The Rev Samuel Marsden was the first person in New Zealand to preach the Christian Gospel, at the Bay of Islands on Christmas Day 1814.

His sermon was based on Luke's text, "Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people."

But he had not brought great joy in Australia where he is still remembered as "the Flogging Parson" for the extreme cruelty and violence of the punishments he inflicted on Irish convicts there.

Nevertheless he had a very high regard for New Zealand Maori, who he wrote of as being "A very superior people in point of mental capacity..."

And although he had fallen under a shadow in Australia while trying to expand his property holdings in shady circumstances, he spent huge sums of his own money in New Zealand to ensure that the Gospel was promulgated among the Maori people according to his church's ideals.

Marsden settled in Australia in 1794, and twenty years later he capitalized on a long friendship in Australia with Ruatara, son of Te Pahi, the paramount Chief of Nga Puhi - the predominant tribe in the northern North Island - and came to New Zealand. He was welcomed by Ruatara's whanau in the Bay of Islands in December 19, 1814, and on Christmas Day he preached the first sermon there.

He became much revered by Maori, and was noted for his protection of them against the incursion of settlers, and for his encouragement of missionaries to continue this policy. Marsden's life remains a contradiction to this day.