THE MELANESIAN MISSION.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1095, 6 April 1911, Page 9

THE MELANESIAN MISSION.

SELECTION OP A NEW BISHOP. ' At'a committee meeting of the mission, held' in February at tho Church House, London, presided over by the Bishop of St. Albans, at which were present, among others, the Bishop of Rochester, the Head Master of Eton, Canon Still, Prebendary Selwyn, Admiral Sir N, Bowden-Smith, and'Admiral.Gibson, the following resolutions were unanimously passed:— "The committee have received with mingled feelings the news of tho resigna : Hon of his oflice, 1 ' with eliedt from' July;: 1911, of the Bishop of Melanesia; but they recognise that it has been dictated by the same' unselfish devotion to the cause of the Mclancsiah Mission that has characterised his whole career as Bishop since his consecration in 1891. "The. committee gladly note that the staff of tho'Melanesian Mission (by telegram 'to 'the Bishop of St. Albans, received on February 11 from Archdeacon C'ullwick) have, requested the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of St. Albans, and Canon Still to act on their behalf in tho selection of a successor .to Bishop Wilson, and that the three delegates have intimated their intention of choosing an unmarried man who shall carry out what is now stated--to be the conviction of the' entire' mission—that the headquarters of the mission should be changed from Norfolk Island to the Solomon Islands. The committee feel sure that, in view of the great traditions of the mission, the complexity of tho problem, the great natural interest of the New Zealand Synod and .of Australian Churchmen in all that concerns the mission, the Bishop of Melanesia and tho authorities of the mission will come to no final decision witli' respect to work in Norfolk Island, and the question of retaining the Southern Cross, until ample time has been given for the careful consideration of these subjects, and until the Bishop's successor has had time, after taking charge of the mission, to form a deliberate judgment."