“My last pair of thick shoes being worn out, and my feet much blistered by walking on the stumps, I borrowed a horse from the native teacher and started at 4 a.m. to go twelve miles to Mr. Hamlin’s mission station on Manakan harbour. Then ten miles by boat across the harbour. After a beautiful run of two hours, I landed with my faithful Maori, Rota, who had steadily accompanied me all the way, carrying my bag with gown and cassock, the only articles in my possession which would have fetched sixpence in the Auckland rag market. The suit which I wore was kept sufficiently decent, by much care, to enable me to enter Auckland by daylight; and my last remaining pair of shoes (thin ones) were strong enough for the light and sandy walk of six miles. At two p.m. I reached the Judge’s house by a path avoiding the town, and passing over land which I have bought for the site of the cathedral; a spot which I hope may hereafter be traversed by the feet of many bishops, better shod and far less ragged than myself. It is a noble site overlooking the whole town and with a sea-view stretching out over the numerous islands.”
On this journey of six months, the Bishop had travelled 2,277 miles, of which he had walked 762. His chief object had been to learn to know the country and its needs, so that he might plan his future work wisely. He notes with satisfaction that on this journey he met Mr. Williams on the exact day which he had appointed more than a month before, showing how, even in travelling through wild country, it was possible to be punctual.
When Selwyn got back to the Waimate, having learned much about the country, his first care was the College. He had hoped that his friend, Mr. Whytehead, who had come out with him from England would be its head. But to his deep sorrow, he heard that Mr. Whytehead had been taken ill at Sydney, and died three months after reaching the Waimate, leaving the memory of a saintly character to inspire those who should work after him.
The chief object of the College was to train clergy. Besides the College there was a boarding school, where Selwyn’s plan was to educate Maori lads and the sons of settlers together. He had most carefully thought out the principles upon which both college and school were to be founded. He believed that it was perfectly possible to civilize the whole rising generation of New Zealanders; the one impediment was the difficulty of getting enough English teachers, for not only must education be provided, but also instruction in the “most minute details of daily life and in every useful and industrious habit.” “We are apt,” he wrote, “to forget the laborious procession by which we acquired in early life the routine duties of cleanliness, order, method and punctuality.” Men were needed to train the scholars who had no sense of their own dignity and thought nothing beneath it, “who will go into the lowest and darkest corner of the native character to see where the difficulty lies which keeps them from being assimilated to ourselves. They have received the Gospel freely, and with an unquestioning faith, but the unfavourable tendency of native habits is every day dragging back many into the state of sin from which they seemed to have escaped.... 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.” He found that the bane of the native people was desultory work interrupted by total idleness, and their inclination to waste their occasional earnings on useless horses or cast-off dress clothes. He feared lest the sons of the settlers should grow up with a sense of superiority and look upon honest labour as disreputable, because of the class of servile natives who clustered round the towns. So he desired “to raise the character of both races by humbling them” and teaching them the dignity of labour. All the students were to spend part of their time in some useful occupation for the support of the institutions. There were industrial classes, where printing, carpentry, carving and weaving were taught. Selwyn considered printing, of all trades, the best fitted morally and mechanically to train “the wayward and careless disposition of an uncivilized youth,” since, “to print at all, he must work orderly.” The youngest boys were to work in the garden, the elder ones to learn farming and forestry.
In the College, though the students were to take their part in the manual labours, he wished to preserve an academic atmosphere, and the students wore caps and gowns, at any rate on special occasions. Its chief purpose was to train the clergy of the future, as he could not hope to obtain a sufficient supply from England. He wrote:
“We must go to all orders of colonists and to the native people without respect of persons, and select from among their children the future candidates for Holy Orders.”
But since it was impossible to be sure that those so chosen would grow up fitted for the ministerial vocation, no pledges were asked of them, and the opportunities of secular training provided fitted the youth to enter upon other lines of life, should it appear when the right time came that he was not fitted for the special studies needed for Holy Orders. He expected that strangers would hardly be able to understand the complex character of the Institution, but he wrote:
“There is an open and undisguised reality about our work, which seems to be highly favourable to the discrimination of character, and therefore to the due selection of instruments: a class of demure students with face and tone of voice and manner conformed to the standard which they believe to be expected, would be a poor exchange for a healthful and mirthful company of youths, as yet unconstrained by pledges and professions, who show their true character in every act of their lives whether of business or amusement.”
And again:
“The only real endowment for St. John’s College is the industry and self-denial of all its members. Even if industry were not in itself honourable, the purposes of the institution would be enough to hallow every useful art and manual labour by which its resources might be augmented.”