Christianity was first introduced into New Zealand in 1814 by Marsden, who started the first Church of England Mission. The Wesleyan missionaries arrived in 1822 and the Roman Catholics in 1838; other denominations quickly followed. Up to the year 1830 very few converts had been made, but in 1838 more than one-fourth of the natives had been baptised, and the numbers increased rapidly. In 1838 the New Testament, published in the Maori language, was in the hands of the converts, and the complete Bible was finished in 1853. Very many of the natives had learned to read, and the Sacred Writings were read with avidity. Now the Maoris were puzzled, like many others, by the different dogmas set forth by the various denominations, each claiming they were right and that the others were wrong, yet all asserting they drew their inferences from the same Book. Among the tribes existed bitter rivalry, hatred and jealousy, so they gloried in belonging to different sects, and consequently added religious rancour to their tribal hatred. Missionaries, however, travelled through the country with impunity, not one receiving any harm until 1865. There was, however, a very great desire on the part of a vast number of the natives to find out which was the real and true faith, so that many of them joined one sect after another, as if to discover which fancy brand of religion suited his own constitution best, and being highly intellectual and keen reasoners they came to the conclusion that each sect was only formed from the interpretation by the devotees of the Book itself, and that therefore they (the Maoris) had a perfect right to interpret the Sacred Writings in any way they saw fit. Just previous to the promulgation of the Pai Marire faith the Maoris had elected a king. Why, therefore, should they not have a new religion? Hence the growth of the Hau Haus. The Hau Haus first came into collision with the white men in April 1864. For although this extraordinary religion was known to exist previous to this date, the majority of the settlers and the authorities only looked upon it as a farce, and never for a moment thought that the natives, most of whom professed Christianity, could tolerate such an absurd, fantastic and fanatical creed of murderous tendencies as that denominated the Pai Marire or Hau Hau religion. The origin of this fanatical creed is obscure, as well it might be, for the author, Te Ua, had up to the date of his inspiration been considered a harmless lunatic, and had been tolerated by his tribe as such. (The Maoris, like all other wild races, never interfere with and are always kind to the demented.)