Page:Letters from New Zealand (Harper).djvu/351

Rh a greater variety of mineral springs, hot and cold, than any other similar resort in the world. It is also a wonderland of geysers and hot lakes. The gold industry of the Province has declined, but the Kauri gum business, which is used for the finest copal varnish, flourishes, and there is a great increase of farming, both agricultural, pastoral, and for dairy produce. The churches in Auckland are scarcely what one would look for in the place where Selwyn first began his work. They are still chiefly of wood, whereas stone and brick prevail in the city.

The constitutional question of the autonomy of the Church came up again in debate. No final result was reached. The delay, I think, is expedient, though it cannot be long before some settlement of the matter takes place. There are still a few ultra conservatives who cling to the notion that the Church in New Zealand has no power to act on her own initiative in any matters of doctrine or practice, except under the authority of the Established Church at home. They rely on the terms of the Constitution which the Church here adopted for itself at a time when everyone thought that we were an integral portion of the Mother Church. Since then events have shown that the Church at home can exert no authority over the Church in New Zealand, save by way of advice and counsel. The Constitution certainly forbids any independent action on our part, and, so far, until repealed, limits our freedom. To this there is reply that what the General Synod did it can undo, and it seems without doubt that Synod can, if it sees fit, so amend its Constitution that it shall sanction what already exists in fact, the autonomy of the Church.

Another aspect, however, of the case has presented