THE BISHOP OF NEW ZEALAND'S VISITATION TO THE SOUTHERN ISLAND IN 1848. [From the New Zealand Journal, April 21, 1849.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume V, Issue 427, 5 September 1849, Page 3

THE BISHOP OF NEW ZEALAND'S VISITATION TO THE SOUTHERN ISLAND IN 1848. [From the New Zealand Journal, April 21, 1849.]

SITE FOR TRINITY COLLEGE, OTAKI. May 17. — My Otaki friends accompanied me to search over their land for the best site for a college. In the midst of all the disputes and wars of this district, it was generally agreed that 500 or 600 acres should be freely given up to the bishop and his successors for this purpose, in order that the native and English youth might be trained up together in the knowledge of the t r ue God, and in the habits of civilized life. The only difficulty arises on the ground of the supposed claim of some of the Company's original purchasers to part of the land proposed to be granted to the college. In order to pass over the best situations, I avoided the splendid road which the Government has now carriedthrough the Horokiwi valley, and followed the old horse track by Pukerua to Porirua. Two beautiful sites were offered on this line of road ; but the approaches to them from Wellington are too difficult. Coming down to Taupo on Porirua harbour, we dined with our native ally, Rawiri Puaha, and then crossed the neck of the harbour to Witireia, a peninsula immediately opposite to the island of AJana, where a space of 600 acres is separated from the main land by the bay of Titabi and the harbour of Porirua, with an isthmus of three-quarters -of a mile between the two waters. Though isolated in its positiou, it is within a mile or two of the main road to Wellington, seventeen miles distant ; and it has also a ready communication with that port by Porirua harbour and Cook's Strait. About 200 acres of the land are covered with wood, but the remainder is open, rising into grassy hills, with steep declivities to the sea beach. Witireia itself is a bold headland looking full upon the island of Mana, and commanding a beautiful view of the hills of the Middle Island. In the centre is an old native clearing, with large trees scorched by fire, standing on the spot on which I hope, in submission to Divine Providenoe, that Trinity College may be built : but \ , have learned this lesson by the losses with which we have been visited, not to presume upon anything that is not yet attained. My companions, Thompson, Te Rauparaha, and Levi, left me here, and I went on alone across the sandy flat of Porirua harbour, and reached the Wellington road as the sun went down. What an agreeable change from former journeys through the deep mud and fallen trees of the totara flat ! — a road perfectly smooth, and almost level, enabled me to proceed as comfortably by moonlight as in broad day. A few miles on, I found my native scholars crouching over a fire, hungry and sleepy, as they had gone round by the government road, and had eaten nothing all day. An outlying settler supplied them with an empty bouse, and allowed them to dig some potatoes from his ground ; and after seeing them in a fair way to be comfortable, I went on my road to Wellington. At Hawtrey Chapel, in the middle of the Porirua wood, the village evening school was still going on ; and there I rested for an hour, examining the. scholars, and partaking of the seasonable hospitality of the schoolmaster ; who showed his sense of that duty, which is more frequently practised in the simple hamlets in the bush,' than among the richer communities in the towns. I resumed my walk with renewed vigour, and reached Wellington Parsonage about eleven p.m. The Undine, I found, had arrived safely on the Saturday before. My dear friend Mr. Hadfield was still alive, but the ' symptoms of his disease had shown no signs of improvement. But it was a great blessing to bear that I might again enjoy the benefit of bis counsel, and listen to the wisdom of « Christian death-bed. For four years his whole life has been nothing more than " commentatio mortis." WELLINGTON. THE HOSPITAL. On Sunday, 21st May, the duties of the ' day began with English and native services in the hospital, where patients of both races-lie side by side, with the same attention and relief administered to all alike. An hospital like this, under such really devoted management as that of Dr. Fitzgerald, is the. bast practical commentary on the text, which we " continually quote, that God " bath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth." It would be easy to trace the effect of the Wellingtoa Hospital upon the state of feeling among the natives of the South, and to show that much of : their goodwill towards the English race has been thus produced. ' I think that I have already mentioned in former letters, that one of the ' chief- men v of Porirua,' -Te Hiko-o-tt raffgiy^ -

