Appendix K. Address of the Right Reverend the Bishop of Auckland to the Synod of the Diocese, on Wednesday, November 2, 1887.
Dear Brethren of the Clergy and Laity,
We meet to-day for the first session of the Twelfth Synod of this diocese; the first Synod having met in December, 1859, in the school-room of S. Paul's parish. Of the members of that Synod, seven are still remaining with us, entitled to sit here to-day, namely, five clergymen and two laymen. The members of the Synod in 1859, including thirteen licensed clergy, numbered forty-three; whereas our number to-day is 123.
We miss from our Assembly to-day not a few brethren who have in past years rendered valuable assistance in our deliberations; but we have the consolation of knowing that, though not now members of the Synod, they are still our fellow-labourers in the general work of the Church. Some of those to whom I refer--residents in Auckland--represented country districts in which no suitable person was able, or willing, to accept the office of Synodsman, on account of the long absence from home duties that attendance here involved; and it is a token of the increasing interest that our people take in the work of this our Diocesan Council, that a larger number of country constituencies than ever before chose their representatives from their own communities, at the recent General Election.
[371] Registration.--In connection with this matter there is, however, in our organisation one serious defect, which the Synod should endeavour to rectify. I refer to the comparatively small number of our people who register their names in the Churchwardens' books, to qualify themselves to vote at diocesan and other elections.
Mr. Stephen Edward Hughes.--Of those who were members of our last Synod, and took an active part in its work, there was one whose absence cannot but be noticed to-day, namely, Mr. Stephen Edward Hughes. During many years no office-bearer in the diocese gave more time and thought to matters of importance to the well-being of the Church than did Mr. Hughes, as a Vestryman, a Synodsman, and a member of the Standing Committee. Of the ready assistance that I always received from him personally, and the kind consideration with which he at all times treated me, I shall ever retain a grateful remembrance. There are other losses that I have to record to-day--the most serious that a large section of our people have ever sustained in the course of a single year, namely, the death of three of our Maori clergy--the Revs. Renata Tangata, Rupene Paerata, and Hare Peka te Taua, all clergymen of the Northern Archdeaconry. They were all entitled to seats in the Diocesan Synod; but as their knowledge of the English language was very limited, they did not attend our meetings, especially as the affairs of our Maori fellow-Churchmen are regularly cared for at the annual sessions of the Native Church Boards of the diocese.
The Reverend Renata Winemu Tangata was one of our senior clergy, having been admitted to Deacon's Orders by Bishop Selwyn in 1867. He was educated at Waimate and Kaitaia, where his teachers were respectively the Rev. K. Burrows and the Rev. J. Matthews, of the Church Missionary Society. In his preparation fortHoly Orders he received much help from the late Archdeacon Kissling and Sir William Martin, by whom he was held in much esteem. His charge was the Oruru [371/372] district; but from time to time he ministered to his fellow-countrymen in other parts of the diocese, especially in the southern districts of the Waikato, where his missionary visits were greatly appreciated, and were, I believe, productive of much good among the misguided people of those parts. He was a humble-minded man, "one of Nature's gentleman," refined by genuine Christianity, an earnest preacher, and a self-denying servant of his Master. It will be long before his place can be supplied by a man of equal experience, devotion, and efficiency. The Reverend Rupene Paerata was also a pupil of the Rev. J. Matthews at Kaitaia, the Rev. R. Burrows, and Sir William Martin. He was ordained by me in 1873, and was minister of Parengarenga and afterwards of Paihia. He was as courageous in the denunciation of evil as was his warrior father in contending with his enemies. He was highly respected and much beloved by the congregations to whom he ministered; and the remembrance of his consistent Christian life will continue to influence them for good.
The Reverend Hare Peka te Taua also was a pupil of the Rev. Joseph Matthews, and for a short time of the present Bishop of Waiapu. He was ordained by me in 1875, and was appointed to the charge of his fellow-countrymen living in the neighbourhood of Waimate, where he remained, doing his work faithfully and efficiently until his unexpected death in September last. He was well known to the settlers of the Bay of Islands, and was held in great esteem by them as well as by his own people--with whom his influence was deservedly great.
Ihaka te Tai Hakuere.--The same sad occurrence that deprived us of the services of the two first of the Maori clergymen of whom I have spoken, caused also the death of another exemplary man of the Native race, namely, Ihaka te Tai Hakuere, a worthy chief of a clan of the famous Ngapuhi tribe of the North. He was a member of the House of Representatives of the colony; and by his simplicity of character, his honesty, his independence and sound good sense, had won the [372/373] respect of his fellow-legislators. He was for many years an efficient lay reader to his own people, and was one of the most useful lay representatives of the Native Church Boards, of which he was a member. May it be long before the President of this Synod has to record the loss of so many men of highest worth, men proved and not found wanting, in their respective stations in the Church!
State of the Diocese.--I shall now proceed to lay before you the general state of the diocese; in order that you may be the better able to supply that which is lacking in our organisation, and to amend that which is defective.
