THE BISHOP OF AUCKLAND.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume V, Issue 43, 25 October 1890, Page 1

THE BISHOP OF AUCKLAND.

IHE Right Reverend William Garden Cowie, D.D., has now occupied the see of Auckland for the space of twenty-one years. Anyone who sees the Bishop of Auckland unostentatiously pursuing his ministerial duties on foot or gently ambling on horseback along a quiet -t- country road, would scarcely suspect that he had been a militant cleric, and figured in some of the most thrilling scenes connected with the preservation and the extension of our great Empire of India. Bishop Cowie was born nearly sixty years ago in London. He comes of the Cowies of Auchterless, in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, his father having gone from thence to London. He graduated from Trinity Hall, Cambridge, thirty-six years ago, inlaw, but nevertheless entered the Church,his first charge being that of cnrate at St. Clement’s, one of the districts of that University town. During the eventful years of the Indian Mutiny we find him officiating as chaplain to Lord Clyde’s Army, and present at the taking of Lucknow in the year 1857. Five years later he appears riding up to Afghanistan with the column of Sir Neville Chamberlain, in the same capacity as chaplain. After successively occupying the positions of chaplain to the Viceroy of India and to the Bishop of Calcutta, he returned to England, where he was instituted to the benefice of Stafford in the year 1867. Two years later, when the much beloved Bishop Selwyn relinquished the bishopric of Auckland in lieu of that of Lichfield in England, Bishop Cowie was selected to succeed him, and was duly consecrated to the diocese in 1869. During the long period through which his episcopal duties have been continued Bishop Cowie has succeeded in preserving the esteem and good-will of persons of every denomination, owing to the liberality of his views and his kindly efforts in the cause of humanity and refinement, while with the members of the Episcopalian community he is deservedly popular,

The constitution of the Diocesan Synod now assembled, and which meets annually in the present month, is based upon the principle of representation of the three orders—bishop, clergy, and laity, the voting on all questions being by orders. The Bishop, by virtue of his office, is the President, with a right of veto upon the resolutions of the other two bodies, and the function of directing the debates. Each of the clergy is a member of the clerical body by virtue of his calling, but the members of the laity are elected by the parishes or districts of the diocese. Every parish or district is entitled to one representative at least ; those with sixty persons of declared church - membership are entitled to two lay representatives ; while those with a hundred and fifty or more are entitled to three.

The constitution of the General Synod, which meets triennially at one of the live towns of Auckland, Wellington, Nelson, Christchurch, and Dunedin, is also based upon representation and church membership. The seven bishops of

Wellington, Auckland, Nelson, Waiapu, Dunedin, Christchurch, and Melanesia compose the episcopal order. The order of the clergy consists of representatives elected by the mass of the clergy of each diocese. The order of the laity is made up of the representatives of the districts of the dioceses, each of which sends one. In Auckland there are four—Waimate, Waitemata, Waikato, and Taranaki.

The Diocese of Auckland, which was constituted in the year 1841, is the most extended in New Zealand, and the incumbencies are the most numerous of those in any diocese, amounting in all to seventy-two. It is represented in the General Synod by three clerical anil four lay delegates. The former are Archdeacons Dudley and Clarke, and the Rev. C. M. Nelson ; the latter are Messrs G. P. Pierce, J. N. Ritchie, J. H. Upton (the present Mayor), and E. Y. Cox. The last meeting of tlie General Synod was a year ago at Christchurch, the next will be at Wellington two years hence. It takes eighteen years before the General Synod can meet again at the same place.