Bishop Selwyn Collection of Early Māori Documents - Presented in 1967 by Bishop Simkin

A number of letters written by Māori to Bishop Selwyn between the 1840s and the 1870s were rescued by the Anglican Bishop of Auckland, Bishop Simkin, from being destroyed. The Deed of Trust to the University of Waikato states that Bishop Simkin salvaged the collection of manuscript letters from destruction in the Auckland Public Incinerator. In accepting the collection, the Vice Chancellor, Sir Donald R. Llewellyn, commented that “their worth, sentimentally and historically is beyond calculation.” The documents, most addressed to Bishop Selwyn, were given into his care for delivery to the addressee, or collected by the Bishop during his time in New Zealand, and are a record of contact between Māori and the missionaries in New Zealand’s early days.