with a cathedral, dean, canons, and choir, as at home. Elsewhere a Parish Church serves as a pro-cathedral. The choir is quite up to the standard of the minor English cathedrals. Doubts have been expressed of the practical value of a cathedral in a Colonial Diocese. It seems to trench upon Parish Churches and their proper work. That may be so in the comparatively small population at present of our cities. But what does a cathedral stand for? The Diocesan centre of Church work, in which the Bishop finds his seat and Altar in the Mother Church of his Diocese There he can be at the head of all kinds of Diocesan Societies which organize and carry out work in which all parishes share, but which they cannot themselves undertake. There he has his diocesan officers, canons, missioners, and lay-helpers. There, too, he is in his own church, which is his own in a sense that no pro-cathedral parish church can be. This is fortunately the ideal which our Cathedral Constitution, as laid down by Diocesan Statute, had in mind. Fortunately, because somehow in England the old ideal of the cathedral has been lost sight of. Professor Freeman has pointed out the fact that "the Bishop has less authority in the church which contains his throne than in any other church in his Diocese," and again, "The tendency of the Middle Ages was to change the Bishop from the immediate and living head of the cathedral body into a mere external visitor." He has been practically superseded by the Dean. We may be glad that our Cathedral Constitution reverts to the old ideal, though at present its work is only in its infancy. There is also the further point that a cathedral well served can maintain a continual daily offering of praise and worship, which cannot be the rule of
