The Mediator

Richard Taylor described himself as a 'man ‘between two fires'’. Born in Yorkshire in 1805, he arrived as a missionary in the Bay of Islands in 1839 with his two oldest sons and was soon joined by his wife Caroline and their three younger children. His extensive records, including a daily journal spanning 49 years, have provided a rich source for historians as well as a remarkable day-by-day account of one man’s life.

Taylor was present at the Treaty of Waitangi discussions on 5 February 1840 and responsible for making the final copy on parchment. His purchase of the Muriwhenua block in the North aroused controversy, and some have criticised his part in the discrediting of the missionary William Yate. At the same time, he is seen as a successful missionary who enjoyed a close friendship with Governor Grey, and who, with Octavius Hadfield, took much of the heat out of race relations in the lower North Island.

John Owens has looked at the Taylor papers in their entirety and constructed a picture of a complicated man. The Mediator tells the story of a man who came expecting ‘savages’ and learned to reject the term. Owens shows a man who, while ever the missionary, encouraged Māori in the Whanganui area when they set up their own magistrates, and when they traded, grew crops or built flour mills – a man who, throughout his career, maintained his interests in ethnography, botany, zoology and geology, and was an indefatigable writer of books and articles on scientific subjects.

'In writing The Mediator: A Life of Richard Taylor 1805–1873, historian John Owens has built on his own body of work with rich resources at his disposal. Taylor, a successful and much-loved Anglican missionary, naturalist and prolific writer of letters, books and articles on subjects as diverse as botany, geology and zoology, kept a daily journal spanning 48 years. Owens has reflected on all of these records to construct a detailed and authoritative portrait of this man’s life in the evolving and turbulent world of 19th-century New Zealand.' 
Prue Donald LISTENER

'This is a book which will be read with much interest for its insights into human nature and the understanding it gives to the forming of a nation.' 
John Anderson CMS NZ JOURNAL

JOHN OWENS was born in Dorchester, Dorset and trained as a historian at Merton College, Oxford. He has researched and published in early 19th-century New Zealand history, with particular reference to Māori, missionaries and early settlers.