Jean-Baptiste Comte

From THE FIRST WAVE OF FRENCH MARISTS by Michael O'Meeghan SM, 2008, 14.

JEAN-BAPTISTE COMTE, aged 27 (on arrival in New Zealand in Group III on 9 Dec Jun 1839).

He began learning Maori in the Hokianga. On 31 July 1840 he left the Bay of Islands on the Aube for Akaroa where he arrived on 16 August to begin a mission among Maori. The results were discouraging so he left Akaroa on 16 March 1842 to return to Kororareka. He accompanied Pompallier when the bishop left the Bay of Islands in mid-February 1844 for a visit down East Coast, and was left at Wellington about the end of March to assist Fr O’Reily with the care of Maori. Later in the year he shifted his base to Waikawa and by 1845 had settled at Otaki. There he built up a thriving Catholic community with its own school, flour mill, extensive gardens with a small ship to carry produce to Wellington. He was a victim of his own achievements for he came to feel their commercial success was undermining his sense of priestly values. Towards the end of 1854 he resigned his post, left the Marists, and returned to France. He died as parish priest on 14 January 1899, aged 86.

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