The Monthly Record of Church Missions in Connection with the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel [New Zealand sections]

First published by Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans in 1855

Digitised and made available online by the University of Auckland Libraries and Learning Services and Auckland War Memorial Museum.

Epub © 2016 Early New Zealand Books Collection

ISBN 978-0-947487-59-1

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ST. JOHN'S CATHEDRAL, NEWFOUNDLAND.

THE
MONTHLY RECORD
OF
CHURCH MISSIONS

IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOCIETY FOR THE
PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL
IN FOREIGN PARTS.

BRITISH NORTH AMERICA, NEW ZEALAND, AUSTRALIA.

LONDON:
LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS.
1855.

NORWICH:

PRINTED BY THOMAS PRIEST.

[CONTENTS]

CONTENTS OF VOL. IV.

Diocese of Rupert's Land ........... 1

Diocese of Newfoundland, Part 1........ 25

– – – – – – – – – – -Part II.......... 49

The Church in New Zealand, Part 1........... 73

– – – – – – – – – – -Part II............. 97

– – – – – – – – – – -Part III........... 121

Missions in South Australia...............145

Diocese of Melbourne.................. 169

Diocese of Newcastle. – Australia.......... 193

The Church in Canada, Part I..............217

– – – – – – – – – – – Part II............. 241

Indian Missions in Canada.................. 265

LIST OF ENGRAVINGS.

ST. JOHN'S CATHEDRAL, NEWFOUNDLAND. (Frontispiece.)

Indian Village on the Red River

Entrance of the Narrows, Si. John's

Bare Need, Newfoundland

Wellington

Auckland

Native Village and Cowrie Forest

Adelaide

River Glenelg

The Pic of Tangulda

Quebec

Kingston

Canadian River Scenery

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THE CHURCH IN NEW ZEALAND. – Part I.

THE

MONTHLY RECORD

OF THE

SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL IN FOREIGN PARTS.

APRIL, 1855.

WELLINGTON.

THE CHURCH IN NEW ZEALAND. – Part I.

NEW ZEALAND is a name given to a group of islands in the Pacific, lying to the south east of Australia, between 34° and 48° south latitude, and 166° and 179° east longitude. The relative position of the three principal islands is sufficiently indicated by the names, North, Middle, and South, by which they are often distinguished. They are otherwise called Ahi-na-Maui or New Ulster, Te-Wai-Pounamu or New Munster, and Stewart Island or New

Leinster. The last named is very small when compared with its northern neighbours. Numerous islets dot the bays and straits, formed by the broken outline and approaching shores of all three; but none of them are of an extent or importance to demand particular notice. The superficial area of the whole country is 95,000 square miles. The present population is estimated at about 120,000 souls. The aboriginal inhabitants call themselves Maori. Similarity of language and of manners between them and the natives of the South Sea Islands indicates a common origin at no very distant period. A tradition is moreover found among both, that the first inhabitants of their country came from a place which they agree in calling Heawige, – probably Owhyhee, one of the Sandwich Isles.

New Zealand was first discovered on the 13th of December, 1642, by Abel Janssen Tasman, a celebrated navigator in the Service of the Dutch East India Company, better known as the discoverer of Van Diemen's Land, to which his name, by a tardy act of justice, has of late years become attached. Owing to the hostility of the natives, he was unable to effect a landing, and returned home without making any accurate observations on the nature of the coast. For more than a century after its discovery it was believed to form part of a great southern continent; but this error was at length dispelled by our countryman, Captain Cook, who sailed round it in 1769. He discovered at the same time the straits by which North and Middle Islands are separated from each other; but failed to observe that the latter was similarly divided from New Leinster.

The climate of New Zealand is described as 'the perfection of all climates, hot but rarely sultry, bright but not glaring, from the vivid green with which the

earth is generally clothed.' 'There is no great heat in summer,' says Dr. Dieffenbach, 'no severe cold in winter. Sometimes, indeed, in the winter nights, the thermometer sinks to the freezing point, and the stagnant waters in the interior are covered with a thin crust of ice, but during day it is very rare that the temperature is below 40°.' 'The soil is amazingly productive,' and owing to the great moisture, vegetation is extremely vigorous,' even in those places where only a thin layer of vegetable earth covers the rock. Sandy places, which in any other country would be quite barren, are covered with herbage, and the hills, which in lithological and geological formation resemble those of Devonshire, may, in the course of time, he converted into pastures, at least equalling those on the hilly portions of that county. Everywhere also trees and shrubs grow to the margin of the sea, and suffer no harm even from the salt spray.' The islands are further remarkable for their picturesque beauty, and for many natural phenomena of an unusual character. In one part or another they present every imposing and every lovely variety of coast and inland scenery: the broad and sinuous belt of glittering sand flanked by unbroken walls of towering cliffs; bold frowning headlands, and 'noble bays indenting the shore at short intervals,' and divided by rocky points, now bare, now partially covered with low shrubby vegetation; labyrinthine caverns where the sea rushes through wide tunnels with a tumult of unearthly sound; vast plains that stretch as far as eye can reach, interspersed with many a 'perfect landscape of soft woodland scenery,' primaeval forests of huge trees festooned with pendant parasites, all vocal, at the early dawn, with a sweet and joyous song of many birds; here 'gentle grassy downs,' or 'ranges of beautifully wooded hills,' there a giant

chain of rock-piled and snow-capped mountains. But the most frequent theme of the delighted traveller, or grateful colonist, are the bright pure waters of this favoured land. Again and again do they recur to the clear, cold, glittering spring, the 'gushing stream of purest water,' or ampler river, still bright as at its source, that winds in silence, with slow grace, through plains of brilliant verdure, or foams in impetuous flood between the iron-bound sides of a ravine, or leaps precipitate from ledge to ledge of the earthquake-riven rock, or hastes to lose itself in the untroubled depths of some fair inland lake. The varied character of these beautiful waters, and of the landscape through which they flow, is strikingly pourtrayed in the published journal of the Bishop, whose lot, to quote his own acknowledgement, has 'fallen unto him in this fair ground.' He tells us, for example, of one river, the Wanganui, which 'flows in a great chasm between wooded precipices, through a country covered with dense forest;' of another, named from our English Thames, that 'rushes like an arrow through the middle of a barren country, with a bright blue stream, full of life and sparkling with purity;' of the 'noble Waikato, compressed,' at one part, 'in a channel from twenty to thirty feet wide, through which it boils and rushes in a most magnificent manner,' the excavations which it has made in the rock having, owing, it is supposed, to 'the different characters of the strata through which it has to pass, all the evenness of the work of a railway, or a regular fortification;' of the Raukokore, whose 'banks rise almost perpendicular but still covered with trees clinging to the crevices of the rocks, and pendulous plants clothing the face of the precipices, every bend of the river opening a new scene of beauty and luxuriance;' and of the Kerue, the bed of which 'expands into wide spaces of alluvial

soil, clothed with Koromiko and Tutu trees, intermixed with flowering shrubs of every tone of colour, and backed by magnificent wooded hills, from the steep sides of which each single tree seems to stand out in individual beauty.' A singular phenomenon seen off the eastern shoulder of New Ulster is Puhiawakari, a burning island, containing springs of pure sulphuric acid, and perpetually 'covered with a white canopy of sulphureous steam.' The whole of the Pacific is described by geologists as one 'great theatre of volcanic action,' and in no part are its effects more visible than in New Zealand. In the northern division of New Ulster are several hollow hills, the vents, in bygone ages, of the subterranean fire, 'eruptions of which have covered the country for many miles with cinder or with lava.' Egmont, a noble mountain in the district of New Plymouth, is also of volcanic origin, and Tongariro between that and Hawke's Bay has a crater in continual activity. 'Hornblende, augite, garnet, and other crystalline volcanic products, in great variety,' are found at Kakannui, in the new settlement of Canterbury. In many parts are to be seen hills and deep beds of white pumice, 'jets of steam rising out of innumerable crevices in the earth,' and hot springs, some of pure water, some impregnated with sulphur and other mineral substances. Some of the most remarkable instances of this last mentioned phenomenon are thus described: – 'We visited Wakarewarcwa hot-springs, by far the finest at Rotorua, about three miles from Ohinemutu. Here are to be seen all the varieties of Ngawha (hot-springs). There are mud cauldrons, black, blue, grey, green, yellow, and red, the very emblem of laziness; a faint steam rises from them, and ever and anon a solitary bubble of gas disengages itself slowly from the surface, which then returns to its usual dulness. Close by the side of these, and in

strong contrast, are the clear pools of boiling water, of great depth, and of bright azure, enclosed in precipitous walls of sulphurous formation; from some of these hot streams flow down, which are guided by the natives either into artificial baths, or into natural hollows of the rocks; the supply of hot water being so regulated as to keep the bath at the right temperature. Among these cauldrons and pools, a strong and rapid stream of cold water rushes down, in some places not a yard from the spot at which the natives are sitting up to their breasts in hot water. But by far the most beautiful springs are the boiling jets, which are thrown up to the height of many feet from a narrow orifice in the top of an irregular cone, formed of the matter held in solution by the water, which is deposited as it cools, and forms a substance of a pinkish white colour, sometimes also tinged with yellow by crystals of sulphur. The hot water in its descent trickles down the sides of the crater, and falls into several natural baths of most agreeable temperature, formed in the pure and white substance of the cone, and lined with the same matter in its half formed state, still yielding and elastic. A small native village is here, with the usual appurtenances of a native steam kitchen at the hot springs; namely, hot plates, made of large slabs of stone, laid over boiling water to dry the Tawa berry upon: steam hanghis, or native ovens, always in readiness, and holes of boiling water in which fish and potatoes can be speedily cooked.' The food of the New Zealanders consists for the most part of fish and vegetables. Of the latter they use principally the kumera, or sweet potato, yams, plantains, gourds, cocoas, and the root of a species of fern, which, when roasted, serves them for bread. From another fern they obtain, with more art, a substance somewhat resembling sago. Potatoes, cabbages, turnips, and other vege-

tables have been introduced by the English, and are already much valued by the natives. Their bays abound with edible fish of the best kinds, of which they dry and store large quantities for winter use. The only land animals observed by Captain Cook were the dog and the rat, of which the former was bred for food; 'and even these were not numerous.' On his several visits he landed some pigs, goats, and domestic fowls, of which the islands were equally destitute, and other species have been introduced since, but with the exception of the pig, none of them appear to be yet very common among the natives. The bat is the only quadruped which naturalists allow to be indigenous.

The character of all nations, but of the uncivilized especially, depends in no small degree upon the natural features of their country, and the facilities which it affords them for procuring the necessaries and comforts of life. Placed amid such scenes as we have described, and for the most part supplied easily, if not in great abundance, with the means of sustaining life, the natives of New Zealand could not fail to become very different beings from the moody savages of a North American wild, or those less remote tribes, who wander in squalid misery over the vast plains of central Australia. Their 'gentle disposition' was apparent even to the superficial observation of our earlier voyagers. 'They treat each other with the utmost kindness,' was the remark of Captain Cook. According to him they also evinced a ready submission to authority, a childlike simplicity, and though addicted, like all savages, to theft and fraud, appeared to be singularly without art in their dishonesty, and incapable of concealment. The general modesty of the females was also much commended by the same author, A closer inspection, however, revealed some of

the darkest traits of unregenerate nature. They proved an excitable and impulsive race, rapidly passing from repose into the unbounded excess of passion. Their kindness was extended to those only with whom they were in daily habits of peaceful intercourse; and too often, it must he added, to those only from whom a return might be expected. They were revengeful in the extreme, perpetuating their feuds through many generations, and carrying malice beyond death. It was a common practice, until lately, though perhaps of recent origin, to preserve the heads of their murdered enemies, 'to make them sport when their hearts were merry.' Though all of the same stock, they were divided into tribes, that were 'perpetually at war with each other.' In their wars quarter was rarely given. The victorious party, and still 'from the diabolical spirit of revenge,' feasted on the bodies of the slain. The few captives that were spared were made slaves. Grief for their own dead was shown by self-inflicted wounds. Notwithstanding the outward propriety of the females, unmarried chastity was unappreciated and unknown. Polygamy was allowed to the men, and produced its usual bitter fruits, domestic strife and frequent infanticide. 'It has been my painful lot,' thus wrote a Missionary, in 1835, 'to bo an eye-witness of several cases of infanticide, the mother being the destroyer of her own child. I have seen the helpless infant strangled in a moment and then cast into the sea, or thrown to the dogs or pigs, by an infuriated woman, who, but for the jealousy which raged within, would have given her own life to save that of her infant.'

