Already before leaving England, he had thought out how to make the Church in New Zealand independent of home support as soon as possible. With this purpose he asked the S.P.G. to allow him to use what money they could grant him not in paying salaries to the clergy, but in buying sites for future churches, and lands which might provide for some endowments. He wished in the plans he made to avoid both the evils in connexion with endowments which he had seen at home and the dependence on annual grants. He proposed to have a general endowment fund so as to avoid inequalities of endowment, and he determined to allow of no private patronage. Into this general endowment fund he urged all those who received stipends from England, through the Societies or otherwise, to pay what they received, as he himself did. In time he set up in every settlement an archdeaconry church fund into which all money collected or given to the Church was to be paid, and out of which each minister was to receive his stipend. Deacons were to begin with £100, rising gradually to £300 as priests, archdeacons £400, and bishops £500 as soon as they should be appointed. In each case, if possible, a house was to be provided, though it was not guaranteed. In all his plans from the first, he aimed at keeping the Church completely independent of State control. He preferred as he said, “to maintain the Church’s independence, and to commit her support to the free charities of God.” These plans, thought out before he left England, he set himself to carry out as opportunity arose. He proceeded at once to buy suitable land for the Church. But whilst his fertile brain was thus full of plans for the future, he was equally keen to study the conditions of the present, and before even unpacking his books, he started on a journey to visit all the mission stations in the Northern Island. One of the first places which he stopped at was Wellington, which he reached by a small trading vessel. Here he spent three weeks, much occupied in nursing a young man who had come out with him from England, and from whom he had hoped much as a fellow worker. In this he showed his ability to turn his hand to anything and his tenderness as a nurse. One who watched him wrote: “He practised every little art that nourishment might be supplied to his patient. He pounded chicken into fine powder; he made jellies, he listened to every sound; he sat up the whole night through by the bed-side. In short he did everything worthy of his noble nature.”