BULLER, JAMES (1812-84). Born in Cornwall in 1812, Buller as a young man felt drawn towards the Church and acted as a Wesleyan local preacher. In Oct 1835, with his wife, he sailed for Australia by the Platina. In Sydney he met the Rev N. Turner (q.v.) who engaged him as tutor to his young family about to return to New Zealand, and they continued their voyage in the Patriot, arriving at Hokianga on 27 Apr 1836.

During the three years that Buller spent at Mangungu he thoroughly mastered the Maori language, in which he was able to preach after 12 months residence in the country. He showed such aptitude for mission work that he was accepted by the London conference on the recommendation of the missionaries. Buller experienced many dangers, but throughout evinced unflinching courage. On the occasion of the attack on the native teachers at Rotopipiwai (1837) he went at once to the spot with his colleagues and interviewed the murderers. In the following year he was appointed to take charge of a station at Tangiteroria where, mainly under the protection of Tirarau, he spent a useful 15 years. In 1839, in view of the expected arrival of emigrants, he made a long journey on foot to Port Nicholson to secure a site for a mission. There (on 21 Jan 1840) he found the Cuba at anchor and met Wharepouri and other local chiefs. The Aurora arrived on 22 Jan and Buller preached to the emigrants on board on Sunday, 26 Jan. Returning to Bay of Islands by the Atlas, Buller reached his station on the Kaipara before the meeting to consider the Treaty of Waitangi.

During Heke's war he rendered important service to the government. In these years he paid periodical visits to Auckland to minister to the Wesleyans resident there. In 1854 he was removed to Wellington. There his duties extended to Wairarapa and Wanganui, where he opened the church in Ridgway street. He had also six native churches to visit, and was chairman of the district. In 1861 he was posted to Christchurch, with charge of the Canterbury circuit. On several visits to Timaru he launched the work of the church in south Canterbury. He opened the Durham street church in Christchurch, and added 10 places of worship to the circuit. Before his term expired he was called upon to supervise the establishment of the Church in the new mining districts of the West Coast (1865). He rode from Christchurch to Hokitika and with the Rev G. S Harper (who went by sea) he established Methodism in the west. Returning to Auckland (1866), his organising genius was again requisitioned in connection with the Thames goldfields. He opened a church in Oct 1867, two months after his arrival, and was delighted to find many miners from his native county amongst the worshippers. Thames was erected into a separate circuit in 1870 with Buller as superintendent, and a young minister as assistant at Coromandel.

In 1864 Buller presided at the Australasian conference in Melbourne. For twenty years he was chairman of one district or another: and in 1875 he was elected president of the New Zealand conference. In 1876 Buller went to England, where he spent the next five years lecturing and publishing his well known book Forty Years in New Zealand (1878). He returned to New Zealand in 1881 and settled at Christchurch, where he died on 6 Nov 1884. Mrs Buller died on 23 Dec of the same year. Buller was a man of great mental power, a fine preacher and a capable administrator. He had a thorough knowledge of the Maori people and their language and a sympathetic understanding of their modes of thought. Apart from his distinguished service as a missionary, he was always an active citizen, interested in all social movements, and in the politics of both races. He was at different periods a governor of Nelson and Canterbury Colleges.

Morley; Sherrin and Wallace; Buller, op. cit.; Marsden, L. and J.; Gorton.

Reference: Volume 1, page 75

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