In mental qualities, the natives of New Zealand were observed to be far above the average of savage nations. They seemed intelligent and lively, and showed consider-

able proficiency in many of the simpler arts. 'They displayed great ingenuity in the form of their fishing nets, which were made of a kind of grass.' 'Their dress was formed of the leaves of the flag split into slips, and made into a kind of matting.' 'They had two kinds of cloth besides, one of which was as coarse, but beyond all proportion stronger than the English canvas; the other formed of the fibres of a plant drawn into threads, and made to cross and bind each other.' 'They made borders of different colours to both these sorts of cloth, resembling girls' samplers, and finished with great neatness and elegance.' They were found to possess a variety of musical instruments, and 'sang with a degree of taste that surprised their English hearers.' An aptitude for the arts of design was apparent in all their ornaments.

'Their tools were made with great attention, and elegantly carved.' The same taste was displayed in ornamenting their weapons, boats, paddles, &c., and even in the elaborate patterns of their tattoo. 'Nothing,' says a writer on the country, 'can exceed the beautiful regularity with which the faces and thighs of the New Zealanders are tattooed: the volutes are perfect specimens.' Both sexes were painted with red ochre, or a black pigment, called amoko. Their houses, on the other hand, were constructed with little care or skill, nor did their interior show any regard to cleanliness or comfort. They are described as 'from sixteen to twenty-four feet long, ten or twelve wide, and six or eight in height; the frame of slight sticks of wood, and the walls and roof of dry grass; some of them lined with bark of trees, and the ridge of the house formed by a pole which runs from one end to another; the door only high enough to admit a person crawling, and the roof sloping; a square hole near the door, serving both for window and chimney;

'straw for the family to sleep on being laid near the walls.' The wretchedness of their dwellings was in a great measure owing to their perpetual wars, by which they were often driven to seek refuge in a securer habitation. On such occasions, they would collect in the fortified villages of the tribes, called Pas, and there withstand the attacks of their enemies. These were generally on cliffs, and only accessible on one side, where they were protected by ditches and strong palisades, within which was a fighting-stage, or terrace, whence they hurled stones and darts, a large quantity of which were always stored upon the spot. Sometimes a Pa was built on an isolated hill, in which case the top was levelled, and the sides were cut away, so as to present a perpendicular face all round. The platform at the top was then surrounded by walls of clay and mud about ten yards in height, proof against every native weapon, and even against musket ball. Unhappily the use of these fortresses is not yet obsolete.

Religion, properly so called, the unchristianized New Zealanders have none; for they acknowledge no duty of love, reverence, or worship to any superior being. They believe that all men are descended from one pair; and, singularly enough, they have a tradition that the first woman was formed out of the rib of the man; a fragment of Scriptural truth, of which perhaps another trace exists in the word hevee, which singifies a bone in their language, and may possibly. have some connection with the name of our common mother. They relate many idle tales of several powerful beings, the Aitua, Mawe and his brother Taki, and a sea-demon called the Taniwa, whom they regard as the causes of misfortune, and of every natural evil. Sickness is supposed to be occasioned by the Aitua entering the sufferer's mouth, and their

method of cure is to effect his expulsion by threats and incantations. They never address themselves to any other unseen being. With more truth, they believe in an author of spiritual evil, whom they call Wiro. He is supposed to be everywhere present, to excite the bad passions of men, and tempt them to sin. Their notions of a future state are various; but a common opinion is that after death all men descend to Reinga, the abode of misery. Here they are thought to dwell in cruel bondage to Wiro, but occupied in some manner with the pursuits of their former life. In consequence of this belief, the death of a chief was, till recently, often followed by the massacre of his slaves, and the suicide of a wife, that he might not find himself without his usual attendants, when in the world of spirits.

A Missionary gives the following description of the death of a renowned chief, which took place in 1826: –

'He placed his whole confidence for his recovery in the superstitious rites of the priest, whose tapues and other observances and requirements, in the end, greatly hastened his death. I visited him several times during his illness, and took with me many little comforts, which he had no opportunity of procuring. I always found him stretched on a bed of fern under a miserable shed, that could not screen him from the scorching rays of the mid-day sun, nor from the cold raw air of midnight, nor yet from wind and rain. There he lay, the picture of despair, an old tapued woman at his side, wiping with a roll of flax the sweat that streamed down his fleshless tattooed face; and a whole host of friends, at a little distance, talking loudly and with seeming gladness at the prospect of his removal. On my visit to him at the day of his death, I spoke to them of the cruelty of such conduct, but they laughed at the idea. I then turned to

the forlorn patient, and found him struggling hard for breath, while the sweat of death was upon him. I spoke to him of a Saviour able and willing to save him even then, but he grew angry, the expression of his countenance was changed, and he told me that 'from his birth he had lived a native man, and a native man he would die.' He became more calm when I asked him where he expected his spirit would go after death, and whether he thought he would be happy or miserable in the world to come. These were the last words he ever spoke: 'I shall go to Reinga,' said he with terrible emphasis, 'I shall go to Reinga. Wiro is there, and I shall be his companion for ever. I have not killed men enough to have my eyes made stars as E'Ongi's are: I am not an old man, but a youth. I shall go to Reinga. Where-else, where-else, where-else should I go?'

Having no form of worship, the New Zealanders have no images, or other representations of deity. They practise a rite resembling baptism; every child at five or eight days old being dipped in a stream, while certain charms against evil are muttered over it, and a name given it: small stones are at the same time thrust down its throat to render it hard-hearted. These ceremonies are performed by a person, whom English writers improperly call a priest, whose business it is to observe omens, drive out the Aitua, bring down the rain from heaven, and practise other rites of similar kind.

Allusion has been already made to the tapu. When New Zealand was discovered, this rite, as practised there, was both more burdensome in itself and more strictly observed than in any other island of the Pacific. It has of late years been gradually giving way to European influences, but is still to be seen in full force in some districts, and among the least civilized tribes. A few examples will explain

the nature of this remarkable institution. A person under the tapu is not permitted to touch his food with his hands, and consequently is obliged to pick it up with his teeth and lips, or to be fed by others. Any one who has come near a corpse, or touched a new born infant, is thus tapued for several days. All who are employed in planting the sweet potato, or in preparing the net for mackerel-fishing, are tapued till the work is completed. Even the land on which they are at work, and the water in which they are about to fish, are for the same time sacred; so that no person may enter either, unless he has been tapued for the express purpose. Property is often secured from theft by the inviolable prestige of a tapu. Among a people literally 'without God in the world,' this custom served in some measure as a substitute for the sanctions of religion. It probably had its origin in some religious observances, the meaning of which was in course of time forgotten.

Before the year 1814, no attempt was made by any European nation either to form a settlement in New Zealand, or to convert the people to the Christian faith. At that period however a Mission was commenced by the Rev. Samuel Marsden, the chief Government Chaplain in New South Wales; one of the brightest names in the annals of the Colonial Church. He had been led by intercourse with some New Zealand chiefs, who had visited him at Paramatta, to form a high opinion of the native character, and in 1810 he earnestly besought the Church Missionary Society to extend its operations to these islands. – In consequence of this appeal, three lay agents, Messrs. Hall, King, and Kendall, were sent out to open a Mission under his direction. The last named was engaged to act as schoolmaster: of the two former, the one was an excellent carpenter, the other a shoe-

maker, who had been instructed in the mode of dressing flax. When they arrived in New South Wales, it was two years before a vessel could be found to convey them on, owing to the general terror inspired by the recent massacre of an English crew off Wangaroa, on the coast of North Island. At length, however, on the 20th of December 1814, the little party, accompanied by Mr. Marsden, was landed at Wangaroa, and spent their first night in New Zealand, upon the spot which had been stained by the blood of their countrymen. The scene which presented itself on their awaking in the morning is thus described by a Mr. Nicholas, who went with them: – 'An immense number of human beings, men, women, and children, some half-naked, and others loaded with fantastic finery, were stretched about us in every direction; while the warriors with their spears stuck in the ground, and their other weapons lying beside them, were cither peeping out from under their mats, or shaking from off their dripping heads the heavy dew that had fallen in the night.' Their safety was due to the influence of a powerful chief, named Duaterra, previously known to Mr. Marsden. The next day they proceeded to Rangihoua in the Bay of Islands, where they settled under the same protection. By March their position appeared so hopeful and secure, that Mr. Marsden was able to return to his duties in New South Wales. A degree of success soon justified a further effort. In 1819, two other lay-agents, Messrs Butler and Kemp, were sent, and a new station opened at Keri-keri, 'a beautiful spot, situated at the confluence of the tide and of the fresh-water stream from which it takes its name.' Here they were protected by the terrible E'Ongi, already mentioned, a man of considerable powers of mind, but of unexampled ferocity, and of equal success in war. He had been in

England, and received much kindness from the Prince Regent and others, which had disposed him to regard the Missionaries with favour. His last words are said to have been: – 'Let the Missionaries sit in peace. They have done good; but they have done no harm.'

In August, 1823, the first ordained Missionary of New Zealand, the Rev. Henry Williams, now Archdeacon of the Waimate, established a third station at Paihia, on the south side of the Bay of Islands. He was assisted by Mr. Fairburn, a skilful carpenter, as well as an excellent catechist. The next year they were joined by Mr. Davies and Mr. Clarke, two other catechists, and in 1825, by Mr. Williams' brother, the Rev. William Williams, now Archdeacon of Waiapu. In November, 1829, Mr. A. N. Browne, now Archdeacon of Tauranga, arrived in New Zealand, and in conjunction with Mrs. Browne, opened schools for the education of the children of the Missionaries. In 1830, a more inland station was formed at the Waimate, seven miles from Keri-keri, where a 'sufficiency of good land' was put under cultivation, with the double view of supplying the Mission with flour and other produce, which had till then been brought at great expense from New South Wales, and of inducing the natives, as an important step towards their civilization, to adopt the European implements and modes of cultivation. The experiment was blessed with good success. An ample supply of grain and roots was thus procured; while the moral effect of an industrial establishment, employing many, benefitting more, and daily open to the inspection of all, contributed not a little to prepare the heathen for the reception of the Gospel, and to confirm the believer in the profession of it.

In the year 1833, the native converts were furnished with the Prayer Book, and several books of the New Tes-

tament in their own language; smaller portions had been translated three years before. The Rev. W. Williams, Messrs. Brown, Shepherd, and Puckey were the persons principally engaged in this work. They were printed in New South Wales; but in 1834, a press was sent over for the use of the Mission, and in 1838, the whole of the New Testament, and another edition of the Prayer Book were printed in Maori by its means. The press was at this time under the superintendence of Mr. Colenso, since ordained to the Missionary charge of Ahuriri, a near relative of the admirable Bishop to whom the Monthly Record owes its existence. It should be mentioned, that the orthography of the language had been fixed, and a grammar prepared, in 1820, by Professor Lee, with the assistance of Mr. Kendall, one of the Mission, and the two chiefs, E'Ongi and Waikato, who spent this year in England, and to afford every facility for the accomplishment of this important object, took up their abode in Cambridge, until the Professor's labours were brought to a conclusion. The character and power of the language made the task easier and more agreeable than might have been anticipated from the rude character of the nation. 'It is,' we are told, 'peculiarly soft and sweet; and in the longest speeches, not a harsh sound ever strikes upon the ear. It is remarkably rich, admits of a very varied phraseology, abounds in turns of peculiar nicety, and is capable of being reduced to the most precise grammatical principles. There is scarcely any thing we can imagine, but they have an expression for it, except it be some such words as express the Christian graces of hope, gratitude, &c., which words, and some few similar ones, always require to be New Zealandized, and of course to be explained. Some such words have been introduced into our translations, perhaps from twelve to twenty in number, and are now pretty generally understood by all.'

Meanwhile 'the word of God was not bound.' Believers had been added to the Church daily, and multitudes who were as yet strangers to its higher blessings, had learnt, in some measure, to acknowledge the happiness of a people who have the Lord for their God. We are told that for 'nearly fifteen years, the natives had always rejected the overtures that had been made them for the furtherance of the Gospel in the vicinity in which they themselves resided.' In 1833, however, we find a fifth station, established at Kataia, near the North Cape, 'in consequence of the earnest solicitations of the chiefs and people,' who dwelt in that neighbourhood. Since then the only obstacle to the formation of new settlements, wherever they appeared needed, has been the difficulty of finding men fitted for the work, and of supporting them when found.

