Story: Cultural go-betweens

Learning to read and write was, for many Māori, a powerful incentive to accept the missionaries' religious message. The demand for printed material, especially in the Māori language, greatly outstripped the supply, so a missionary-printer, William Colenso, arrived in New Zealand in 1834. His output of books, pamphlets and official publications increased after this Columbian printing press arrived in 1842.