Page:Letters from New Zealand (Harper).djvu/180

154 at Home. All this has come about naturally from the fact that, in Colonies which are not Crown Colonies, as e.g. in the West Indies, but which have had a Legislative Constitution granted to them, the Ecclesiastical Law of the State Church at Home does not run.

This state of things, it appeared in Synod, was very distasteful to many, especially laymen who cling to the idea of membership in the old Church, but are slow to recognize that, whilst the Church in New Zealand is in true spiritual communion with the Mother Church, she is no longer subject to its Ecclesiastical State Laws. Much debate arose on this question, in which I took part, having had the advantage, during my late residence in London, of discussing the status of the Church in the Colonies with eminent Ecclesiastical Lawyers. The occasion of the debate was the fact that the Bishops in New Zealand, some months ago, realizing the true state of affairs, had offered to the authorities at Home to surrender their Letters Patent, in order to make the position of the Church in New Zealand quite clear. No reply had been received, and, from what I had learnt in London, I was able to state that legal opinion was to the effect that the Crown is not likely to withdraw such Letters, although no fresh ones could be issued. However, the Bishop of Nelson, at first, refused to accept the view of his being merely a Bishop of the Church in New Zealand, and not of the Established Church at Home. My reply was that as a Bishop he could have no entry into the Ecclesiastical Courts in England, if he wished to deal with any criminal clergyman, and that the present position of the Church here, and elsewhere in the Colonies, is incomplete in regard to Ecclesiastical discipline. The whole idea