THE WELLINGTON BISHOPRIC.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIV, Issue 96, 25 April 1893, Page 3

THE WELLINGTON BISHOPRIC.

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —Your trenchant and exhaustive leader should be read by all who have a vote for the future Bishop of Wellington. Tfaat diocese must sudor if it lack a strong leading spirit and vigorous frame to preside over it. Bishop Hadfield is a man of hf.gh culture and great knowledge, of a keen perception, too, and had his culture and ministerial experience been completed and not merely begun in England, he might have been a model Bishop. Among Maoris he was a success. But, sir, when a man has been guttering more or less for over 40 years, a great portion of hi 3 bo3t days being spent among Maoriea, it is too much to expect that he ! could inspire, lead, and rule well other jj clergy, so as to work mainly among Euro- J peans. Bishop Hadfield is a high-class man by nature and effort, with a wiry frame and strong intellect. His rewards, of this world, have been but moderate, and his labours incessant. He appears now to to be resigning. Bo it so, at his ago it is wise, for him and tho Diocese. My hope, sir, is that his clergy, and laity will elect a strong, clever, suitable successor--Who shall he be ? Is there a New Zealand-bred cleric fit for the post, some will ask, and the question is reasonable. How can men with £150 to £350 a year, who lived, tried to live, or have half - starved (with their large families of six to ten children) among Maoris, or scattered English, have the pluck, energy, zeal, knowledge, experience, or classical attainments, so as to fib them to bo more than tolerable, or pardonable bishops ? How can New Zealand-made clergy be real magnates, intellectual leaders, and kings among men ? The thing to be possible, would have to be miraculous at present. Sir the English Universities, the glorious homes for study, such as the English Cathedrals, their endowments, and their Sabbatic rest, can alone, as a rule, fit men to write books, or to be, in any true sense, worthy of being bishops iv Australasia.—i am, etc.,