We are able to produce many pleasing testimonies, written about this period, to the reality and sound character of the great change which appeared in those who had been 'added to the Church.' Captain Jacob thus describes what he witnessed in districts visited by him in 1833: – 'The schools at Waimate and Paihia, exhibit abundant proofs of the zealous attention of the persons composing this Mission. I observed all ranks and ages, chiefs and subjects, old and young, bond and free, receiving and communicating instruction, with a degree of decorum and regularity that would have reflected credit on a school of the same kind even in England. In another direction, I fell in with the chief Ripi, a convert, whom, with his people, we found engaged in cutting a road through a dense forest, to enable the Missionaries to get at a village beyond it, for the purpose of extending to them the same blessing which he and his people have now learned to enjoy. I was struck by the dignified

appearance of this man, and when contrasting his present employment with that in which he was a few years since constantly engaged with hostile tribes, I felt the power and the beauty of the simile he himself used, when, reasoning with another chief on the evil of his former courses, he said, 'The name and reputation, which a native acquires by war and bloodshed, is like the hoar frost, which disappears as soon as the sun shines upon it; but when a man is brave in seeking the things of Jesus Christ, his name lives for ever.' In his village, Ripi has regular daily prayers, and his example is calculated to do much good in the country. Mr. Clarke, in a letter written in 1832, says, 'The villages which we visit on the Sunday present a scene truly grateful. The Sunday is indeed a day of rest: the fire-wood necessary for cooking, is regularly prepared on the Saturday. Whether visited or not, the natives commence the day by reading and prayer, and we always find some of them watching for our appearance. As soon as the chapel is opened, an effort is made to get a place; and for want of room, many are obliged to remain outside. The after part of the day is spent much as the former; all is silence and order, except hearing from the little cottages the voice of praise, by two or three families met together for that purpose.' Schools under the care of native teachers supplied the principal agency for the conversion of the people. 'Many native villages,' wrote a Missionary twenty years ago, 'have two schools established under the direction of a lad who had previously received his instruction from the Missionaries themselves. The knowledge thus obtained is easily communicated from one to another. Sometimes it is carried to a great distance, to tribes whom we thought to be in perfect ignorance. Persons who have been made prisoners of war, and enslaved by the Bay of

Islanders, have been educated in the Missionary schools, and then, having by some means obtained their freedom, or having received permission from the chief to whom they belonged, to visit their friends, have at once commenced among them the work of instruction, and been readily and eagerly attended to by the whole people. And when the remoter natives became acquainted with the other acquirements of their returned countrymen; when they found that they were blacksmiths, or carpenters, or brickmakers, and knew other simple arts, and could render essential assistance in erecting their houses, or in otherwise adding to their comforts, they more readily received as truth, the lessons which they taught of the religion of Jesus.' A much later writer speaking of a district in the south of New Ulster, which had been partially evangelized by such means, says: – 'In the case of Otaki, the agent in this good work had lived (when in slavery) at the Paihia Mission Station. The first thing that his heathen relatives learned from him was to say grace before meals, and to abstain from work, to noho, or sit still, on the Seventh Day. He had brought with him his own book, but what was that among so many? He could not keep school with that: so paper and pens were procured from the whaling ships which frequent the island of Kapiti, and this one book was multiplied with wonderful perseverance, till there were copies enough for him to teach his friends what he himself knew.' The reader will remember that the instrumentality of slaves, natives of England, who had been redeemed in France, and instructed by the Missionaries under Augustine, was, in a similar manner employed, to aid in the conversion of our Saxon forefathers.

Until the death of Mr. Marsden, in 1838, the Mission remained under his general superintendence. He often

visited it, and gave to its zealous labourers the much valued benefit of his advice and sympathy. On his seventh and last visit, which took place in 1837, when he had reached the age of 72, he saw 'many of the stations within the compass of 100 miles,' and noted with joy and thankfulness 'the wonderful change' that had passed over the land. Writing from the Waimate, he said: –

'This was formerly one of the most warlike districts in the island, but it is now the most moral and orderly place I ever was in. A great number of the inhabitants, for some miles, have been baptized and live like Christians. There are neither riots nor drunkenness, neither swearing nor quarrels, but all is order and peace. The same effects I have observed in other districts,' An incident occurred at a southern station visited by Mr. Marsden a little after this, which exemplifies in a very striking manner, the grateful and affectionate temper of the converted natives. 'During the evening,' says our informant, 'a few chiefs called to converse with Mr. Marsden. At length we had to request them to leave, when one of them said, 'We wish to have a very long steadfast look at the old man, because he cannot live long enough to visit us again.''

New Zealand was at this time a dependency of New South Wales, and therefore within the diocese of the Bishop of Australia. It was accordingly visited by Dr. Broughton, the pious and learned occupant of that See, in the December of 1838. While there he held two confirmations, consecrated the burial ground at Paihia and Kororareka, and admitted to Priest's orders the Rev. O. Hadfield, who had accompanied him with the intention of remaining on the island, and has since proved himself one of the most earnest and laborious, and through God's blessing on his labours, one of the most successful

of evangelists. The Bishop on this occasion saw much of the older Missionaries, and it is interesting to trace in their character, as described by him, the source of their influence over the excitable minds of the natives, and of the large measure of success already vouchsafed to their exertions. 'I must offer a very sincere and willing testimony to their maintaining a conversation such as becomes the Gospel of Christ. Their habits of life are devotional, they are not puffed up with self-estimation, but appeared to me willing to learn, as well as apt to teach: and among themselves they appear to be drawn together by a spirit of harmony, which is, I hope, prompted by that Spirit whose fruit is love, gentleness, and goodness.' With regard to the number of their converts, he remarks, that 'at every station which he visited, they bore already a very visible and considerable proportion to the entire population,' and that he had 'sufficient testimony to convince him that the same state of things prevailed at other places, which it was not in his power to search.' In speaking of the character of the converts, while lamenting that their indolence, duplicity, and covetousness, were not yet overcome, he states that 'their haughty self-will, their rapacity, and sanguinary inclinations had been softened, he might say eradicated, and their superstitious opinions given place, in many instances, to a correct apprehension of the spiritual tendencies of the Gospel.' He pointed out, at the same time, the defective constitution of the Missionary Church as the great hindrance to its efficiency, and suggested the only effectual remedy: – 'Many stations are from necessity left without a resident minister, and the occasional visits which may be paid, cannot be of that frequency or that duration, which are necessary to make them fully profitable. The Church of England requires to he planted in the full in-

tegrity of its system; its ordinances administered by a clergy duly ordained, and the clergy themselves subject to regular ecclesiastical authority.' Certain practical evils, which they knew not how to meet without the aid of an authority entitled to control and guide their counsels, led the Missionaries themselves to the same conclusion. Thus Mr. H. Williams wrote: – 'Many questions of moment frequently present themselves, on which we possess no authority to enter. We much hope that a Bishop for this colony will soon make his appearance.' Thus in New Zealand, as in our older Colonies, a principle, always confessed by well-instructed faith, was suggested by the painful experience of incomplete achievement and wasted effort. Thus was it urged once more upon the awakening apprehension of the Church at home, that God's work, to be well done, must be done altogether in God's way, – that a Church which is to flourish and endure, must be framed upon the model set forth in Holy Scripture, and based immediately on Apostolical authority. Nor was it long ere the good Providence of God enabled the infant Church of New Zealand to remedy the defect of which it had become keenly conscious. In 1839, an English company, having bought large tracts of land from the native chiefs, commenced the colonization of the country, by founding the town of Wellington, not far from the southern extremity of New Ulster. This was soon followed by New Plymouth, near the middle, and on the western coast, of the same island, and by Nelson on the north coast of New Munster. The year following saw the sovereignty of England over these islands established by the treaty of Waitangi, to which nearly every chief within them gave his assent; while it was proclaimed in Stewart Island, as accruing by the right of discovery. The reasons, which induced the natives to

accede to this assumption of supremacy, exhibit strikingly their sense of the benefits, which they had derived from the residence of the Missionaries among them. They were expressed at length by Nene, 'our most faithful ally, with a degree of natural eloquence which surprised the English. Addressing himself to his countrymen, he exhorted them to reflect on their own condition; to recollect how much the character of the New Zealanders had been exalted by intercourse with Europeans; and how impossible it was to govern themselves without frequent wars and bloodshed; concluding by strenuously advising them to receive the British, and to place confidence in their promises.' New Zealand was made, at the same time an independent Colony; by which event the Church upon its shores was withdrawn from the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Australia, and lost its legal title to his pastoral care. But 'man's extremity is God's opportunity.' The increased urgency of its need stimulated the exertions of Churchmen at home, and it was determined that New Zealand should be one of the first of the Colonial Bishoprics, for the foundation of which a very earnest, and God be thanked, a very successful effort was at that time being made. Accordingly, on the 17th of October, 1841, George Augustus Selwyn, sometime Fellow of St. John's College, in Cambridge, was consecrated to be the first Bishop of New Zealand, and of the Isles adjoining. It has been remarked as an unnecessary departure from primitive and general custom, that the name of the new See was borrowed, as in some other instances, from the country over which the authority of the Bishop extends, and not from the ecclesiastical centre, at which his residence is fixed. The circumstance, though not of great importance, may be regretted as a singularity. We trust however, that the subdivision

of the Diocese, already confessed to he of an unmanageable extent, will lead ere long, as in the parallel case of Australia, to the adoption of a more appropriate title.

Followed by prayers and welcomed with thanksgivings, the Bishop arrived in New Zealand on the 29th of May, 1842, and began at once, both among settlers and the natives, the 'full proof of his ministry.' A month only had elapsed from his first landing, when the senior clergyman of his Diocese, gave utterance to the following happy presage, as it has since proved, of the whole tenour of his Episcopate: – 'Our most worthy Bishop has now been beneath my roof ten days. We have had very much conversation, and upon all points, so far, we have fully agreed. He appears not only to be the head of the Church in this country, but at the head of the Mission, which is quite in accordance with our views. It will relieve us from a multitude of perplexities in committees, and give a tone and character to the Mission, it never possessed before.' The reader cannot fail to know how nobly this promise has been realized. In fact, from this time forward, the history of the Church and of its Missions, are one with the history of its single-hearted and ever active Bishop. This subject, however, must be reserved for our two following numbers, in which we shall have to speak much of his devoted labours, his Apostolic journeyings and perils, and propose to enter also into some of those many pious and wise designs, through which he has sought to 'glorify the name of the Lord God of Israel in the isles of the sea,' by building up in them, in strength and beauty, on that foundation other than which 'can no man lay,' a 'spiritual house of lively stones, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.'

THE CHURCH IN NEW ZEALAND. – PART II.

THE

MONTHLY RECORD

OF THE

SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL IN FOREIGN PARTS.

MAY, 1855.

AUCKLAND.

THE CHURCH IN NEW ZEALAND. – PART II.

BEFORE we speak of the plans, by which the Bishop has studied to promote the efficiency of the Church within his Diocese, it is desirable to show, – and we shall do this principally in his own words, – the hopeful state of the native population, before his own exertions can he supposed to have been productive of any great results. One of the things which he observed with the greatest pleasure, in the religious habits of the people, on his ar-

rival in New Zealand, was their manner of keeping holy the Lord's day; in which they shame indeed the nation, from whose missionaries their knowledge of the duty has been acquired. Speaking of the opening of a new church at Auckland in 1843, he says, – 'The services began with a native congregation at nine; some of whom having only heard of the opening on Saturday evening, paddled a distance of twelve miles by sea during the night, in order to be present; the greater number were in full European clothing, and took part in this Church service in a manner which contrasts most strikingly with that of the silent and unkneeling congregation of English settlers. The following remark is elicited by their behaviour on a more ordinary occasion: – 'Their attentive manner, and the deep sonorous uniformity of their responses were most striking.' Without the church they are the same as in it: the whole day is hallowed by religion: – 'Another peaceful Sunday;'-thus runs an entry in the Bishop's journal; – 'the morning opened as usual with the morning hymns of the birds, which Captain Cook compares to a concert of silver bells, beginning an hour before sunrise, and ceasing as soon as it appears above the horizon. When the song of the birds was ended, the sound of native voices chanting around our tents, carried on the same tribute of praise and thanksgiving; while audible murmurs on every side brought to our ears the passages of the Bible which others were reading to themselves.' Again: – 'After the morning service the natives formed into classes for reading and saying the Catechism. The native character appears in this in a most favourable light, old tattooed warriors standing side by side with young men and boys, and submitting to lose their place for every mistake with the most perfect good humour.' Their zeal for the house of God is not

inferior to their reverence for His day. We read of many churches erected by them solely; as one at Mata-Mata, 'a noble building, the area about as large as Windsor Church, eighty feet by forty;' another at Waikanae, 'about seventy feet long by forty: the ridge-pole hewn from a single tree, was a peace-offering from a neighbouring tribe formerly at war with Waikanae: the interior is ornamented with white basket-work, interlaid with grey rods in the spaces between the large upright pillars that support the roof, giving the appearance of the most delicate carved work. The upright pillars are painted with the deep red ochre of the country, and the timbers of the roof variegated with scrolls of white, after the native fashion. The whole is most thoroughly striking and characteristic, and, with the exception of the windows, is entirely of native workmanship.' A more encouraging or deeply interesting scene than the following could hardly be conceived: – 'Arriving alone at Otaki,' says the Bishop, 'and with no messenger to announce me, I found my people, as I should always wish to find them, engaged in the active service of God. A party of about 300 men, headed by the old chief, Te Rauparaha (a noted warrior, who had long turned a deaf ear to the instructions of the Missionary,) were busily engaged in raising, by their own native methods, the heavy pillars for the support of the roof of their new chapel. A joyous shout of welcome burst from the whole party when I came unexpectedly into the midst of them; all the old men, who at first resisted the spirit of improvement, had now joined in the work, and were actively engaged in building the chapel. The machinery of a watermill was on the spot, but it was agreed by common consent that the church should be finished first, and that then all should unite in the other works of public interest, such as the roads and the mill.'

