sensation and incident to back them; and thus there sometimes seemed
to the exterior world to be a lack of information about the Mission.

The letters of January 1860 show how the lads were fortified against
weather: 'They wear a long flannel waistcoat, then a kind of jersey-
shaped thing, with short trousers, reaching a little below the knee,
for they dabble about like ducks here, the sea being not a hundred
yards from the building. All the washing, of course, and most of the
clothes-making they can do themselves; I can cut out after a fashion,
and they take quickly to needle and thread; but now the Auckland
ladies have provided divers very nice garments, their Sunday dresses
are very nice indeed.'

The question of the Bishopric began to come forward. On the 18th of
January a letter to Sir John Patteson, after speaking of a playful
allusion which introduced the subject, details how Mrs. Selwyn had
disclosed that a letter had actually been despatched to the Duke of
Newcastle, then Colonial Secretary, asking permission to appoint and
consecrate John Coleridge Patteson as Missionary Bishop of the
Western Pacific Isles.

J.C.P.--'Well, then, I must say what I feel about it. I have known
for some time that this was not unlikely to come some day; but I
never spoke seriously to you or to the Martins when you insinuated
these things, because I thought if I took it up gravely it would come
to be considered a settled thing.'

Mrs. S.--'Well, so it has been, and is----'

J.C.P.--'But has the Bishop seriously thought of this, that he has