The Lyttelton Times.

Lyttelton Times, Volume II, Issue 56, 31 January 1852, Page 5

The Lyttelton Times.

January 31, 1852. The Church in England and in the colonies present very different aspects. The former has' grown up from remote ages in a variety of tanr

gled relations with the state, which at once supports her form and obstructs her growth. Endowed with vast hereditary wealth, and great political power, it is unavoidable that she should be regarded with jealousy by her foes, and that every effort for extending her influence, or completing her development to meet the spiritual wants she is expected to supply, should be watched with suspicion as an effort to multiply possessions, or aggrandize power.

This position of the Church in England has exercised a paralyzing influence upon the Church in the colonies. Enjoying no support —for the payment of a few chaplains attached to the government establishments cannot deserve the name, —possessed of no wealth, devoid of all influence in the state, deprived of all the privileges which the position of the Church in England affords, —the Church in the colonies still languishes under the same disadvantages which obstruct the usefulness of the Mother Church, and to which her very connexion with that Church exposes her. Finding no organization provided for her, she has hitherto shrunk, as it were, from struggling for such an organization for herself. And yet had she been so far true to herself as to assert boldly her right to such organization, it is probable that her claims would have been admitted by all candid minds. To work without union and system is plainly impossible; as well might any company or society try to get on without fixed rules or settled constitution: as well might an undisciplined un-officered rabble be called an efficient army.

Clear the question of all the incidental difficulties with which we are accustomed, owing to our English associations, to surround it, and the requirements of the case would seem to be sufficiently simple. The Church in this light is a Society or Corporation for the attainment of certain objects. It requires, like any other society, to have settled laws, a fixed constitution, a clear definition of membership, a power of admission and exclusion, an authority for the appointment of its officers and servants and for punishing neglect of duty. This is nearly all that the Church requires as a social body ; and in the recent occurrences at Adelaide and at Wellington, of which we publish a report to-day; this appears to be the great want recognized, and the object aimed at. It is one which need excite no jealousy on the part of other religious bodies, for all will admit that the Church has as much right as any other community to self-government, and independent action. But there is one point which has not been noticed at either of the meetings to which we refer. We mean the propriety of applying for a royal charter of Incorporation for the Church in each Diocese. There seems no reason why a charter should be refused to such a^society as that which we are contemplating any more than to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. The object of such a royal charter should be, to state (1) who'were to be considered members of the Corporation,—to fix a franchise; (2) to give a power of making bye-laws ;-(3) to settle the constitution of the Corporation by which the bye-laws were to be made—as for example, by the Bishops, the Synod of Clergy, and the Convention of Laity ; (4) to convey the rights of holding and administering corporate property. There might still be a doubt as to whether the Church so incorporated should have the power of electing its own Bishop. At Adelaide they propose to leave the present arrangements" iv that respect undisturbed ; but we maintain that the Church ought to possess such power, and that whatyer reasons there may be connected with State;policy for vesting the appointment of the Bishops in England; in the Crown, or Government'of the day, there could be none whatever in a colony where the endowment is not suppliedjby the State, and where the Bishop is not invested with any political authority or position.

We have thrown out these remarks rather as suggestions for the consideration of our readers. In Canterbury there is a fund derived from the land which ought to be administered by some local authority. And these questions will ere long be freely discussed amongst us. In any course which the church in this settlement may adopt, it will certainly be advisable to act as much as possible in concert with neighbouring churches, so as to strengthen their hands and ours by mutual agreement in the mode of accomplishing the great work entrusted to the Church of God upon earth.

The past week has abundantly exemplified the peculiar climate of New Zealand, by_ the prevalence for a considerable portion of it of strong southerly winds, cold and wet, and the most opposite that could be imagined to the fine fsummer weather of the preceding weeks. In the gale on Sunday morning the cutter " William," the property of Mr. Pollard, went ashore under sail, a short distance below the hull of the brig " Torrington," and sustained considerable injury, her larboard bilge being stove in and stern post started. Her cargo also was much damaged.

On Monday evening a house, near the bush above Jackson Road, caught fire and was totally destroyed, together with the furniture &c. that it contained. The house was composed of wood and clay, with a thatched roof; it belonged to Mr. Gosling, and was tenanted by a carpenter, with his wife and family; the husband being from home at the time of the fire. It was fortunately distant from the close part of the town, or, happening as it did during an interval of northerly wind, much property would have been endangered. The " Pauline" is once more in her proper element, the arrangements for getting her off the beach having been remarkably successful. She is now about to be beached in Rhodes' Bay for further repairs, and is advertised to sail for Sydney early in February.

A match of 201. to 151. took place at Christchurch on the 20th inst., between Mr. Ellis's bay horse Hoani Hehi, 6 years, and Mr. Lee's bay mare Countess, 3 years, ridden by their respective owners. The race, of a mile and half, was won by Hoani Beki by a length. On the same day a match of 51. was run for between the same horses, in two mile heats. Countess, 11 st. 6 lbs., was ridden by Bentley, and Hehi, 12 st. 8 lbs., by Thompson. Countess beat Heki in the first heat by a head, but the heat was claimed for Hehi, Bentley having dismounted before being weighed. Countess won the second heat by a length, and the third in a common canter.— Communicated.