Story: Missions and missionaries

Stacks of Bibles are distributed to eager readers in 1842, in the shadow of Mt Taranaki (Egmont). As soon as Māori learned – mostly from missionaries – to read and write, they were willing to pay high prices for reading matter. Bibles and other religious writings were almost the only printed material in Māori available. This hand-coloured lithograph shows baskets of food ready to be exchanged for copies of the New Testament donated by the British and Foreign Bible Society.