NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR AND Cook's Strait Guardian. Wednesday May 12, 1852.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, 12 May 1852, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR AND Cook's Strait Guardian. Wednesday May 12, 1852.

We publish a Pastoral letter of the Bishop of New Zealand to the members of the Church of England in this diocese, which has recently been received from Auckland, on the subject of a Church Constitution. As the subject has lately occupied the serious attention of the members of the Church of England in this and the neighbouring settlements, and as several meetings with reference to it have been held in Wellington, we have deemed the publication of this letter advisable with the view of making its contents generally known. Hitherto the resolutions submitted to the meetings which have been held in this settlement for the consideration of this subject have been of a general nature, but in this letter his lordship lays down the fundamental principles which he. proposes as the basis of the Constitution to be granted. His lordship grounds the necessity of this application on the fact, that a large portion of the Ecclesiastical Law oi England is inapplicable in this colony as the Church in New Zealand is not established by law, and that the support and extension of the Church in this Colony must be mainly dependent on the voluntary contributions of its members. It will be seen that his Lordship proposes to apply for the necessary powers for Self-government, not to the British Parliament, nor to our Colonial Legislature, as was determined in the meetings held at Wellington, because these bodies are not composed only of members of the Church of England, but to memorialize the Crown to grant to the Church in NeAV Zealand a Charter of Incorporation, with power to the Convention to frame bye-laws on all minor matters of detail. It will be seen also that instead of restricting the privilege of voting for the lay representatives to the General Convention to members in "full communion " with the Church, as has been suggested by some parties, the Bishop proposes, in the first instance^ that every adult person, shall be adeemed a member of the Church of England who shall make a written declaration to that effect to the clergyman of his parish or district, and shall be entitled to vote-; leaving the Convention .itself to define the terms of Church membership, and to determine the nature of the franchise. As so broad and liberal a rule is proposed to be adopted in the first instance, it is hardly to be supposed that a Convention to be so elected would restrict the franchise within such narrow limits as has been referred to, but would rather seek to place it on the broad basis advocated by Sir George Grey and Archdeacon Hadfield at the last meeting in Wellington. It will be seen also that the Bishop proposes to leave to the General Convention the questions of patronage and the amount of all salaries, and that all sites of Churches, Burial Grounds, Schools, and other Church property should be vested in the General Incorporation ; thus effectually placing under the control of that body, in fact, the entire management of the Church in New Zealand.

Pastoral Letter of the Bishop of New Zealand to the Members of the Church of England in the Diocese of New Zealand. St. John's College, Auckland, April 19, 1852. My dear Friends and Brethren, — The reports which I have received from England, Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne, and Tasmania, have convinced me that the time has come, when it is my duty to press upon you the necessity of applying to the heads of the State,, and of the Church of England; for the .author* rity to-frame, -tinder their s'anctibn," such a form of Constitution for our branch of" the English Church as may define the privileges and duties of all the Members, whether Clerical or Lay, and secure to them a due participation in the management of; its affairs.' The necessity of this measure arises from two causes :— First, that-the Church in this colony is not established- by law : and, consequently, that; a large portion of the Ecclesiastical law of England is inapplicable to us. Secondly, that the Church in this Colony is dependent mainly upon the voluntary contributions of its members. It would be impossible, within any reasonable compass, to trace ont the necessary differences of system, resulting from these causes, which must exist between our Colonial Branch and the mother Church, as it is in England, established by law, and supported by perma r nent endowments. '['„',' -' We can scarcely expect that such a revision of the Ecclesiastical Law as would meet our wants, will be undertaken in England ; .because the Convocation of Clergy is no longer allowed to meet for deliberation, and the British Parliament is no longer composed only of membeis of the Church. Our own Colonial Legislature, for the same reason, cannot be considered' com-' petent to enact laws for the government of the Church.

