ually to consecrate, one of his clergy, the Rev. H. L. Jenner, for
a diocese which was not yet formed, and for a people who always
protested against his appointment.

A mystery still hangs over the precise motives which actuated the
archbishop. But perhaps they can be conjectured with a fair degree of
probability. The letter upon which he acted arrived in England not long
after the news of Volkner's murder. It was hard for those who had never
left England to realise the difference between the Hauhau-ridden north
and the law-abiding south of such a distant country as New Zealand. The
archbishop might well think that his best course was to send out another
bishop as soon as possible, without waiting for compliance with
constitutional formalities. Accordingly he consecrated the Rev. H. L.
Jenner "to be a bishop in New Zealand"--leaving the local authorities to
determine the exact locality of his labours.

But no such ignorance can be pleaded for Bishop Selwyn. When he wrote
the letter to the Primate of All England he was fresh from the great
synod of 1865, where the whole constitution had been revised, and the
procedure in the election of a bishop made more clear and precise. How
could he violate a law which he himself had just subscribed? The only
answer is that he did not violate it. His letter can have contained no
such request as the archbishop imagined. Selwyn himself was as much
startled as anyone, when he found what his letter had led to. But
obedience to authority was the ruling principle of his life, and, like
another Strafford, he determined to take upon himself the whole
responsibility for what was done. It was doubtless an act of heroism,
but a simple insistence upon the plain truth would have prevented much
misunderstanding, and saved the New Zealand Church some years of
trouble.

For the appointment of a bishop there must be the consent of the local
synod, and also that of the General Synod of New Zealand. Dunedin had no
synod, but its church people were represented by a small assembly called
a Rural Deanery Board. Bishop Selwyn brought all his influence to bear
upon this body, and in 1867 secured a small majority on a motion of
acquiescence in the appointment of Mr. Jenner. But the tide soon turned
again. Mr. Peter Carr Young, who had moved the resolution of
acquiescence, was called to England, and found Bishop Jenner taking part
in a service (at St. Matthias', Stoke Newington) whose extreme ritual
was qu