The Episcopalian Synod.

Otago Witness, Issue 1640, 28 April 1883, Page 12

The Episcopalian Synod.

Napieb, April 20th. There waa a lengthy debate on the report on , home and foreign missions, which ■ recommends special efforts on behalf of Maori missions. The Rev. Samuel Williams, in a lengthy speech, denounced the Waik&to War as unjust, and, in an interesting and minute account, declared that Win. King (Wireinu Kingi) had saved the inhabitants of Wellington and New Plymouth from massacre, and as his reward he and his people were ejected horn their houses, which were burnt, and their whole worldly goods destroyed before one of them lifted a hand. It was, he argued, the felt injustice of these wara which had hindered Maori missionaries, but he thought that feeling was now passing away, and that Hau-

hauism would rapidly disappear. The Bishop of Nelson said that this speech entirely justified every word he Baid at tfhe meeting of the Church Missionary Society m England on European action , towards the Maoris, for which speech he had jußt been conderaned by the Bishop of Auckland. Colonel Haultain quietly remarked that the Synod was not the proper place for such discussion, and he would only say that the Revi Mr Williams had looked from one point of view at a subject which was capable of being regarded from many points of view. For bis (Colonel Haultain's) part he did not look upon the Waikato War as unjust, but he would not discuss it at that time and place. After a brief but warm debate, a committee was appointed to watch educational matters with a view to obtain a modification of the present system. The deceased-wife'a-sister question was summarily hung up by the previous question being carried, after Dean Jacobs' motion had been seconded by Archdeacon Mules. The Primate read an address to the Maori Church, which the Rev. Samuel Williams undertook to translate.

A vote of thanks to the Primate was proposed by Colonel Haultain, and the reciting of " Gloria in Excelsis " brought the Synod to a close.