SYNOD OF OTAGO AND SOUTHLAND.

Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 213, 7 February 1866, Page 2

SYNOD OF OTAGO AND SOUTHLAND.

fFrom the Daily Times, 19th Jan.^l <■ The Presbytery of Otago, in virtue of its resolution of 13th January, met iu the First Church yesterday, when the Eev. Dr. Burns, as appointed by that resolution, after conducting Divine Service and preaching from Bomans IE., 28 and 29, proceeded to inaugurate and constitute the members of the Presbytery as the Synod of the Presbyterian Church of Otago and Southland. The rolls of Presbyteries, as read by the Eev. Mr. Bannerman, who was appointed interim clerk, were as follows : — Dunedin Presbytery — Eev T. Burns, D. D., Eevs. D. M. Stewart, W Will, W. Johntson, J. H. M'Naughton, J. Christie, C. Connor, W. Watt, W. Gillies :— Clutha Presbytery — Eevs. W. Bannerman, A. B. Todd, J. Urie, J. Kirkland, J. Copland, J. Waters, J. Allan ; Southland Presbytery— Eevs. A. H. Stobo, J, Clark, T. Alexander. Commissions as elders were also received in favor, of Messrs Jas. Souness, Jas. Morris, J. Q-illies, K. Murray, A. Eennie, J. I Samuel, J. Sinclair, T. B. Neilson, T. Cuddie. The Eev. Dr. Burns having been appointed Moderator until the next annual meeting of the Synod, took the chair and delivered the following address: Fathers and Brethren— lt is incumbent upoa . me, first of all, to thank you for the honor you have done me, in appointing me to occupy the Moderator's Chair, on an occasion so interesting, , and of such memorable importance, as the inauguration of the Synod of the Presbyterian Church of Otago. And in doing this, I feel that it is still more incumbent upon me to thank my Grod that, my life has been spared, and that strength is afforded me to take part in the, auspicious. proceedings of this day — proceedings '. which, completing as they do the entire platform of our church organisation, with the divine blessing on them, I feel assured will throw a lively sense of gladness and satisfaction over the .' heart and mind of every true harted Presbyterian i. in Otago, for myself, I feel that this day is the consummation of the leading aim and object of the ] last twenty-two years of my life. It was on the ' 17th day of June, 1843, .four weeks after the, '. Disruption, that I first heard of the Otago Scheme, • by a letter 'from Dr. Welsh, who was at that time ' convener of the Colonial Committee of the Free ' Church, by whose advice and opinion it was that J I was led to entertain the proposal of becoming: the first Minister of Otago. It was not, however, ' till November, ; 1847, that the first party of ' settlers were ready to embark for Otago— arriving in. Otago in March and April, 1848. • By the end * of October of that year, the total population of j Otago amounted to 444. By the time of the arrival of Mr. Will and Mr. Bannerman, in the 1 beginning of 1845, the population of the colony: J had just about quadrupled itself, amounting to ! 1752 — of that amount the town of Dunedin com- j prehended 627 souls. For six years "I, was the : ': parish minister- of Otago. My palish extended' : from Blueskin to the Nuggetts ; and from Taiaroa **■ Head to the top of Maungatua. During the first; x year, my parishioners numbered, as I have said, I between 400 and 500. During the sixth year, J tliey-had increased to between 1700. and 1800.. ; Throughout the whole of. these six years, our; : - kirk session presented a somewhat startling eccle- a siastical anomaly. When we met' and were con- e Btituted, we were astonished to find ourselves trans- I formed into a very solemn conclave; clothed with a ? dignity that was absolutely appalling and wielding an authority that was little short of the most abp * solute ecclesiastical despotism. In short we' * found ourselves constituted into Kirk Session, D Presbytery, Synod and General Assembly, all e in one. It may easily be imagined tben, with * what feelings of relief and joy we saw this con. lition of afiiaird brought to m end by the arrival 2 *t Qnee of bot& a seowd and a third r&iniste* ih S ;J$ feefioauig of Jfeiiwvj im. We ym tim V. t'L.''- ■' ''.'■ '"

placed in circumstances at once to^ieonstitute mrselves into angularly organised jPireslatery, *cordhig:tb tfie? rules of ttie' chtrofc : '.ttt< jour orefathers; 1 And i«cordingly, the solemn /act of hauguratura took place on the 27th day ; of June, .854, when, the ministers presentj-; along with iuch Elde*rs'as held' commissions from lorksessions io represeht^^ "proceeded by soleran.prayer, to •onstitute themselves, in the name of the Great Sead of the church, a Presbytery, bythe name jnd title of " The Presbytery of the Church of 3tago," and appointed the Rev. Thomas Burns ■jo be their Moderator. After prayer, having made choice of Mr. John M'Glashan, Provincial rreasurer and Solicitor, as Presbytery Clerk, they proceeded to make up the roll, which stood as follows, viz : Rev.- Thomas Burns, of Duntdin, Moderator; Rev. Wm. Will, ofthe Taieri and Waihola district ; Rev. Wm. Bannerman, of the Clutha and Tokomairiro districts, ministers. Capt. Wm. Cargill, of Dunedin, Superintendent of the Province of Otago, Commissioner from the kirksession of; ..