South Island’s First Maori Mission Church Gives Canterbury Its First Spire – 1867

When the Rev. James West Stack took up his post as the leading missionary of Canterbury’s ‘Maori Mission’ in 1859, he came across a very fragmented and weary Ngai Tahu.  The memories of the deadly raids of the North Island’s Ngati Toa Chief, Te Rauparaha, during the late 1820’s weren’t even close to being forgotten.  …