I Ct follows, therefore, that we must either be content to have no laws to guide us, or that we must apply for the usual power granted to all incorporated bodies,— to frame bye laws for, ourselves in such matters as relate to our own peculiar position ; reserving to her .Majesty. and • to the heads of the Church in England, such rights and powers as may be necessary to maintain the Queen's supremacy, and the unity and integrity of our Church. I therefore submit to you the following statement of a few fundamental principles which, with your approbation, might be made the basis of an application for a charter of incorporation, to be granted to our branch of the English Church. It would be -reserved for the- Convention itself to decide upon all the minor details of our Church constitution, so far as we may be left-free to legislate for ourselves. Commending you to the guidance of Him who is able to give you a right judgment in all things, I remain your affectionate Friend and Pastor, G. A. New Zealand. General Principles proposed as the basis of of a Constitution for the Church in New Zealand :—: — 1 . That the Bishops, Clergy, and Laity, shall ■ be three distinct orders, the consent of all of which shall be necessary to all acts binding upon the Church at large. 2. Subject to the foregoing principle, that I each order be at liberty to conduct its deliberations separately, or to unite with the others, at its own discretion. ) 3. That provisionally, till a definition of Church Membership shall have been agreed * upon by a general Convention, every person snail be deemed a Member of the Church of .England, who shall make a written declaration to that effect to the Clergyman of his parish or . district. 4. That every adult Church Member, who shall have been duly registered, be entitled to vote at the election of lay representatives to the first general Convention. 1 5. That it shall rest with the General Convention to decide how and by whom all patronage shall be exercised ; and in what manner all persons holding Church offices shall be removable from the same ; and also to fix the amount of all Salaries, Fees, and, other allowances. 6. That it is necessary that the Church Body, constituted as above, shall be legally incorpo- ! ' rated ; and that all sites of Churches, Burial Grounds, Schools, and lands for endowment of the Church, &c, should be vested in the General Incorporation. 7. That in order to maintain the Queen's supremacy, and union with the mother Church, a | draft of the Constitution proposed for the Church in New Zealand be submitted to her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies, ' and to the Archbishop of Canterbury, through the Metropolitan Bishop of Sydney ; with a petition that her Majesty would be graciously pleased to direct the necessary steps to be taken, whether by Act of Parliament, or by Royal Charier, to secure to our branch of the English Church, the liberty, within certain limits, of framing laws for its own government. 8. That neither the doctrines nor the Ritual of the Church of England, nor the authorized version of the Bible, shall in any way be subject to the decision of the General Convention. 9. That the Bishop of New Zealand be requested to embody the above resolutions in the form of a petition, and to take such steps as may be necessary for carrying into effect the wishes of the memorialists. Signatures appended in approbation of the above propositions. sfr The Lyttelton Times of May Ist contains an account of the ceremony of laying the first stone off the first Church in the Canterbury Settlement, the funds for the erection of which have been provided by subscription. That the land purchasers should actually pay one pound an acre to a fund for religious purposes •and yet, so far as the Association is concerned, remain without any provision for the celebration of religious worship, that after having contributed to this fund as much as the Government upset price of land per acre in other parts of the colony they should be called upon themselves to furnish by private subscription the funds for the erection of the first Church in that settlement, is so gross a breach of faith on the part of the Association as to be perfectly indefensible. The Lyttelton Times admits that this conduct has deservedly " called forth much, severe criticism from the friends of that body," and that " the moment colonization under the Association commenced public faith certainly required that a Church should have been immediately built;" but attempts to extenuate this conduct on the plea that as the Association have never furnished any statement to its purchasers of the way in which' it has spent the funds intrusted to its management, "it would be clearly unfair and unreasonable in thepublic to censure any individual instance of apparent neglect or maladministration." If the Government had failed in the fulfilment of its engagements to one hundredth part the extent the Association has done, our contemporary, would have been loud in denunciations of its " dishonesty, want of faith,!' and so forth — but this is only another illustration (so frequently met with) of the readiness on the p.art of some men to strain at gnats and swallow ' camels.* l - "