-Dunedin ; Mr John, Allan, Commissioner from the kirk-session of Taierij elders. Mr John MlGlashan was invited to sit and vote •with the Presbytery as Procurator of the Church. The Presbytery being thus constituted, proceeded toaclopt and pass the following Act, entitled, " An Act assuming certain office-bearers and members ofthe Church as advisers. Dunedin,' 27th June, 1854.-^-j3ession I. The Presbytery now constituted," considering the fundamental " and important nature of the subjects, as to which they will be called upon to deliberate, and that a number of office-bearers, and of individuals who were office-bearers in the mother' Church, and in sister Presbyterian Churches in the mother country, and are now members of the Church of Otago,. are present, do request all such officebearers, members of this Church, and also such probationers and students of divinity as were formerly connected with any . of said Churches, and are now members of the Church of Otago, to sit ialong with' the members of Presbytery, to the glory of God and the good of the Church.' The following twenty individuals took their seats with the Presbytery accordingly -.—Rev. Robert Hood, Messrs James Adam, Charles' Robertson, George Hepburn, George Brown, James Elder Brown, Henry Clark,; John Gillies, William Young, Thomas Ferguson, Thomas Bell, George Shand, And. Kay, Jas. Cullen, Alex. Peter Lindsay, James Brown, William Smith, James Ritchie, and James Souness." Previous to the formation of the Presbytery, the population for some years spreading themselves in considerable numbers over the rural districts of the Province, and concentrating themselves in clusters in the different favorite localities as individual preference directed. These different localities, with their growing populations, very soon manifested a prevailing desire for the establishment of a religious ordinances amongst them. Of these, Port Chalmers was of course the earliest on the field. During three months in the first summer after our arrival in 1848, I preached statedly at * Post Chalmers' on the Sunday afternoon, after preaching inDunedin in the forenoon.. But after that my congregation at Dunedin became- so considerable that I felt it incumbent on me to hold the two diets of worship — forenoon and afternoon — at Dunedin, and thereby was precluded from preaching at Port Chalmers,, except at irregular intervals, and on occasion of dispensing sacred ordinances. , One occasion is^deserying of 'special mention. It occurred on the 17th day of October, 1852, .when Lpreached,in s and opened the New Church at Port Chalmers. This was the second Church .erected, in;. the colony. ; The next locality where the increasing numbers of the inhabitants had awakened the desire and expectation of stated religious ordinances being dispensed amongst ,them, ; was -the district ; of East ; Taieri. Besides visiting them all from house to house once a year, I preached, at ; ;times, : and dispensed the ordinance of baptism amongst them, ahd on the 27th day. of November, 1853, I preached in and opened their new church — the same fabric, but much enlarged, that that congregation now worships in. This was the third Church that was erected in the Province: The fourth Church was erected by the settlers in the Tokomairiro Plain. It has often been, publicly asserted, by parties in Dnnedin, who, if they did not know better, might very easily have informed themselves, that, .those who were entrusted with the practical carrying out of the original scheme of the Otago. settle-ment,-were so exclusively, .occupied with laying the foundations of their church organisation, that the all-important object of education was entirely overlooked and neglected. This is a very gross mis-statement; The actual facts lie all the opposite way. During the 'first six years ofthe colony, whilst there was only one minister provided for the spiritual wants of the settlers, there were no less than four schools opened for the education of the young. There was the school in Dunedin, the teacher , of which came out with the. first in the same ship with myself ; and the labors of both minister and schoolmaster commenced from the moment of embarkation — the minister-con-ducting worship morning iand evening 'On week days, and preaching regularly on Sunday ; and the schoolmaster as regularly opened his school on board every day through the week, and taught a Sabbath-school every Sunday. Very soon after our arrival— at least as soon as-the numbers of the children rendered it necessary, a second school -was opened at Port Chalmers;, a third school was opened in the North-east Valley ; and a fourth in the. East Taieri. In regard to these four schools, I may say that, with exception of the first— the Dunedm school — the. other three were erected and maintained by the settlers themselves, without assistance from the Church estate, further than receiving the ground on _ which the schoolhouses were built — the fact being for all the early years of the settlement the revenue from the Church estate was next to nothing. The total income from that estate during the three first years of the settlement amounted exactly to £33 4s ; whilst, during the sixth year, it amounted to the sum of £1.4 16s. The only benefit derived from the fund