Henry Nott

Homage Paid to Great Missionary by Men of All Races

From Our Own Correspondent

Papeete, May 5.

STATELY ceremonies at Outu Aiai and at Ahu-toru, in the district of Arue, on Tahiti, on May 2, marked the centenary of the death of the great pioneer missionary of the London Mis sionary Society, the Rev. Henry Nott, who worked in Tahiti for 47 years. These ceremonies, likewise, marked the re awakening of the Tahitian people to their debt of gratitude to this illustrious ser vant of the Divine Master.

Present-day knowledge of the inestim able services by Henry Nott to the people of the South Pacific Islands has come to us through the researches of the late Mr.

J. L. Philips, of Mr. W. W. Bolton, and of the Rev. Charles Vernier, Presiding Pastor of the Protestant Mission in French Oceania.

They have established beyond contro versy that the imperishable foundation upon which the superstructure of the Church in Polynesia has been erected, was well and truly laid—during the early years of the 19th Century—by Henry Nott. To quote from Mr. Bolton’s memorial oration, on May 2, 1944, at Ahu-toru, where is Nott’s resting-place: “He is not famous in Christian circles, as are John Williams of Ra’iatea, Chalm ers of New Guinea, or Paton of the New Hebrides; but we who know his worth and work rank him amongst the greatest missionaries who ever landed on the islands of the Great South Sea.”

The distinguished company who assembled, on May 2, at the church on Outu Aiai, to pay homage to the memory of Henry Nott, listened with emotion to the eloquent eulogy in the classic lan guage of old Tahiti, by the Rev. Charles Vernier. The sincerity of that emotion was expressed in the oration, at Ahu toru, by the Rev. Tearo (Pastor of Arue) on behalf of the Royal Pomare Family: in the impassioned eloquence of the Rev.

Tapao (Pastor of Haapiti, Mo’orea) as he laid a wreath of fragrant flowers, the symbol of the homage of his people of Mo’orea, on the tomb of Henry Nott; in the reception accorded to Mr. Bolton’s memorial oration, which was interpreted, both in word and spirit, into the Tahi tian, by Monsieur Vernier.

Perhaps, the measure of that sincerity was best revealed by the Rev. Tapao: “Our great teacher, Nott: the fragrance of these flowers will fade away; but the fragrance of your name and of your great service to our people, shall remain a per petual and precious memory for us and for our descendants, forever.”

The people of Arue had practised, for this occasion, some beautiful old hymn tunes, and we heard the finest church singing this writer has heard for many a long day.

Mr. Bolton delighted his hearers when he described the coronation ceremony, when Nott crowned the boy king Pomare 111, at the very spot where the Arue Church now stands.

Both the historic point of land, Outu Aiai, and Ahu-toru (the burial place of old Tahitian royalty) are within sight of Matavai Bay, the place where Henry Nott landed on Tahiti in 1797.

That part of the centenary ceremony which was conducted in the French lan guage was ably carried out by the Pastor of Papeete, the Rev. Rey-Lescure.

This tribute, with which Mr. Bolton closed his eulogy of Henry Nott—scholar, pioneer, translator of the Bible into the Tahitian language, founder of the Church in Polynesia—is worthy of remembrance: “Here, you have laid a wreath, and rightly so. Wreaths are for remembrance: tokens of love, of esteem, of admiration, the whole world over. But this wreath is a token of more than admiration: it is a token, from one and all of us, of Homage. Homage to a man who gave lifelong service to his fellows, though of other race than his own; Homage to a man of noble character; Homage to a most worthy son of his homeland, Beretania, true to type, indomit able, not knowing the word ‘defeat,’ be the clouds ever so lowering, be the task ever so great; and above all, and this the climax, Homage to a man who, from early manhood till his death, was a devoted, faithful and most able servant of his Lord and Master, Jesus Christ.”