“Both wore cap and gown, at which the Bishop seemed pleased (one wonders whether it would not have been truer to say amused), they gazed around with awe and interest until the awe at least was dispelled by the cordial reception they met with, and the unequalled charm of the Bishop’s presence and conversation. The marvellous neatness of that diminutive cabin and the ingenuity of its arrangements, are never to be forgotten.... On the following Sunday the Bishop celebrated the Holy Communion in a loft over a good’s store, reached by a ladder, the seats being extemporised by resting planks on sugar barrels.”
The Bishop himself writes to a friend interested in the Settlement:
“Here I am among the Canterbury pilgrims; and a very good set of colonists they are, as far as I can judge. But a great mistake has been made in sending out too many at once, and in allowing any consideration to prevent their instant occupation of land. They are not allowed to choose till two months after their arrival, by which time many will have become demoralized by idleness and desultory habits.... I repeat again and again the same advice: send out your parochial staff ready organized—clergymen, landowners, labourers, not turned adrift upon an interminable plain: far less cooped up in a Dutch oven at Lyttelton; but to go at once to a parish known and chosen by themselves, and to a church and school already built; so that not one single day’s delay may occur in resuming those good habits in their new country which they have learned in England. I find neither church, nor school, nor parsonage in existence. Money enough has been spent, but all in civil engineering. Last Sunday I administered the Holy Communion in a crowded loft over a store. I do not care for these things if they are unavoidable; but where it has been part of the plan from the first to put religion in its right place, I do object to spacious and costly offices, long lines of wharves, roads, piers, etc., and not one sixpence of expenditure in any form for the glory of God, or for the comfort of the clergy. I shall, of course, make the best of the matter.”
A few weeks later another ship arrived, bringing more emigrants, several schoolmasters, and the Bishop designate. Selwyn who had been away on a further voyage, returned to meet him, and at a conference with him and the clergy of the settlement, agreed to resign into his hands the southern portion of the diocese of New Zealand. The meeting was held in an unfurnished room in the immigration barracks at Lyttelton. It was brought to a close by the announcement made to Selwyn that the wind was favourable for his departure. Before leaving he expressed “his great thankfulness at finding such a spirit of unity among the clergy of this new branch of the Church of God,” and gave them his blessing. He returned again towards the end of the year to assist with his advice in the organization of the new diocese, so that all might be from the first established on a sound basis. But the hope that he was going at once to be relieved of the charge of the Southern Island was disappointed. The Bishop designate felt himself unfit for the post for which he had been selected, and returned to England. It was five years before a Bishop for this new diocese of Christchurch was sent out.
Bishop Selwyn’s immense responsibility continued unrelieved. He had not only the supervision of all the missions to the Maoris, the planning of the work amongst the Pacific Islands, but the provision for the religious and educational needs of the increasing number of colonists who were attracted by the rich promise of New Zealand. During these years he had gained a full knowledge of the country. He wrote in 1853:
“The dim and visionary idea of New Zealand, which I used to brood over in 1841, before we left England, is changed by God’s blessing to an accurate knowledge of every accessible part of the coast, and of almost every inhabited place in the interior.”
Towards the end of 1853, he had the great joy of ordaining his first Maori Deacon, Rota Waitoa, who had been for ten years his constant companion in his travels. It was a consolation in the midst of bitter sorrow, for he had been obliged temporarily to close the College at Auckland on account of the grave misconduct of two in whom he had trusted, and which put an end to his hope of educating together the Maori youths and the sons of the colonists. When the College was able to be re-opened it had to be for white scholars only, and other provision was made for the Maoris. Rota had adopted every Christian and civilized habit, and had risen from one post of usefulness to another and been found faithful and blameless in all. The older missionaries were doubtful of the wisdom of ordaining a Maori, believing that it was difficult to be sure that the tendency to barbarism was yet eradicated. But the Bishop’s confidence in Rota was not disappointed, and he served the Church faithfully till his death twelve years later. Unlike the ordinary natives who were generally characterized by great self-conceit, he was unusually diffident of himself, and he was always eager to seize any opportunity of learning more. When he had worked for eighteen months in the village which had been put under his charge, he told his people that he must go up to the College to fill his seed bags again, having sown all that he took down with him the year before. The English, who saw him at the College on that visit, were “struck by the perfect ease and simplicity of his manner, without the least assumption of forwardness.”
This first ordination of a native marked an important stage in the growth of the New Zealand Church, but the difficult questions as to the constitution of the Church could not be settled without a visit to England, and the Bishop had now made up his mind, to undertake the long journey home. He started with Mrs. Selwyn and his younger son, the elder was already in England for his education, on the last day of 1853, having spent twelve years of arduous work in New Zealand. His desire was to do his business in England and get back as quickly as possible. He wrote during the voyage to his friend, Mr. Coleridge, saying that his objects were the subdivision of the diocese, the enactment of free powers for the Church in New Zealand to meet in Convocation of Clergy and Laity and to manage its own affairs within certain limits, and the recognition of his plans as regards the Melanesian mission. He added:
“Pray use your influence with our friends now in power to give me quick dispatch, as Colonial Bishops being unconnected with the State, are not used to ante-chambers and only wish to get work done with as little formality as possible.”
As he had thoroughly discussed his plans with people in New Zealand he could say that he came authorised by his people “to take such steps as might be necessary for carrying into effect the wishes of his diocese.”