for religious and educational uses was that advances were made by the New Zealand Company on the security. : of that fund, for the payment , of the minister's , stipened and the salary of the Dunedin schoolmaster during the three years that the New Zealand Company were the proprietors, of the colony ; and for the partial paynient Of the minister's stipened during the ; succeeding three or four years, whilst tlie carrying out of the scheme fell into ' the hands of H.M.'s Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners in London: : ;.The course, pursued \ subsequent! to this period was that the first minister and his clerical brethren was. ever after supported from the Sustentation Fund of the Church. Whilst; the ; shoohnasters ; were ..; paid • -from school fees up till such time as 'the education scheme of the Provincial Government, .came into operation. I have stated these particulars to show '. that there is no ground for the charge that the support of the Church of .-*: Otago; : had./ibeen exclusively provided for j whilst nothing had been done for schools, and r the - interests of education had been uegleeted. Tt is with a bad grace that the easy-going men of the present day fling sach a taunt as this against' the hardy pioneers of the Otago settlement, who, with little or no capital, and with ho other resources than 1 the indbmitafl^perseveriaice of tKeir bwn"Scqttish hearts, and the /sturdy strokes of their own brawny Scottish arms, succeeded in accomplishing the Herculean enterprise of turning a wilderness ■ into a fruitful field ; and yet, amidst ' all' their: weary days and years of hardship and toils, never; realxed in the higher and more 'honprablataskof ; making provision, over the length and breadth ofi the settlement, for the ordinances of religion and the education pf the young; . Withpiit /pursuing; iny farther this brief ahd' cursory narrative ofthe; sarly days of'the Otago settlement, I shall content myself with stating^ that the ..population of our ;olony, which ih 1848 amounted to 444, had ncreased, according to the - Censuß of December, L864, including Southland, to 57,104 ; and: iarther, that whilst one minister and four schoolnasters sufficed to -supply the religious and (ducational necessities ofthe colony during the first lix years of its existeuce, theße necessities are at his momeut employing the labors of twenty^ ninisters and two probationers, all. in Qpnneo-' ion. with the Qhww of Otago, together Trith Orty.th.wa iohooh, taught by sixty •tiwe fcft&ert

teacheri^and six femidk.puipteachew«-QnMHa»t^ thing^^!|i^ril^^iS|^^jSb* consideration of such-^jß^»t^DflS?nt M.^iu^ is^that here ,woil|aive;2;| v 57,000 human -beings, occupying a territory mtha J y wMerness^fidr* 'eighteen years^ agoind human ygg j dwelling wis Tito be -iseen-i-iio ; sound ; of human pv-p industry *a^fo; bellward^riioivoice of man ,'brolutjy the deepPsitehce v of!t^ ~ Who is to "care for &ie^souls of these multitudes? Who is to take the responsibility of organizing these hosts into a well regulated society—a community ""of well-conditioned citizens, submissive to ; the authority of law, and respecting the rules of morality iand good order; The individuals that compose this vast body are mostly all strangers to each other, born and brought up in all the variety of different localities in the home country, all their previous habits, pursuits, and connections in life widely differing from each otherr-who is to. compress the 'heterogeneous elements of this -unshapely mass of living, intellectual, impassioned activity into a ! compact, well-arranged^ smoothworking, social brotherhbodj )so that the inhabitants of Otago shall present to the world a fair average specimen of humanity — a goodly section ofthe great human family, prosecuting the great ends.ahdjobjects of civilized life, and^ far above everything else, manifesting uniformly and at all times an unswerving regard for the interests :of religion and the kingdom of Christ? To whom are we to look for the carrying out of a work like this? There.is only one answer to such a question. TTnaer God, we mußt look to the ministers and' office-bearers in the Church as the agents in prosecuting this great and most indispensable work. Well! .Does any one say that this is taking a narrow and very limited view of so wide a subject? -Then I still reply that this is the right and the' only solution that can be given tp thus great problem of the greatest good of mau. Enlightened and patriotic legislation, no doubt, ; may do much for the civil and social well-being of mankind ; and so may the ; cultivation of 'tbe arts of life, and the numberless humanizing resources and appliances of philanthropic benevolence. But, unless the higher part ;of man's nature is instructed and educated^ — unless the soul is regenerated, the chief end. of man's existence will not be accomplished— the high destiny of the soul will not be fulfilled— man iwill not be happy, and God will not be glorified. The great evangelical precept is most unmistakeably clear and eiplicit as to this : it says, Seek : fiist the kingdom of God and his righteousness, '. and all other good things will be added thereto. ' Fathers and Brethren, let it be our