THE CLE ROY AS PASTORALISTS 35 



if not quite of saintly quality, a worthy man and an 

 estimable minister, the friend of Wilberforce and a 

 friend of humanity. 



His successor and at first his assistant, Samuel Mars- 

 den, was of a more heroic type. He fought strenuously 

 against evil-doers in high places ; he was unwearied in 

 the exercise of his calling ; he was a philanthropist of 

 equal energy and success ; he was a missionary of the 

 Word and the founder of Christianity in New Zealand ; 

 and, to crown all — no mock croMii ! — he ^A'as, in the 

 judgment of the sagacious Governor King, " the best 

 practical farmer in the Colony." 



Why did a minister of the gospel take to farming ? 

 If he may be himself beheved, Marsden seemingly had 

 no salary, and perhaps, Avhile Johnson remained in 

 New South Wales, he had none. He received fees, 

 however, but in fourteen years these amounted to only 

 £1 per annum. His farming was therefore not a matter 

 of choice. As he himself said, they had to grow cabbages, 

 potatoes, and wheat, or else starve. He consequently 

 grew rich in this world's goods. He added field to 

 field, flock to flock, and store to store, says Mr. Bon- 

 wick, " till he became a wealthy man." * He procured 

 experts in Yorkshire, then as still the chief seat of the 

 woollen industry, and in Warwickshire. From the 

 private stud flock of King George, through the agency 

 of the ever-helpful Sir Joseph Banks, he \vas given five 

 pure-bred merino sheep. From these he bred sue- 

 cessfull}^, and he sent to England fleeces of such 

 a high quality that they excited the belief that the 

 wool of Austraha would yet make Great Britain inde- 

 pendent of the Continent. (Many years afterwards, 

 Dr. Lang was shown, somewhere in the interior, flocks 

 that were bred from " Marsden's sheep.") It was a 

 great result, and yet these things were but the byplay 

 of a mind that was devoured with an enthusiasm of 

 humanity that led him to induce both ministers and 

 school-masters to emigrate to New South Wales, and 

 * BoNWiCK, Australia's First Preacher, pp. 228, 229. 