Ordinations.--Since the last session of the Synod I have admitted to Deacon's Orders--Mr. M. Kirkbride, who had been for many years one of our most efficient lay readers; Mr. N. D. Boyes and Mr. C. A. Tobin, of S. John's College; and Hone Papahia, a Maori chief of the Hokianga district, who had been for three years at the Church Missionary College at Gisborne.
Clergy from other Dioceses.--The Rev. T. H. Sprott, M.A., has come to us from the diocese of London, bringing the valuable experience gained in a populous City parish; and the Rev. G. Aitkens from that of Manitoba, where he learned to endure hardness amid the frost and snow of those regions.
Home Mission.--During the past year, seventeen clergymen resident in country districts have received small grants--varying from £40 to £20--from the Home Mission Fund. The Standing Committee, by whom the Fund is administered, have been obliged to reduce the grants made in former years, and in some cases to discontinue them altogether, in consequence of the smallness of the sum received by them from the diocese. This lack of means is, doubtless, the result partly of the general commercial depression from which the colony has suffered during the last two years; but it is to be attributed also to the ignorance in which many of our people live of the importance of the work of this Mission, and to the indifference of others to [373/374] the spiritual state of large districts in which they have no personal interest. Some of the clergy working in connection with the Mission have much more travelling and preaching to accomplish than is for their good; but if they were to give up any part of the district, or to curtail their ministrations, many of our people would be left without Church teaching, and the clergy themselves would find it still more difficult than they do at present to obtain the necessaries of life. Besides the small supplementary grants made from the Fund to the clergy of whom I have spoken, the stipend of our Organising Clergyman is derived therefrom; and by him nearly all the districts of the diocese, at present without resident clergy, are from time to time visited. I consider the establishment of the office of Organising Clergyman the most important step in advance that the Synod has taken for many years; and the duties of the office are as zealously and efficiently discharged by the Rev. John Haselden, as those most interested in the work of the Home Mission could desire. The result is that there were never before so few of our people, in districts thinly inhabited and difficult of access, altogether unvisited by a clergyman as there are at present. Still, it is not right that we should have no clergyman resident in the country extending from Hamilton to Bombay--distant from one another about fifty-six miles, and none between Paparoa and Devonport--distant from one another about seventy miles. I had hoped that the Home Mission Society, which was instituted four years ago, for the purpose of making the claims of the Mission better known throughout the diocese, and of augmenting its funds, would have effected its object more thoroughly than it has; but by this, as by other Church organisations, however good in themselves, comparatively little improvement will be accomplished, so long as the many who should interest themselves in its success leave the work to be carried out by a few, or even by one or two, as is sometimes the case.
Lay Readers.--The improvement that has taken place in [374/375] recent years in the observance of public worship, throughout the country districts, has been the result greatly of the increase in the number and in the efficiency of our lay readers; of whom there are at present fifty-four holding a formal licence, and forty-seven others, to whom I shall be happy to issue a licence as soon as it is applied for in the usual manner.
During the past year, licences have been issued by me--to Colonel Forbes of Hamilton, Mr. A. W. F. Halcombe of Urenui, Captain Hearne of Pokeno, Mr. C. H. Lupton of Woodside, Mr. C. Nettleship of Pukete, Mr. L. A. Robin of Parnell, Mr. J. W. Salmon of Auckland, Mr. S. T. Seddon of Hamilton, Mr. G. Small of Port Albert, Mr. W. Sorby of Te Awamutu, Mr. A. Swarbrick of Hamilton, and Mr. Ivon Wansbrough of Parnell.
The Lay Readers' Association, which was formed in 1886, will, I hope, prove very helpful to its members generally; by bringing them into communication with one another, for mutual sympathy and counsel, and by establishing a library of suitable volumes of sermons and other theological works for their use.
I have much pleasure in informing the Synod that two of our lay readers, namely, Messrs. Small and Wansbrough, have recently passed Grade I. of the Theological Examination.
Sunday Schools.--Many of our lay readers are rendering very valuable service to the Church by superintending Sunday schools, or teaching therein. There is no department of our work about which I am more concerned at the present time than about these schools; which are much fewer in number than they ought to be, and in many cases are very inadequately supplied with teachers. If the Examination for the Bishop's Prizes is any test of the Scriptural knowledge possessed by our children generally, the extent of that knowledge is very unsatisfactory in some of our parishes and districts. At the last annual Examination, as on former occasions, the children of All Saints' School, Ponsonby, greatly distinguished themselves; and those of S. Matthew's and S. Sepulchre's parishes were next [375/376] in order of merit. With the valuable help that is now given by the Sunday School Board, I see no reason why great improvement should not be effected in the management and the teaching of our Sunday schools.
Rev. P. S. Smallfield.--I will take this opportunity of informing the Synod that much of this help is the result of the experience and the labour of the Rev. P. S. Smallfield; to whom we are specially indebted for a valuable scheme of teaching by standard courses, which I hope the clergy will be able to adopt in the larger schools of the diocese.
Mr. Smallfield has also done good work during the past year as Diocesan Inspector of Sunday Schools, though the stipend recommended by the Synod in 1885 for that office has not been forthcoming.