To the New Zealander, as to all who love the Lord Jesus in sincerity, His Gospel has proved a covenant of peace with man as well as God. Here too the sworn soldiers of the Prince of Peace have 'beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks,' neither does 'nation lift up sword any more against nation, neither do they learn war any more.' This happy change of temper is the subject of frequent and thankful comment, both with the Missionary and the settler. Thus, for example, writes the Bishop from Rotongaio, near the great lake Taupo: – 'The population of this part of the country used to be a terror to the neighbourhood; but the majority are now converted to Christianity, and are no longer disposed to go to war.' The following narrative enables us to realise the deep and genuine character of the improvement. It shows that among the blessed fruits of the Spirit already developed in men, who, till very lately, notwithstanding some sparks of a better nature, could be regarded only as a hopeless herd of barbarous and unclean savages, are found some of the most exalted traits of Christian heroism. 'The Rev. C. P. Davies visited a Pa belonging to two Christian chiefs, Perika and Noa, who were brothers. They were expecting an attack from Ripa, a chief of Hokianga. Ripa had made an unjust demand upon the two Christian chiefs, and, on their refusal to comply with it, he had marched to attack them. It was at this crisis that Mr. Davies entered the Pa, and there he found them, surrounded by their armed followers, engaged in solemn prayer; praying especially for the pardon of their enemies, with a white flag hoisted above their heads, as a token of their desire for peace. Mr. Davies then went out to meet Ripa and his party, who, with faces painted red, were listening to addresses urging them on to veil-

geance and slaughter. The addresses being ended, they rushed forward towards the Pa, yelling frightfully, and dancing their war-dance, bidding bold defiance to the Christians. The Christians were assembled on the other side of the fence opposite the enemy, while one of the Christian chiefs quietly walked up and down between the two parties, telling the enemy that they were acting contrary to the Word of God, and that his party, though not afraid of them, were restrained by the fear of God from attacking them, Ripa and his party only amounted to twenty, while the Christians were one hundred strong. After many speeches had been made on both sides, one of Ripa's party, in striking at the fence with his hatchet, cut Noa on the head. This chief tried to conceal the wound from his tribe; but some of them seeing the blood trickling down, knew that he was wounded, and instantly there was a rush from the Pa, and every man's musket was levelled. In another moment Ripa and his whole party would have fallen; but Noa, the wounded chief, sprang forward, and exclaimed, 'If you kill Ripa, I will die with him and then throwing his own body as a shield over Ripa, saved him from destruction. Peace was then made between the two parties, and there was great rejoicing.' Of course, in New Zealand, as elsewhere, there is a large debateable land between the Church and the world. There are many Christians who are such in little more than name; and, on the other hand, many avowed heathen, who are much influenced by their near contact with Christianity. Of these, we will only say, that the horrors of war have been greatly mitigated among all, and that a respect for religion, and especially for the sanctity of the Lord's Day, has often shown itself at times when there has been reason to fear, that the old ferocity of the race had resumed its empire over many.

'In all their contests, much as there is to deject, there are many things to encourage. Almost all the speeches made by the combatants, and indeed their actions attest the power which the Gospel has even now (in a time of war) obtained over them.'

Nor are the natives, when the example is fairly set them, slow to acquire the decencies and semi-virtues of civilized life. 'The use of soap is rapidly superseding red ochre and grease. In fact,' observes the Bishop, 'I have been agreeably surprised at the comparative cleanliness of the people.' Again, six years later: – 'A cheerful day was spent in visiting from house to house, where chairs and tables and other English comforts begin to be common, and in seeing their corn fields, barns, and dairies, and the preparations for the mill.' Again: – 'Went to the house of a most valuable native chief, Wirimu Howeti (William Jowett). He has just built a house divided into rooms, one for dining, one for sleeping, one for cooking, and one for a study. From his study he wrote me a very polite invitation, which led to my visit. He has the natural good breeding of a true gentleman.' This was in 1842, since which time the example appears to have spread; for a settler at Nelson, writing home in 1849, says – 'The natives are about as easily managed as our own people, only I think, quicker and move improveable: some of them are building four and six-roomed houses.'

Since the Bishop was first called to preside over the Church in New Zealand, there have been many changes in the outward condition and circumstances of the people, some of which have been unfavourable to their progress in the Christian life. There has been much cause for joy, much to encourage the future exertion of Christian love and enterprise; but such is the weakness of man,

and so untiring the malice of his enemy, that the position of the native Church is still, and must long be, as much a matter of anxious hope, as of triumphant thankfulness. Its hindrances and dangers will be seen more clearly as we proceed; but, whatever they may be, it is a satisfaction to know that they have not been overlooked, in the excitement of zealous toil, by the chief pastor of the newly gathered flock. The following passage, which is, in brief, a deliberate judgment on this whole subject, occurs in a letter, addressed by him, in 1848, to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel: – 'In forming an opinion of the possibility of civilizing the whole rising generation of New Zealanders, I have never perceived any practical impediment, except the want of English instructors, who would devote themselves with all their hearts to the work, and do for the native children what every Christian parent wishes to do for his own. But such a system must not only provide the means of education, but also instruction in the most minute details of daily life, and and in every useful and industrious habit. We are apt to forget the laborious processes by which we acquired in early life, the routine duties of cleanliness, order, method, and punctuality; and we often expect to find ready made in a native people, the qualities which we ourselves have learned with difficulty, and which our own countrymen rapidly lose in the unsettled and irresponsible slovenliness of colonial life. We want a large supply of Oberlins and Felix Neffs, who, having no sense of their own dignity, will think nothing below it; and who will go into the lowest and darkest corner of the native character, to see where the difficulty lies which keeps them back from being assimilated to ourselves. They have received the Gospel freely, and with an unquestioning faith, but the unfavorable tendency of native

habits is every day dragging back many into the state of sin from which they seemed to have escaped. There is scarcely anything so small as not to affect the permanence of Christianity in this country. We require men who will number every hair of a native's head, as part of the work of Him who made and redeemed the world.' The difficulties of the Missionary are much increased by a circumstance, too common to excite surprise, but too fruitful in evil, whenever it occurs, not to be a source of deep regret to the well instructed and thoughtful Christian. The Gospel is no longer preached to the inhabitants of New Zealand by men who 'all speak the same thing,' and are 'all perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment;' but 'divisions' have been introduced, and 'offences contrary to the doctrines which they had learned,' which have already proved a grievous stumbling-block to many. Eight years after the establishment of the first Church Mission, the Wesleyan Missionary Society unhappily thought it right to send some of its agents to New Zealand, who proceeded to establish themselves at Wangaroa, only thirty-four miles from the Bay of Islands, and therefore in the immediate vicinity of the Church Stations. Their settlement was plundered by E'Ongi, in 1827, and they themselves fled for safety to the Church Mission, which was under his protection. Shortly after, they left the island, but ere long we find another Wesleyan Station established on the river Hokianga, on the Western coast, across the island from the Bay, and this has been followed by others in different parts. In 1837, a Roman Catholic Bishop, named Pompallier, accompanied by two priests, established himself on the Hokianga, in the neighbourhood of the Wesleyan Missionaries. They have since been joined by several other priests, and have dispersed themselves

on the islands; but in proportion to the means at their command, the number of their converts does not appear to have been great.

In the Bishop's journal occur many allusions to the unfortunate effect of these irregular proceedings. For example, the following notice appears of a Sunday spent at Te Wai-a-te-Ruati, on the eastern coast of Middle Island: – 'The village population is divided between the members of the Church of England and Wesleyans. No English ministers had visited the place before my arrival; but native teachers from other places had duly informed them of the difference between Hahi (Church) and Weteri (Wesley). The discussions, resulting from this division of opinion, took away much of the satisfaction of my visit to the Southern Island, (whither he was proceeding) as much of my time was spent in answering unprofitable questions.' A similar entry occurs with regard to the islands in Foveaux Straits: – 'In all I found some natives able to read, and, in one especially, a very intelligent party, under the care of a well-informed teacher. Here, as in other places, there was too much discussion about Weteri and Hahi. We need not wonder at the controversies which are raging at home, when even in the most distant part of the most remote of all countries, in places hitherto unvisited by English Missionaries, the spirit of controversy, so congenial, as it seems, to the fallen nature of man, is everywhere found to prevail, in many cases to the entire exclusion of all simplicity of faith. I was much pleased with my stay, though the advantage of it, in a religious point of view, was much impaired by dissentions among the natives.'

Instances are related in which the natives have invited the Romish Missionaries into a neighbourhood, as their allies against the truth, which they feared, because they

had rejected it. Thus a small portion of the natives of Otaki, the station of Mr. Hadfield, who still held, by their ancient ritenga, or custom, 'finding that it was no longer able to withstand the new doctrine, looked round for some antagonist system, which they might adopt. Hence the introduction of the Picopos or Papists, into even this district.' The writer from whom we learn this (Colonial Church Chronicle, II. 219) adds: – 'Such has often been the origin of this sad division among the natives of New Zealand.'

This, we presume, is the explanation of a circumstance recorded in the Bishop's journal, who relates that in one of his tours he visited a chief, 'reputed to be a heathen, but professing Romanism.' In his charge he refers to the same subject: – 'Of controversy in general I would say, that it is the bane of the Gospel among a heathen people. They can understand far more easily the mysterious doctrine of the Trinity, how all the works and persons of that heavenly Being agree in one; than how that Being can be the one, only, true God, and yet His doctrine and His worship not be one also. I can never forget the pointed illustration of the old chief of Taupo, when I asked him why he still refused to believe. 'Shew me the way,' said he, 'I have come to a cross road. Three ways branch out before me. Each teacher says his own way is the best. I am sitting down and doubting which guide I shall follow.' He remained in doubt, till a landslip burst from the mountain under which he lived, and rushing down at midnight, overwhelmed him with all his house.

Other serious hindrances to the conversion of the natives, have arisen from the 'demoralizing effect of their intercourse with the crews of English, American, and French whalers, and with runaway sailors, convicts and

others, from Sydney and Van Dieman's Island,' who have sought a refuge, rather than a home, upon their shores.

'These persons,' says Mr. Montgomery Martin, 'made up a society, whose lawless and dissolute members, abjuring the common decencies of life, and encouraging each other in every vice and every excess, most degrading to human nature, obtained from the natives the appellation of the devil's missionaries' There are also many whaling stations on the coast, at which Europeans of a better class are found, but still not such as promote the cause of God among their heathen neighbours. 'An unhappy opposition' remarks the Bishop, 'is to be found in most of the islands in which Missions have been established; the natives are distracted between the two classes of advisers, and the progress of Christianity is seriously hindered. But,' he adds justly, 'those who are acquainted with the course of life, which seamen lead from their earliest youth, will see reason to regard them, no less than the heathen, as objects of Christian sympathy. The true cause of sorrow is not so much that they hinder our work among the heathen, as that they themselves are content to live as outcasts from the covenant of grace.' It has been thought, however, that 'these whale fishers have imparted a considerable amount of civilization to the natives. The truth seems to be,' observes the Bishop, 'that their standard of civilisation is more attainable, and their mode of life more sociable, than in the formal and guarded manners of the towns and Mission stations. In justice to a much abused class of men, from whom I have received much hospitality, I must confess that the most steady and thoughtful of my native travelling companions spent his early life at a whaling station. There is much, of course, in the habits of the whalers which all must deeply lament; but I have rarely found a station in which

advice was not patiently and even thankfully received.' Daring a tour to South Island, in 1844, the Bishop was frequently requested by the men at the stations, and other small settlements on the coast, to marry them to the native women, with whom they had been living, in some cases, for many years. The result of his inquiries among them was very painful; 'It is a humiliating truth,' he says, 'that these women have actually been kept back from religious knowledge by intercourse with our countrymen, which has taken them away from their own villages, where the Gospel was fast spreading, to places where, as one settler told me, they had not had a word of religious instruction till my arrival.' 'The husbands are generally unable to communicate with their wives, except on the most ordinary matters of daily life.' 'There is some hope, however, that the children who usually speak both languages, if they can first be well taught, may be able to instruct their mothers.'

