THE ANGLICAN SYNOD.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 31 January 1901, Page 4

THE ANGLICAN SYNOD.

(PER press association.)

Napier, January 29,

The fifteenth general Synod of the An glican Church, New Zealand, opened to day.

The Primate of course referred to the fact that October 17 th will be the 60th anniversary of the completion of the church organisation in the colony by the consecration of Bishop Selwyn, adding that for many years before his arrival the Evangelists of the church Missionary Society had been preaching the Gospel to the Maoris of this Island since Samuel Marsden, from Sydney, in December 1814, landed at Whangaroa. The reputed savage character of the natives had for two years prevented him from obtaining a vessel at Sydney to convey him to the Bay of Islands, as Augustine in A.D. 597 was for a time hindered by the fears of his companions from crossing the channel to the coast of Kent.

In 1842 Bishop Selwyn first visited the settlement of Ahuriri, where Napier now stands.

On November 15 of that year he records in his journal;—“We procured one tent, in which the first Chief Justice (Sir William Martin) the first Bishop, and the first Archdeacon (afterwards first Bishop of Waiapu) of Now Zealand and Dudley passed the night in their blankets. The growth of Napier since those days in matters secular and educational is a sample of the general advance that has been made in the same time throughout these Islands.

An eloquent tribute was paid to the late Queen, with the late Archdeacon Clarke, who amongst the Maoris was appreciatively spoken of. He advocated limited religious teaching in state schools, the want of which he absoribed to the want of union and jealousy between the churches. As an example, he expressed astonishment at recent utterances of Archbishop Redwood at Sydney. Referring to the death of the missionaries in China, he expressed the opinion that unmarried ladies should not be sent to the heathen outside British dominions He pointed out that there was an ample field for their energies in raising the Maori women in New Zealand. Ho eulogised the work in this direction done at the Hukarere native school, Napier. Ho hoped to see a similar establishment at Auckland.

The war in South Africa he deplored, but considered it necessary if the Empire was to fulfil its mission of truth, justice, and liberty.