History – Mission Station Christmas

Rev William Gittos was a renowned Kaipara missionary. First stationed at Waingohi, he and his family moved to Otamatea not long after the Albertlanders arrived in Port Albert.

An old scrapbook from the Brookes collection contains interesting newspaper clippings and among them are some columns written for younger readers by Rev Gittos’ wife, Marianne. Unfortunately I don’t know which papers they were published in.

The following article (abridged) was written in late December 1890 or January 1891.

My Dear Young Friends

By the time this reaches you it will be too late to wish you a Merry Christmas.

When we were very little children and lived among the Maori, we used to get up at daylight on Christmas morning and go into the forest just behind our house, where we found all sorts of beautiful flowers and ferns, and we used to come home laden with bunches with which we decorated our house and the church. At first the older Maoris used to laugh, and ask us what we did it for. They said it was ota-ota (rubbish) but the young ones caught the idea and followed our example, and it is now quite general among them: and there are no young people more clever at forming pretty groups and festoons.

I wish you could have seen our pretty church at Otamatea on Christmas Day. The little boys would climb up to all sorts of impossible places and fasten up bunches of the Christmas flowers and their eyes would twinkle with delight when they heard us asking whoever could it be who had been up there.  Oh, those little Maori boys can climb!

We always had service on Christmas Day and everybody came dressed in their best.  The hymns and lessons were all specially selected for the day, and of late years a Maori youth played the harmonium, and the children sang, and we had nice happy times, generally ending up with a tea meeting at night.

Then we used to have our watch-night [New Year’s Eve]. I think this is one of the very best services we have. I can remember them when I was a tiny child, and as soon as one was past I used to begin to wish for the next; and a whole year seemed such a long time to wait.

When we lived in a lonely place, and we could not get to church and Mr Gittos was away at some distant place, I have waited alone, and when the time came I used to play and sing the old hymn we all love so much, ‘Come and let us anew our journey pursue.’ You see I used to say ‘us’ – though Mr Gittos was a long way off, I knew what he was thinking about just then.

My thoughts would wander back to the old times when we were young folks and used to go to the chapel in High Street (Auckland) and hear some of the missionaries from the Islands, who came here in search of health and rest.

But we must not dwell too long on the past; we are to ‘act for the living present’ so I wish you all a very Happy New Year. With many wishes for your happiness and advance in all that is ‘lovely and of good report.’

* Correction to my last column about dairying: the Te Hana Dairy Factory closed in 1973, not 1987. Thanks to Ken Allen for the information.