Religious Instruction.--We must not, however, allow our interest in the Sunday schools of the diocese to divert our attention from the fact that, without the regular teaching of Holy Scripture in the day schools of the colony, a large proportion of the rising generation of New Zealanders cannot but be ignorant of the truths of the Gospel. Thousands of children in this country receive little or no Christian teaching in their own homes, or in Sunday schools. Where, then, are they to be taught the truths of the Gospel, if not in the day schools? Instead of giving a direct answer to this question, some of our leading politicians would put us off with the assertion that it is not the function of the Civil Government to teach religion. In the same way it might be said that it is not the function of the Government to teach the science of medicine. It is, however, the duty of Government not only to put no hindrance in the way of the teaching of medicine, but to facilitate it; and, in the opinion of the great majority of the people of the colony, the same holds true with respect to the teaching of Christian morality and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, so long as the present regulations exist respecting the hours of teaching in our Board schools, religious instruction cannot be [376/377] efficiently given therein, before or after the ordinary school hours. How long, I would ask, are the great majority of the population tamely to submit to the tyranny of a small minority in this matter? We recognise the right of others to act on their convictions, as to the unimportance of religious teaching: are the majority not to be allowed to act on their convictions also, as to the paramount importance of the same?
More than 2300 years ago, Socrates, the wise man of Greece, addressing a fellow-citizen, said, "Seeing you are an Athenian, of a city the most powerful and most renowned for wisdom and strength, are you not ashamed of being careful for riches, how you may acquire them in greatest abundance, and for glory and honour, but care not to take thought ... for your soul, how it may be made most perfect? . . . Take no thought for the body, or for riches, prior to or so much as for the soul, how it may be made most perfect. . . . Virtue does not spring from riches, but riches and all other human blessings, both private and public, from virtue." [Plat. Apol.] We Christian people profess to care for the souls of ourselves and our children at least as much as Socrates taught the Athenians to care for theirs; but how inconsistent is the action of many of us, in public and in private, with this profession! We too commonly urge our children, directly and indirectly, to "hasten to be rich," whilst we leave to chance--so to speak--the nourishment of their souls.
If at the present time we apply the test of results to the "secular" or intellectual teaching, pure and simple, of our educational system, I would ask whether the result is altogether satisfactory. After fifteen years of our present system, is it [377/378] obvious that the moral tone of our young men and women is more elevated than of yore; that our sons and daughters are more respectful and helpful to their parents; that they are more careful to live within their means, and are more conscientious in the fulfilment of their engagements? I would ask whether the number of young persons brought before the magistrate is decidedly less; whether one is less frequently shocked by the aspect of our streets at night, than when our children were taught in the day school to say, "The darkness is no darkness with Thee, but the night is as clear as the day: the darkness and light to Thee are both alike." [Ps. cxxix. II.] Nay, can we now, as the result of our "purely secular" teaching, walk through the city at midday without being put to shame by the open flaunting of vicious children, and caused to shudder at the thought of its contaminating effect on many who witness it? And even in the case of other large sections of young men and women, is there no cause for anxiety, when the religious life is altogether unknown to them? "The moral sense," says one of the most powerful thinkers of the present day, "no longer uplifted by any divine perfection, gradually sinks and lets the nobler inspirations die; and a society has reason for dismay where there is an ever-widening chasm between the two summit levels of thought and character."
And we cannot excuse our present neglect of religious teaching by saying that we have no practical alternative to our present system of public education. In this, as in other matters of difficulty, where there is a will there is a way. What is possible in London and in Sydney, in the work of education, cannot be altogether impossible in the city and the province of Auckland. The so-called "religious difficulty" is one of theory and not of practice. [The Secretary of the Education Department (in England) is of opinion that "to enforce sccularity in State education in Great Britain is neither practicable nor desirable. Religious instruction is now regularly given in school hours, and the objection to any children attending such instruction is one of theory, not of practice. Few are withheld from such instruction--a percentage certainly not worth recording."--Dr. Laishley's Report, p. 18.]
[379] Though I have spoken in the Synod on the subject of religious instruction, during well-nigh eighteen years, till I am verily weary of speaking, as you are of hearing, about it, I will venture once more to state, as briefly as possible, the amendments that seem to me necessary in our present system of public education.
That the so-called "secular" teaching of our Board Schools should be made as thorough as possible, and should be free and compulsory, all will agree; but
1. Where it is possible, e.g. in our towns and larger settlements, the New South Wales system of religious instruction should be allowed; namely, that teachers authorised by the several religious bodies should have the right to teach the children of those bodies respectively, at fixed times, during school hours, a conscience clause being in every case provided;
2. Where the New South Wales system would be impracticable, e.g. in the majority of country schools, selected passages of Holy Scripture should be read by the teacher, at fixed times, during school hours, a conscience clause being provided; and
3. Schools not connected with the State should receive grants in aid; provided that they satisfy the requirements of the Educational authorities, in the so-called "secular" instruction therein given, and in other respects.
