only remains to add that when Bishop Selwyn was translated to Lichfield, the Synod, in October, 1868, elected Bishop Harper as his successor to the Primacy. Bishop Selwyn himself presided over that Synod, but sailed immediately afterwards to take up his duties in England.
The Primate-elect did not enter in his office till July, 1869, when he received notice from the late Bishop of New Zealand that his resignation of office as Metropolitan had been registered in the office of Faculties of the Arch-bishop of Canterbury.
At the time of his installation Bishop Harper’s diocese as Bishop of Christchurch included not only Canterbury, but Otago and Southland. The division of the diocese occurred in 1869, and was followed by a painful incident in the Church history of New Zealand. It is not necessary to tell the story here, it will be found fully related in Dean Jacobs’ “Diocese of New Zealand.” Suffice it to say that Dr Jenner claimed, unsuccessfully as it proved, to have been appointed Bishop of Dunedin. The claim was resisted, and in the meantime Bishop Harper continued to administer the affairs of both dioceses. It was not till 1871 that the question was finally disposed of, and on June 4 of that year, the Right Rev. Samuel Tarratt Nevill was consecrated at St. Paul’s, Dunedin, and on the same day, the Bishop of Christchurch formally resigned charge of the Bishopric of Dunedin, and, as Primate of New Zealand, inducted the Right Rev. S. T. Nevill into the Bishopric of the See.
