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Fr Antoine Séon to Fr Jean-Claude Colin, 23 & 28 October & 5 December 1844

Translated by Fr Brian Quin SM, September 2005

APM Z 208 23 October 1844

Kororareka, 23 October 1844

Very Reverend Father

It’s now more than a year since I have had the consolation of writing a few words to you. Since then, my placement has changed. I am no longer alone in my first mission station, from which I had the honour of writing to you.^[1] Since the month of February I have been at Kororareka. A fortunate mistake [méprise] called me to be with His Lordship and has put my station into the care of Father Pesant [sic: Pézant], where he is very much loved and where he is doing good work. I am still responsible for counting the pounds and shillings here. May God be blessed for that, but that sort of thing is not my strong point. However, let it be said between you and me, Very Reverend Father, I don’t clearly see what I am good at. It was time that I changed station. In spite of all my journeys, all the activity I undertook, I felt I was not up to my task [j’etai audessous de ma besogne]; I asked God and the Bishop to send Father Pézant there, and the whole thing was successful. The Bishop, when he called at that station, performed 120 baptisms, nearly all of adults.

My health, without having been bad, is now better at this station. I travel less on land but more often by sea. Life is better ordered than when you are on your own. Father Provincial^[2] holds everyone here in respect. Life among the New Zealanders always demands a lot of patience; the work of the Lord goes ahead slowly, but however not coming to a halt. The events which have occurred in this part of the island since the 8th July last^[3] and which have diminished British authority almost to nothing, have done credit to the Catholic religion in this sense that neither the priests nor the Catholic Maoris have got involved on the side of evil, but rather to re-establish order. The flagstaff cut down by Protestants was put up again by a Catholic chief. He showed that neither we nor our teaching were hostile to the government. That was the testimony which His Excellency the Governor^[4] gave Father Baty and me when we went to greet him on his arrival at the Bay of Islands. God proceeds slowly, but [iles? Des?] works last a long time.

I will say nothing to you, Reverend Father, about my relationships with our Bishop. He has been away almost since my arrival. He left on 17 February to visit the Catholic stations. He leased a ship for 55 pounds sterling per month. The ship came back on the 29th June. It left the Bishop in the south visiting [illegible word – Catholic?] stations in the interior which they ^[5] were not familiar with. So His Lordship did not come back to the Bay until the 6th September, from where he left on the 12th of that month for Sydney. The Bishop had for a long time been invited to go [p3] to that town for the consecration of a new Bishop.^[6] The newspapers announced that this ceremony took place on the 10th September, so the Bishop on his arrival had only to approve the acts of the first Provincial council held in these seas, and which the newspapers announced as well to have taken place after the ordination.^[7] We are awaiting the Bishop’s return.

As for my responsibility, ^[8] I carry it out in co-operation with everyone. I leave things more to their own devices than direct them myself. Here is a glance at the receipts and expenses which have occurred since the month of January this year 1844 up till today.

The Bishop has put into the cashbox of the Procure about

Receipts 2822 pounds sterling. Expenses today have been

Expenses 2789 pounds sterling. This money has been used to maintain the mission stations, building houses of wood in [missing word(s) – page torn?]. A chapel has been built at Kororareka [and] the [missing word] and the adjoining garden have been surrounded with a strong paling fence. It seems however that the Bishop has too easily agreed to get a big boat [sic] which will be of little use to us, a clock to be placed on the chapel, and for which the payment will mainly be his responsibility; that he could not undertake [building] at once all the houses for the stations he has promised, which has used or will use up almost all the funds he has in Sydney at the Bank of Australasia, the only safe one. I think he is too easygoing.

For the spiritual good of our stations we are waiting for and asking for a new book more appropriate to the needs and capacity of the Maori. At least that is how it seems to me and several of my confrères.

There, Reverend Father, is what I thought I should tell you. Thank you for all the trouble you take on behalf of our mission, which I hope will console you as much as it costs you.

Please accept, Reverend Father, the respect with which I still call myself one of your obedient and affectionate sons.

Séon SM

[p4] At the time when this letter leaves Kororareka, on the 5th December 1844, the Bishop has not come back from Sydney;^[9] he will only be back for Christmas. We have received the letter of advice telling us that we can draw on the firm of Joubert in Sydney the sum of thirty-one thousand francs^[10] allocated to our mission. We will very shortly undertake all necessary steps concerning that. Unfortunately our letter will not reach the Bishop in Sydney. The way through the Bank of Australasia in Sydney would be safer.

[In margin p2] We all have only old three-cornered hats.

Notes

1. ↑ His first station was at Matamata in the Waikato 1841-44 - translator’s note
2. ↑ Father Jean Forest - translator’s note
3. ↑ when Hone Heke chopped down the British flagstaff at Kororareka for the first time - translator’s note
4. ↑ Robert Fitzroy - translator’s note
5. ↑ ? - translator’s note
6. ↑ Dr Murphy, as first Bishop of Adelaide - translator’s note
7. ↑ Lillian Keys in her book Life and Times of Bishop Pompallier, p218, says that the ordination took place on 8th September, and the First Provincial Synod of Australasia took place on the 10th, 11th and 12th September 1844 - translator’s note
8. ↑ He is referring to his task as mission bursar - translator’s note
9. ↑ He didn’t leave until 1 January 1845 - translator’s note
10. ↑ about £1240 - translator’s note