After this wearisome reiteration, I may now say liberavi animam meam.
Church Grammar School.--The fate of our own Grammar School illustrates the evils of Protection in the matter of education. That school has for the present been closed by the Governors, in consequence of its inability, without adequate endowments, to compete with institutions receiving a large [379/380] bounty from the State. It is well that the State should foster, to the utmost of its power, the intellectual development of the people; but monopolies are evil in principle, whether commercial or educational, irrespective of the financial burden imposed on the people by a monopoly such as the present educational system of New Zealand.
Our Church Grammar School has, as I have said, been temporarily closed, for want of sufficient endowment for its maintenance; and the premises have been leased for three years, for the purposes of a school, to the present master, Mr. H. Percival; who, with the assistance of the Rev. P. S. Small-field, is steadily increasing the number of his pupils.
.5. John's College.--Our Provincial College of S, John the Evangelist is not in a very much better predicament than the Grammar School. The endowments at present yield a net income of about £iooo, to maintain scholars as well as to provide for their teaching; so that by them a staff of teachers could not now be maintained. Fortunately the General Synod, in 1883, approved of the temporary removal of the College from Tamaki to the neighbourhood of Auckland, according to the unanimous recommendation of the governors; in order that the students might be able to attend the lectures of the Professors at the Auckland University College. All but one of the Foundation students now at the College have matriculated at the University of New Zealand, or are preparing to do so; and nearly all who are at our College in 1888 will, I expect, be attending lectures at the University College. As soon, however, as the old buildings at Tamaki have been restored, the College will have to be reopened there, in accordance with a resolution of the General Synod, passed in 1886. The Warden will then be expected, I suppose, to teach the students all the sciences; and, as attendance at the lectures of the University College is in their case indispensable for graduating at the University of New Zealand, our students will thenceforward have to content themselves with a lower educational status, and [380/381] must not aspire to a University degree. Up to the present time the governors have only been able to carry out the first of the resolutions passed by the General Synod at its last Session, namely, to appoint a resident Warden; and, to all appearance, the College, like the Grammar School, will have to be closed, before the funds necessary for the restoration of the old buildings can be accumulated. In that case we shall have a melancholy illustration of the saying, propter vitam, vivendi perdere causas: for the sake of the College we shall have to forego the purposes for which the College was founded.
The College buildings at Tamaki are still in the occupation of the Rev. T. F. King, who conducts therein a private school with much success; combining the imparting of sound learning with religious education, strictly in accordance with the principles which it was the object of the Founder of S. John's College to cherish.
Parochial Returns.--I am unable, I am sorry to say, to refer in detail to the work of the majority of our Sunday schools, inasmuch as I have not yet received the Parochial and District Returns for the year ending December 31, 1886. For the same reason I am unable to lay before the Synod other information that should be in its possession at our annual meeting. In 1885, the Synod directed that the Parochial Returns should be sent to the Standing Committee every year, in time to enable the Committee to publish a summary thereof in the Church Gazette before the meeting of the Synod. I would ask the Synod to give definite instructions, during the present session, as to the manner and time of furnishing these returns; without which the President is obviously unable to make a complete statement, as it is desirable that he should, of the condition of the diocese.
I must, on the present occasion, content myself with laying before you other particulars of diocesan work with which I am more immediately concerned, or have had opportunities of making myself acquainted.
[382] The Orphan Home continues to fulfil the purposes for which it was founded; namely, the maintenance, and the religious, intellectual, and industrial training of orphans and destitute children. Notwithstanding the additions that have been made to the buildings in recent years, there is not at present accommodation for all the children whose friends desire to obtain for them admission to the institution. We may fairly expect that every parish and district of the diocese will show its interest in the work of the Home, by contributing annually to its support, and to the extension of its beneficent work. We may well congratulate Mr. Pierce, who has been honorary secretary of the Home for sixteen years, on the result of his never-flagging and wise direction of its affairs; and, if it were permissible, we might envy him the privilege of having visited the fatherless of our Home during so many years--which, according to Holy Scriptures, is of the very essence of "pure religion before God and the Father." With the name of Mr. Pierce, in this important diocesan work, that of Mr. Rawlings, the honorary treasurer of the Home, may rightly be associated. There are at the present time in the Home forty-six boys and twenty-two girls, all in good health.
The Girls' Friendly Society has been carrying on its useful work in the diocese for more than four years. I shall be glad to hear that there are working Associates of the society not only in every parish, but in every settlement and district of the diocese.
The Women's Home has more than fulfilled the most sanguine hopes of those by whom it was founded. Up to the present time ninety-seven young women have received motherly care and teaching under its roof. The report of the good work to the end of September is laid upon the table.
