Te Wiremu. A Biography of Henry Williams. By Lawrence M. Rogers

Publisher: Pegasus Press Christchurch, 1973. first edition 335pp

Good hardback with some rubbing and fading to boards, no inscriptions, pages very good. Dustjacket is tatty, worn, rubbed and chipped, with some tears at edges.

Henry Williams (11 February 1792 16 July 1867) became the leader of the Church Missionary Society (CMS) mission in Aotearoa (New Zealand) in the first half of the 19th century. He entered the navy at the age of fourteen and served in the Napoleonic Wars. He went to New Zealand in 1823 as a missionary. The Bay of Islands Maori gave Williams the nickname Karu-wha ('Four-eyes' as Henry wore spectacles), he was known more widely as Te Wiremu. He was "the first to make the mission a success, partly because the others had opened up the way, but largely because he was the only man brave enough, stubborn enough, and strong enough to keep going, no matter what the dangers, and no matter what enemies he made". Henry Williams translated the Treaty of Waitangi into the Maori language, with some help from his son Edward (1840). In 1844, he was installed as Church Missionary Society, which is the diocese centered around the Waimate Mission Station.

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