e no less dear to the Canterbury leader than they were to the bishop
himself. There was all the greater necessity for insistence upon them
from the actual circumstances of the colonists. In spite of its
aristocratic patrons, the Association was not successful in selling much
of its land. There was no money wherewith to build the promised churches
and schools nor to pay the clergy. Instead of finding themselves in the
receipt of assured stipends, these luckless men were often reduced to
something like destitution. The trouble had been partly foreseen, and
the Association had tried to find clergy possessed of private means.
Some of the clerical immigrants were thus endowed, and they were able to
render considerable service. But the system was repugnant to Godley. He
found himself confronted with the same problem as had met Selwyn in the
north. To the Association it appeared that such a body of clergy "with
their possession of private estate, and its necessary occupation and
management, would resemble the condition of a large portion of the
English clergy as holders of glebe and tythes." To Godley, on the other
hand, it appeared that such men would be "primarily settlers and
landowners, and but secondarily priests."

This was not the only point on which Godley found himself at variance
with his friends in London. In their eagerness to secure clergy of
position for their colony, these had actually taken upon themselves to
appoint a dean and canons for what was still a part of Selwyn's diocese.
This step excited the indignation of the bishop. He was further angered
by what he considered an unworthy attempt to interfere with the
spiritual functions of the episcopal office. In a letter to Godley he
complains bitterly of the "Erastianism" of this action, and of the
attempt to make him an accomplice in such proceedings. "It is not my
business," he wrote, "to censure the Association, but I must decline all
further correspondence with them." This letter was written on May 6,
1851, and it seems to have kindled into flame Godley's smouldering
wrath. On the 10th of June he sent off a despatch in which he took up
exactly the same ground as the bishop, and resigned his office as a
protest against the policy of the Association. His action had the
desired effect; the shadowy "dean and canons of Lyttelton" vanished into
obscurity, and the Association itself shortly afterwards came to an end.
It was composed of many noble and high-minded me