NELSON.

Anglo-Maori Warder, Volume 1, Issue 9, 20 June 1848, Page 3

NELSON.

(From the Nelson Examiner, April 29. ) The present visit of the Bishop of New Zealand to Nelson, has been thought a proper opportunity to learn his Lordship's views respecting that portion of the Religious Fund of the settlement which had b*?eo p 1 acedia his hands as trustee fjrthe Anglican Church. Tne terms on which the trust was founded, and the money paid over, (jC3,ouo} will be best explained by a couple of passages from the coirespondencc which tooh place at the time between the Company and the Bishop. The first is from a letter of the Secretary of the Company to his lordship, dated November 30, ISII : la order to fulfil the obligations of the Company towards its settlements, it is indispensable that the respective funds, as separately contributed by the Court for Wellington, or Kelson, or New Pijracutb, shall le kept perfectly distinct and separately applied in the settlement named for each. The ouly other condition which the Directors think it necessary to attach to the conditions made by or through them is, that the capital of each of the funds shall eventually be laid out on landed security, whether by purchase or mortgage, wi.bin the settlement to which each fond belongs j and tint no land contributed by or through them thalt be permanently alienated, the ot.jeet being to constitute a peimancnt and 1 oil property continually increasing in value with the progress of coloaizatiun." Aurt the Bishop in his reply, dated December 2nd, i tys . '* In ihe settlement of Nelson, I shall be prepared to station a clergyman, and provide hiui with an income ot not le s than 4-250 per annum out of the funds placed at my disposal by tb.3 Church at home : iuerfingthe£ , &»iOQ graniej by the Company us &

