Williams assisted his father as a tutor in the school at Waerenga-ā-hika. In 1862 Leonard was appointed to be Archdeacon of Waiapu. The First Taranaki War, from March 1860 until 1862 resulted in the East Cape and Poverty Bay area became increasingly unsettled. A ‘repudiationist’ movement developed in Poverty Bay. The Ngāti Kaipoho chief Raharuhi told Governor Thomas Gore Browne that the Māori did not recognise Queen Victoria's claim to rule over them and that the lands which the settlers in Poverty Bay had obtained should be returned. The Pai Mārire moved into Poverty Bay in March 1865. The Poverty Bay Māori were neither for nor against the Hauhau. While the Rongowhakaata iwi defended the mission, Williams lost confidence in the security of the mission when some chiefs provided support for the Hauhau and went to the Bay of Islands with his wife and daughters. However Leonard remained at the mission. The mission at Waerenga-ā-hika became a battle ground and the buildings were destroyed. After the Hauhau were defeated the Māori in the Poverty Bay had a much reduced support for the Christian faith, although it was sustained where there were CMS missionaries and Māori clergymen. Many Māori of the Urewera and Poverty Bay regions had adopted the Ringatu religion, which was framed in language taken from the Old Testament. Leonard Williams, travelled through the Ngāi Tūhoe country in 1878. He commented on the Ringatu religion: “Their manner was reverent and the petitions contained in their prayers were framed in language taken from the Old Testament, but the obvious objection to the whole system was that it was anti-Christian, being a deliberate rejection of all that the love of God has provided for sinners in Jesus Christ.”
Te Rau Kahikatea Theological College
In 1870 Williams, purchased land in Gisborne where he built Te Rau Kahikatea, which was his family home from 1877 until 1894. In nearly buildings he established Te Rau Kahikatea Theological College for Māori clergymen, which accepted students from 1883. Samuel Williams was the tutor in 1883 and Alfred Owen Williams became the tutor from 1883 to 1885. The students included Hone Tana Papahia and Hone Waitoa. Williams was the principal of the college from 1885 to 1894, and his son, Herbert Williams was a tutor from 1889 to 1894, vice-principal in 1894, and principal from 1894 to 1902. Reweti Tuhorouta Kohere was assistant tutor from 1898 to 1908. Frederick William Chatterton was the principal from 1902 to 1918. Alfred Nield was the principal from 1919 to 1920, when the college in Gisborne was closed and the students moved to St John's College, Auckland. In the 1992 changes to the organisation of St John's College, Te Whare Wānanga o Te Rau Kahikatea was re-established as part of the college.
Bishop of Waiapu
Williams was elected the third Bishop of Waiapu by the Diocesan Synod on 25 September 1894, and was consecrated in the Napier Cathedral on 20 January 1895. He would travel on horseback around his diocese accompanied by two assistants. Williams retired in 1909 when he found the job too difficult; although he continued to acted as the President of the New Zealand Church Missionary Association, which was formed in 1892. He died at his home in Napier in 1916.
Publications
Williams was a scholar of Māori language and culture. During his lifetime he reissued his father's publication, A dictionary of the New Zealand language twice, as well as publishing his own book introducing the Māori language and contributing to the study of New Zealand plants. The dictionary was again reissued by his son, the Rt Revd Herbert Williams, who also followed Williams and his father as a bishop of the Waiapu diocese.