soVV 61 tb.e great chief TeT»eln (Tippah'ee) who visited England, — insisted upon being allowed to die in the hospital, among 'He friends who had been kind to him. This was done in opposition to all native custom, and lo the solicitation! of liis friends. Several cases* of s.uccessful treatment of dangerous disorders have spread the fame of the '• Whare turoro," as far as Wangahui. Every English settlement is now being .supplied with a similar institution, but it is not easy to rind men who Will enter into the work with the same spirit of witch ful earnestness which is so apparent in every part of the management of the hospital at Wellington. It was a common topic in Heki's speeches, that the Government built nothing but prisons and barracks, and that therefore it could not have come into ihe •country for the good of the native people. This imputation is now in course of being redeemed ; and, as I am confident that there would have been little or no war in the country if the benevolent character of too British Government had heen practically exhibited from the first ; &o now I look forward with the fullest hope to a long continuance of peace, on the basis cf a liberal and enlightened effort to .improve the social and moral state of the New Zealanders by every good and useful institution which their circumstances may require. At the temporary Church near the Government House the usual English congregation assembled ; but from the very straggling position of the houses, and other causes, the attendance is neither so regular nor so good as we could wish. This evil will be remedied in some measure by the new church at the southern end of the town, which will be much more convenient for the greater part of the population. - Mr. Cole's duties, already too great for his strength, will be much increased by this arrangement, till the means can be found of maintaining a second clergyman. 5 DISTRICT CHAPELS. In the afternoon I walked with my excellent friend, Captain Collinson, to the little chapel in the woo J, on the Porirua road, where a good congregation of the neighbouring settlers bad assembled for divine service. We are indebted to the kindness of the Rev. John Hawtrey and his son for the site of this chapel, with twenty acres of land. It is a very central situation, and the government road, passing, close by it, makes it easily accessible on both sides. If we should be able to set on foot the college at Porirua, these district chapel ries will come under the charge of the collegiate deacons, till they grow up in ihe form of separate parishes with resident incumbents. There are three already of this class :—l.: — 1. Karori, where a site has been given by Mr. Justice Chapman ; 2. the valley of the Him, where a chapel is being built on land given by Captain Daniell ; and, 3, the chapel in the Porirua road. But these do not by any means supply the' wants of the people, who, by the nature of the country, are scattered over a wide surface, wjth hills almost impassable between one settlement and another. BURIAL GROUNDS. With the exception of a piece of land which we bought at Te Aro (south end of the town of Wellington), we are still without a site for a church, in a town half as large as Constantinople., The piece originally marked out is a mere watercourse, scarcely available even for the small parsonage, which stands perched upon the only flat part of ihe ground, with a most uncomfortable exposure to the wind and ra_in. Of course, I declined to accept such a site for the main church of the southern division. It was next proposed to build the church upon the burial ground allotted to the Church of England in 1812. The foundation was no sooner laid than the Dissenters protested against any appropriation of a burial ground to the Church, as an " infringement of the principle of the New Zealand Company, of the equality of all religious bodies." The application of this " principle" las not restrained the Weslr-yaps, the Presbyterians, and the Romanists from occupying must valuable and eligible sites for their chapels, to which r never objected. As you will hear of the charges brought against in of attempting to appropriate the whole burial ground to the Church of- England, I must trouble you with the simple statement of the case. Iv 1842, Governor Hobson adopted the plan of giving to each religious body, from the public land, a burial groun 1 proportioned to the number of its adherents as determined by the government census. At Auckland sixteen acres were marked on the surveyor's plan for the purpose ■of 'a burial ground ; eightasres of which were allotted to the Church of England, when it appeared on the census that a tull moiety of the whole population professed to belong to it. The same proportion being found by the census at Wellington, oae-h»llof the burial ground at that .place was also allotted to the Church in October 1842. On the faith of this arrangement, the ground was enclosed at our expense ; but, a* we hjd no legal possession, oejQkowd, title*, wt ne^er refused the key to

the ground to »ny one who applied. The Dissenters availed themselves of the use of the fencp, lor wKich they had not paid, leaving their own ground unoccupied. When they had buried iheir dead for some time by our permission, they then claimed the joint use of the ground-, and have agitated the same question, to our great annoyance, up to the pre- '■ sent time. It it were not my duty to secure j to the f. iends of those who have been buried by us, the satisfaction of knowing thai their bodies lie in consecrated ground, I should have given up the point, and have bought out of my own funds some other burial place for our dead. Bat the justice of our case has now become so apparent, that a Crown grant has been issued, allotting to the Church of England its own burial ground ; aud there still remains a ground of equal extent, either to be held iv common by ail the other religious bodies, or to be divided among them. The Church of Rome has kept possession, without opposition, of the burial ground marked out for its members in 1842 by the same authority, whose acts have been so much disputed in our case. If you hear of my intolerance and bigotry, I beg you to accept my assurance that I have never done an unkind act, or written an unfriendly word, against any member of any other r*iigious body ; and I can prove that it is not true that we persecute them, but that they will not tolerate the Church. In the case iv question, what right have they to protest against the Church being allowed the free use of its own rites of consecration and sepulture, while they have every equal privilege freely granted to them ? I have been attacked frequently by Mr. Turton, Wesleyan Missionary at Taranaki, but I have not answered him a' word. His last complaint is, that I have quoted against him certain " absurd and uuscriptural canons," in which his right to the ministry is denied. The truth is, that he claimed of the churchwardens of Taranaki, to be allowed to sign the burial register, according to the 70 in canon, in the case of interments at which he officiated in the absence of a clergyman. The churchwardens referred the case to me, and 1 told them that the 10th, 11th, and 12th canons ** prevented me from considering Mr. Turton a minister, within the meaning of the 70th ctnon, which he quoted*" Thii is the offence for which I have again incurred the good man's reprobation. His superior, Mr. Lawry, to whom I referred the matter, consoled me by saying, " Oh, sir, Mr. Turton is a very young man. You and I, lam sure, will never quarrel." I trouble you with these statements, because it has been reported to me, that the«e disputes have led some of, my friends to believe that I have assumed an offensive tone to the members of the other religious bodies ; than which I can assure you, nothing can be further' from the truth.