PROPOSED NEW BISHOPRIC.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VI, Issue 362, 23 April 1856, Page 4

PROPOSED NEW BISHOPRIC.

(From tliu •' Wellington Independent.")

"We have been requested to publish the following memorial, addressed to the Bishop of New Zealand, for the information of the members of the Church of England. We understand that the memorial is now awaitin <; the signatures of the members of that Church, after receiving which it will he transmitted to Auckland. TO THE IUOHT 11EV. FATIIKU IN GOD, GKOKGEJ AUGUSTUS. IUSHOP OF NKW ZEALAND. We the undersigned members, clergy and laity of the Church of England, resident at Wellington, in New Zealand, address your Lordship with feelings of sincere respect. We desire by this memorial to express our deliberate opinions and wishes on a subject on which we have been assured by your lordship our wishes and opinions are in accordance with your lordship's own. Your lordship is aware that at a meeting recently held in Wellington, at which your lordship, the Archdeacon of Kapiti, and the resident Cienry, tugether with the principal laity of the Church, were pie^eut, a resolution to the foll.nviuif effect was passed. j The necessary in frequency ufyoar Lovdsliip's visits to the distant portions of a dioc -.-c .so vast as that of Mew Zealand, iudiuiing live other islands of the Smith Pacific, coupled with the. delays attendant on inter-colonial conuuauication, have lung been felt by us as a very serious inconvenience, and a chief obstacle aiu'i drawback to our progress in ecclesiastical respects We are not unmindful that, if this inconvenience has been already experienced by us, when under the superintendence of a bishop possessing no common personal qualifications for an active an.l laborious discharge of his several ministerial duties, we should assuredly experience it in a manifold degree under less favourable circumstances in that respect.

The continual need of additional churches clergy,and pastoral ministrations,adapted under proper sanction and regulation, to the various shifting circumstances and exigencies of a migratory population in newly settled districts, demands the immediate presence and oversight of some superior local authority, recognised by the law, and competent by personal knowledge and experience to deal with cases as they arise, to " set in order tilings that are wanting'," to organize systems of ministerial operation, to give stahilitv to eedesiaslieal institutions, to he a centre of union among neighbouring churohimn, and in conjunction with the interior clergy and laity, to administer on the spot, the govern tnent, discipline, property, and other temporalities of the local Church. We believe that this ohject would in a good measure be effected by the union of the provinces of Wellington and Nelson into a .separate see whether independent or subordinate to the Bishopric of New Zealand, in the relation of suffragan and metropolitan. We are of opinion elicit a revenue sufficient for the purpose miirht advantageously be reserved out of the general church endowment funds already belonging to the two provinces of Wellington and Nelson, assisted by the voluntary contributions of the people ; being persuaded that tiie creation of a separate and less extensive Bishopric would lend greatly to augment the income of the church in that locality. We request therefore that jour Lordship will take the matter into your immediate ami earnest consideration, and will give your best and earliest advice and assistance in the prosecution of a mwsur.'. which we have greatly at heart. With prayers for God's blessing upon y<"ir Lordship and \<mr many labours in llis service, and that He will prosper this work upon us in His own fond lime, we remain your Lordship's very faithful and alTectionate sons and servants in Him.