Most happily, the same obstructions to the free course of the Gospel are not to be anticipated from the more recent immigrants, who have settled in the larger towns and inland villages of the colony. Speaking of Auckland and its neighourhood, the Bishop bears this grateful testimony to the good disposition of the inhabitants: – 'We have much to be thankful for in the general respect for religion and the Clergy which prevails, especially in the country districts. The duties of a district Clergyman are not interrupted by any open opposition or uncourteous treatment. In all our intercourse with the neighbourhood, I do not remember to have met with, or to have heard of, a single case in which a friendly liberty of intercourse has not been allowed between the visitor and all classes of his parishioners. So far as the attendance at the Holy Communion is a test of the religious state of

the people, we have, perhaps, as much encouragement as it is reasonable to expect in a community so newly formed, and gathered from so many different places. Many of the chief officers of government give a strong and decided testimony to the value of religion, and, both in public and in private life, afford an example of strict morality and earnest devotion. It is a thought which has often occurred to my mind, and called forth many feelings of thankfulness and hope, that, if the whole of the English laity of that class now scattered throughout New Zealand had been collected in one place, there would never have been a settlement of the English nation, whose earliest years could give so fair a promise of every blessing which can flow from religious principle and the charities of social life.' The evening of Easter Sunday, spent in the neighbourhood of Nelson, leads to the following remarks: –

'These village congregations are a hopeful feature in our Colonial Church. Much of the good old English feeling seems to be revived; the Clergyman is hospitably entertained at the house of the principal settler; his visits are valued; his advice is followed; the children are brought to him for instruction; in short, it seems as if the train of right feeling and principle, which is often suspended in the town by party rivalry and prejudice, returns to its own course in the simple population of the villages.'

Such is the mixed population, of men as diverse still in habits of thought and life, as they are in language and in colour, whom it is the office of the Bishop and his Clergy to bring to the same mind in Christ, and mould into a holy brotherhood of faith and love. The task before them is great and hard, but they are permitted to feel that it is 'hopeful.' A singular advantage to the work has been the foundation of the see, in the very infancy of the colony. 'I find myself placed,' observes its occupant,' in

a position such as was never granted to any English Bishop before, with a power to mould the institutions of the Church from the beginning according to true principles.' In some respects, the undertaking entrusted to him, being thus 'new and unexampled in our Church, must be in some degree experimental in character;' but there is this encouragement, that the principles, on which he desires to act, are not the assumptions of an untested theory, but such as, in other churches, have endured already the slow wear of centuries, and withstood the sharp strain of many a political and social change: 'I trust,' he says, 'that I shall be enabled to follow, not any fancies of my own, but the best models of antiquity, and that I shall be guided by a spirit of dependence upon Divine grace; to which end,' he adds, 'I desire the prayers of my friends and of the Church at home.'

In this spirit, and on these principles, did he commence his work on the 7th of July, 1842, by selecting sites at Auckland, the capital of the colony, for 'an additional cemetery, another church, a school-house, and for parsonage houses, contiguous to the churches and burial grounds.' At the same time, he 'gave directions for the purchase of about twenty or thirty acres of land for the site of a cathedral, and for a cathedral close; hoping by this arrangement to secure a future provision for every possible increase of population, sites being thus prepared for three churches in the main part of the town, and that when the houses extend half a mile into the country, the two burial grounds (of eight acres each) will meet the wants of the people, by additions to the chapels built on them for funeral services.' On the 24th of the same month the first burial-place was consecrated. Thus from the first he took on himself a duty generally left, and in most cases of necessity, to the local Clergy, whose efforts

are often restrained by a dread of incurring the suspicion of labouring for their own honour or convenience. The provision of sites for churches and their accessories may not be an ordinary, or in any case the most important, part of the duties of a colonial Bishop; but the example deserves notice, as there can be no doubt that the same wise forethought, exercised by one in equal authority in all our colonies, would have forestalled difficulties which in the larger towns have often seriously marred the efficiency, and impeded the progress, of an unendowed and struggling Church.

Another early care was to provide for the permanent maintenance of the Clergy. And here from the first we find a recognition of the scriptural principle, that those 'who are taught in the word, should minister' of their worldly things 'unto him that teacheth.' By an act of faith as well as wisdom, the Bishop at once rejected the proffered state grants towards the support of the Clergy, and erection of churches; certain conditions being annexed to their reception, which had already proved prejudicial to the best interests of many congregations in the Australasian colonies. He preferred 'to maintain the Church's independence, and to commit her support to the free charities of the servants of God.' Nor did the people disown the duty. 'I find in all the settlements,' he says, 'a very considerable willingness on the part of the inhabitants to bear their part in the maintenance of ministers, and hope, therefore, to be enabled, by the assistance of the Society (S. P. G.,) to go on, from year to year, endowing the Church in perpetuity in the new settlements, as fast as they arise.' From an appeal for assistance addressed to English Churchmen, in 1843, we learn that his hopes rested on this 'readiness of the settlers, combined with the zeal of the native inhabitants.'

In all the settlements where there was a bank, he opened an account, called the Church Fund, to receive private contributions and collections made, at the offertory, by the whole congregation every time the Lord's Supper is administered; 'the proceeds of this fund to be applicable to the building and endowment of churches, schools, parsonage houses, and to the payment, in part, of salaries of Clergymen.' Fearing that, if it were understood that the Clergy were in the receipt of salaries from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, it would tend to check local subscription for their support, he made the grants of that Society payable to the settlements, and not to the Clergymen. 'As it is,' he says, 'I can withhold the grant altogether from any settlement, which does not take its fair share of the maintenance of divine worship. The Clergy are not in any way dependent on the local board, but their stipends are paid first out of the Archdeaconry funds, and then the surplus is placed to the credit of the local trustees. If the local subscription fails, the only effect is that no extension of the Church system can take place.' The degree in which our Society has aided in the accomplishment of these excellent plans, may be inferred from a letter of the Bishop to the Secretary, dated Dec. 20th, 1850: – 'The Southern endowment fund is now, thanks to the Society, complete. May I beg you to convey my warmest thanks to the Society for this most admirable provision for the wants of this Diocese. I hope that it is a satisfaction to you to think, that you have endowed in perpetuity, three chaplaincies in New Zealand.' Much therefore has been done already, towards making the Church in this colony support its own ministry, and it is hoped that ere many years have elapsed, it will do so entirely. The Bishop had pledged himself, before he left England, in 1841, to release the Society, as

soon as possible, from all payments to his Diocese. In 1853, he was able to assure it, that, though the disturbed state of the colony had deferred the fulfilment of the pledge, he still looked forward to its gradual accomplishment.

It was obvious that 'to secure the efficient administration of the Church in all parts of the Diocese, each great division of the country must have its responsible head, capable of acting with authority without constant reference to the Bishop.' An Archdeacon, (the Rev. W. Williams,) was therefore at once appointed over a portion of the eastern coast of North Island, and, since then, the whole diocese has been divided into five Archdeaconries. The spirit in which the Bishop conferred the office, and desired that it might be exercised, is worthy of special remark. 'It is to be hoped,' (he told the clergy in a charge delivered in September, 1847,) 'that the title of a 'Dignitary' of the Church will never be heard in New Zealand. It is well said by the Venerable Bede, 'that the title of Bishop is a name, not of honour, but of work;' and I appeal to one of my Archdeacons, whether I did not tell him when he was following me, on foot, along the narrow track of a native path on the side of a wild hill, with a few faithful natives for our only retinue, that if I designed the office of Archdeacon to be a mere peacock's feather, to distinguish one clergyman above his brethren, I would not offer it to the acceptance of any one who had borne his Master's cross in retirement and self denial, in the Mission field. The course of life to which I invited the Archdeacons, was to unite with me in a combined system of helpfulness and work.'

We all know how much the Church of England, and that pure faith of which she is the witness, have suffered during the last century and a half, from the suspension

of the active powers of Convocation. Among the worst evils which have arisen from this source, if not the very worst, we are obliged to reckon the inability of the Church to frame and authorize a well considered system for the conduct of her various Missions, and to provide for the peculiar needs and exigencies of our colonial population. During that period, the nation has advanced its power, and dispersed its sons and daughters, to every quarter of the habitable globe, with a rapidity, and to an extent, of which no parallel is found in history; but the Church, meanwhile, has been virtually forbidden, by the shortsighted, and, as the event has often proved, the suicidal jealousy of the State, to adapt herself to the requirements of her altered position, or even to own the increase of responsibility which it involves. At the same time, while suffering untold injury in every colony from the restrictions of a national establishment, she has not been permitted there to derive benefit from its advantages. Happily, however, many of the colonial Bishops, and among them the Bishop of New Zealand, have seen the necessity of attempting to do for themselves, what the Church was unjustly restrained from doing for them. On the 26th of September, 1844, a diocesan synod was assembled in the church at Waimate, to frame rules for the better management of the Mission and general government of the Church, and to deliberate on other matters of religious interest. The decisions of the council were embodied in fifteen canons, the bare titles of which are enough to show their great importance, and, assuming, what appears to be the case, that they are wisely conceived, their great utility. The first five refer to Baptism. Their chief provisions are as follows: – That where duly qualified sponsors cannot be obtained, a written pledge shall be required from the

parents, to submit their children to the education of the Church; the Bishop, the officiating Clergyman and his wife, being in such cases considered as the sponsors; that the children of unbaptized parents, or of parents living in concubinage, may be baptized under the foregoing condition, or if presented by fit sponsors; that adult candidates for baptism shall remain (except in case of extreme sickness) at least one year in the class of catechumens under the immediate instruction of the Missionary of the district, the Archdeacon being constituted the judge of fitness for the rite; that in addition to a knowledge of the Catechism and Scripture, a knowledge of reading shall be required, unless the Archdeacon see reason to relax the rule; that no man, having two or more wives, shall be received as a catechumen, but that a woman, being one of two or more wives of a heathen man, may be received. The sixth and seventh, on Confirmation, determine, that adults after baptism shall remain under instruction till the Bishop's visitation, and then, if approved, receive imposition of hands, and be forthwith admitted to the Lord's Table; and that persons baptized in other communions, with water, in the name of the Trinity, who desire to enter the communion of the Church, may be confirmed, and, after confirmation, admitted to the Lord's Supper. By the eight and ninth, it is provided that candidates for the Lord's Supper, shall attend the Missionary, at least one day before, for examination and instruction, and receive a certificate to be presented at the administration; that sentences of the Offertory shall be regularly read, and all have an opportunity, but none be pressed, to make their offerings; and that all be exhorted to come to the Holy Communion in seemly clothing. The remaining six, on discipline and system, relate to a census of the natives, the marriage and

burial of unbaptized persons, (at which the rites of the Church may not be used,) the formation of cycles of visitation in each Archdeaconry, the native teachers and their duties, Church discipline according to Matt, xviii. 18; and the establishment of central hoarding schools under the charge of deacons. 'The following subjects were also discussed, but no definite conclusion was embodied by the synod in the form of a canon: – the best mode of establishing a parochial system throughout the country, – the management of Church estates, – the formation of a series of useful catechetical and homiletical works for the use of native teachers, – the supply of necessaries to the distant Mission Stations, – the best system of trade with the natives, – the improvement of their temporal condition by means of clothing and provident funds, &c.' We have already mentioned the great zeal of the native Christians for the conversion of their still heathen countrymen, and the assistance which many of them render to the Missionaries as catechists and teachers. The advantage to be derived from their willing agency did not escape the Bishop, who has encouraged its employment, and at the same time studied to increase its efficiency, and to guard against those obvious abuses to which it is liable. By the thirteenth canon of the Diocesan Synod, the native teachers have been divided into the two classes of the Kai-Whakaaka and Monita; the former being the head teacher of an extensive district, and the inspector of the small settlements assigned to his charge; while it is the office of his subordinate, the Monita, to assemble the people for daily service on week days, and bring them to the central chapels on Sunday. Both are to be regular communicants. The duties of the Kai-Whaakaka, are 'to visit all the hamlets of their district, and to report to the Clergyman the state of the

