Missionaries did well

There is much I agree with in Chris Trotter’s column on racism and colonialism (The Press, Mar 3). To his litany of colonialism’s crimes I would add: Our current governmental foundations remain illegitimate. A ‘‘revolutionary seizure of power’’ was how, with unusual candour, Simon Upton in 1989 encapsulated what our early settler governments achieved.

But Trotter is myth-making himself to depict the missionaries’ ‘‘civilising’’ as some of the evils of colonialism. They came seeking to ‘‘transform’’, not to ‘‘destroy’’ Ma¯ ori society; to ameliorate, not to add to the damage. It’s certainly partly due to them that this country was largely peaceful, if still lawless, when my ancestors arrived here in 1840.

That some missionaries acquired a large estate as a form of superannuation for their numerous children, and sided with Grey against Kingitanga, does not detract from their extraordinary courage while living in conditions of deprivation and danger we today would not countenance.

Gary A Clover

Richmond