This six-page catechism was the first work printed in New Zealand. William Yate was a Missionary and his principal task in New Zealand was the conversion of Maori people living in the Bay of Islands to Christianity. He learned the Maori language and helped fellow missionaries William Williams and William Puckey to prepare translations of the Ten Commandments, extracts from the books of Genesis, Matthew, John and Corinthians, some prayers, nineteen hymns and the first and second catechisms. In 1830 he travelled to Sydney to supervise the printing of these translations in one volume.

Yate took a small printing press back wit him when he returned to the Bay of Islands and used it to produce a version of the third catechism in Maori, Ko te katihama III. With only a fortnight's training as a printer in Sydney, however, he found the task exasperatingly difficult and attempted nothing further on his press.^[1]

Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, GNZM 7, http://search.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz/?itemid=

William Yate,

See below.