after reading the letters that had been waiting in Auckland:--


'My father writes:--"My tutor says that there must be a Melanesian
Bishop soon, and that you will be the man," a sentence which amused
me not a little.

'The plan is that the Bishop should gradually take more and more time
for the islands, as he transfers to the General Synod all deeds,
documents, everything for which he was corporation sole, and as he
passes over to various other Bishops portions of New Zealand.
Finally, retaining only the north part of the northern island, to
take the Melanesian Bishopric.

'I urged this plan upon him very strongly one day, when somewhere
about lat. 12° S. (I fancy) he pressed me to talk freely about the
matter. I said: "One condition only I think should be present to
your mind, viz., that you must not give up the native population in
New Zealand," and to this he assented.

'If, dear tutor, you really were not in joke, just try to find some
good man who would come and place himself under the Bishop's
direction unreservedly, and in fact be to him much what I am + the
ability and earnestness, &c. Seriously, I am not at all fitted to do
anything but work under a good man. Of course, should I survive the
Bishop, and no other man come out, why it is better that the ensign
should assume the command than to give up the struggle altogether.
But this of course is pure speculation. The Bishop is hearty, and, I
pray God, may be Bishop of Melanesia for twenty years to come, and by
that time there will be many more competent men than I ever shall be