“Government House was only a one-storied cottage standing back from the road. A few wooden houses were dotted about, in which the Government officials lived. There were wooden barracks which contained about fifty soldiers; a supreme court-house, where the Judge held his court in the week, and which on Sundays was used as a church; a milliner’s shop, a blacksmith’s forge, and two or three stores. Butcher and baker were unknown, there was no beef or mutton to sell, and no roads for carts to travel along had there been.” The climate was genial and the situation beautiful, and the Bishop hoped that Auckland might be the future cathedral city. For the moment, however, it seemed best that he should settle at the Waimate on the Bay of Islands. It had been the first headquarters of the C.M.S. mission and the Bishop went to inspect it immediately on his arrival in New Zealand. He described it as follows: “I walked round the mission station and inspected Mr. Clarke’s house, which I decided would accommodate Sarah and such of the party as I might leave with her. The house is a little out of repair.... The garden has been overrun with cattle, but most of the plants are still alive, and with a little care may soon recover.... Seen from a distance the Waimate presents the appearance of an English village with a white church and spire, comfortable houses and gardens. This is by far the most settled place in the country. I am informed that four hundred native communicants assemble at the Lord’s Table. This will probably be my headquarters for some years, till I can deliberately choose a site for my residence and erect substantial buildings.” For the moment Mrs. Selwyn was to stay with the Williams, whilst the Bishop went off on a journey to visit the other mission stations. He was very pleased with what he saw of the missionaries and wrote: “They seem to be very zealous and able ministers, and I think myself happy in having under me a body in whom I shall see so much to commend and so little to reprove. The state of the mission is really wonderfully good.” A year’s experience satisfied him that he had been right in the choice of the Waimate for his residence and for his college. He wrote: “Every day convinces me more and more that we are better placed here than in one of the English towns. The general laxity of morals, and defect of Church principles in the new settlements, would make them dangerous places for the education of the young, and render it almost impossible to keep up that high tone of religious character and strictness of discipline which is required, both as a protest against the prevailing order of things, and as a training for our candidates for Holy Orders. At the Waimate, I am fettered by no usages, subject to no fashions, influenced by no expectations of other men. I can take the course which seems to me best.”