PARLIAMENTARY EXTRACTS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume II, Issue 96, 6 November 1852, Page 4

PARLIAMENTARY EXTRACTS.

In the House of Lords, when the Bishopric of Christ Church Bill was read a third time the Bishops of Oxford and London took the' opportunity to pay well-merited compliments to Bishop Selwyn. The former Right Reverend Prelate said :—

" He did not like this bill, which took from the Right Rev. the Bishop of New Zealand a portion of his diocese, to leave that house without raising a voice, which might reach that right rev. prelate in his' sphere of labour and self-denial, expressive of the interest with which his unwearied exertions in the spread of gospel truth around him had been observed and appreciated by his countrymen at home. When his right rev. brother went to take possession of his See it was well known that he yyas undertaking no ordinary task. He was to be placed on an island, where his diocese was partitioned into seven several divisions, inaccessible except by sea and unconnected with each other by any Jf the ordinary means of transit, tie had io pass from one side of the island to the other on foot and often reached the objects of his visitation worn out in body, and sometimes with the clothes torn off his person. Undeterred by the fact that the rivers were without bridges, and that there were no boats to convey him acrossthem, he could only accomplish his high vocation by undergoing great labour and "toil, and often considerable danger. After he had brought his own diocese into something- like order, he undertook the arduous task of spreading' the true faith, of which he was the chief minister, in the countless islands by which New Zealand was encircled. It was mentioned by his noble friend the Under Secretary for the" Colonies a few nights ago that, by some sort of mistake iv his right reverend brother's patent, some extraordinary degree of latitude has been assigned to his diocese, which brought it almost in "contact with the Sandwich Islands. As far as he could, his right reverend brother had given a practical effect to that which was beyond all doubt.a mistake. He had founded a c'olleo-e in the islands of New Zealand, to which he°had brought youths intrusted to his care from the different clusters.of islands around it, who were to receive there a Christian and English education, and then to go back to their heathen friends, and to become the seminal principle of Christianity and civilization among them. In executing that work he had acted practically as the captain of the ship which he had himself chartered, and had not only worked it with his own hands to save the funds, which he thought might be better expended on other christian objects, but had also exposed his own life to the greatest possible risks, in order that he mioht the more effectually perform this, his labour"of love. (Cheers.) He had prospered, too, in his work, in a way and to a degree which gave promise that from New Zealand, as from a centre, the healing influences of Christianity would go forth through all those groups of islands which sprinkled the antipodes. He felt it due to his right rev. friend that, as it had fallen to his (the Bishop of Oxford's) lot to move the separation of his diocese, there should go forth at the same time a voice which might cheer him in his often lonely and unappreciated labour of love and charity ; and which would assure him that in that, as in every other assembly of his countrymen, he had met with sympathising hearts which appreciated his pious and disinterested labours."