its fairly complete provisions for Church order and discipline, it will in future probably be a model for Colonial Churches, who have to look to themselves for the management of their own households.
Synod, amongst many matters, had to deal with one thorny question which needed careful handling. The Diocese of Christchurch includes the whole of the South Island, with the exception of the Nelson district. The time has come when it would be desirable, if it can be so arranged with due regard to finance and other matters, to sub-divide the Diocese and create one in the district of Otago and Southland, hitherto under the care of a Rural Deanery Board, responsible to the Bishop of Christchurch. Bishop Selwyn has taken steps in the matter, as Primate, but, owing to some inadvertence and misunderstanding, a serious difficulty has occurred. The subdivision of the Diocese of Christchurch needs the consent of its Bishop and Synod, and the creation of a new See, together, with the appointment of its Bishop, must have the authority of General Synod. Somehow these necessary preliminaries have been ignored, and an appointment has been made in England, followed by the consecration of a Bishop for the not yet constituted diocese of Dunedin. Much trouble has arisen in Otago, where Church people are unwilling to accept the appointment, no sufficient financial provision having been made, nor their consent in any way obtained. Their representatives came to Synod to plead their case, so emphatically, that Synod was in a dilemma. It was a serious matter to refuse a Bishop already consecrated and designated, though informally, for a See in New Zealand, yet not less serious a matter for Synod to waive its own authority,
