NELSON DIOCESAN SYNOD.

Marlborough Press, Volume I, Issue 40, 6 October 1860, Page 2

NELSON DIOCESAN SYNOD.

[from our own correspondent.] The Second Diocesan Synod of Nelson have completed their labours. The report of the proceedings occupied some five columns of the paper in the smallest type. The most important feature was the discussion on the refusal of Bishop Selwyn to give the sum of £IOOO towards Church purposes in Nelson, according to a promise made some years ago. Bishop Selwyn’s reply is described as “ long, somewhat angry, able, and argumentative * * but utterly unsatisfactory and unconvincing to those to whom it is addressed.” Harder language than this is even used by Churchmen towards their Primate. It is stated that the “ result is the injury or destruction of that long cherished feeling of respect and affection with which the head of the Church was once and should always be regarded by its members.” It is further stated, that his name, which had been “so long associated with all that is generous, high-minded, and noble,” has “now received a shock.” Many subscribers to the Bishopric Fund have expressed a determination to have back their subscriptions. The Bishop of Nelson made a very long, able, and warm-hearted address ) in fact, longer than the proceedings. He thus speaks of your province : —“ln civil matters

a change has come over us by the severance of the new Province of Marlborough, which, although it does not alter the spiritual relations of the severed province to the Church of this Diocese, may lead to a different administration in some matters in which the Church is concerned, of which the education of the young is the most important. You are aware that the Council of the new province have repealed the Nelson Education Act, and have voted a sum of £BOO, to enable the Superintendent to subsidize schools. On what condition the subsidies will be granted, I have not yet been able to ascertain. One certain consequence of this separation will be the rapid growth of one, if not two towns, Blenheim and Picton, and consequent demands upon our attention for the satisfying of their spiritual wants. In this connection I gratefully record the grant of £3OO, which the Trustees of the Nelson Trusts made in July, and placed in my hands for the religious purposes of the Church of England within the Wairau, Awatere, and adjacent districts. I immediately appropriated £IOO to the erection of a church at Blenheim; the promoters whereof were the authors of the application which drew forth this grant. With regard to the apportionment of the remaining £2OO, I shall gladly avail myself of the advice of the Standing Committee, when I have revisited the locality, and collected the needful data.” Golden Bay has now a resident clergyman, who has won golden opinions from all. In the Amuri a contributory list is nearly completed, which will enable the Bishop to send a clergyman for three years into that district. Of the General Church Fund, it is stated that the application to non-resident proprietors, not only was unsuccessful, but the resident ones were taunted “ that the scale of their contributions shows but little appreciation of the spiritual services which they ask others to foster for their benefit.” But the Bishop says, in spite of this taunt, there is a steady growth in the local contributions, and a hearty determination to help ourselves, and to show that, with the privilege of local self-government, we have acquired the spirit of self-support.” Two new churches for the natives are about to be built —one at the pah of Waikawa, the other at Wakapuaka. Of the education of the Maori children the Bishop is not very hopeful. “No disposition exists to commit their boys to the discipline of a boarding school, and of an industrial system. Since the appointment of Mr. Tudor as'a general missionary to the native race, he has “ visited all the native settlements, ascertained their condition, offered his own ministry, and revived, where they had ceased, the agency of native teachers, which serves to keep up the ordinances of public daily worship and catechising, and a small measure of secular teaching.” One only of the chiefs (of the Kaikoura tribe) persists in refusing to embrace the proffered covenant of the Saviour. The Bishop, through the Rev. Mr. Butt, sent his most solemn entreaties to him, but failed to move him to anything more than respectful acknowledgment of the interest manifested for his soul. As the Wesleyans have ceased their ministrations, the whole native population must rely solely upon the Church of England for Christian ordinances. The Bishop furnished his able address in a warm, fervent, and liberal spirit, after a long detail of the subject of “ enrolment of members.”