadfield's attitude was based on his conviction that ‘every act in New Zealand must be productive of good or evil to generations to come’.
Hadfield suffered from severe asthma all his life, which often left him incapacitated and bedridden for months at a time.     Despite his illness, he became Bishop of Wellington in 1870 and Primate of New Zealand in 1899. Octavius Hadfield lived on the Marae, learned Maori and learned and embraced the cultural aspects of tribal living.Octavius Hadfield and Matene Te Whiwhi travelled in teams to the North and to Nelson & Blenheim areas to share Jesus.Octavius Hadfield helped protect Maori rights throughout the lower North Island and encourÂaged chiefs to sign the Treaty of Waitangi. He also was involved in justice issues wherever he saw Maori people being disenfranchised, making him, at times, unpopular with the government.He met the needs of the community by teaching reading and writing English and translating the Bible (with Rev Maunsell) into Maori.    Hadfield nearly died on several occasions during river crossings, nearly capsized when crossÂing Cook Strait in a small boat. and through various illnesses.  His Christianity was centred on being faithful to the call of God to preach the Word. He was a risk taker and did not fear death.It was a work birthed in prayer."My only trial at present is a want of time for reading and prayer, without which the soul canÂnot flourish. Now that I can speak the language my soul is indeed delighted with my work. The natives all along the coast call me their father. Yes, there is a kind of pleasure which is unutterable in the work. For instance yesterday in this place (Waikanae) to see about 500 persons who were but a short time ago buried in darkness and in sin, listening with the greatÂest possible attention while I was preaching from Romans 4:6-7 and in the evening on 'I am the Good Shepherd'. Yes, on such occasions the Spirit sheds a fragrance on the soul, which leads one to forget one's Fatherland and all the troubles of this life. However I feel deeply convinced of the necessity of setting apart much time for prayer in as much as 'every man's work will be tried with fire of what sort it is'. Barbara MacMorran's biography of Octavius Hadfield, (David Jones, 1969) Hadfield papers Collection of the Wellington Public Library. This is the only surviving remnant of Octavius HadÂfield's diary. It begins on 30 September 1839, at Paihia, and tells of the decision to send him to Kapiti, and his preparations for that journey.     Suffering from poor health, he writes: 'I may as well die at Kapiti as here.'      Hadfield's diary describes in detail his overland walk from Wellington to Kapiti, including his first meeting with Te Rangihaeata, on Mana Island.    He eventually arrived at Waikanae on 18 November 1839. The diary recounts his first encounter with Te Rauparaha, at Tahoramaurea, an off-shore island of Kapiti, and his meeting with the Ngati Raukawa, with whom he was to build the magnificent Rangiatea. |
