Te Waimate mission
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- This article is about the Mission in the North Island, New Zealand. For the town in the South Island, see Waimate.
The Waimate Mission established one of the earliest settlements in New Zealand, at Waimate North in the Bay of Islands
At the instigation of Samuel Marsden, a model farming village for Māori was constructed at Te Waimate by the Church Missionary Society. Land was bought from the Ngapuhi tribe following the Girls War of 1830.
The village comprised three wooden houses for missionary families, a flour mill, printery, carpenters' shop, brickworks, blacksmith, school and of course church. Marsden hoped Māori would be educated into European culture while making the mission station a paying proposition by producing goods for sale to European shipping and other Māori through the Stone Store at Kerikeri.
The attempt to impose European culture on Maori in a controlled fashion where those being taught also formed the labour, failed to attract many Māori and the station was gradually run down, some buildings being converted to teach theology as St John’s College (New Zealand), although this moved to Auckland in 1844. The mission station was occupied by British soldiers during the The Flagstaff War of 1845, (casualties of the Battle of Ohaeawai were buried there). After the war the buildings were subsequently put up for sale.
Today the only remnant on the site is the house originally occupied by George Clarke, which is preserved by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust as a museum. One of the other houses survives at the Butler Point Whaling Museum.
