INTRODUCTION.
Some forty-seven years ago, leading men among the laity of Scotland realised their obligation to follow with the means of grace the increasing numbers of their fellow-comitrymen who were leaving every year for the colonies, animated with the passion
"To rear an independent shed,
And get the lips they loved unborrowed bread."
This conviction was widely prevalent in the Free Church of Scotland, and found expression in the labours of her Colonial Committee. Some years ago the Committee wrote asking to be furnished with memoirs of our congregations as a valuable contribution to the Church history of the future; and with the view of furthering the project I put myself in communication with ministers and others in the colony, but, I regret to say, with indifferent success. In prospect of the opening of New Knox Church the subject was brought under consideration, with the result that in 1876 Dr Hislop, one of the elders, undertook at the request of the office-bearers to write a memoir of Knox Church—a work which he performed most satisfactorily.
The prospect of the extinction of the debt on the church at the close of 1891—now happily effected, largely through the labours of Mr Andrew Cameron, one of the elders—being properly regarded as an event of great importance in our congregational history, the office-bearers asked Dr Hislop to recast his memoir and continue it to the present time.
I need scarcely say that Dr Hislop is known to the membership of Knox Church by services stretching over many years, and by his intimate connection with education. His training at the Normal School and the University of Edinburgh and the practical knowledge he acquired as a parish schoolmaster I regard as a providential preparation for the work to which he was called in this colony—the work of shaping and building up the education system of Otago, and afterwards that of the Colony. Educationists of distinction have spoken with approval of the former work, which embraced primary schools, district high schools, secondary schools of a higher grade, and a university. He had, no doubt, the backing of such enthusiastic advocates of education in Otago as Mr James Macandrew, Sir John Richardson, the Cargills, the Gillieses, the Hon. Thomas Dick, Hon. James Fulton, Hon. W. H. Reynolds, Sir F. Dillon Bell, Sir Robert Stout, Sir Julius Vogel, J. Hyde Harris, John McGlashan, Donald Reid, and others; but his practical knowledge was in constant requisition to meet emergencies and overcome difficulties. His able services to education have secured him a permanent page in colonial history; and his work in connection with Knox Church will ever be held in grateful remembrance.
I venture to take advantage of these introductory notes to place on record my abiding sense of the great kindness and encouragement received by me and mine on our arrival in Otago. As soon as our good ship the "Bosworth" dropped anchor in Otago waters (January 1860), a boat was seen leaving Port Chalmers jetty, and making straight for our vessel. Pilot Driver pronounced it to be Captain Thomson's boat, and added that he had with him the Rev. William Johnstone, the minister of the Port. On boarding us they gave us a hearty welcome, wished me comfort and usefulness in the ministry to which I had been called, and presented me with gifts of strawberries and cream, rolls of fresh butter, and a basket of bread—gifts which were as considerate as they were appropriate after our voyage of one hundred and twenty days, and stirred up in an invalid member of my family a pulse of hope. Then began a friendship which in the case of Captain Thomson lasts to this day, and in the case of Mr Johnstone—the faithful in things great and small—continued till he was called to the home above.
At the first opportunity I proceeded to Dunedin to report myself. On stepping ashore, Mr John Gillies (Resident Magistrate) and Mr John Hyde Harris (District Judge) welcomed me with a warmth which secured thenceforward my constant affection. They conducted me to the church and manse, which were then in course of erection, and gave me assurance of hearty assistance in every work I might undertake for the spread of reHgion and the building up of the Church of God. I found my way to the Manse, and received kindness and welcome from Mrs Burns in the absence of her husband, who had left for Invercargill, partly on a visit to his daughter Mrs Ellis, but chiefly to organise into a congregation the scattered settlers of the district. On my leaving, Mrs Burns loaded me with fruits from her garden. These were greatly admired on board the "Bosworth," especially the gooseberries, which were as large as plums and gloriously ripe.
On the following day we made our way to Dunedin. The day was bright with sunshine, and we greatly enjoyed our passage up the bay, its shores fringed with wooded banks, and showing here and there a clearing with its white cottage and green pasture, and cattle feeding among grass up to their knees. As it had become known that Mrs Stuart was in feeble health, the late Messrs James Paterson and George Hepburn, with kindly forethought, were at the jetty to welcome us, having brought with them an arm-chair, in which they placed our invalid and carried her to our quarters in the house of Mr John Duncan. There she made rapid improvement under the medical care of Dr Purdie and the skilful nursing of Mrs Duncan. The kindness then shown us, and oft repeated afterwards, bound us to the Duncans with cords that death alone can sunder. It was my privilege to visit both Mr Hepburn and Mr Paterson at the time when they were passing through the valley of the shadow of death, and, as I looked on them and prayed with them, their considerate service to the wife of my youth always rose up in my mind, and gave softness to my voice and tenderness to my hand, as I tried by prayer and sympathy to help them in their dying hour. I must not forget that we owed to the late Mr James Wilkie, senior, the occupancy of a pleasant cottage till the manse was ready for us. Then began on the part of Mr Wilkie services to the Gospel and kindness to myself which never failed till life's close. These are continued by Mrs Wilkie, despite advancing years, and I am sure will end only with her departure hence.
In illustration of the spirit of the founders of Knox Church, I may mention that before I was a week in Dunedin Messrs Gillies and Wilkie placed in my hands a purse containing seventy sovereigns, no insignificant sum in those early days of the settlement. When I communicated the fact to my wife she advised me to set apart twenty of them as a contribution to the building fund of the church. This was done, and they found their way to the plate on the opening day.
Our nearest minister to the south was the Rev. William Will, of Taieri. One bright afternoon shortly after our arrival I was summoned away from the preparation of my sermon to speak to him and his wife. On going out there confronted me Mr Will, on a substantial mare, attended by her foal, which was trying its budding teeth on the white clover of the street line. The foal in due time developed into the well-known "Fergus," which carried his owner for a number of years with blithe heart and sure foot through a parish compared with which the parish of to-day may be regarded as no bigger than a cabbage garden. Mrs Will, before dismounting, welcomed us to Otago in words hearty and gracious. Then Mr Will said "Take this basket, which contains samples of the products of our country." When the contents were turned out, they were found to consist of butter, honey, and fruits of various kinds. After rest and refreshment, I saw my friends mounted; and, with the heads of their steeds turned homewards, they cantered away at a seven miles an hour pace, "Fergus" following at their heels and raising aloft now his head and now his hind feet.
The welcome extended to us by the settlers was hearty beyond expression, and assumed many forms. As we talked over the goodness and favour so copiously showered upon us, there sprang up in our souls the resolution to devote ourselves to the ministries of grace and beneficence to which we had been called. I can say of one of the co-partnership that the vow was kept in the letter and in the spirit till the Master called her to His service above. The other is still in the Church militant, and, while his supreme desire is to serve his generation according to the will of God, he has to confess that, owing in part to the lack of fireside counsel, he has in many directions come short of his purposes, and needs the forbearance and forgiveness alike of God and man.
Knox Church Manse,
June 1892.