The Sailors' Home, though not the property of the Church, owes its existence to the interest taken in our seafaring population by a few of the clergy and laity of Auckland. I desire to place it on record, that, in taking the part I did in [382/383] establishing this institution, originally the Sailors' Rest, my primary object was to benefit the seamen of our port spiritually, morally, and intellectually, and not only socially. It seems right for me to make this explicit declaration to the Synod, inasmuch as the bequest of £12,150 that came to us from the late Mr. E. Costley, was for "the Sailors' Home being inaugurated or to be inaugurated by Bishop Cowie." Accordingly, the articles of association provide that religious teaching shall never be excluded from the Home; and that no seafaring man shall be denied the benefits of the institution on account of his opinions on the subject of religion, or of his nationality. I have much pleasure in informing the Synod that a commodious and suitable Home, constructed of brick, on a very convenient site, next to the offices of the Harbour Board, will soon be ready for use; and that it will possess an endowment yielding about £500 a year.
Confirmation.--The number of persons who have received Confirmation in the diocese since the last session of the Synod is 647; namely, 513 settlers and their children, and 134 Maories.
New Churches have been built during the year at Awanui, Kaitaia, Kamo, Te Hakaru, Te Pupuke, and in the Epiphany district; and three churches have been enlarged.
The Provincial Hospital and the Old People's Refuge have been regularly visited by the Venerable Archdeacon Dudley, and the Revs. E. J. Phillips and T. H. Sprott, of the parish of the Holy Sepulchre; and public worship has been regularly conducted in them on Sundays by the following laymen of the same parish, namely, Colonel Lyon, Major Lusk, and Messrs. J. Batger, T. Charter, C. S. S. George, E. H. Hammond, A. Heather, and L. R. Robin.
The Provincial Gaol has been regularly visited by the Rev. J. S. Hill j and, during his recent absence from the diocese, the Sunday services have been conducted by Mr. Hemery, of *S. Sepulchre's parish.
[384] The Rev. J. S. Hill.--I gladly avail myself of this opportunity to express my high sense of the value of Mr. Hill's ministrations, not only to the prisoners in the gaol, but to the very many others who have benefited by his zeal, sympathy, and effectual teaching, in Auckland and in other parts of the diocese.
The Lunatic Asylum has been visited once a week by the Rev. J. K. Davis.
Bishop Selwyn Memorial Fund.--I hoped that before now I might be able to appoint a Chaplain, who should devote the whole of his time to ministering to the sick in our Hospital, Refuge, and Asylum; but a maintenance for such a chaplain has not yet been provided. The Sehvyn Memorial Fund, which was intended primarily to maintain a clergyman for this work, at present amounts to only £1350; and it was ordered by the Synod, in 1884, that until the Fund amounted to £1500, the interest should be allowed to accumulate. We have not, however, any right to leave it to the clergy and laity of one Auckland parish, to provide until then for regular ministrations to the sick and infirm in our Hospital and Refuge.
The Pension Fund of the diocese--which is also the Fund of the dioceses of Melanesia and Waiapu--amounts to about £10,000; and the total income for the past year was £1323 8s. 6d. In that year, no clergyman received a pension; and consequently the receipts of the Special branch of the Fund were added to the capital. It is not to be expected that we shall be able to capitalise the whole of the receipts of the Special Fund in future years; and, even if it were, it would still be incumbent on us to consider, without delay, how the Fund is to be increased, so as to meet the claims that may be made upon it at no distant date. This is the only Diocesan Fund to which our clergy can look for help in their declining years, and in times of sickness; and yet its importance appears to be undervalued by many of our people, from the fact that from several parishes and districts no contributions were received for the Fund during the last financial year.
[385] Taranaki.--I was for a short time only in the archdeaconry of Taranaki in the beginning of this year, and administered the rite of Confirmation in two of the churches. Under ordinary circumstances I should not have been there until 1888; at the end of which year I may still be able to hold my ordinary visitation of the archdeaconry.
Tokens of Progress.--As this is the eighteenth session at which it has been my duty to address the Synod on the state of the diocese, and as I am expecting shortly to leave you for a time, you will, I think, be interested in the following statistics, from which some idea may be formed of the progress that our work has made since the year 1870.
It may be well to remind you, first of all, that in the beginning of that year the population of the colony numbered about 237,000, and that in 1886 it was 578,482. The European population of this diocese last year, according to an estimate carefully made by Mr. H. G. Seth Smith, was 130,020, of whom 57,560 were members of the Church, that is, 44.27 per cent.; the proportion for the whole colony, according to the Census Return of last year, having been 40.17. The territorial extent of the diocese, also according to Mr. H. G. Seth Smith's calculation, is about 20,000 square miles; namely, from the North Cape to Stratford (in the Province of Taranaki), and from the west coast to the 176th degree of east longitude, passing between Katikati and Tauranga, and through the eastern part of Lake Taupo. In 1870, there were nineteen licensed clergy ministering to our European population; at the present time there are forty-four. In that year, there were seven other clergymen in the diocese ministering occasionally to European congregations; there are now eleven such other clergymen.
In 1872, there were fourteen licensed lay readers to European congregations: there are now fifty-four, and forty-seven others--not holding a formal licence.
Since 1870, eighty new churches have been built, and nine [385/386] others have been enlarged; not reckoning in either case those of a temporary character.
