At Keri-keri, a few miles from Paihai, what was to be the Cathedral library was set up, in the one stone house on the island, which had been used as a store for mission supplies. This library was a very real joy to the Bishop, he speaks of a day in it as “a day of literary luxury” when he sat “looking upon the books, occasionally dipping into them. The very sight of so many venerable folios is most refreshing in this land where everything is so new”; and again “as a charming retreat for his wife when over-wearied with her many and varied duties.... The quiet is as unbroken as the most nervous person could desire, and in this respect entirely different from the inevitable noise of wooden buildings. Here also I may retire in my old age, which will probably be premature, and superintend my College at the Waimate without being subject to all its perturbations.... The charm of this library is that it is so utterly uncolonial. Its walls are worthy of a college. My books carry me back to the first ages of the Church. It is true that when I step outside the door I stumble over a mass of utilitarian treasures. Bales of blankets, iron pots, barrels of all kinds are the miscellaneous furniture of my ante-chambers; but within, everything that can most elevate and purify the mind is to be found. Leisure alone is at present wanting for us to use our treasures; but as the Church system is developed, and active archdeacons stationed at all the principal settlements, I hope to be able to give myself more to meditation and every other profitable exercise, that there may be some abundance in my own heart to flow forth for the benefit of my diocese.” Material things which might conduce to the well-being of his people were not forgotten by the Bishop. There were then already sheep in New Zealand, but he found that “the Maoris did not know how ‘to transfer the fleece from the back of the sheep to that of the man.’” He was distressed to see precious wool buried in the ground because the natives did not know how to use it, and wrote to a friend in Wales to ask about spinning machines suitable for the manufacture of coarse cloth in his native school, and for a supply of knitting pins for the children. As was natural there were many interruptions to peaceful progress. News of a conflict between Maoris and settlers at Wairan near Nelson which lead to the massacre of twenty-three settlers, gave the Bishop “the gloomiest day he had yet spent in New Zealand.” This conflict arose as usual over a dispute about land, from misunderstanding of native customs, and from the little knowledge on the part of the settlers of the native language and character. Selwyn was afraid lest news of it should give a bad impression of the natives. He himself was convinced of the absolute safety of free intercourse with them and wrote: