ote of him thus:
"He left upon me the deep impression that he never had an ideal of power
or wealth or fame, but that to go about doing good, and to promote the
welfare of his fellow-men with all his strength, were the objects he had
in view in his whole life."

This resignation was destined to bring about a constitutional difficulty
which recalled the trying days of the Jenner incident. The question
which divided the Church was nothing less than this, Who is the
legitimate primate or chief pastor of New Zealand?

Dunedin, curiously enough, was again the point from which the trouble
emanated, and a Selwyn was again the person who unintentionally brought
it about. Bishop Harper announced his intention to resign the primacy to
a general synod at Dunedin in February, 1889. At the close of the
session he called for an election of a bishop to take his place as
primate in six months' time. The first and the second ballots were
inconclusive. Had the third ballot yielded a similar result, the primacy
would have gone, according to the canons, to the senior bishop.

The Bishop of Nelson was the senior by consecration, though not by age,
and he received a large majority of lay votes. But the clergy did not
think him "safe," and gave their votes preponderantly to the veteran
Hadfield. Before the final ballot, the Bishop of Melanesia broke the
silence enjoined on such occasions, and urged the laity "not to let the
election go by default." His advocacy was successful, and at the third
ballot the Bishop of Wellington, having received a majority of all
orders, was declared by the old primate to be duly elected to fill his
place.

But this decision did not remain long uncontested. From a strictly legal
point of view, the proceedings were invalidated by the fact that the
canons gave no authority for an election until the primatial seat was
actually vacant. This technical objection was rendered more cogent by
Bishop John Selwyn's impulsive act. His speech was undoubtedly a breach
of the law, and undoubtedly also it turned the election.

The situation was a difficult one, and it affected more especially the
diocese of Christchurch. For Bishop Harper's retirement was leaving that
diocese vacant, and its synod had elected Archdeacon Julius of Ballarat
to fill Dr. Harper's place. But the election could not be completed
without the sanction of the General Synod or of the Standing Committees
of the various dioceses, and until the primacy q