In 1870, 191 Europeans, of all ages, received Confirmation; during the past year, their number, as already stated, was 513.
I call your attention to these statistics, not for the glorification of ourselves, but that we may, as in duty bound, humbly thank God, and take courage.
The Maories.--I have already informed the Synod of the great loss that the Maories of the Northern Archdeaconry have recently sustained, by the death of three of the Native clergy and of a leading lay member of their Church Board.
It will be long before these vacancies in the staff of our Native ministers can be filled; but those who remain will not be slack in their efforts to prevent the work from retrograding, under the supervision of Archdeacon Clarke. All will be glad to see the Archdeacon in his place among us to-day, after some months' absence for the benefit of his health.
In 1870, there were five Maori clergymen in the diocese. Since that time I have ordained thirteen more, including Hone Papahia, a chief of Hokianga, who was made a Deacon in March last. Of the whole number, five have died, and two have gone to other dioceses.
A Church Board, intended to represent all the Maori districts of the diocese, met at the Thames in the month of March; when eleven Native clergy were present, and twenty-seven lay representatives. Great interest in the meeting was shown by the Maories of the district; and the resolutions agreed to were creditable to the Board; namely, that the whole of the offertory collections on Epiphany Sunday be given to the Melanesian Mission; that marriages ought not to be performed in other buildings when there is a church within a distance of ten miles; that Bible classes should be held for adults as well as for children; and that all the tribes should interest themselves in obtaining suitable candidates for Holy Orders.
[387] I have appointed the Rev. Wiki te Paa to be one of my chaplains.
The number of Maories who have received the rite of Confirmation since the last meeting of the Synod is 134.
During the same time five new churches have been built for Native congregations; and £1200 have been contributed by them for general Church purposes.
There are at present forty-nine boys at S. Stephen's School, Parnell, and three apprentices. The master of the school speaks in high terms of the general behaviour of the boys, and of their progress in their studies.
The Maori population of the diocese, as estimated by Mr. H. G. Seth Smith, is 18,846, out of a total of 41,828 (according to the census of 1886).
Lambeth Conference.--I have already referred to my intention to visit England in 1888, chiefly for the purpose of taking part in the Conference of Bishops of the Anglican Communion, to be held there in the month of June or July. After nearly eighteen years of incessant work in this diocese, from which I have not been absent for one day, except for other work--at our General Synods and at the meetings of the University Senate--it might be well for me in any case to take a short holiday,--well for the diocese and also for myself.
There is no doubt that much good has resulted from these Conferences, the first of which was held, under Archbishop Longley, in 1867. The second was held under Archbishop Tait, in 1878, but I was unable to attend it. On the latter occasion, a hundred Bishops were present, including seventeen from the United States of America.
So long as a really Oecumenical Council--a Council of the Universal Church--cannot be assembled, it will be good that these Conferences should be held; to take counsel for the safe keeping of the Faith "once for all delivered to the saints," and for the fellowship of those who hold it.
The Lambeth Conference will have no legislative power; [387/388] and its decisions will have the force of recommendations only, to the national and other Churches that they may concern. The primitive and Scriptural independence of the Church of New Zealand is illustrated by the fact that our Bishops will attend the Lambeth Conference without having to obtain permission from any State authority, and that no decision of the Conference--whether agreed to or not by our New Zealand Bishops--will be necessarily binding on the Church of New-Zealand.
"The essential unity of the Church of Christ throughout the world is consistent with the separate organisation of local or national Churches." [Lord Chancellor Selborne.]
The Anglican Communion.--The doctrine and the discipline of the Church of New Zealand are identical with the doctrine and the discipline of the Church of England; and, as Lord Selborne says, "if the authorised doctrine and practice of the Church of England at the present day should be compared with that of the Christian Church generally in the days of Augustin, it would require a strong application of the theological microscope to discover any really substantial difference between them. Almost, if not absolutely, everything which the Church of England has since rejected as usurpation or corruption, was then unknown." "The doctrines and practices which the Church of England rejected at the Reformation were mediaeval, not primitive; they were unknown (even if germs of some of them may have existed) when the Anglo-Saxon Church was founded by Augustin, and for ages afterwards; the historical origin of most of them can be and has been traced." "Once grant that the things cut off were not good in themselves, and were not original or essential conditions of the constitution of the Church, and Dean Hook's saying, that a man whose face has become dirty may wash off the dirt and yet remain the same man that he was before, undeniably applies." ["A Defence of the Church of England."]
[389] The origin of the Church founded in England by the preaching of Augustin "manifestly was in the spontaneous missionary efforts of the one Church (then, at all events, justly called Catholic)," says the same learned writer; "which had the Apostles for its teachers, and had come down in unbroken historical succession from their days." It is sometimes asserted, in ignorance of history or for interested purposes, that the Church of England at the time of the Reformation did not preserve unbroken organic unity with the Church of the preceding centuries; but, as Lord Selborne says, "the organic continuity and identity of the Church of England has never been interrupted from the time of Augustin to the present day." "No idea could be more repugnant to the intention and understanding of King Henry VIII. and his Parliaments (as appeared from their repeated declarations and acts) than that of either creating a new Church or 'reconstructing' the old. No evidence of the continuity and identity of the Reformed Church of England with the Church of Augustin and of all the centuries after his time could be clearer or more decisive than that afforded by those statutes, in which some pretend to find proofs to the contrary." "When the separation actually took place in the eleventh year of Elizabeth, the seceders who obeyed the orders of the Pope were (as they have ever since been in England) few and insignificant, in comparison with the great mass of the clergy and lay people who still remained in the English Church."