people; to conduct the daily service with regularity and devotion; to instruct their people regularly in reading, writing, and the Catechism; to assemble the Christian natives weekly, or oftener, for the reading of the Scriptures, and also the candidates for baptism for catechetical instruction; to visit the sick, and report to the Clergyman of their state and wants; and to keep the native chapel in a sound, cleanly, and orderly state.' To insure, if possible, a supply of suitable candidates for these important offices, the Bishop has established a native teachers' school, of which he is himself the President and chief Tutor. The materials, out of which his instruments are to be fashioned, have been well tested, and the result has been such as to justify the best hopes for the future. Learning, as men count learning, has been beyond the reach of the simple Maori catechist; but there are not a few, who, in every moral and spiritual qualification for the ministry of the Gospel, might shame too many of the highly educated priests of England. With unfeigned respect we mention some whose names already shine in the ecclesiastical annals of their country. Tamahana (or Thompson) was the son of Te Rauparaha, a chief renowned in war for his ferocity and daring. When the Gospel was first preached among his people by some natives, who had received instruction at the Mission Stations in the North, this young man and his cousin Martin, one, like himself, 'of singular steadfastness,' received it readily, and went a long journey – nearly the whole length of North Island, and full of danger from hostile tribes – to ask for an English teacher to be stationed among them. At the request of Mr. Hadfield, who had responded to their call, they afterwards undertook a Missionary voyage to the Middle Islands and Foveaux Straits, voyaging in an open boat more than a thousand miles,

sometimes remaining on the sea all night, with a compass which had been given them, but the use of which they very imperfectly understood, and returned after an absence of fourteen months, having catechized and preached at every native settlement in the southern Islands and in Foveaux Straits.' On the Bishop's visit to those places, in 1844, he found that 'the natives uniformly ascribed their conversion to them.' Tamahana accompanied him on his journey to the south the next year, and thus – 'a pleasing contrast – while the father was the terror of the settlers of Port Nicholson,' the son was engaged with the chief Missionary of the Church, 'in evangelizing the heathen.' The Bishop's visit to Otaki, the residence of Tamahana and Te Rauparaha, (then happily become a Christian) in 1848, leads to the incidental mention in his journal, of a teacher trained by himself: – 'My old friends and scholars all crowded round me, and among them, one of the dearest of them all, Benjamin Hapurau, who, from the time of his leaving the College, has steadily taught the village school of 150 children, without expecting or receiving ang remuneration whatever.'One venerable figure, that of a blind man, – once a great warrior, but long the peaceful soldier of Jesus Christ, often passes before us, as we turn over the pages of the Colonial writers. Thus one of the Clergy in a journal written in the April of last year: – 'I had another instance of the valuable influence exercised over the Maories by a good native teacher. There is an old man living at Otawhao, named Solomon. He is quite blind, and has been so for many years. He was once a great fighting chief, and is one of the fertilizing volcanoes the Bishop spoke of; for all his zeal has of late years been directed towards evangelizing his countrymen. He is sometimes to be met at night, walking over to teach at some distant

village; a few years ago he was able to do much more, now he is old and infirm. His appearance is most striking fine, intelligent, and peculiarly amiable expression of countenance, with a clear voice, which is heard all over the church, as he leads the responses, which (with many of the Psalms) he knows by heart. In the afternoon English service, a huge Maori came into church, and flung himself down at the door at full length, just as if he had been in his own kainga. I stopped the service and beckoned him to get up, which at length he did, and rolled himself out in no very good humour. On coming out of church, I found this man waiting for me, and a lot of others not much better looking, and intending apparently to attack me for turning him out of church. Accordingly I opened upon him, and asked him how he came to mistake the house of God for a mere lounging place and sleeping house. He began to make some reply, when old Solomon, hearing a talk, came up and asked what the matter was. I told him what the fellow had done, and he gave the sentence in the emphatic language, which so invariably follows any sound rule of ours, 'E tika ana tau,' 'your word and deed is right.' And the whole party seemed quite satisfied, the man himself re-echoed the words, and we parted very good friends.'

We rejoice to find that New Zealand has a Bishop, who, in the simple faith and piety of these unlearned men, can discern a meetness for the sacred ministry of Christ's Church. In 1848, we find him speaking of Rewai, the native teacher of Waikanae, as 'an excellent man of whom, if his life be spared, he had good hopes that he might one day be admitted to Holy Orders.' On the 22nd of May, 1853, a beginning was made by the admission to the order of deacon, of Rota (Lot) Waitoa, a native, who, when a boy, had been for two years in England, and at the training school at Battersea, and for eleven,

had been the servant, pupil, and frequent companion of the Bishop himself. The 'beginning' is yet 'small.' God grant that 'the latter end may be greatly increased until New Zealand rejoice in a devout, laborious, and learned Clergy sprung from its own soil; of whom, in repayment of its debt to England, it may send forth in its turn, to carry on the light of truth to the still heathen isles of the Pacific.

We are thankful to have it in our power to add that the Church in New Zealand is prepared to carry out, to every legitimate result, the sacred principle which it has thus recognised, of the equality of all men in Christ. As in Him there is neither Greek nor barbarian, English nor Maori, so is there neither bond nor free, low-born or high. 'It is my deliberate purpose,' declared the Bishop, addressing his Clergy, in 1847, 'to open the door of admission to the ministry, to all classes of the community, by providing such a system of education throughout the country, as may bring the most deserving youths under the eye of the Clergy, to be by them recommended to the Diocesan College, for the completion of their education. It will be my endeavour so to regulate the expenses of the system, that poverty shall never be a bar to any young man of exemplary character.' As each pupil in the College is required to learn some useful art, by which he may obtain a livelihood, he is not obliged to make his final and irrevocable choice at an age when the feelings can scarcely be trusted; but is enabled to wait until 'it please God to make his course clear before him, and to show the power of His Spirit in calling him to the ministry.' In such a case, however, every encouragement is promised, and every facility for the effectual training of the candidate in sacred learning, and in the practical duties of the office to which he has been called.

THE CHURCH IN NEW ZEALAND. – PART III.

THE

MONTHLY RECORD

OF THE

SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL IN FOREIGN PARTS.

JUNE, 1855.

NATIVE VILLAGE AND COWRIE FOREST.

THE CHURCH IN NEW ZEALAND. – PART III.

THE school for native teachers, already mentioned, was part of a more comprehensive institution, which it was one of the first objects of the Bishop to establish on his arrival in the colony. St. John's College (so named after that in Cambridge, at which the Bishop himself, and his chaplain, Mr. Whytehead, had received their education,) was opened at the Waimate, early in the year 1843. 'It was formed on the basis of the former Mission school' established there, and was designed 'for the training of

candidates for Holy Orders, catechists, and schoolmasters, and to comprise also elementary schools for the children of natives and British settlers.' The Bishop regarded it as 'the key and pivot' of all his operations. 'The general condition, on which all students and scholars were to be received, was, that they should employ a definite portion of their time in some useful occupation, in aid of the purposes of the institution; they were reminded that although it had been founded, and would, for a time, be helped by the bounty of others, 'its only real endowment was the industry and self-denial of all its members.' The precepts and practice of the Apostle of the Gentiles was urged on all its pupils, as furnishing the rule of life most suitable to the character of a Missionary College: 'Let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.' It was also intended to make it a temporary home for young settlers who had lately arrived in the colony, and to attach to it a hospital for the sick, and an infant school, including an asylum for orphans.

The College was at first placed under the care of Mr. Whytehead, a deep and accomplished scholar, and a Christian, remarkable alike for earnest piety and a wise simplicity of character; but it pleased God to take him to his rest, before the work, to which he had devoted himself, had well begun. How great a loss his death was to his friends, and, as we judge with human eyes, to the whole Church, may be gathered from the language in which it is spoken of by the one above all others, from character and position, best able to discern and to appreciate his value. 'I look upon his grave,' declares the Bishop, 'as a proof of the overflowing mercy of God to this country, that such a man should have been sent out here only to die.....His meek and gentle spirit has been

a bond of union between us all, and, by his death, I trust, we shall not be divided.' Some years elapsed before bis place was filled; but at length he found a meet successor in Archdeacon Abraham.

The buildings at the Waimate were of wood and their tenure only temporary. In November, 1844, it was found necessary to remove the College to a site about four miles from Auckland, which had been purchased with part of a legacy left, as an endowment, by Mr. Whytehead. In 1853, a serious departure from the original design of the institution unfortunately became necessary; the climate of New Zealand having been found, by experience, injurious to the health of the Melanesian scholars, 'who formed a very important part of the College charge. Where these will be eventually placed is at present uncertain; but it seems likely that Norfolk Island will be the spot selected, if the convicts, who now occupy it, should be removed, as is proposed. Meanwhile, the Maori candidates for Holy Orders are placed under the Rev. G. A. Kissling, at St. Stephen's school, Auckland, and St. John's remains the University of the English settlers.

The great merit of the original plan of this College is attested by many pleasing facts. Before its operations were limited in 1853, no less than twenty-five of the forty-nine Clergy of the colony passed through it to ordination. We have seen that all its members were trained to manual labour. An instance of their skill and industry, of an appropriate kind, was thus described by their Bishop and founder, during his late visit to England: – 'The Government sent 2000 settlers, (of whom 500 were old soldiers called pensioners,) with a provision of £200 for building in the middle of the village what was proposed to be a school-room, but which was to serve for chapel and school-room for all religious denominations.

There was no provision for a Clergyman, and a very questionable one for a schoolmaster. The whole provision for that portion of the body which belonged to the Church of England (more than 1000) rested on the little College of St. John's, and its body of industrial scholars. They went at once into their carpenter's yard to construct a church. Almost all took part in the work, and when the frame was completed, our missionary schooner was put into requisition to carry it to the sea-side. The officer who had the administration of the supreme government, kindly undertook to assist us. We all went down, the whole College party, Governor, Bishop, Clergy, and scholars, – native and English; every shoulder was put into requisition to carry the timber frame up the steep shore. In the meantime the publicans set themselves to work, their great efforts being to open a canteen; that of course stimulated the church builders the more, and we determined to beat the public house, and we did beat it. The church was the first house finished, (I am sorry to say, the public house was the second,) and the old soldiers, from the day they landed, had public service there without intermission. That place has now become a parish, with a regular parsonage house; and the people have sent me notice that they are willing to contribute £70 or £80 a year for the maintenance of their own Clergyman. There have been several other instances of the same kind, where the church was prepared in their own building-yard, and afterwards put up on its intended site; so that persons going out of town in the morning, saw with great surprise, on their return in the evening, a church, where in the morning there was nothing at all. There are eight of these little chapels within a few miles of Auckland, which, assuming that 4000 of the people belong to the Church of England, is one chapel for every 500 persons;

and all this is the operation of an industrial body, working by the spare time of its own scholars, which would otherwise have been spent in idleness, and perhaps in vice. "The more ordinary occupations of the students of St. John's, are thus described by a British officer, who visited it in 1846: – 'The education of this College includes agricultural and other useful employments: being intended to be a home for young settlers, where they can learn employment, which will hereafter be of use to them in the Colony. And on this principle every person in the establishment, European and native, is expected to work in the College grounds at whatever may be required. There are about sixty students, thirty boys, fifteen native men, and twenty native boys, so employed; and the gardens have been made by them, and, I believe, twenty acres of land ploughed and sown entirely by themselves. The students teach the boys, and the Bishop and the students teach the natives; the ruling principle being, that for his education every man shall work, and all work shall be for the general benefit. The object is to accustom the natives and the Europeans to work together, thereby civilizing the natives, and teaching the Europeans practical agriculture, and so to make the College support itself.'

A visitor at St. John's, in 1852, describes a striking scene witnessed by him in the College Chapel, when at the 'Unity Service,' on Sunday evening, were 'gathered together representatives of eight island dialects, two native Australians, a large body of New Zealanders, and a body of Europeans, eleven different 'nations, peoples, and tongues.' This Service, which consists of a short selection of Psalms and Collects bearing upon unity, with the versicles and preface in the Communion Service, the Prayer for Unity, a prayer for the College, and one for the

Bishop when absent, was drawn up by him for use on Sunday evenings, when those members of the College who have been ordained, and placed in charge of the pensioner villages and native settlements in the neighbourhood of the College, reassemble and unite in this short service, which is chiefly choral, and forms a cheerful conclusion to the labours of the day.'

In 1849, the Bishop received a delightful proof of the effect which the system of St. John's had had on the more thoughtful natives: – 'I have now,' he says, in a letter to the S. P. G., 'a very important matter on which to address you. My former pupils, Thompson and Martin, sons of the noted Te Rauparaha, and other young men of the native race at Otaki, are desirous of founding a College at Porirua, and have given, for that purpose, about 600 acres of land in a most advantageous position, on Porirua harbour, mid-way between their own villages and Wellington. Their form of grant is pleasing and striking and entirely dictated by themselves: – O friend, O Governor, we give up this our land to the Queen, for a permanent abode for the Bishop of the Church of England, and his successors, for a College of native and English children, that they may be united together as one nation, in the new principle of faith in Christ, and of obedience to the Queen. (Signed) Te Rauparaha, &c.' This Institution, (which will be called Trinity College,) is not yet in operation, not being required in the present condition of the district. 'There is no demand yet,' (our information is due to the ready kindness of the Bishop,) 'for a higher kind of Collegiate education among the English settlers, and the native schools of the district are kept up by Archdeacon Hadfield.'

