taining Church discipline; or in adopting any modification of services; or, in fact, deciding for herself on those changes which might be necessary in years to come for her good government, except with the consent of the Mother Church.
And yet, even in 1857, there were premonitions of trouble. The Church Constitution then drawn up betrays this. It assumes that in New Zealand Churchmen must legislate for themselves. It provides for Courts of discipline. It anticipates the time when the legal connection between the Church in New Zealand and the Mother Church would be found to be non-existent.
In reality that state of things did exist in 1857. Since then it has come to be recognized gradually, but as yet imperfectly, by those whose strong conservative instincts make them shrink from the idea of the Church in New Zealand as responsible to itself for good government.
Meanwhile we stand thus: the Church at Home can exercise no legal control over us. Its control at Home derives its authority from the Crown. The Crown does not recognize the Church in New Zealand, except in so far as it comes under the domain of the Civil Law. The Church, therefore, in New Zealand, is legally left to itself, and must needs rule her own household. Spiritually, the Church here is in close communion with the Mother Church, but that is our own affair; neither Convocation nor Crown can compel it. In fact, the severance which has taken place between the Church at Home and the Church in Ireland places the Church in Ireland precisely in our position in New Zealand. It is responsible to itself alone for its own government.
