Christian Cyclopedia

1. Dominion in the Brit. Commonwealth of Nations, ca. 1,200 mi. SE of Australia; consists of 2 chief islands (North Is.; South Is.; separated by Cook Strait), Stewart Is. (off the S tip of South Is.), and the Chatham Islands (ca. 500 mi. E of South Is.). Area: ca. 103,735 sq. mi. Pop. Maori natives (perhaps ca. 8% of the pop.) are Polynesian.

Miss. work began 1814 with S. Marsden.* Wesleyan Meths. of London, Eng., entered the field 1822, RCs 1838; many other groups followed.

2. There is no state ch. The Ang. Ch. is largest (more than 800,000), followed by Presbs. (more than 550,000, reflecting a large immigration from Scot.), RCs (ca. 365,000), Meths. (more than 170,000); others include Baps., Brethren, Latter Day Saints, Salv. Army, Seventh-day Adventists, Assoc. Chs. of Christ, Cong. Union, and Luths.

3. The first Luth. immigrants came from Ger. with missionaries 1843–44; some went on to Australia; the permanent settlers est. congs. at Nelson (on the N coast of South Is.) and elsewhere. Mo. Syn. missionaries to N.Z. include Martin Theodore Winkler (November 24, 1880–May 13, 1942; b. Stratmann [Strathman], ca. 5 mi. W of Clayton, Missouri; educ. Conc. Coll., Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Conc. Sem., St. Louis, Missouri; miss. to N.Z. 1903; prof. Conc. Coll., Adelaide, Australia, 1908) and Frederick Henry Stephen Hassold (January 22, 1882–September 6, 1970; b. Huntington, Indiana; educ. Conc. Coll., Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Conc. Sem., St. Louis, Missouri; miss. to N.Z. 1905). Hamuera Te Punga (August 16, 1880–July 30, 1968; b. Lower Hutt, N.Z.), a native Maori, was educ. Conc. Sem., Springfield, Illinois (grad. 1912), returned to work among his people for ca. 10 yrs., with little success; then worked in other areas of the N.Z. ch. till retirement 1951. In 1914, N.Z. Luths. connected with the Mo. Syn. became part of the Ev. Luth. Syn. in Australia (became the ELCA; see Australia, B). OHS

See also Cook Islands; Graebner, August(us) Lawrence; Kowert, Wilhelm Hermann; Selwyn, George Augustus.