Stuart Meha (29 December 1878 – 7 November 1963) was a New Zealand farmer and local

Mormon Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into seve ...

leader. Of

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...

descent, he identified with the Ngati Kahungunu, Ngati Rakaipaaka and Rangitane

iwi Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori culture, Māori society. In Māori-language, Māori roughly means "people" or "nation", and is often translated as "tribe", or "a confederation of tribes". The word is both singular and ...

. He was born in Wanstead,

Hawke's Bay Hawke's Bay ( mi, Te Matau-a-Māui) is a local government region on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island. The region's name derives from Hawke Bay, which was named by Captain James Cook in honour of Admiral Edward Hawke. The region ...

, New Zealand on 29 December 1878. Meha was baptised as a member of

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian Christian church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The ...

(LDS Church) when he was eight years old; his parents were converts to the church. In 1916, he served as a

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

to other Māori villages. Between 1917 and 1919, he assisted

Matthew Cowley Matthew Cowley (August 2, 1897 – December 13, 1953) was an American missionary in New Zealand and then served as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1945 until his ...

in the re-translation of the

Book of Mormon The Book of Mormon is a religious text of the Latter Day Saint movement, which, according to Latter Day Saint theology, contains writings of ancient prophets who lived on the American continent from 600 BC to AD 421 and during an interlude ...

into Māori and with the first-time translations of the

Doctrine and Covenants The Doctrine and Covenants (sometimes abbreviated and cited as D&C or D. and C.) is a part of the open scriptural canon of several denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement. Originally published in 1835 as Doctrine and Covenants of the Ch ...

and the Pearl of Great Price into Māori. In 1928, Meha became the first counsellor to Eriata Nopera, who was the first Māori to be the president of an LDS Church

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municipa ...

. After Nopera's tenure, Meha became the president of the church's

District.

References

1878 births 1963 deaths 20th-century New Zealand farmers New Zealand Māori farmers New Zealand leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Ngāti Kahungunu people Ngāti Rakaipaaka people Rangitāne people New Zealand Māori religious leaders Translators from English Translators to Māori People from Hawke's Bay New Zealand Mormon missionaries Mormon missionaries in New Zealand 20th-century Mormon missionaries Translators of the Book of Mormon 20th-century translators Missionary linguists {{NewZealand-reli-bio-stub