It may appear to some that, after all, the doctrine and the discipline of the Church are but as the bones and the flesh of the mystical Body; but, even so, it must be confessed that they are essential, if there is to be a Body at all, that is, if there is to be unity among the disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ, and any organisation of their work in the world.
Unity.--That there might be unity among His people, was and is the will of our Master; and it is by the unity of Christians that the Divine Mission of the Church is to be recognised. [389/390] One chief purpose of the Conference of Bishops to be held at Lambeth is the preservation of the unity of the Anglican Communion throughout the world. In the circular letter issued by the late Archbishop Tait, after the Conference of 1878, his Grace spoke of "the essential and evident unity in which the Church of England and the Churches in visible communion with her have always been bound together. United under One Divine Head in the fellowship of the One Catholic and Apostolic Church, holding the One faith revealed in Holy Writ, defined in the Creeds, and maintained by the Primitive Church, receiving the same Canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as containing all things necessary to salvation--these Churches teach the same Word of God, partake of the same divinely ordained Sacraments, through the ministry of the same Apostolic orders, and worship one God and Father through the same Lord Jesus Christ, by the same Holy and Divine Spirit, Who is given to those that believe, to guide them into all truth."
One of the chief means whereby the unity of the Church of Christ has been maintained is the Apostolic order of the ministry; which has been described by the learned Bishop Lightfoot as "the historic backbone of the Church." It was therefore becoming that we should commemorate, as we did, the Centenary of the Episcopate in the Colonies. August 12, of this year, was the one-hundredth anniversary of the ronse cration of the first Bishop for a British colony, namely, the Bishop of Nova Scotia, in the chapel of Lambeth Palace. At the same place seventy-five Bishops of dioceses in British colonies and dependencies have been invited to assemble in the summer of next year; and the fact that such an assemblage is contemplated--though doubtless some of the seventy-five will be absent from the Conference--is itself an occasion of thankfulness, to all whose hearts' desire it is that Christ's people may be One.
Federation of the Empire.--It is not only the unity of [390/391] the Church that will be strengthened by maintaining the continuity of the Apostolic doctrine and discipline, and by the meeting in council of the ever-increasing number of Bishops from the colonies and foreign possessions of the Crown; but, as I believe, the unification of the Empire also may be aided by the same instrumentality.
The union of our National Churches may also, I believe, suggest the nature of the federation that is practicable and desirable among the component parts of the British Empire. It would not be possible now for England, even if it were desired, to treat the colonies as "possessions," from which money or other gain is to be directly obtained. As the claim to supremacy over National Churches, on the part of the Bishop of Rome, has proved fatal to the unity of Christendom, so any policy of autocratic sovereignty, on the part of England, over the other countries of the Empire, would speedily end in dismemberment. The British Parliament was constituted after the model of the early Synods of the Church; and it will probably be found that the only federation of the Empire that is possible is one resembling the primitive union of the Churches,--a combination in which England shall retain the primacy among other nations of the Empire, but not the supremacy. The Archbishop of Canterbury holds the first place in our reverence as the Primate of the most ancient English Ecclesiastical Province; but the Provincial independence of all the sister Churches of the Colonies must be preserved, after the custom of primitive times.
Queen's Jubilee.--It may at first sight seem to some that the federation of the Empire is an unsuitable topic for the address of the President of the Synod; but it is indeed closely connected with the work of the Church of Christ in the world. What greater hindrance can there be to the general progress of that work than the constant expectation of warfare, in which the nations of Europe at the present time are living? What frame of mind is more opposed to "the mind that was in Jesus Christ" [391/392] than the mutual jealousies and suspicions that are encouraged by such a condition of things? Our Master is the Prince of Peace; and the progress of His Gospel, and the growth of peace among the nations of the earth, are mutually the cause and the effect of each other. The federation of the Empire, and the close and firm alliance of the Empire with the English-speaking American nation, are the main ground of hope to many, for the lasting peace of the world.
A state of universal peace depends upon the peacefulness of the leading nations of the world. Notwithstanding the necessary qualifications that must be made, the British Empire has, in fact, been at peace with itself during many years; and this happy experience is doubtless to be attributed in great measure to the personal character of her Majesty Queen Victoria, and to the increasing reverence and even affection with which her people, in all parts of the Empire, have been wont to regard her. During her reign the minds of her subjects have never been embittered by the loss of territory through conquest, or by sustaining defeat from a European enemy; no ruinous step in foreign politics has been taken by her Government, nor has any irreparable mistake been made in Imperial legislation. [Sir H. S. Maine.] If we owe the Queen a debt of gratitude "for her hearty eagerness in the work of public progress and improvement, for the admirable example which her life has uniformly set, for the thorough comprehension of the true conditions of the great covenant between the throne and the people, let us try to acknowledge that debt," as Mr. Gladstone said on a recent occasion, "by remembering her in our prayers. When S. Paul enjoined that prayers should be made for all men, and gave the commanding and leading place to prayer for kings and all that were in authority, the Apostle spoke the language not only of religion, but of the most profound social justice and human common sense." [Speech at Hawarden, in August.]
