1st Edition Bible in Maori - “Ko te Kawenata Hou o to tatou Ariki te Kai Wakaora a ihu Karaiti” - Signed by William Williams translator of the Bible, to George Augustus Selwyn, first bishop of New Zealand, on June 21, 1842.

“Ko te Kawenata Hou o to tatou Ariki te Kai Wakaora a ihu Karaiti”

-First edition of the Māori New Testament - Published in Paihia, New Zealand, 1837

-With 11p of notes by Selwyn, and a dedication from William Williams to George Augustus Selwyn on June 21 1842 

Introduction:

For right or wrong, colonisation, religion and printing are intricately linked. Missionaries were often the earliest Western travellers to new regions and the first to interact with indigenous peoples. Missionaries would bring education and literacy, often with religious instruction as a key part of early education. With the missionaries came printing to spread the word of God, and religious pamphlets and Bibles were often the first significant printings on early western presses. Alongside this however, came colonisation and the suppression of indigenous cultures, which missionaries attempted to replace with Western values and religion. Printing presses were also used to bring Western law and rule, for example the treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand’s foundation document, was printed on the same press as the first Māori New Testament in New Zealand. The profound changes of religion and these controversial treaties, propagated by printing, still affect indigenous peoples to this day. 

“Ko te Kawenata Hou o to tatou Ariki te Kai Wakaora a ihu Karaiti”:

This is the first Complete edition of the New Testament published in Māori, which came off William Colenso’s press in Paihia in late 1837. The work is significant for being the first Bible to be published in an indigenous language in the Southern Hemisphere. It had taken 10 years to translate, mostly by William Williams, and 5000 copies were produced with many copies sent to London and Sydney for binding. The work was hugely popular and Māori travelled far and wide to obtain a copy of this long-awaited work.

After publication, the Bibles were well used and copies are rare today with around 40 copies recorded to have survived in Institutions. Most institutional copies are located in New Zealand and Australia (around 20 copies), with 7 in the US, 5 in the UK, and 2 each in France, Denmark and Germany. The work appears uncommonly on the private market, with the last significant copies appearing in the sales of the great 20thCentury collections of New Zealand printing of Pycroft (2011) and Parr (2019), both of which were unsigned.

This copy is complete with 356 pages of text including the printed title page. The book is bound in its contemporary full leather binding with wear and some splitting to the spine. A total of 11 blanks are densely annotated in Bishop Selwyn’s hand. Some of the opening blanks are torn.  There are stains to the upper and lower portions of many pages, consistent with the book being heavily used by its owner. Some pages are loosening, especially the opening quires.

Provenance

Previously owned by Frank Haigh (1898 - 1992), New Zealand lawyer and activist whose papers and archives are in Auckland Libraries. Haigh purchased the book from the estate of John Kinder (1819-1903), an important early Anglican clergyman who worked with Selwyn, and likely received the book directly from Selwyn.

Inscription:

“Presented to the Right Reverend George Augustus Lord Bishop of New Zealand by William Williams June 21. 1842.”

William Williams (1800-1878): 

An important early missionary in New Zealand, William Williams was the translator of the New Testament into Māori. After growing up in England, Williams joined the Church Missionary Society (CMS) and arrived in Paihia, the Bay of Islands, in 1826. His brother, Henry Williams, who translated the treaty of Waitangi into Māori, had arrived a few years earlier and was head of the CMS in New Zealand. William was initially based in Paihia, where he was in charge of the English boy’s school and was the mission doctor from 1826-1837. He moved to Waimate North in 1835, after the English Boy’s school was relocated there. William had a proficiency for the Māori language, and soon after his arrival in New Zealand started translating the scripture, culminating in the New Testament’s publication in 1837. William later moved to Tūranga in 1839 where he was important for his role in the Signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand’s foundation document. He presented the Tūranga Treaty Copy to the Rangatira (tribal chiefs) on the Eastern Coast, collecting 41 signatories, with his signature present on the Tūranga treaty copy as witness. William remained in New Zealand for the rest of his life, producing an early Māori dictionary in 1844, and being ordained Bishop of Waiapu in 1859.

George Augustus Selwyn (1809-1878) 

The first Anglican Bishop of New Zealand and Melanesia (1841-1869), Selwyn was born into a wealth family in Hampstead. He attended Eton and Cambridge, where he rowed in the first boat race in 1829. After working at Eton and as a Priest in Windsor, he was elected as Bishop for New Zealand in 1841. Travelling by ship, he was able to learn the Māori language during his voyage, and after short stops in Sydney and Auckland, arrived in the Bay of Islands in 1842. Initially, he was based in Waimate North, although he took several tours of New Zealand over the first few years, and eventually established his base in Auckland at St Paul’s Church in 1844. The notes in this copy are likely for the sermons he preached during these tours.

Selwyn’s strength was in the organisation of the Church, and he was instrumental in establishing the early Anglican Church in the Pacific. In 1854 he visited England, where alongside a well receive lecture in Cambridge, he secured rights to subdivide the New Zealand dioceses and gain independence for the New Zealand Church. His weaknesses included his slow promotion of Māori priests and his controversial role in supporting the Invasion of the Waikato during the New Zealand wars. Land rights were hugely controversial in the expanding colony and grievances rightly remain to this day. 

After nearly 30 years in New Zealand, he returned to England where he was Bishop of Lichfield until his death. After his death, his important role in establishing the Church in New Zealand led to plans to honour his life and the founding of Selwyn College in Cambridge. Initially the college was established with a view to train young missionaries for the Church, but it later became a full Cambridge College in 1958. 

Date: June 21, 1842

This date is significant as it is the day of Selwyn’s arrival in Waimate, his initial seat as the first Anglican Bishop of New Zealand. An extract from Selwyn’s letter to the CMS published in the Church Missionary Gleaner, August 1843 states:

“On Tuesday June 21 [1842], Mr Henry Williams escorted me in the boat to the Kerikeri; where I was received by Mr J Kemp, who kindly undertook to prepare a compartment in the Mission Store for the reception of my library and other goods. We then proceeded, with the Rev R. Taylor, to the Waimate; the first sight of which by moonlight, revived all our recollections of England: the white Church, and the Mission Houses with their neat gardens and fields, presenting an appearance of settled comfort which is scarcely to be found in any other part of New Zealand.”

William Williams, the translator of the New Testament into Māori, was the head of the English Boy’s School at Waimate so would have presented the signed New Testament to Selwyn that evening.

Annotations

The opening 6, and closing 5 blank pages of this copy are densely filled with contemporary notes by Selwyn in English and Te Reo Māori. Most of the annotations are preparatory short notes for sermons, with references to important Bible passages. Annotations include “The Parable of the Sower”, and “The Parable of the Labourer” and references to Sermons given on Christmas Day – with Matthew Chapter 1 verse 23, and Genesis chapter 3 verse 5. Notes in Māori include collects after the passage from Matthew 28v19 – “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” a passage which would have been important to Selwyn’s faith.

Summary

The First Bible published in an indigenous language in the Southern Hemisphere. This copy unique in being inscribed by William Williams, a signatory on the Tūranga Treaty of Waitangi and the translator of the New Testament into Te Reo Māori. The copy was given to George Selwyn, the First Bishop of New Zealand who was instrumental in the early history of the Anglican Church in New Zealand, on the evening of his arrival at his seat in Waimate.

BIM 45

£12,500

N.B. Given its national significance – this book will require a license to be exported from New Zealand