e reached on Feb.
14th. Here he evidently felt himself to be on alien soil, for though he
thoroughly appreciated the ceremonious politeness with which he was
received on board the French corvette, he does not seem to have held any
service on shore, nor performed any episcopal act. He was more at home
with a godly Presbyterian family whom he found at Pigeon Bay, and
complied with their request to conduct their evening prayer.

By the end of the month he was back in Wellington, where at last there
appeared some hopeful signs. A new governor (Captain Fitzroy) had just
arrived, who helped him to secure a better site for a church; and a new
judge, "who spoke very co-operatively on church matters." At Auckland he
consecrated St. Paul's Church, and was pleased to find his projected
church at Tamaki already taking shape. Such "a solid venerable-looking
building" refreshed his spirit[6] amidst "the wilderness of
weather-board;" and he had another "delicious day" in his library at
Kerikeri before he finally arrived at Waimate. He was escorted home on
March 21 by a procession of the members of the college and the schools,
amounting in all to full 50 souls, and found everything in such good
order that he requested his English friends to waste no more compassion
upon him for the future.

[6] Selwyn had an Englishman's love for a stone building, and always
spoke of the wooden churches of the country as "chapels." Yet some of
these despised buildings (e.g., those at Kaitaia and at Russell),
which had been built before his arrival, are still in existence and in
regular use; whereas his "solid" church, at Tamaki, which he looked
upon with so much pride, very soon proved dangerous, and is now a
picturesque ruin.

Everything seemed to promise fair for the second term of the college,
but troubles arose in an unexpected quarter. The Home Committee of the
C.M.S. paid one half of the episcopal stipend, and of course recognised
the spiritual side of the office. But they would not give up their
jurisdiction over their agents, nor allow the bishop to place them where
he would. As nearly all the clergy in the country belonged to this
Society, such a restriction would have left the bishop with but little
real power. Selwyn was the last man in the world to acquiesce in such an
arrangement. The result was that the Society refused to grant him a
renewal of his lease of the buildings at Waimate, and it became
necessary for the bishop