part, through ithe grace of God,, fully to. realize to our own hearts the grandeur of that work to which, in ' God's providence, we have been called in these, the utmost ends of the earth. I have placed before you a short narrative of the first rise and early progress of our Church; in the hope that the impression.may be conveyed to your minds which, from the first, and all along, has been deeply imprinted upon my own, viz— rthat the • Churchandsettlementof Otagoare destinedby God to bear testimony for the whole circle of Divine truth in its integrity, and for Christian worship in its purity, for the glory of God, ahd the advancement of undefiled religion;' not only amidst tha old aboriginal heathenism, but also amongst the more recent heartless Christianity, and practical ungodliness of the British Colonies of this Southern Hemisphere., -Such, it, has long been impressed upon my mind, is the special mission to which the Church and people of Otago are here set to fulfil. And it cannot but be obvious to even ther most common observation, that there is no other Church in this part of the world possessed' of such -facilities, advantages, and opportunities for. bearing a united testimony for bearing a united testimony for the truth of God and the. cause of Christ. At the outset of the (jtagb enterprise we started as an avowed and recognized branchof . the Free Church of Scotland — a Church that has beed honored beyond any other church in modern times, to lift up' in the face of the Christian world a signal testimony for Christ, and the liberties of Christ's Church. The i Otago community enjoyed the; singular advantage * of sitting down in a perfectly unoccupied territory; with the most absolute freedom to adapt all her institutions, sacred and civil in perfect accor- ; dance with their own inclinations', and the dictates i of their awn consciences, ;with none to make them ; afraid. The leaders of the settlement made a great point of selecting the entire laboring class exclusively froin the Presbyterian population of Scotland:; thereby securing, as far as possible, a . working population in the young Colony, who could all conscientiously unite in worshipping God in the same House of Prayer — and in educating their children in the same parish school, 1 teaching them the same catechism, and sending them to -the samb Sunday School. Since tho ' time of the Pilgrim Fathers, who first colonised the sea board of the United States of North America, there has been no similar enterprise, possessing the same facilities for selecting and transporting, and planting down in such a happily- '-. chosen locality, a complete section of civilised society ; furnished with all needful appliances for its immediate security and progressive prosperity, and certainly Otago-has proved, in that point of view, to be a great success. Its early advancement indeed was slow and gradual ; but never for one moment was its onward progress either interrupted or arrested. I may not, however, dwell upon this, but I may fairly point to the Church of Otago in illustration of our success as a Colony, in the highest and best sense of the term. Our first party of settlers arrived on a Saturday forenoon. On Sunday ' at ' twelve, tbe people assembled in Dunedin for public worship, under their own minister— and from that Sunday, down to this present time, not a single Sabbath has passed without the same Divine ordinance being faithfully and reverentially observed. The/stillness of our Sabbaths, and the crowded state of our churches, and the highly respectable and becoming appearance of our congregations — I have often been told by visitors, strangers from the neighbouring Colonies— are not tb be paralled anywhere out/of Scotland, more especially in our country congregations . But even in Dunedia itself, with its large amount of irreligion and ungodliness; . with which w;e have of late been flooded, it is impossible to walk our streets, at the time when our forenoon congregations, of all denominations, are coming out of church, without being struck with a very agreeable kind ''of surprise, -at the' appearance . of the very large proportion of : the inhabitants who have just been paying their Sabbath homage to the;God of'the JSabbathT These are statements of a very satisfactory ■ Sind-to'be able to record on such an occasion as this. I ought now to view our condition from an oppositepoint, and look in the lace some of those evils and dangers which we, in common with all /other, churches, cannot but see already looming in the distance before us. But as I haye already exceeded my limits in thia inaugural address, r shall here pause, and aUov the business of the Synod to follow out its- own proper procedure; •':' * ; * ""•'■' '•" At the conclusion of the Moderator's -address,, which was listened to by a numerous congregation,, as well as , by ; the members ofthe j3ynod, the. Eev. "W. Bannerman was re-electedasclerk ; Committees' on Overtures, Bills, . and. . ordinary business were appointed: and the' Synod adjourned until 11 a.m. next day, the Committees being appointed to meet at 9.30 a.m. It was- also -resolved that during the sitting, the Synod should meet daily at 11 a.m.i;adjourn at 4 p.m., and resume at 6 p.m. :