Hocken. — On Literature in New Zealand. 481 



accountable and careless manner, had been left behind in 

 England. His first assistants were two or three natives, 

 who, though at first highly honoured and delighted with their 

 new occupation, speedily became tired of it and deserted, 

 leaving Mr. Colenso to work alone. He, however, succeeded 

 in getting from time to time a much better stamp of assistant, 

 though from a very unlikely quarter — from the crews of 

 American whalers which visited the bay to "refresh" — that 

 is, to take in stores and water, and generally to enjoy such 

 pleasures and excitement as Kororareka afforded. Amongst 

 them was an occasional pressman who had turned whaler, 

 and was but too giad to take a turn on shore and escape for 

 a time the dangers of his wild life. Imagine these wild 

 rough men as co-labourers in the gentle work of issuing the 

 Gospels. 



Not to interrupt the tenor of this narrative by a recital 

 of other press operations, which will presently be considered, 

 I shall continue the story of the Maori Scriptures to their 

 final completion. The work of translating the entire New 

 Testament was the one from which Mr. William Williams 

 never stayed his hand, and in this his chief helpers were 

 Messrs. Shepherd and Puckey, who have already been referred 

 to as excellent Maori linguists, Mr. Puckey, who came as 

 a youth to New Zealand, being especially reckoned by the 

 natives as the best speaker of their language. For six years 

 they had been engaged upon it — ever since 1829, indeed — and 

 in July, 1836, they were enabled to commit it to the new 

 press. On the 30th December, 1837, the work was complete, 

 and was indeed worthy of all who had been engaged in its 

 preparation. In Colenso's short journal, which has been 

 found since his recent death, occurs this entry: "1837, 

 Dec. 30. — Finished printing New Testament — 5,000 copies. 

 Glory be to God alone! " It is a large 8vo, in double columns, 

 of 356 pages, and was bound very strongly, if not elegantly, 

 mostly by the indefatigable printer himself. With great 

 consideration and in a spirit of excellent brotherhood 1,000 

 copies were issued to the Wesleyan Mission, whose seat of 

 operations was at Hokianga, on the west coast. A quantity 

 of strong brown paper was forwarded at the same time, doubt- 

 less for wrappers, for in those early days most of the publica- 

 tions were sewn or bound in paper of this description. This 

 New Testament is conspicuously the chief contribution to our 

 first literature, and it is again singular that out of so large an 

 issue so very few are extant, so few as to be absolutely rare. 

 But the conditions of life sixty or seventy years ago did not 

 conduce to the preservation of anything literary. The desire 

 of the natives for the wonderful pukajnika — and it was great 

 — was much of the same kind as that of the child for a new 

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