“The people had heard a rumour of the Bishop’s intention to remove to Auckland, and there was a great deal of speech-making on the subject. A powerful speaker opened the debate. The orator began by trotting slowly up and down a given space, always beginning and ending each sentence with his run to and fro. After a while he got warmed up and excited, and then he rushed backwards and forwards, he leaped up off the ground, he slapped his thigh, shouted, waved his spear.”

It seemed more as if he were breathing out death and destruction than as if he were urging the Bishop to stay among his people.

“It was very amusing to see the two brothers Williams stand up and answer them. Archdeacon Henry Williams, a stout, old-fashioned looking clergyman with broad-brimmed hat and spectacles, marched up and down with a spear in his hand, and elicited shouts of applause. Then his brother drew a large space on the gravel, and divided it into three parts, and asked whether it was not fair that the Bishop should live in the middle of the diocese instead of at either end. There was a loud murmur of voices, ‘It is just,’ but all the same they did not like to lose him and his large party from among them.”

A month later, the Bishop, with his family and friends, started for Auckland. Mrs. Selwyn and their little boy rode, the Bishop walked, carrying his infant son swathed in a plaid to his side. As they left the Waimate, crowds gathered to bid them farewell. At Auckland the large party, together with the native students, had to live in tents till the college buildings were ready for them.

In order that there might be someone to superintend the Church in the Waimate district, Selwyn appointed Henry Williams to be Archdeacon of the Waimate, saying in his letter to him, “your long experience, and your great influence with the natives, will give me the greatest confidence in delegating to you the charge of this portion of my diocese.”

In September, 1844, as a further step to that complete organization which he contemplated, the Bishop summoned a Synod of his clergy. Three Archdeacons, four other priests and two deacons met together with him, in order “to frame rules for the better management of the mission and the general government of the Church.” On this occasion they discussed only questions of church discipline and extension, but it was the beginning of that complete system of self-government which was to establish the independence of the Church in New Zealand.

CHAPTER IV
THE MAORIS AND THE SETTLERS

The Maori chiefs regarded the treaty of Waitangi as the Charter of their liberties, and in the opinion of Bishop Selwyn it was “highly beneficial to the people of New Zealand since it gave them the protection of the British Government and assured them ‘that no land would be taken from them which they were not willing to sell.’” But the treaty was obnoxious to the members of the New Zealand Company, since it was a continual hindrance to their plans for the development of the Colony. They were constantly arousing the suspicions of the Maoris by their efforts to evade it. The conditions of the country were rapidly changing and as yet the new order had not been firmly established. On the one side were the fears and suspicions of the Maoris that they had been betrayed and would lose their lands, suspicions encouraged by those white adventurers who disliked the idea of a settled government. On the other side was what Selwyn described as “the discontented and insubordinate temper of our own settlers.” He writes of the situation as follows:

“The one general imputation against all of us was a concealed intention of dispossessing the natives of their land, and reducing them to slavery. In support of this, the acts of our countrymen in other lands were related to them.”

The missionaries made constant efforts for peace and assured the natives that the British Government was determined to protect their rights and property. Great was their surprise and consternation when a Report of the House of Commons stated that “all lands not actually occupied by the natives are declared to be vested in the Crown.” Selwyn wrote: