Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/509

 {through Sir J. Banks) was allowed to procure pure ^iiio sheep from the Royal flock. He asked for two, aed live were given. But his creueral and secular labours did 'not enc^ross all his time. He personally soupjlit and found two fellow-labourers for Viis Master's vineyard : the Eevds* W, Cow^per and E, Cartwri^ht. He selected three school- masters, who were sent to the colony. He had interviews with the London Missionary Society and the Church Missionary Society, and impressed upon them his opinion that arts and eivilizatioo should f^o hand in hand with religion to the races which were to be converted. He laid before them his plans for carrying the Gospel to the South Seas and New Zealand. The Church Missionary Society nelected Mr. William Hal! and Mr* John King as mis- sionaries to New Zealand, Both were laymen, but no clergyman could be found for the poat. How;, by meeting the high-born but woe-begone Ruatara on board the vessel which bore liim to Australia, Marsden became the siiceess- fid apostle of New Zealand, belongs to the history of that country* It is sutiicient to say here, that Marsden *s house w^as from that time until his death the home of every Maori who wanted advice* or was in any other need or afftiction. Having glanced at the religious condition of the colony, and the efforts of the first ministers of the Church of England, the Wesleyans, and the Roman Catholics^ it is requisite to record one vohmtary work, carried on apart by I a few poor convicts, which cast light upon the gloom of the time, and gatlicred a devout congregation, whose orisons, hke tbose of the cottar of Burns, shed a halo round the huml)le, and perha[Ks were heard as the accept- able "ianguage of the soul.'' A number of prisoners were employed in sawing, and in splitting rails and shingles, at Pennant Hills, tben a part of tlie forest remote from all ^Uound of the holy l»ell which knolls to church. By their own ^Pexertions diu'ing leisure hours they built a decent wooden chapel there, for wbieh the govennneiit supplied the nails, and permitted the workmen to ap[>ropr(atG the re(|uisit6 timber. The overseer, a freedman named Kelly, and another carpenter, whose name is unfortunately not recorded^ were