ANGLICAN JUBILEE.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 314, 29 September 1908, Page 7

ANGLICAN JUBILEE.

THE FOUNDATION OF THE DIOCESE OF WELLINGTON., A united service in commemoration of the jubilee of tho Anglican Diocese of Wellington will be held in St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral at 7.30 p.m. to-day. All tho city and suburban Anglican church choirs will take part. Tlie collection will be devoted to the Bishop Hadfield Memorial Fund. In his history of the Church of the Province of New Zealand Dean Xacobs states:— As early as February 27,' 1857, Bishop Selwyn had written thus to the Rev. Ernest Hawkins, the woll-known secretary of -the S.P.G.: —"The natural effect of tho creation of the Bishopric of Christchurch has been to make our other province's desirous of tho same benefit. I proposed at first that Wellington and Nelson should be united in one diocese, but Nelson strongly objected to this, and I think with good reason, as the lion s share of tho benefit would certainly remain with Wellington, and it is very probable that Nelson would not havo seen more of the new bishop than they do of me j • for I seldom fail of going thero every year. Church meetings, have been held in both places, and resolutions have been cordially adopted and forwarded to tho Secretary o'f Stats for tho Colonies, and t-o the Archbishop of Canterbury, with tho sanction-of tho Governor of Now Zealand. I therefore beg for the support and consent of tho Society for the Propagation of tho Gospel in Foreign Parts, to tho proposed arrangements, which I am suro, under the Divine blessing, .will have tho effect of building up the Church of England in this country on a suro foundation of ecclesiastical polity." With referenoe to tho endowment ot the two sees, tho following information has been kindly furnished to tho writer by tho Right Rev. Edmund Hobhouso, tho first bishop of one of them, who is now living at Wells, in Somersetshire ' Nelson was a twin-birth with Welluigton: there is nothing to bo said of the ono that does not apply to tho other. Civilly, the origin of tho two settlements was the same—creations of tho New Zealand Company. Out of that company's policy,. ietting apart from land sales funds to bo met, pound for pound, by religious bodies for their ecclesiastical endowment, grow the ■ endowof the two future dioceses, the S.l ,G. giving in each case £5000 to meet tho company's £5000. In each case half tho endowment fund, viz., £5000 was set apart in 1808 for tho sustenance of a bishop—then equal to £500 a year." A safo, though moderato endowment having been thus provided for the twin sees, the churchmen of Wellington and Nelson willingly accepted also, as thoso of Canterbury had done, tho recommendation of Bishop Solwyn with regard to the persons whose appointment to be occupants of those sees respectively they should petition tho Crown to sanction. Two Etonians, his porsonal friends of many years were selected by him, the Vcn. Charles Abraham Archdeacon of Waitemata, for Wellingtonand for Nelson the Rev Edmund Hobhouso! i'ellow of Merton, and for many vears Vinnr of St. Peter's in the East, Oxford, widely known and highly esteemed by Oxford men of that day for his piety and devoted selfsacrifice of all that he was and all that ho had, to God and His Church.