PIONEER BISHOP

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21315, 17 October 1932, Page 10

PIONEER BISHOP

CONSECRATION OF SELWYN :| NINETY-FIRST ANNIVERSARY \ Ninety-one years ago, on October 17, 1841, George Augustus Selwyn was consecrated first Bishop of New Zealand. For more than a quarter of a century the Church Missionary Society had represented the Church of England in New Zealand, latterly under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Australia, Dr. Brougtton. With the establishment of British sovereignty in 1840 and the movement for systematic colonisation by the New Zealand Company, it was realised in. England that action by the Church was necessary. A society was formed trider the presidency of the Earl of Devon, with the co-operation of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge and the New Zealand Company. Through its efforts an Act of Parliament wis passed . creating the See of New Zealand, and Selwyn was consecrated • under Royal. letters patent as its first bishop. He ar- . rived at Auckland in May, 1842. The close of Selwyn's notable episcopate of 26 years saw the New Zealand Church under an autonomous constitution of democratic character and. the colony divided into six bishoprics, with, the missionary diocese of Melanesia forcing part of the ecclesiastical province. "While visiting England in 1867, Selwyn yielded to the insistent request of Queen Victoria and became Bishop of Lichfield, on condi-. tion that he should be allowed, to return to New Zealand and bid good-bye to his flock. Thus for a year or so he was bishop of both sees. He finally left Auckland on. October 20, 1868, 64 years ago next Thursday, amid scenes of universal -