Bible-based beginnings
Paipera Tapu timeline

25 December, 1814: Samuel Marsden arrives with King, Hall and Kendall, their wives and a number of other artisans and former convicts to settle at Rangihoua. First Christian service on New Zealand soil. Civilise first. Little focus on translation. Little progress in ‘conversion’

 
1818: Thomas Kendall’s Lord’s Prayer in Maori first published in Sydney.

1819: Wesleyan Missionary Society (WMS). Samuel Leigh friend of Marsden invited to establish a presence at (?).William White joined by James Shepherd and his wife, Rev. Nathaniel Turner, seaman James Stack, carpenter-joiner- blacksmith and skilful linguist John Hobbs and labourer Luke Wade. The groups work together on translations. Wesleyans state every believer should have a Bible.

1820: Kendall and warrior chief Hongi Hika leave for England without permission,  allegedly to start work on a Maori Bible. 1000 copies of a corrected version of Kendall’s Lord’s Prayer published by CMS after Kendall, left a copy, a hymn book and a prayer book with Cambridge linguist Professor Samuel Lee.

1821: Kendall and Hongi return with 300 muskets, provoking the musket wars that devastate much of the country and escalate further when Te Rauparaha gets hold of his own weaponry.

1822: Kendall dismissed from the CMS for gun-running and an affair.

March 1823: Henry Williams arrived with Marsden on his fourth visit to take charge of the mission station: Gospel first. Transformation through literacy via Bible translation. Evangelical and practical. Peacemaking. Building relationships.

1824: James Shepherd initially with the Wesleyans then the CMS quickly grasps the language completing his translation of the Gospel of John, Genesis and the parable of the Prodigal Son.

1826: Wesleyan John Hobbs has Lord’s Prayer and some hymns published in Maori

September 1826: William Williams organises monthly meetings with Gilbert William Puckey, William Yate and James Shepherd with the goal of producing the first Maori Bible translation. 

August 1827: The first serious attempt at publishing in Maori. 400 copies of a 31 page book of Shepherd’s excerpts from Genesis, Exodus, John and Matthew plus seven hymns were printed in Sydney. 

1830: William Yate oversees printing of 550 copies of 117 pages of scripture portions in Sydney with the assistance of the NSW Bible Society. He returns with a little printing press which is abandoned within a year.

October 1832: Yate back in Sydney supervising 3300 copies of a prayer book, more chapters of Genesis and the full text of Matthew, John, Acts, Romans, and 1 Corinthians. The Wesleyans help with funding, the British & Foreign Bible Society provides paper. 

May 1833: Yate considers the print job, completed 'the most valuable cargo that ever reached the shores of New Zealand'. William Williams, well advanced in his own translation work says it abounds in typographical errors. Colenso later discovers over 1000 mistakes.

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June 1834: Yate takes the best Maori translations to England despite Henry Williams denying him leave. Publishes his own account of life among the Maori but nothing else printed.

30 December 1834: Wiliam Colenso arrives at Paihia with his Stanhope press but finds many of the tools of his trade are not included in the freight, including paper supplies.

February 1834: Colenso has improvised. Within seven weeks of arrival he has produced 25 Maori language copies of Philippians and Ephesians using missionary paper supplies. Over the next few months 2000 more copies are produced from his hand cranked press.

December 1835: Colenso has printed 1000 Maori versions of the Gospel of Luke

1935-1836: William Williams has overseen a full translation of theKawenata Hau (New Testament) and Colenso has readied the type ahead of paper supplies arriving from England.

1836: Wesleyan William Woon established a printing press at Mangungu, Hokianga

1837-1845: Four revised editions of the NT produced
 
1836-1837: In a 21 months period Colenso prints 5000 copies of the 356 page New Testament.

February 6, 1840: Signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, the first equal partnership arrangement between the British Crown and an indigenous people.

From 1837: Estimated attendance at CMS public worship services across the country was 30,000; Wesleyans also had a huge influx of enthusiastic candidates for baptism. The demand for books and baptism grew exponentially. A further print run of 10,000 Maori New Testaments from England was eagerly awaited; and the demand for prayer books from the Paihia press soon became a total of 33,000.

1841: James Watkin first missionary to the South Island quickly discovers the southern dialect. Using skills gained in translation in Tonga (?) he produces a local Maori version of the Gospel of Matthew.

September 1841: William Williams noted that Bibles were far more sought after along the East Coasdt than European clothing. He had a need for 3000 copies, but the CMS had only allocated him 497 copies. The story was similar in many parts of the country.

By 1845: Beside those produced locally, 60,000 copies of the NT had been issued by the British & Foreign Bible Society.

1847: The first six Old Testament books finally published in Maori by Hebrew scholar and missionary Robert Maunsell after his initially work was destroyed by fire,

1860: The number of copies of the Maori New Testament in country had doubled to 126,000 copies.

1867: The first full translation of the Maori Old Testament (Ko te Kawenata Tawhito) published after being delayed for two years by the ‘land wars’.

1868: After a further revision of the New Testament, the first full edition
of Te Paipera Tapu appeared. Further revisions were made in 1889, 1925 and 1952. 

Ref: Lineham, Bible & Society pp.12-13,  17–19, 23, and Williams, Christianity Among the New Zealanders, Bible & Treaty (Pengiun 2010,  Carleton, Life of Henry Williams, p.185