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Miracles, Messiahs and the Media: The Ministry of A. H. Dallimore in Auckland in the 1930s
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
Extract
Dallimore’s healing-evangelism ministry was in its heyday in 1932. Originally from Britain, Dallimore had spent periods of time in relative obscurity in New Zealand, Alaska and Canada, prior to returning to New Zealand in 1927. His life journey included involvement in Baptist, Anglican and Methodist churches, but by the time he returned to New Zealand Dallimore had embraced a Pentecostal-style healing ministry.
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References
1 Keith Sinclair, A History of New Zealand (4th edn, Auckland, 1991), 245.
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid., 254.
4 Savage was markedly reserved about Social Credit ideas but others of his party were much more accepting: Barry Gustafson, From the Cradle to the Grave: a Biography of Michael Joseph Savage (Auckland, 1986), 148–9, 171–2.
5 Alexander Lee, John, Simple on a Soap-Box: a Political Testament (Auckland and London, 1963), 50, 62Google Scholar.
6 Gustafson, From the Cradle, 271.
7 Ibid., 1.
8 Ballara, A., ‘Ratana, Tahupotike Wiremu’, in The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Volume 3: 10.01–1920 (Auckland, 1996), 414–18, 417Google Scholar.
9 Worsfold, J. E., A History of the Charismatic Movements in New Zealand (Bradford, 1974), 113 Google Scholar.
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11 Worsfold, A History, 125–6.
12 Revival Fire Monthly [hereafter RFM] I, 5 (September 1934), 5 (copy in NZ Baptist Archives, Carey Baptist College, Auckland).
13 ‘The Scrimgeour Story’, Spectrum tape series 378, 1981, tape 1, side 1.
14 Letter of application for the Methodist ministry: C. G. Scrimgeour to Revd T. G. Brooke, 17 May 1923: Methodist Church of New Zealand Archives (Auckland), T. G. Brooke correspondence, inward box D214, Brooke Book 27, p. 312.
15 Methodist Church of New Zealand: Minutes of the Annual Conference, 1930, 118–19.
16 Ibid., 134–6.
17 Scrimgeour, C. G., Hello Everybody: the Friendly Road (Auckland, 1933), 1 Google Scholar.
18 Ibid., 3.
19 Edwards, L., Scrim; Radio Rebel in Retrospect (Auckland, 1971), 59 Google Scholar.
20 Davidson, A. K., ‘Scrimgeour, Colin Graham’, in The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Volume 4: 1921–1940 (Auckland, 1998), 465–6, 465Google Scholar.
21 RFM II, 2 (June 1935), 5.
22 RFM III, 4 (August 1936), 3.
23 RFM I, 7 (October 1934), 4.
24 RFM III, 3 (July 1936), 2.
25 A. H. Dallimore, Britain-Israel (2nd edn, Auckland, s.d. [1932]), 80–1, 84–5. For later comment on this by Dallimore, see RFM III, 9 January 1937), 3.
26 NZ Observer, 7 September 1933, 4.
27 NZ Herald [hereafter NZH], 16 December 1932, 13.
28 Auckland Star, 5 December 1932, 9.
29 Auckland Star, 24 October 1932, 3; 21 November 1932, 3; 28 November 1932, 9; NZH, 28 November 1932, 11.
30 NZH, 24 October 1932, 10.
31 RFM I, 7 (November 1934), 8.
32 RFM II, 12 (April 1936), 7.
33 RFM IV, 3 (July 1937), 4; IV, 5 (September 1937), 8.
34 RFM XI, 6 [actually X, 6] (October 1943), 3.
35 Dominion, 3 November 1931, 10. For one of the earliest media reports on his meetings, see NZH, 14 July 1930, 10.
36 NZH, 22 October 1932, 6; 31 October 1932, 10; 7 November 1932, 10.
37 The Dallimore Campaign Exposed: the Full Report of the Joint Clerical, Medical, and Professorial Committee of Inquiry into the Faith Healing Mission Conducted by Mr. A. H. Dallimore, 1032 (Auckland, 1932), 1.
38 Ibid., 2–5.
39 Ibid., 6–7.
40 Auckland City Council Finance Committee Meeting Minutes dated 31 October 1932 (Auckland City Archives).
41 NZH, 4 November 1932, 12.
42 N.Z. Referee and Social Tattler, 1 February 1934, 31; RFM II, 11 (March 1936), 2; RFM XI, 6 [actually X, 6] (October 1943), 7. In the 1930s New Zealand judicial system, Cutten’s status as stipendiary magistrate was equivalent to that of a district court judge today.
43 RFM I 12 (April 1935), 3.
44 For comment on his waning influence, see description of his 1933 New Plymouth mission as a ‘flop’: NZ Observer, 7 September 1933, 4–5. On six hundred attendees in 1939, see non-sourced newspaper clipping (probably from Fix in the first part of 1939) in the Dallimore papers currently being classified at NZ Baptist Archives. For reference to continuing ‘splendid attendances’ at Dallimore’s meetings in 1943, when Dallimore was seventy, see letter of retired magistrate, E. C. Cutten: RFM XI, 6 [actually X, 6] (October 1943), 7.
45 NZH, 21 December 1957, 1.
46 Letter in RFM XI, 6 [actually X, 6] (October 1943), 7.
47 RFM XI, 6 [actually X, 6] (October 1943), 3.
48 Auckland Star, 21 November 1932,3; NZH, 21 November 1932,10. Dallimore made a later similar assertion, that he had been returned from the dead, through the prayers of his mother, in RFM X, 5 (September 1943), 3; also RFM XIX, 3 (July 1952), 1.
49 Advertisement in NZH, 3 June 1933, 5.
50 NZ Truth, 11 August 1970.
51 Comment on high percentages of women filing onto the stage for healing prayer can be seen in Auckland Star, 7 November 1932, 9.
52 Identification of women was made through their names, their titles (Mrs, Miss etc.), references to their husbands, the nature of their medical problems etc.
53 NZ Observer, 7 September 1933, 4.
54 RFM II, 11 (March 1936), 2.
55 For example, Bishop Cherrington, NZH, 29 October, 1932, II.
56 M. Macpherson, ‘Magic – Black and White: Some Wizards I Have Known in England and New Zealand’, NZ Referee and Social Tattler, 1 February 1934, 30–1.
57 Ibid.
58 Ibid., 31. Emphasis original.
59 See the photo of voluminous bundles of letters to Dallimore testifying of healing in Pix, 8 July 1939, 23.