Dunedin Beginnings

In April 1882 Arabella Valpy, daughter of William H. Valpy, a wealthy pioneer settler of Otago, wrote to William Booth in London asking him to send some of his officers to New Zealand, which was then in an economic depression with accompanying poverty and unrest. Arabella Valpy had read of the work which William Booth had begun among similarly distressed people in the East End of London in 1865, a movement which led to the establishment of the Salvation Army. John Brame, an Auckland printer, had also written to William Booth. In November 1882 two officers, Captain Wright and Lieutenant Pollard, both under 20 years of age, were commissioned to found the Salvation Army in New Zealand. (At the same meeting other Salvationists were sent to the United States, India, Canada, Sweden, and South Africa.) With one or two helpers recruited when they called at Melbourne, they arrived at Port Chalmers on 27 March 1883, where they were welcomed by a handful of supporters. The press ridiculed their intentions. England had sent New Zealand its thistles, sparrows, and rabbits: a further scourge was not needed.

Pollard hired the Temperance Hall in Dunedin for three years at £300 per annum. He had only 30s. in his pocket. The first meetings were held on Sunday, 1 April, in the hall and at the fountain (Cargill's Monument), Dunedin, now marked by a plaque as the spot where the Army “opened fire”. Events closely paralleled those in Britain. Stalwarts joined on the first night and remained faithful to the cause. Crowds packed the unusually informal meetings where converts gave immediate evidence of changed lives. There was rowdyism, with “skeleton” (hooligan) armies; police action in favour of law and order; warm support by discerning churchmen; and the rapid growth of corps of happy soldiers.

National Development

With this success in Dunedin, Pollard quickly moved off to Auckland to start the war there (23 April), and thence to Christchurch, cabling to William Booth: “Dunedin Auckland blazing Christchurch shortly reinforce sharp”. Wellington first heard the Salvationists from the stage of the Princess Theatre, Tory Street, on Sunday 17 June. The first issue of the War Cry appeared on 16 June. As in Britain, compassionate women soon began to take needy women and girls into their homes for spiritual and physical care, just as a humble East Ender, a Mrs Cotrell, had laid the foundation of the Army's international social operations by taking street girls into her own home in Christian Street, Whitechapel. Rescue homes were opened in Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin. Auckland's Prison Gate Brigade and Labour Bureau (1884) founded the extensive and varied social work of the Army in New Zealand. By the close of 1884 there were 30 corps and over 60 full-time officers.

The first of a long series of Court cases over the holding of street meetings occurred in Waimate in January 1885. Two men, who refused to pay fines, spent a week in prison and were met on release by a large crowd of Salvationists with a “war chariot”, in which they rode to a large “praise” meeting. Many other imprisonments followed, until a rising tide of public appreciation of the Salvationists' work ended the difficulty. Meanwhile, experiments in organisation, which more than once took the administration centre to Australia, ended with a complete territorial system in New Zealand. At the present time the Army is concerned with work among the Maori people, farm training for new settlers, migration schemes, care of alcoholics, work among the troops, and many other activities of a social nature.

Present Strength and Organisations

The year 1963 was the eightieth anniversary of the Army in New Zealand. In June 1965 there were 387 active-service officers divided into five divisions, 97 corps, 70 outposts and one training college. The Army social institutions run the following:

Each corps is a church unit designed for evangelism by all members, with provision for all ages, from “cradle roll” to “promotion to glory” (the Salvationist's term for death). New Zealand Salvationism is characterised by high standards in brass band and vocal music, a strong interest in overseas missions with many members serving there, a rich family life, and a variety of social endeavour.

Doctrine

The Salvation Army believes: (1) the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments were given by inspiration of God and that they only constitute the Divine rule of Christian faith and practice; (2) there is only one God who is infinitely perfect, the Creator, Preserver, and Governor of all things, and who is the only proper object of religious worship; (3) there are three persons in the Godhead – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost undivided in essence and coequal in power and glory; (4) in the person of Jesus Christ the Divine and human natures are united so that He is truly and properly God and truly and properly man; (5) our first parents were created in a state of innocence but by their disobedience they lost their purity and happiness, and that in consequence of their fall all men have become sinners totally depraved and as such are justly exposed to the wrath of God; (6) the Lord Jesus Christ has by His suffering and death made an atonement for the whole world so that whosoever will may be saved; (7) repentance toward God, faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and regeneration by the Holy Spirit are necessary to salvation; (8) we are justified by grace through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ; he that believeth hath the witness in himself; (9) continuance in a state of salvation depends upon continued obedient faith in Christ; (10) it is the privilege of all believers to be “wholly sanctified” that their “whole spirit and soul and body may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. v. 23); and (11) in the immortality of the soul, in the resurrection of the body, in the general judgment at the end of the world, in the eternal happiness of the righteous, and in the endless punishment of the wicked.

The Army is characterised by perpetual open-air evangelism; non-sacramental theology; equal opportunity for men and women to preach the Gospel; control from international headquarters in London through territorial leaders, each territory being in every way equal to all others; and the financing of missionary activity shared by all through a central “Self Denial Fund”.

The Salvation Army has published a weekly paper, the War Cry. since 1883, with the exception of a short period during the Second World War, when it was published fortnightly.

by Alfred James Gilliard, formerly Territorial Commander, New Zealand Salvation Army.