either in this collection nor
in the enlarged edition put forth in 1870 were there any original
compositions, nor anything (except perhaps the hymns for "time of war")
to make it specially suitable to the needs of this country. The second
edition, set to music by Dr. Purchas of Auckland, never attained to such
widespread use as the first had enjoyed, and was soon driven from the
field by _Hymns Ancient and Modern_.

The changed seasons of the Southern Hemisphere still wait for an
inspired poet. The summer Christmas and the autumn Easter have yet to be
naturalised among us. Some attempts have been made, not altogether
without success. The birth of the Heavenly Babe "in the fulness of time"
is felt to be in keeping with the season when

The feathered choir, in copse and glade,
Their own enchanting carols sing;
Flowers add their incense to the gifts
Which nature offers to its King--

while at Easter time, instead of the old association of the Resurrection
with the renewed vitality of Spring, we have a fitness drawn from the
very contrast:

Christ is risen! All around
Autumn leaves are falling;
Signs of death bestrew the ground,
Winter time recalling.
Fading leaf and withered flower
Tell us we are mortal:
Easter morn reveals a Power
Lighting death's dark portal!

These verses are surely on the way to some poetic interpretation of the
changed seasons which shall fix the devotions of the future in classic
form.[18]

[18] From "The Christian Year Beneath the Southern Cross," by the Rev.
F. R. Inwood.

Turning from the liturgical to the personal element in our services, we
find that the solitary Marsden of 1814 is now represented by 414 clergy,
of whom 50 belong to the Maori race. The numbers vary greatly in the
different dioceses. Auckland heads the list with 110 clergy (19 being
Maoris), Wellington follows with 77, and Christchurch with 76; Waiapu
has 68 (24 being Maoris); Dunedin 46, and Nelson 29. About ninety of
these white clergy were born in the land, and many others, having
arrived in childhood, have received their training at one or other of
the colleges which have been established for the purpose.

Chief among these theological colleges stands, of course, Selwyn's old
foundation of St. John's. Its career has been a chequered one, but it
was considerably enlarged during the episcopate of Bishop Neligan, and
is now in a flourishing condition. Christchurch, in the Up