fund for building churches, pirsonsgehooses, ami schools, and in general for theextrnsion of the Church I throughout the settlement of Ne'snn, in proportion to the increase of population. It "ill he my object to redeem, as soon as possible, the annual payment of £250, by raising a clear sum of £5,000, which I shall inke the earliest opportunity of investing, together with the Company's grant, iu landed securities within the settlement of Nelson," These quotaiions show withwufficient clearness bo'b ilia intention of the Company and tlie Bishop at that time, but the fund has hitherto been in the 3 rcr rents., together whh £1,500, subscribed by the Bishop st different times toward* the like sum of i.'5.000, with which he engaged to cover it. Up to the present moment?, the absence of titles to the land has properly enou;h precluded the Bishop from investing the money in landed securities in (J>e settlement, according to the terms of the agreement wo have quoted, hut as it is now certain that tbe next vessel from Auckland will bring us Ihe titles, as tiny were fallj seitled when the Governor >» last here, nnl have since been engrossed and forwarded to him for signature, it was thought that the Bishop's attention should be called to this fact, that his future intention on the subject mieht bo elicited. It is not necessary that we should say bow b.'nefioial to the settlement would be JC6.000 or .£ 70 JO advanced to actual settlers, on the s curity of their lands and buildings, al this_ time. Msny iiavo sunk the greater part of their capital in cultivation, and arc umb!c 10 stock their farms in the way they would desire. A lift of this nature would therefore be rendering them a most important service, while tbe additional iulerest the money so invested would bring, would be a great acquisition to the Church income, and furnish the Bishop with such n building fund as would enable lnm to erect in a few years a handsome Church, with but lit Je additional cost to the settlers. Entertaining these or similar views, a body of gentlemen requested the favour of an inteiview with bis lordship, which wrsreadilv grnntid.nnd on Tuesday last Messrs. Fox, Monro, Otlerson, Greenwood, Srxtou, Shepherd, JcuUins, Maisden, and Elliott, waited upon him at the residence of Kev. F. Uutt, and brought the subject before him. The Bishop expressed himself pleased with the opportunity the interview afforded him of stating his views, and he at once admitted that the correspondence we have quoted, and which his lordship read at some length, gave the exact nature of his engagements. His Lordship said, that as soon as perfect titles existed in the settlement, be should be ready to receive applications for portions of the fond on mortgage, at 8 per cent., which waa the highest rate of interest be would agree to take. Mr. Fox suggested that n local board or agent should be appointed, to whom the duty of receiving applications, examining tbe secirity, and making the advances, should be loft, but the Bishop did not entertain this view favourably, as he said it would be necessary that be should in the first instance comniunicats with the gentlemen on whose names the money was invested, | namely, the Earl of Devon, Dr. Hinds, and Archdeacon Hall. Besides, the state of the funds might ren- | dcr it possible to sell out at that moment, without j incurring a large sacrifice. His Lordship promised however to do what he could to rusks the Fund ava- | iisble, as early as possible, according to the terms of, the agreement. In the course of the interview, his lordship alluded to certain remarks which appeared in this paper iu January last, in which, that af.cr stating the fcet that only i'I.SOO had been piid to the Church to meet the 1 5,000 received by it from the funds of the settlement, I i we suggested that the ntcst honourable course wculd j f be ior it to refund to mu:h of ihe grant as it n.'iitht fmt!°itself unable to meet in the manner originally , agreed upon. His lcrd:hij> mentioned that he had I not read the remarks alluded to, and it was evident to I us from his observations, that their tenor had been \ very much misrepresented to him ; lie evidently heinir I under the impression that personal icfiictioiis bad i been cast upon his conduct in the matter; on bang informed that the substance of the ob.-ervaticm was, his Lrdchip at o.ice replyed that he ent.rdy agreed with the suggestion, and that had he been correct in suppjsing that the church wai unable to make further contributions, the course proposed by us would have been the very one he would have pursued. He tbeu proceeded to explain the caussi which had hitherto prevented his paying the Chu i ch equivalent in full, alleging the necessity hj? wes under of providing ior the spii buai wants of the other settlements in he had churches. He explained, that throe.h delagj had occurred in the payment of the last contribution', it bad, he believed b ; en provided by this time in England, and he stated that arrangements had been made for tbe continuation af annual paytnente, in such a manner as to meet the provisoes of the ar:acgemcnt made with the Company. Before the interview closed, his lordship adverted to the subject of the Nelsoa (Mr. Campbell's) Schools, and expressed much regret that the system of education adopted io them had been misrepresented to him, as one which rejected all religious instructicn. He observed that ho was agreeably surprised to find that it was not the case, but that the scriptures were freely taught in the rchools; and he expressed his satisfaction at the result of a personal examination of the children which he had made. We have long been uwarethata report has been circulated in the other settlements, that these schools are based on infidel principles. How such a report arose we are at a loss to conct ive, as tiie scriptures are, and always have j been unrestrictedly used in ihcm, and the children have I annually passed most credible public examination in ] that department. The principle of maktug the sorip- | tures the basis of religious instruction in them, w.is | stated in the broadest manner by the gentlemen who ■ iail the foundation oT the Kelson school, upwards of foar years ago ; the statement appeared in punt at the time, in a report of the proceedings on that occas on, and has been invariably carried cut to the fullest exteut in the schools thecselves. It i« true that the late Cp.scopal clergyman of this settlement took a hostile view of the scbuois in question, and predicted, in a letter which appeared io our columns, the wor&t consequences to the settlement from their existent e. We regret that the minu ot the Bishop should have been iuiluenced with such reports, but were pleased to ba assured by him that personal examination had entirely removed his prejudices, and we are bound to award bun every credit for the candid manner iu which he made the avowal.

Wc printed a frw weeks back a letter addressed to the li'ilUngton whicli «e found ii; Umt journal, by Mr. Hanson Turtun, the Wesleyan Mmii* ter at Taranaliij commenting on the conduct of tbv BUhop of New Zealand, respecting his refusal t > allow Mr. Tin ton to register the burials in wluch that gentleman had officiated du< in* the absence of a minuter of the CUur.U of Knghud from that settlement. In republishing the letter in question, we were vat doubtediy acuaied by a desire to give publicity to whuappeared to us very uncharitable and intolerant act ol the head of the Church in this colony, but we a« aovr b9iud to say, that having read the whole ol

I the correspondence which has passed oirthe subject of I tlie registering of the interments ft) Taranaki, in which Mr Turton acted in the absence of n clergyman, we take quite a different view of the Bishop's conduce, and it would be unbecoming in as if we did not publicly say so j for certainly we should not have given any publicity to Mr. Turton's letter had we known as roach of the circumstances which gives rise to it as we do now. With regard to the registering of the interments we have nothing to do ; whether the Churchwardens should have allowed Mr. Turton to enter them, or whether Mrs. Bolland was justified in refusing the registry, and referring (he matter to the Bishop, is no business of ours. But as Mr. Turton, in his letter to the Churchwardens, quotes the Canons of the Church to show that he is the proper person to roister the death?, we see nothing improper in the Bishop (the letter having been forwarded to him by the Churchwardens), to refer in his reply to other Canons to show that Mr. Ttirton was not the proper person to register the deaths.