BISHOP FOR MAORIS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19459, 15 October 1926, Page 14

BISHOP FOR MAORIS.

A NATIVE OR A PAKEHA. THE PRESENT DEADLOCK. FURTHER CONFERENCE LIKELY. A review of the difficulties met with in the appointment of a bishop to the new Maori diocese of Ao-tea-roa was given in his charge to the Auckland Diocesan Synod by Archbishop Averill, who suggested that a special conference of bishops and laity be held to seek a way out. "Contrary to expectation," said the Archbishop, "when the special session of General Synod passed a canon to provide for a diocesu for the Maoris, no further progress has as yet taken place in the actual creation of the diocese or the appointment of a bishop. The bishops of the province have twice met the Maori Synod in conference, as required by the canon, and twice the conference has proved abortive. At the first conference, held in Wellington immediately after the conclusion of the special session of General Synod, the Maoris strongly urged that the bishop should bo a member of the Maori race. The bishops, with full knowledge of the proceedings of the conference of North Island bishopr, Maori clergy, and European superintendents held in Rotorua in June, 1925, when the plea for a Maori diocese was first mooted by the representatives of the Maori clergy without any insistence upon the nationality of the bishop, could not see their way to hand over their sacred responsibility for their Maori people to any one of the Maori clergy at. the. present time. Views of General Synod.

■ "The bishops, too, just, fresh from the debate in General Synod, when a 'statute to provide for organisation of Church work among the members of the Maori race and the episcopal supervision thereof, was passed, were alive to the fact that many members of synod supported the. bill on the understanding that the first bishop, at any rate, should be a pakeha. I? the action of the bishops needs any justification, I would say that the bishops were not in any way influenced by what is called the 'colour question,' arid would gladly have appointed a Maori to the position, if, in their judgment, a Maori of sufficient standing, erudition and administrative ability had been available. It is no reflection upon the Maori clergy, many of whom are men of considerable promise, that in the opinion of the bishops none 'of them so far had had the opportunity of developing tile particular gifts needed for the exercise c.f the episcopal • office and the inauguration of a new and somewhat complicated diocese. That may, 1 admit, he a reflection upon the methods pursued by the Church in respect of the Maori race. Maoris Desire to State Oase"The first conference between the bishops and the Maori Synod having failed to reach any decision, the conference was postponed for a few months to enable th« members of the Maori Synod to think the matter over carefully and to bring the point of view of the bishops before their people. A second conference was held in Wellington in August last, and although a considerable ch; nge had taken place in the attitude of many members of the Maori Synod, yet there still remained a majority of one against appointing a pakeha as the first bishop. It. seemed, then, as if the whole movement for the creation of a diocese for the Maoris would fall to the ground and that General Synod must bo asked to repeal the statute. The Maoris, however, requested that they might be allowed the privilege of stating their case to the next General Synod—a privilege which I am sure the General Synod will grant. "In the meantime it must not, be forgotten that there may be other ways in which the work of the Church among the Maoris may be established as a separate entity, and therefore it is advisable that there should be held another conference, consisting of the bishops of the North Island, together with representatives—Maori and pakeha—from each diocese, in order to devise some scheme by which the Maori work in the province can he unified and be made more effective."