“I do indeed most thankfully acknowledge the goodness of God in giving me timely aid when I was pledged to a great work without any steady force to carry it on. Coley is the right man in the right place physically and mentally.... You know in what direction my wishes tend, viz., that Coley, when he has come to suitable age, and has developed as I have no doubt he will, a fitness for the work, should be the first island Bishop.”
Some years would have to pass before these wishes could be fulfilled, but already in 1856, Selwyn had the joy of welcoming Dr. Harper, appointed Bishop of Christchurch, who came out with all his family, immediately after his consecration in Lambeth Chapel. Selwyn went to Christchurch to meet him in the Southern Cross and wrote in his diary:
“Went on board at 8 took off the Bishop and his whole family in our two boats; carried them to the Southern Cross; whole Harper family seated round our cabin, fourteen or fifteen happy faces. Went on shore, borrowed trucks, pulled baggage up bridle path; three cheers on the top.”
Bishop Harper was installed at once and Selwyn wrote:
“This day fifteen years I left England, and this morning I woke up with a thankful feeling that my load was at length lightened by the transfer to the Bishop of Christchurch of one-third of New Zealand.”
Both he and the colonists in the other provinces were impatient that the remaining dioceses which had been fixed upon should be speedily completed. Selwyn wrote:
“The number of persons to be confirmed is not the labour, but the distance to be gone in search of them. My average is about one candidate for confirmation for every mile of travelling. In all other respects of organising institutions and giving a tone to a new society, it is absolutely necessary that a bishop should be early in the field and have a field within the compass of his powers.”
Selwyn’s care for the interests and needs of the colonists in New Zealand never distracted him from the wider mission field amongst the heathen, which was ever so dear to his heart. The arrival of Bishop Harper was followed in a few months by the meeting of the Conference at Auckland, which finally settled the constitution of the New Zealand Church as described in the last chapter. Whilst Selwyn was busy with it, Patteson made a voyage alone to take back the boys from the Islands, as the New Zealand winter was coming on. The Conference over, Selwyn started with Patteson for a long cruise in the Pacific, first leaving Mrs. Selwyn at Norfolk Island to carry on her work amongst the Pitcairners. A long and prosperous voyage followed during which many islands were visited. In three there were urgent demands that they should be given a teacher, but the Bishop had none to give. All that could be done was, wherever possible, to persuade boys to come back with him to be taught. Finally after a cruise of four months they returned to Auckland bringing with them thirty-three Melanesians, gathered from nine islands and speaking eight languages. They had visited sixty-six islands and landed eighty-one times, wading and swimming; they had visited amongst others, some islands where the London Missionary Society had been at work, and where the native teachers had been left for a long while without any English missionary. They now gladly turned to Bishop Selwyn for advice and help. But nearly all the islands they visited were still untouched by any missionary work. A second voyage was made that year, and on that occasion, the Southern Cross ran aground, in the lagoon at New Caledonia. After many exertions she was got off the ledge on which she had stuck, but it was impossible to be certain that her bottom was uninjured. There were no divers to be got, but as one who was present described the scene: “the Bishop was equal to the occasion. He caused the ship to be heeled over as far as was safe; and then, having stripped himself to his tweed trousers and jersey, in the presence of the captain of the Bayonnais (a French warship that was in the harbour) and some of his officers, and amid their exclamations of admiration, made a succession of dives, during which he felt over the whole of the keel and forward part of the vessel, much to the detriment of his hands, which were cut to pieces by the jagged copper; and ascertained the exact condition of her bottom and the nature of the injuries sustained. No wonder that the next day, after dining on board the Frenchman, he was sent away with a salute of eleven guns.”
When this accident happened, the Bishop was on his way to call for Patteson who had been left on the Island of Lifu with his scholars. Now the Southern Cross had to be taken to Auckland to be repaired and contrary to his usual punctual habits, he was a month late in reaching Lifu. There followed a rapid voyage back, picking up scholars by the way till forty-seven were collected, amongst them three young married women and two babies; with the crew there were sixty-three persons in the little ship. Patteson writes:
“As you may suppose the little Southern Cross is cram full, but the Bishop’s excellent arrangements in the construction of the vessel for securing ventilation, preserve us from harm by God’s blessing. Every day a thorough cleaning and sweeping goes on and frequent washing, and as all beds turn up like the flap of a table, and some thirty lads sleep on the floor on mats and blankets, by 7 a.m. all traces of the night’s arrangements have vanished. The cabin looks and feels airy; meals go on regularly.... A vessel of this size unless arranged with special reference to such objects, could not carry safely so large a party, but we have nothing on board to create, conceal or accumulate dirt.”