James George Deck

[1] After returning to England, Deck experienced an evangelical conversion and entered a private Anglican theological college, at Westbury-on-Trym.

[1][3] In India, he resigned his commission in 1835 for religious reasons, and returned to England, tutoring the sons of Indian Army officers.

[1] Intending to enter the Anglican ministry, he became involved with the Plymouth Brethren instead; he was baptised by full immersion and became an evangelist for the movement, preaching first in Taunton and then in Weymouth.

[4] With his wife and eight surviving children, he arrived in Wellington on 13 August 1853, and moving to 240 ha of land purchased at Waiwhero, Ngātīmoti, in Nelson Province, joining other former Indian Army officers.

But in 1875 the news of the division that had occurred in England became known in New Zealand, and with visits by Exclusive Brethren leaders George Wigram and John Nelson Darby the division was enforced, effectively splitting the Brethren movement in New Zealand almost a generation after the split had occurred in the British Isles.

One person brought up in the Motueka Assembly who left the Brethren and involved himself in politics was Keith Holyoake who went on to become a long serving Prime Minister and then Governor General.