NEW BISHOP OF WAIAPU.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 October 1929, Page 8

NEW BISHOP OF WAIAPU.

News of the selection of Archdeacon Herbert Williams to be Bishop of Waiapu on the retirement of Bishop -Sedgwick will be received with general satisfaction within and without the Anglican community. The high office for which he has been chosen is something more than the sectional leadership of a religious organisation, and to those outside his church the appointment of a New Zealander to a position which carries with it wide influences and responsibilities is sure to appeal. The fact that Mr. Williams’ appointment is by the choice of that portion of the church he will be called upon to control is another ground for satisfaction. It carries with it almost the certainty of outstanding qualifications for the position, and in the present case carries on a family tradition that is unique in New Zealand, if not in the Empire. The history of the Anglican Church in New Zealand has interwoven with it the life and work of members of the Williams family, It was the forceful personality and unceasing work of the first Archdeacon Williams that did much to lay the foundations of the church in this land so far from its headquarters. Before New Zealand had definitely become a white man’s country the work of the church had -begun, increased and multiplied. It was largely the beneficient work of the missionary churclies that enabled the high-spirited Maori to see that he might take his place within the British Empire without loss of prestige or of tradition. In those negotiations the part borne by members of the Williams family will always be an honoured chapter in New Zealand history. Since then two of them have been bishops of their church in a diocese that has a large, if not the largest, Maori population of any diocese in the Dominion. In their associations with the Maori race members of the Williams family have a world-wide reputation. They have had the inestimable privilege of contact with the Maori of all classes before Western civilisation altered many of his characteristics and circumstances, and they have been in close touch with the Maori right through the century that has seen his assimilation, of the more complex existence which the pakeha brought. A large portion of-the work of the church in the diocese of Waiapu must be ultimately concerned with the Maori people. It is therefore fitting that a thorough knowledge of that people should be demanded from anyone chosen for public leadership. The new bishop will bring to his task traditions and knowledge that are quite unique and that should prove- of inestimable value, not only to the church, but to the community in which he is to hold so honoured a position.