1855 - The Monthly Record of Church Missions in Connection with the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel [New Zealand sections] - THE CHURCH IN NEW ZEALAND.--PART II, p 97-120

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THE

MONTHLY RECORD

OF THE

SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL IN FOREIGN PARTS.

MAY, 1855.

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-

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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

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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.'

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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-

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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.

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'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,

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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:--

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

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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

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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.'

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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,

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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

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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,

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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.