The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-08-14 00:00:00

TUE DlBllO

OF WELLINGTON, NEW
ZEALAND.

(From the Colonial Gazette.)
It will be seen that the Archbishop of Canterbury has
given his sanction to the plan of endowing a bishopric by
means of voluntary subscriptions at the infant settlement of
Wellington, in New Zealand. We regard this as a very im-
portant event in colonial affairs. The cautious primate has
not thus committed himself to novel principles without
ample inquiry and reflection. He deliberately acknowledges
that new colonies are not despicable, but worthy of respect-
ful consideration ; and that in seeking to bestow on them,
from the very beginning of their career, the utmost com-
pleteness, so far as the province of the church is concerned,
it is better to succeed independently of the state than to fail
altogether. The Church of England, represented by her
spiritual head, relies on herself as respects new colonies ;
and while she thus avoids giving offence to members of other
communions, she flatters the pride of these young societies,
and gains their affection, by treating them as equal in her
regards to the old country itself. What a lesson for the po-
litical rulers of colonies ! And let it be observed further,
that the Church of England, by planting herself, as the Bi-
shop of London says, " in all her integrity," in a new colony

—by providir

•orn the outset all that pert

y transfers to the colony, so far as, relates to the church,
the powers of local self-government. The Church of Eng-
-I.nd in New Zealand will manage its own affairs on the spot,
free from the mischievoui necessity of having to refer con-
tinually to an authority 16,000 miles distant, and therefore
unavoidably ignorant and indifferent with respect to the co-

lony. The efficiency and popularity of chuich-government
are thus both secured at once. When will the principles on
which this wise religious scheme is founded, be adopted by
those who hold in their hands the political destiny of colo-
nies? Sooner, perhaps, than it would be reasonable to ex-
pect, if churchmen had not set this striking example to poli-
ticians. The government of the Church of England will be
as complete in New Zealand as it is at home. The political
government which has been provided for the colonists is so
imperfect, so utterly devoid of every attribute of complete-
ness, so near a makeshift of haste and carelessness, that com-
parisons between it and the plan of church-government must
needs be made continually, with a tendency to expose the
errors of the Colonial Office, and to bring about legislation
by parliament on the principles of efficiency and popularity
that distinguish the religious scheme.
The notice of one point only will suffice to illustrate this
position. If the committee of the Church Society for New
Zealand should not succeed in their endeavour to found a
bishopric at Wellington, the Church of England, without
settlement, would be subject to the authority of the bishop
of the distant colony of New South Wales : as respects the
affairs of the church, the new colony would be a dependency
of a penal settlement 1200 miles distant : the government of
the church would be to the last degree both inefficient and
unpopular. But if the members of the Church of England
at home are sincere in their professions of attachment to her,
the means of establishing Protestant Episcopacy at Welling-
ton will be speedily provided ; and therefore it is only for the
purpose of showing how inefficient and unpopular the politi-
cal institutions of the new colony mast be, that we allude to
the chance of failure in the project of a bishopric on the spot.

Politically, the new settlement is made wholly dependent on
New South Wales. And here the case is even worse than
that which would result from dependency in church matters;
because not only is New Zealand a formidable rival of New
South Wales, and especially her competitor at home for the
emigration of capital arid labour, but the laws of New South
e Wales and the mode of administering them,

adapted to a community of convict