MAKING GOOD

The All Blacks for this year’s World Cup have been chosen. The excessive media attention we have come to expect has something to do with that very human need for symbols. We want to be able to look (up) to someone, some group or something to express our hopes and to represent our need to be recognized by others.

How long has this been going on, so far as the All Blacks are concerned? Was it there when the very first All Black team toured NSW in 1884? The son of a Methodist minister was in that team. John Thomas Dumbell (1859 -1936) belonged to the Athletic Club in Wellington, was a Wellington provincial representative, and played in five matches on that tour. He played at halfback, on the wing, and in the forward pack, and he was admired for his speed, his courage, and his willingness to tackle much bigger opponents. He weighed only 50kg – possibly the smallest All Black ever! After his retirement from playing, Dumbell served the Wellington union as a management committee member, selector and representative referee. That’s quite some record – certainly one to be proud of.

His father, John, was a Manxman – whose natural father was a prominent figure in the banking business. He was brought up by his mother’s parents, and at an early age became involved in the activities of the Primitive Methodist Church on the island. Often enough, in those days, and this may have been more common among Primitive than Wesleyan Methodists, John chose to move to Manchester to be given ‘theological tuition’ by a senior minister.

Primitive Methodism was much more a religion of the heart than of the mind in those early days. It may also say something about John Dumbbell’s self-image. Having been accepted as a candidate for the ministry he then spent the next 20 years principally in the Midlands as a circuit minister – that’s where Primitive Methodism had begun 50 years earlier. In those days an appointment might last two, even three years, and these regular family upheavals may have been a factor in the decision of many men with young families to move overseas where the demands were, maybe, a little less onerous. This was true in New Zealand where Primitive Methodism was essentially in the towns and the three or four cities. In this it echoed its own origins as an evangelical outreach to the hidden poor of industrial England.

John and his wife Ellen (née Schofield) and three or four children made their way to New Zealand on the Hydaspes and Tararua, arriving in Wellington in October 1870. For the next 20 years he continued to move around, mostly in Wellington, but also for a reasonable time in New Plymouth and the South Island (Timaru and Dunedin).

He was well regarded by his colleagues, being elected Chairman of the District Meeting (covering the whole country) on a couple of occasions in the 1870s. As a senior minister he was part of the PM delegation to the first Church Union Committee (with the Wesleyans) in 1883. Ill-health brought about an early retirement in 1885. He settled in Wellington but continued preaching (of course) and was the District Secretary and Book Steward (the denomination’s administrator) for five years (1885-1890). He was also active in his local city Circuit (Molesworth St and Sydney St) as a Bible Class leader. He was also actively involved in Orange Lodge affairs – a significant contributor to the Prohibition Movement at that time.

John Dumbbell’s name was widely known - perhaps his All Black son had something to do with this. His reputation was such that when he died one hundred years ago, at least 30 newspapers around New Zealand carried tributes to him, recalling the quality of his ministry and his character as a church leader.

There is absolutely no sense of ‘judgment’ in what is now suggested, but John Dumbell must have been like so many of his colleagues in seeking a better life in this country. And particularly in respect to the opportunities that were here to be grasped by their children. New Zealand was not like the English Midlands – doors here were to be opened. The year they arrived, universal education became a reality in a country where a largely classless society gave all children the opportunity to compete.

If the desire to find a world in which there was hope for one’s children motivated the likes of John and Ellen Dumbell, then how much more so is that the case now when then threat of Covid-19 and climate change and ambitious and perverted nationalism dominate the world stage? We cannot travel to a better world - we must make it for ourselves.