“Bishop Selwyn had a love of work, and great power of endurance. I have heard of his taking eight services in one day. When 10,000 soldiers were landed in New Zealand with only one chaplain (and he a Roman Catholic) the Bishop felt it was his duty to provide for them: he started a number of services and held Bible classes with the men. The soldiers were enthusiastic about him. He knew exactly how to adapt his language to them. It was amusing to hear the officers speak of him. They not only admired him as a bishop, but they discovered in him great power for taking in the details of military life. They used to say that it was a shame he was not a general. The naval men were equally enthusiastic about his seamen-like qualities. They all agreed that he would have made a first rate admiral.” In 1861, Patteson was consecrated first Bishop of Melanesia. Lady Martin describes the consecration: “It was altogether a wonderful scene: the three consecrating Bishops, all such noble-looking men, the goodly company of clergy and Hohua’s fine intelligent brown face among them, and the long line of island boys and of native teachers and their wives were living testimonies of mission work.” To Selwyn, Patteson was like a son, and in the sermon preached at his consecration he said, as he gazed on one so dearly loved: “May Christ be with you when you go forth in His name and for His sake to those poor and needy people.” The consecration marked the final achievement of independence by the New Zealand Church. So far no bishop had been appointed in the Church overseas except under letters patent or under mandate from the Crown. If this necessity for constant reference to government authority in England had continued, the progress of the Church would have been subject to needless limitations. Selwyn, always marked by wisdom and caution as well as by his zeal for the development of the independent Church, after much anxious consideration, suggested to the Colonial Secretary that the difficulty about the appointment of a bishop would be got over if the New Zealand bishops were allowed to exercise the powers inherent in their office, as bishops of a distinct province of the Church, without any mandate from the Crown. This was allowed, and henceforth the Church overseas was free to develop on its own lines, without interference from the Colonial Office and its legal advisers. Thus after nineteen years of work, the Bishop who had been given the sole charge of New Zealand, and who had started the mission to Melanesia, saw himself surrounded by five brother bishops, with the missionary obligation of the Church to the Pacific islands fully recognized, and entrusted to a man whom he loved as a son, and who was specially gifted for this work. CHAPTER IX THE MAORI WARS