SELWYN CENTENARY.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 523, 2 June 1909, Page 5

SELWYN CENTENARY.

MEMOEABLE SERVICE. AT LICHFIELD. /On April' 22,': in the. Cathedral' of: Lichfield, a'most impressive oervice was', held in celebration,.of the centenary of the'birth of George Augustus Selwyn, i first Bishop of Now Zealand, and later Bishop of Lichfield.'"'. There was.a great,;congregation.; The chapel,was'• decorated with, Lenten lilies, sent for. the purpose'from ■ New .Zealand.■••••.■,..

. Among those-present iwere: The.Bov. Prebendary i Solwyn, of Hereford, and the Rev. Dr. Selwyn, headmaster of Uppingham' School; Mrs.'John Richardson Selwyn (widow of the late/Bishop J. R; Selwyn);-Canon C: T. Abraham (son of tho late Bishop Abraham, of Wellington), the Rev. Ernest G. Thatcher.'(son of Prebendary Thatcher,. who' was ■ arohitect for many of ' Bishop Selwyn's churches in New Zealand), Canon Still, of Norwich (formerly of St.; Paul's Cathedral, Wellington), and the Rev. A. E. .Corner (organising seoretary of. tho Melanesian Mission).- ■ -~ *, Bishop Welldon (Dean of Manchester), who visited New Zealand a. few years.ago,- was the preaoher. He said:. To' few. bishops has it-been given. to, write their names :as a household word rupon the heart of. a city of a diocese as Bishop ■ Fraser has written his in the city from; which I coma>. . And though,-perhaps, among the bishops of the Church of England, Bishop Selwyn has so' written his name upon the heart of a whole country, if I may trace my own experience from the Bay of Islands to Port Pegasus, there are not. only colonists and children of colonists, but. Natives, who still love to tell, from tradition'if not.from'personal, intercourse, the story of his courage and energy, his, practical ability, his rich resources,' lis shrewd sympathy, his' self-sacri-ficing devotion, his unfaltering faith and piety.; Nobody who came across hinr could look upon him as.effeminate, The onrsrauii who rowed in the first: University boat race exhibited after- 1 wards in-tho waters of-the Pacific Ocean, and: especially in tho difficult bays and shoals,off tho coasts of ,tho three islands of New Zealand, a nautical skill which would, not, it was,said,; bo a disgrace to'an admiral.. This is tho centenary of tho birth of Bishop Selwyn, but it is also;'the: centenary .of the year; the resolution was'passed by the Church . Missionary Society for tne'sending of Church"of England.ministers, under the leadership of Samuel MaTsdcn, to preach; the Gospel among the Maoris.'. Marsden is one of the heroic figures in the portrait ; gallery, of the Church -of England., When I " was ; at .Rotorna, I ■ was guided round tho hot springs by a yonnsr Maori Christian, • woman/ ' Sho spoke the English language as well as.you and-I may speak. Her attainments, her, senti-. ments, were apparently not unworthy Of cultivated English womanhood.- Yet'she told mo. that her great undo, who had died.only two years before my visit, had, in his earlier life, been a cannibal.. I shall scarcelybe wrong if I choose the day upon which Goorgo Ausmstus Selwyn accepted'the Bishopric of; New Zealand, as tho birthday,.' or, perhaps, more the baptismal day of. the Imnerial.constitution of tho Church of England. He was almost.lhe first to realise the idcnl of tho Church, not ns tho. Church of England alone, but of the Empire. Ho thought of the Church, not parochially, not nationally, bnt Imperially.