The College at Porirua, if the hopes of its founders should be fulfilled, will be the germ of a future Univer-

sity. Industrial schools, of a less ambitious character, are being founded throughout the country, all similarly endowed by native generosity. In the autumn of 1853, the Bishop and the Governor made an overland journey from Wellington to Auckland, 'marking out as they went along, new sites for such schools, and procuring grants of the land from the native owners. In the course of two months, more than six thousand acres of beautiful land was freely given to the Church, in trust for the education of the rising generation of both races, 'in the love and faith of Jesus Christ, and in obedience to the Queen.'

The Bishop's plan for supplying masters to his schools is obviously attended with so many advantages, especially where there is but a slender provision for the support of the Clergy, that we think it might furnish a useful model to many other colonies. 'The design is to place the whole education of the young in every place under the charge of a deacon, with proper assistants under him for the mechanical routine of the schools. The religious instruction to be entirely in his hands. The subordinate department to be filled by candidates for deacon's orders, so that there may be, if possible, no distinct order of schoolmasters; and no one will have to look forward to continuing beyond a certain time, in the more irksome duties of the school.' The Bishop hoped, by this means, to guard, among other evils, against that 'want of feeling and irreverence which are complained of in English national schools, and which seem to arise from the manner in which religious instruction is confounded with the most ordinary branches of school education.' 'The points,' he observes, 'requiring to be attended to, seem to be feeling in the teacher, reverence in the tone in which the instruction is given, and separation of that

from all the other studies of the school; – which can scarcely he accomplished in any other way, than by making the Clergyman, not the mere occasional visitor and examiner, but the actual teacher of religion. 'The plan is faultless, and it has already done much good, but it has failed partially from a cause, in reference to which, however deeply we may regret it, those who live in comparative ease in England, are not entitled to use the language of reproach. Our latest information on the subject is from a letter of Archdeacon Abraham, written about the middle of last year: – 'You asked about the deacon-schoolmaster system adopted here. As long as we can get the persons to work the system heartily, it answers admirably. The people like it, and it is the only mode of procuring a livelihood for the Clergyman, unless (as is too much the case) he abandons the work for private tuition of a higher kind. It has never been fairly tried here; as in every case the work has been thrown up for the more lucrative and less irksome work of higher education. But the error is a great one, as steadfast adherence to the parish-school would have trained up a body of parishioners, who, in a few years, would be staunch friends of the Church and Clergyman. Yet the difficulty of getting men cannot be denied, or unfelt. In England, I never understood what now so fearfully presses upon us all, the need of that command: – 'Pray ye the lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest,' – and of obedience to it.' The Neffs and Oberlins are yet to come.

In the year 1851, a most hopeful movement in the cause of education commenced among the settlers in New Zealand, which shows at once a growing sense of their responsibilities as Christians, and a desire to bear for the future their own burden in the discharge of them. 'At

a meeting of members of the Church of England, called by the Archdeaconry Board (Kapiti) at Wellington for a specific purpose, the subject of education was introduced: and after it had been explained to the meeting by the Chairman, the Ven. Archdeacon Hadfield, that the schools, up to that time, established in the district, and connected with our Church, had been entirely supported from the funds supplied out of moneys placed at the disposal of the Bishop, by societies and persons out of the Colony; it was resolved, that a meeting should be called, for the express purpose of endeavouring to raise funds for establishing, in Wellington, schools in connexion with our Church.' This led to the formation of a Society, called The Church of England Education Society. The leading rules of which are briefly these: – 'That the Committee shall consist of members of the Church only. That no Master shall be appointed to the charge of a school, who is not approved by one of the Clergymen on the Committee. That in addition to a general education, a course of religious instruction, in accordance with the doctrines of the Church of England, shall be given in the schools, for which the Clergy on the Committee shall provide.' On the 7th of January, 1852, the first school-house, erected by the Society, was opened at Thorndon, near Wellington, in the presence of the Governor, Sir George Grey, the Bishop and other leading men in the Colony, who took a deep interest in the proceedings. Our latest intelligence from New Zealand speaks of another school recently established by the same Society, 'at Te Aro, at the other end of Wellington.'

In 1845 and the two following years, the work of the Church in New Zealand was interrupted by a war between the English and a strong party of the natives. An impression had for some time prevailed throughout

the country, that the treaty of Waitangi, which had acknowledged a title in the natives to the possession and disposal of the soil, would not be respected by the British Government longer than suited its supposed interest. This notion unfortunately derived much support from the mischievous propositions of shallow statesmen at home, and was fostered by unprincipled European traders, pedlars and others, who coveted a monopoly of the native trade. 'Often was the question asked of the Clergy, What is the Queen going to do? Does she wish to take away our lands?' – and as often did they 'avouch the good faith of England, and recite the authoritative declaration of successive secretaries of state, affirming again and again the validity of the treaty of Waitangi.'

A complete history of the unhappy struggle which ensued would not be in place here; but a few particulars will be useful, to give the reader a further insight into the peculiarities of the native character, and the manner in which the Gospel leaven is working its renewal.

Hostilities were commenced in August, 1844, by a party of natives, who, incited by John Heke, a clever but cowardly demagogue, cut down a flag-staff at Kororareka; – the erection of which had been represented as a sign of the assumption of New Zealand by the British Government. A few guns were demanded of the natives, and readily given by them, as an atonement for the insult; but before long the flag-staff was again cut down by Heke and his followers. When replaced the second time, it was protected by two block houses, which were garrisoned by 20 soldiers and a body of the town militia. As an attack upon the town was also apprehended, a large house on the beach was stockaded as a place of refuge for the women and children. These precautions were justified by the event, though unfortunately their in-

adequacy became at the same time only too evident. On the 1st or 2nd of March, 1845, the house of a settler near the Kawakawa was attacked by a plundering party. On the 11th, the storm burst on Kororareka. The flagstaff was taken by surprise, the sentinels killed, and the block-house nearest to it seized, and thus the original object of the attack was gained with hardly any opposition. At another point, however, five sailors of H. M. sloop Hazard had been killed by an overwhelming body of natives, and their commander, Captain Robertson, severely wounded. After a short interval, during which there seemed a disposition to treat, the firing recommenced, and several fell on both sides. As the enemy now surrounded the points still held by the English, and a simultaneous attack on them was apprehended, 'it became necessary to remove the women and children from the fortified house; – which was accomplished by the boats belonging to the vessels in the harbour, which conveyed them together with the wounded, on board the ships, the natives offering no opposition. One woman alone remained, at her own desire, to attend to those who might be wounded. About two hours afterwards the powder magazine exploded, shattering the house to pieces, and causing a fire, by which the whole was totally consumed. 'Two men were killed, and the brave woman before mentioned fell under the ruins, and was removed to the Hazard with a dangerous fracture. One lad of fourteen to whom the Bishop offered an asylum with his mother and sister, on board his schooner, the Flying Fish, answered him, – 'Thank you, Sir; but I should like to stay with my father.' The Bishop adds, 'I could only say, God bless you, my boy, I can say nothing against it; and away he went to rejoin his father in the hottest part of the fire.' Happily he escaped unhurt,

and became subsequently a student at St. John's. The firing having ceased, the Bishop went on shore to recover and bury the bodies of the dead, fearing lest the barbarous custom now almost extinct, should have been revived by that portion of the native force which was still in an unconverted and barbarous state.' The natives were busy plundering the town, but their behaviour to the Bishop and his attendants was 'perfectly civil and inoffensive. Several immediately guided them to the spots where the bodies were lying, with their clothes and accoutrements untouched, no indignity of any kind having been attempted. The natives carried on their work of plunder with perfect composure; neither quarrelling among themselves, nor resenting any attempt on the part of the English to recover portions of their property. Several of the people of the town landed in the midst of them, and were allowed to carry off such things as were not particularly desired by the spoilers.' In one instance a party who were wheeling off a cask of spirits, allowed the Bishop to turn the cock and let the liquor run out upon the ground. One man similarly employed, assured him that he would drink very little. All listened patiently to his remonstrances. The post office was being plundered, but when he asked the natives in possession to spare the written papers, one immediately said, 'I will save them.' Two days after, the Bishop again visited Kororareka. 'In the bosom of dark hills the smoke of the town 'went up like the smoke of a furnace.' All that had been devoted to mammon was gone, but heathen vengeance had spared the patrimony of God: the two chapels and the houses of the Clergy remained undestroyed.' At the Waimate, meanwhile, a large body of Christian natives had collected, who expressed their determination to defend the Missionaries and their families

to the last, and begged the Bishop earnestly not to think of removing them.' They too had resolved to stay, 'in the assurance that the same power which had guarded the Mission through thirty years of trial and anxiety, would defend it to the end.' To aid their suffering friends was the first thought of those who were thus favoured, and in the course of the following week, a good stock of clothing was collected and distributed to all who were in need. 'As some of the Christian natives remarked, though the heavens were black around us, this was the bright spot of blue sky, which gave hopes that the storm would soon pass away.'

The omen was deceitful. A desultory and occasional warfare which cost many valuable lives, was kept up till the middle of 1847, and would in all probability have continued much longer, if the authorities at home had persisted in the erroneous policy which had provoked it. Only a short time before the disturbances ceased, a despatch from the Colonial Secretary on the disposal of public lands asserted doctrines so much at variance with the treaty of Waitangi, that it became the duty of the Bishop to make a protest against it. 'The Clergy had been the chosen instruments of the Government,' – such was the explanation of a great statesman in the House of Commons, – 'for contracting the treaty of Waitangi and establishing the government of the Queen. That treaty was made known to the natives through the medium of the Clergy, to whom its construction was in a great measure committed; and it therefore became the duty of the Clergy, and of the Bishop as their head, to see that public faith, as conveyed through them, was carefully guarded and kept strictly inviolate.' Happily the eyes of England were soon opened to the true nature of the question, the rights of the natives have been

acknowledged and respected, and the result has been a cordial and firm peace, which, as far as men can judge, is not likely to be again broken.

We return to the missionary work of the Diocese. When the Bishop of New Zealand was appointed to his holy office, 'the venerable Primate, at whose hands he received his Episcopal consecration, charged him, in the names of the Archbishops and Bishops of the mother Church, not to confine his efforts to New Zealand, but to watch over the progress of the Gospel, throughout the coasts and islands of the Pacific.' From this injunction of the Archbishop of Canterbury arose the Melanesian Mission. The Bishop's method was to visit the islands from time to time, and after acquiring the confidence of the natives by friendly intercourse, to invite them to send their most promising youths with him for instruction in religion, and industrial training during the eight warmer months of the year; in the winter they returned to their friends, and by the information which they were able to give them, and the improvement which they exhibited, laid the foundation of much future good. On several of the islands he found native teachers, chiefly Samoans from the Navigators' group, the fruit of the remarkable labours of John Williams, and his successors, at Samoa and Rarotonga. 'So great has been the zeal of these native missionaries, and their willingness to lay down their lives for Christ's sake, – frequently at long distances from their own homes, that,' according to Archdeacon Abraham, 'the Bishop knew of forty within eight years who had either been murdered, or fallen victims to the fever of those Islands; – every fresh boy that came to St. John's having a story to tell of murdered Samoans, who came to preach to them, of 'Jesus up above, and Satan down below.'

In the course of a voyage undertaken in 1852, the Bishop visited or sighted no less than 53 islands. 'In twenty six of them, he was able to hold some kind of intercourse more or less with the people, while from eleven he received scholars. The youths also who were intrusted to him in his former voyages, were in many eases of very great promise, and though several died from the effect of the climate, the survivors and their friends were so much gratified by the benefits derived from their residence at St. John's, that the privilege was eagerly sought by many others. A few particulars respecting some of the Bishop's Melanesian scholars will prove interesting.

