THE BISHOP OF MELANESIA.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 83, 10 April 1877, Page 2

THE BISHOP OF MELANESIA.

A farewell tea party "was given the other day \n Auckland to Bishop Sehvyn, who 'was , recently consecrated 1 ati'QhristChurch,kelson, prior to his leading for MelanesiariiFrora a leport of the meeting which appears in the Heiald, we take the following: — The Right Rev J. It. Selwyn, Bishop of Melanesia, on rising to address the audience, was.greeted with warm applause. He r said , .he was sure that they all would agree With him in thinking that the mission ►worVW Melanesia would be very distasteful, inasmuch as it tended to drag them down from that standard of spirituality to which they'Tvonld like to attain. However, it was uot for them to pick and choose; they had to take up their Master's work, and engage in it with singleheartedness,.however hard or trying it appeared to he. While His Lordship' the Bishop had been telling them of Cashmere and its natives, he had been struck by the similarity of the prejudices and superstitions which prevailed there, to those that prevailed auibngst the natives of Melanesia. Not long asothe'Rev J. Still was sailing with a number of , Melanesians from one island jto another when a storm arose, and the pbor ignorant savages began to be exceedingly., afraid. .. Their fear was so great that thtey began praying to the sharks iu the sea, thpir belief being that the souls of their ancestors dwelt in the bodies of those fishes. His Lordship related^' several other anecdotes! to the same purpose^ He had heard during that week the question asked more than once, What is the use of this Mission, and what, good will it do?;. -He did not wish to heai] it again. They should. not become possessed with a selfish desire to keep all tlie Ministers to themselves? They were too readv to cry cuibono? and to- ask; doubtingly what gqod these Missions did?-He felt sure that Bishop Patteson had achieved a greater amount 'of good in going out. to 'Melanesia and suffering a martyr's deat^ than he would had he remained in England. ' He trusted that God would confer upon him a portion of Bishop Pattesoh's earnest*; Christian, and sdlfabnegating spirit; >They did not want jto stop, the tide of commerce in the South Pacific, but they desired to augment it, and also to Regulate it— to do all in their power to gain for the natives as man/ o£ its blessings as theyicould, with as few as possibleof its lie-', companying curses. Never did man go' to his work with a better and a more earnest staff than he did; and never did a company i of missionaries go out with greater rcasori to" feel hopeful. They cherished strong, and not unsubstantial anticipations of being able oncemore to gain a footing ou >the island' of Santa Cruz. He trusted that the blood : of' such men as Bishop Tatteson, Commodore Gpodenongh, Rev Joseph Atkin, and Stephen, a' native teacher, had not been sheel in vain, and that it would be reserved for them (the ; missionaries of 'MelauesiaptoJeffeqVan en-, trance to those.islands which for so' long a, time had been hermetically:! sealed against the introduction of Christianity. In concluding his speech, his. Lordship" said he had lately been made to feel that the world was much narrower than they were! accustomedto think. On February 2nd he had telegraphed.to his father, the Bishop of Lichfield, the news of his "consecration, and on the following day had received a reply, containing the information that on the evening of February 17th his father would be .'conduct-' ing a service which might fit iu witbjthe one that he (his son), would: be then holding at Nelson. He had told them this, be/cause he knew they would sympathise with the father in his feeling for his son. It was his (the speaker's) earnest endeavor to follow in the footsteps of his father, which he was not ashamed to confess were most noble.