The Church House.--The offerings of our Auckland people at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on the day of the [392/393] Queen's Jubilee were devoted to the Church House Fund in London, in answer to an appeal from his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury. That London memorial of the Jubilee will, I believe, prove a valuable means of cherishing the unity of the Church of England with the Churches of New Zealand and Melanesia and of other colonies and Missions.
Melanesian Mission.--I have always considered it my duty, as well as a pleasure, to inform the Synod of the progress of the work of the Church in the Melanesian Islands. Not only was that work begun by the first Bishop of this diocese; but it has been continued, and is now being carried on, by missionaries whose zeal and self-denial set forth the spirit of the Gospel, and stimulate the energies of ourselves in our kindred responsibilities. The condition of the Island Mission stations generally is considered encouraging, especially "the quiet progress and undisturbed well-doing of many" of the older stations. There are two facts that I will mention, as indicating a great deal that is satisfactory. The first is that--in October of last year the Bishop thought it safe to take Mrs. Selwyn ashore with him at Santa Cruz, the island on which, not long since, it was considered unsafe for any white man to land; and the second is that--at Florida teachers cannot be obtained fast enough, to meet applications made to the Bishop for them by the inhabitants. There are seventeen schools established there, attended by nearly eight hundred scholars, of whom about one-fifth can read the New Testament. Our most recent report of the Bishop himself has come by H.M.S. Diamond, the officers of which vessel saw him in good health not many weeks ago. We may expect to see the Mission vessel in our harbour again by the middle of December.
Cathedral.--In 1885 I informed the Synod of my intention to make arrangements with the people of S. Mary's, Parnell, for using their parish church as the cathedral of the diocese, in accordance with a provision of the General Synod [393/394] on the subject. [G. S. Report, 1886, p. 107, section 18.] The "special arrangements" with the parish have now been made, and will be submitted to you for your approval. I have had the more pleasure in entering into these arrangements with S. Mary's parish, inasmuch as the parishioners have decided to build at first only so much of their new church as they expect to be able to pay for.
S. Paul's Parish.--The Synod will sympathise, as I do, with the people of S. Paul's, in their difficulties; which have been occasioned by the long delay that has occurred in the lowering of the land, around their church site, to the permanent level, and consequently by the postponement of the re-erection of their church.
Auditor's Report.--Mr. Samuel Vickers, to whom we are greatly indebted for the auditing of the General Synod's accounts during many years, states that "the whole of the numerous trust accounts are in perfect order and correct," as he has always found them.
Archdeacons.--I am intending to request the Archdeacons to visit the churches of their respective archdeaconries once in three years, and to report to me, for the information of the Synod, on the state of the church buildings, and on other matters with which it is customary for Archdeacons to deal.
Canons.--A digest of our Diocesan Statutes in the form of Canons has been prepared by the committee appointed for the purpose by the Synod at its last session, and will, I hope, be taken into consideration by the Synod without delay. Our special thanks are due to the committee for the careful manner in which they have executed the important work that was entrusted to them.
The Primate.--The Synod will, I am sure, be sorry to hear that our venerable and greatly reverenced Primate has given notice of his purpose to resign the Primacy and the charge of the diocese of Christchurch. It is his intention that his resignation should take effect at the end of 1888. His lordship informs me that his "deafness has increased much of [394/395] late," and that he is "incapacitated for taking the part that he ought to take at Church Committee meetings, in which so much that concerns the well-being of the diocese must necessarily be carried on."
The Bishop was consecrated to the See of Christchurch on the formation of the diocese in 1856, and was elected by the General Synod to the Primacy in 1869, on the resignation of Bishop Selwyn. His wise and fatherly administration of the affairs of his diocese, and his patient and impartial presiding at the General Synod, during six sessions, have been great blessings to the Church of New Zealand.
Standing Committee.--In conclusion, I return my cordial thanks to the members of the Standing Committee, for the help they have given me in many matters of importance to the diocese, during the past year; and also to the secretary, Mr. W. S. Cochrane, who for eight years has discharged the multifarious duties of his office with an efficiency that has left nothing to be desired.
The Report of the Standing Committee will now be laid on the table; containing a summary of the proceedings of the committee since the last session of the Synod, and a list of the business to be done--of which due notice has been received.
I pray that God's blessing may be with us during our meetings at this time, that in all our deliberations and proceedings, for the edifying of the Church, we may "serve Him with a quiet mind." Amen. [Collect for Twenty-first Sunday after Trinity.]