George Siapo, a young chief of Mare, or Nengone, had already been two summers at St. John's, and had lately been baptized by the Bishop in his own island on his second return thither. During the Bishop's subsequent absence among the other islands, a serious illness had much shattered his constitution; but he nevertheless resolved to go back with him once more. 'He put before his friends the possibility of his dying in New Zealand; but still expressed his desire to go there and learn more of the Christian religion.' At the same time he requested that his affianced bride, Wabisane, might be permitted to enjoy the same advantages as himself, – a request, 'which would seem to show a decided advance in his own Christian character, as no longer treating women with the contempt that uncivilized people usually do, and wishing to make his wife a slave; but as anxious to find in her a Christian helpmate, and an educated companion.' His wishes were complied with; but, as he had feared, his illness soon returned, and proved mortal. It was not long ere he became too weak to walk or to sit up. Still he continued to take great interest in all the lessons that were going on in his room, and he used to

rouse himself to explain the meaning of Nengone words to his teacher, or the Christian truths to the youths of his island. About Christmas, the Bishop went to see him once or twice before he started on his Diocesan Visitation, and finding that he was duly qualified and instructed to receive the Holy Communion, he administered it to him, and in giving him his parting blessing, he felt that he should see his face no more on earth. Except on such occasions, Siapo was indisposed to speak of himself, or his inner feelings; and it was not till the 14th of January, when he thought he was dying, that he broke through all his natural and reverent reserve of character, and spoke plainly of his trust in Christ who had redeemed him, and his love of his heavenly Father who had first loved him. He repeated his expressions of faith once or twice with great earnestness, and begged his friend and teacher to return to Nengone, and teach his people whom he loved so dearly. It was a touching and truly Christian sight, to witness the struggles of his two strong feelings; the one, his nationality and special love for his own people, and the other, his love of the Bishop and others who had brought him to the knowledge of Christ. Almost his last words were, 'Go to Guamha,' (his home in Mare), 'Dear Mr. Nihill. Let Wapai, my brother come to New Zealand and learn. Dear Mr. Nihill, you have been to Guamha. But there is only one God and one home above in heaven.' And so he fell asleep, as we trust, in Jesus. The removal of his influence was soon felt by us at College in various ways, by which we perceived how truly noble and gentlemanlike, as well as Christian, he was in his feelings and principles, and how he had controlled all around him for good. The two little girls, Wabisane and Wasatrutru, who came from the same island, conducted themselves

with great propriety during their stay at the College. The former, George Siapo's affianced bride, showed many traits of a naturally refined and ladylike mind. The other was much cleverer and quicker, and learnt a great deal of the English language and habits. Both made such progress in Scripture knowledge, and gave such evident proofs of an earnest and religious character, that they were baptized, and received the names of Caroline and Sarah. 'It so happened that the three boys, who, up to November 1852, had been admitted to baptism 'entirely on grounds of fitness and due qualification,' (others having been baptized in sickness) 'were also chiefs, or belonged to the chief's family, and will therefore probably be influential in their own spheres. When it was determined to propose baptism to these three boys and two girls, they were each asked whether they wished it, and whether they understood what it was, and what it pledged them to. They all took time to consider before acceding to it, and seemed really to understand what they were pledging themselves to. In the case of the young Lifu chief, the profession of Christianity involves a considerable sacrifice of the licence of a heathen chief. They all seemed to have well counted the cost; and those who witnessed that evening service on the 7th of June, when the Bishop baptized them, will not easily forget their reverent manner and earnest countenances, as they stood by the font and were sealed with the 'sign of the cross, in token that hereafter they should not be ashamed to confess the faith of Christ crucified.'

As might be supposed, an enterprise, which had proved so fatal to the native Missionaries of Samoa, has not been without its dangers to the Bishop and his companions. On his first visit to Fate, or Sandwich Isle, one of the New Hebrides, a plot was formed (as he learnt afterwards) to

cut him off and seize his schooner; but it pleased God that he should be unable to land through the violence of the winds, and thus by the manifest interposition of Providence, his life was preserved. A much greater danger befel him at Malicolo, in the same group, the last island which he visited in the missionary voyage of 1851. He had set out in the boats in order to procure water, leaving the Bishop of Newcastle, (who accompanied him throughout this voyage,) 'together with the mate,' a sailor and two or three native boys, in charge of the ship. Several canoes then surrounded the vessel, full of savage looking men, apparently desirous of getting on board. They were armed with clubs and spears, and it was with great difficulty that they were overawed. After two hours the savages appeared to consult together and departed. 'During this time,' says the Bishop of Newcastle, to whom we owe these particulars, 'I was constantly employed; and though I perfectly knew our danger, I felt no fear. But now began the most anxious moment of my whole life; for the savages made for the boats which were lying off the shore, the Bishop of New Zealand having gone to a pool a quarter of a mile up a rocky wooded bank, for water. They evidently intended to cut them off and prevent the Bishop's return. While I was called upon to act and protect the ship, I was calm, and though conscious of the danger of our position, I felt no alarm; now I was full of fear. With my telescope I could see one man in each of the boats, and about a hundred natives on shore. The danger therefore was, lest the canoes should reach the boats and kill the men before the Bishop of New Zealand's return, and thus deprive him of all power of joining the ship, and destroy him at their leisure. The canoes neared the boats, I asked the mate, 'Can we render any assistance?' 'None,' was the

reply. 'If any thing should happen on shore, have we any means of defence?' 'None.' This information did not disconcert me. I felt it a duty to inquire, and if any thing could have been done, should at once have set about it. But the thought that something fatal might happen on shore, brought with it a sickening disregard as to what might happen to myself. I paced the deck, and rendered the only aid I could, that of fervent prayer, asking, in our Saviour's name, that He would guard, and protect, and restore to us in safety, my dear friend and his companions.' The Bishop of New Zealand seeing the hostile intentions of the natives, lost no time in getting into the boats, and rowing off as quickly as possible; and although arrows were shot at them, they happily regained the ship without any injury.'

It has been the great disgrace and crime of England, as a colonizing nation, that her emigrants have been permitted, – or rather encouraged, – to go forth without any provision, except in a few early instances, for the spiritual and moral wants either of themselves or of their children. In their new home they have been deprived of all those sanctifying influences, emanating directly from the Church, or from a social system originally built upon her sanctions, by which the best among ourselves are formed and moulded, and the worst are, at least unconsciously, restrained. The result has been that in the course of a very few generations the descendants of our colonists have, for the most part, fallen into an open contempt of religion and morality, or into errors, which nothing but the grossest ignorance, or some strange perversion of mind, could lead them to mistake for the 'faith once delivered to the saints.' In the early part of 1848, it was determined by some excellent sons of the Church, that an effort should he made to redeem the national

character in some degree from this reproach, by the foundation of a colony, which should from the first be in possession of all those institutions to which the moral, and therefore the political, greatness of England is mainly owing. This noble enterprise, which received the sanction of the Primate, the Bishops of London, Norwich, Oxford, and many other distinguished men, gave rise to the Canterbury Settlement, established on the eastern coast of the middle island of New Zealand. Its projectors, in the first document which they put forth (under the name of the Canterbury Association) after declaring their belief, that 'adequate provision for man's moral and religious wants in the new country contains the primary elements of successful colonization, not only on account of the importance of such provision per se, but also because thereby alone can a really valuable class of men be induced to join,' proceed thus to a general sketch of their design: – 'We intend to form a settlement, to be composed entirely of members of our Church, accompanied by an adequate supply of Clergy, with all the appliances requisite for carrying out her discipline and ordinances, and with full provision for extending them in proportion to the increase of population. As by preserving unity of religious creed, the difficulties which surround the question of education are avoided, we shall be enabled to provide amply and satisfactorily for that object. The Committee of Management will have the power of refusing to allow any person of whom they may disapprove, to become an original purchaser of land, and as that power will be carefully exercised, it is hoped that ineligible colonists may be almost entirely excluded, and that the new community will have at least a fair start in a healthy moral atmosphere. The purchasers of land will have the selection of labourers, to

be recommended for a free passage; such labourers to be also exclusively bona fide members of the English Church. Our settlement will be provided with a good college, good schools, churches, a Bishop, Clergy, all those moral necessaries, in short, which promiscuous emigration of all sects, though of one class, makes it utterly impossible to provide adequately. It is hoped that nothing may be left undone which is required to fill the void (so far as it can be filled) which the loss of home presents to the imagination of the colonists, to strengthen, instead of weakening the ties of memory and affection which should connect him with England, – to save him, in short, from losing his old country while he gains a new one.'

To carry out these intentions, arrangements were made with the New Zealand Company for the acquisition of a territory of about 2,400,000 acres, including Banks' Peninsula, and extending beyond it inland, and coastwise on either side. To secure the advantages proposed by the Association, it was found necessary to demand £3 an acre from purchasers of rural land, of which 10s. was to be considered the price of the land, 10s. went to a fund for expenccs of survey, road and bridge-making, &c., £1 was to be employed in promoting the immigration of English labourers and mechanics, and the remaining £1 to be devoted to ecclesiastical and educational endowments. The first settlers, 1512 in number, sailed from England in eight ships from the fourth of September 1850, to the eighth of January in the year following. Each ship carried out a Clergyman and a schoolmaster, intending settlers. These were soon followed by others, and Lyttelton, the capital of Canterbury, had by the close of 1851 already assumed the appearance of a busy and thriving settlement.

The following extract from a sermon preached in West-

minster Abbey, on the 4th of May, 1851, to a body of the colonists then about to set sail, will shew the earnest and religious spirit in which the authors of the enterprise desired that they should go forth, and in which there is reason to hope that many of them did go forth, to found, if it were God's will, a second England in the Pacific: –

'We stand together here in this ancient and noble house of God; where, before heaven and earth, our people's unity has been so often spoken forth at the solemn anointing of our kings, of one stock, of one blood, of one Church. We have been wont to mingle together in the daily business and home-stream of our country's life. Bred in various parts of it, in the country parsonages, in the village halls, in the cheerful country towns, in the busy metropolis of Old England, we have gathered here together as for the parting grasp of loving hands, and the last straining embrace of loving hearts, before our God and in His worship, because His voice has called some of us to go out from our kindred and from our Father's house, unto a land that He will shew them. Surely ye who are going out should go now, as Abraham went of old; surely we who send you forth, should part with you, seeking for you the blessing which rested upon Abraham from Abraham's God. For see how like, in the most substantial points, are your circumstances to his. You go forth because you gather that God calls you to this venture, because it is His Providence, which provides for His purpose of replenishing all the earth by the necessity of these tides of emigration, thus issuing forth from lands where the race of man is strongest, and because, as you interpret the guidance of His Providence, that tide of emigration seems to bear you upon its breast. Here, then, it is with you, as with Abraham. It is at God's call that you go; and then next, you go to maintain and spread

abroad the true worship of the one God. It was for this pre-eminently that Abraham was separated from his father's house, and sent forth to wander in the land of Canaan. It was not as the first object that he might grow rich in multiplying flocks and herds, that he was called from Haran. This was, so to speak, the accident of his call; the first object was to preserve the worship of the one true God. And is not this, too, eminently true of you? For herein, manifestly, a great provision is made by God for evangelizing the earth – that all the tides of emigration flow now, even of necessity, from lands where His truth is already fixed, and therefore, that new settlements become of themselves outposts of the faith. For that growth in the numbers of a people, which leads to the necessity of emigration, is one consequence of the increased value and care for human life which Christianity produces, just as the spirit to go forth on such an enterprise is itself a moral fruit of that ennobling faith. And so the increase of Christian lands, ought to lead to the evangelizing of the earth. This colony, which you are joining, is in its most distinguishing features, the embodying of this idea. You go forth from the land, you go from the Church of England. Alas! that so it should be, but so it undoubtedly is, that in almost all our colonizing efforts for generations, this, which is the leading idea of your movement, has been almost absent; and whenever present at all, present well nigh by accident. Hitherto, of late years at least, we have colonized only to relieve the nation at home of those who were a burden to it; and been almost without thought of planting in the new land, any true representation of our own people in their various ranks, in their civil institutions, and, above all, in their religious blessings. But, God be thanked, it is not so with you; you go to reproduce the various

ranks of English society, to transplant her civil blessings. Above all, you go as members of the Church of England, to reproduce the Church of your fathers in the far land in which you settle.'

We grieve to add, that these high hopes have been as yet but partially fulfilled. The emigration of several Clergymen has happily been the means of supplying the Colonists with spiritual instruction, and a due administration of the sacraments, in ampler measure than was vouchsafed to the first settlers in any other of our colonies; nor has their industry been unrewarded by an encouraging share of temporal prosperity; but, owing to the embarrassments of the New Zealand Company, the effects of the discovery of gold in Australia, and other causes, upon which it is unnecessary to dwell here, no permanent or complete provision for their spiritual and moral wants has hitherto been made.

The erection of a Bishopric and the foundation of a college, two main and essential features of the original design, have been deferred. Other parts of it have been but inadequately carried out. We trust, however, that in time every hindrance may be removed, and every defect supplied. Let all who read this contribute, – what all may, – towards a result so much to be desired, by sending up an earnest prayer, that the Association may yet be enabled to secure to the growing community which it has planted, that best inheritance of a true Church and pure faith. Should it fail to redeem its pledge before many years shall have elapsed, religious or civil discord, it is too certain, must arise, to prevent united action and palsy the heart of generous enterprise, and the hope that now cheers the forward-looking exile, as he thinks upon the doubtful future of his children, will disappear for ever.

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