Show WORK IN NEW ZEALAND from a private letter written by elder ezra F richards dated li bawa awa new zealand feb 1882 and addressed to his bis father apostle F D richards we are permitted to make the following extracts 1 I left home on the of october and lay over ofer in san francisco two days waiting for the ship to leave OCTOBER I 1 BADE CADE AMERICA FAREWELL and went on board the city of sidney sidne we had bad a pleasant journey to me the saut sant sandwich islands my roy sea sickness only lasting a couple of days we were met at honolulu by some of the elders and enjoyed a nice visit with thein them for eight hours during during which time they showed us Is around the fhe city we visited the royal palace the state house tile the theatre cemetery and mission house the T he brethren seemed to feel well lvell and they reported affairs as being in a very favorable condition we continued our journey to auckland where we waited a few days for further orders from president W T stewart and then word came to go to gisborne at which place we met him on the of november Novem tyer lyer just one month from the lay day I 1 left home five fire of us were appointed to labor among the natives of new zealand the other one elder hill was sent to the south island to labor among the europeans ean b I 1 accompanied president b stewart te v art and elder J W ash of logan cache cacho county to a MAORI PAW raw about three miles ds distant tant where we took supper after which the mabries gathered in to receive me the chief gave me a welcome address in which save lie lle e gave a brief history of his people told how holy the church of R england n land ministers had deceived them ana and got pot their land away from them lie he described the bounds of his authority in new zealand and incited me to go ahead and labor among his bis people and do all the good I 1 could lie he sald bald I 1 need not be the the least bit afraid of any of them for when a chief welcomed a person among his people there never was any danger after he closed his remarks I 1 replied through an interpreter and told them I 1 had not come to get any of their money land or possessions but that my prophet had ent tent me to preach the true gospel to them and that the lord wanted them to repent of and forsake their evil ways if they would do this lie he would hear and answer their prayers president stewart also made a few remarks we had a very interesting meeting two days afterwards president stewart elder ash and I 1 set out for east cape on a TOUR lour we were gone between two and three weeks during durin which time we baptized 62 6 2 persons blessed three children and organized one branch in full and another in part president stewart afterwards went to hastings and held conference jan and the statistical report shows that there are 1076 latter day saints in new zealan zealand of whom are mabries Ma orles ories and a great many mabries have been baptized since then I 1 have labored alone a good share of the time since dec lith 1884 and as I 1 was unable to speak tile the MAORI LANGUAGE I 1 adopted the plan of writing bible references upon the dirst first principles of the gospel in maori and distributing them among the people I 1 can now read the maori bible a little and anil have bore my te testimony stimon y in the native language an a few birnes as well as having performed the baptism ceremony in ic my health has not been the best sl since neo nee I 1 came to new nev zealand which hichi fact I 1 attribute to the change of climate and diet and think I 1 will feel better after I 1 get acclimated the seem to be very generous and freehearted free hearted they generally give 1 I e me the best they have to eat cat some yome ome of the time I 1 have a knife fork and plate theat to at with and sometimes I 1 use my fingers lingers |