PREFACE 

IT was my happy privilege, on leaving College, to minister for some twelve years to a New Zealand congregation. In moving about that spacious Dominion I had ample opportunities of observing the supreme veneration in which the people of those romantic islands have enshrined the illustrious memory of Bishop Selwyn. From the North Cape to the Bluff there are thousands whose tongues become instantly garrulous in grateful reminiscence at the mere mention of his name. His vigorous hand is on the country still. His episcopate was indisputably the most wholesome of all those formative influences which gave tone to the infant nation in those critical days when the foundations of its character were being laid. In view of this impressive experience, it has been a very pleasant and congenial undertaking to pen some words that may help to perpetuate and extend the knowledge of his heroic record. The generation that can catch his spirit will precipitate the conquest of the ages.

I hasten to acknowledge my obligations to “The Life and Episcopate of G. A. Selwyn, D.D.,” by the Rev. Prebendary H. W. Tucker, M. A. ; to “The Life of Bishop Selwyn,” by the Rev. Canon G. H. Curteis, M.A. ; to “The History of the Melanesian Mission” by Mrs. E. S. Armstrong ; as well as to the Hon. W. Pember Reeves, Dr. T. M. Hocken, F.L.S., and Captain F. W. Hutton, F.R.S., for their numerous contributions to the literature of early New Zealand. I have also been assisted by the files in the Weekly Graphic (N.Z.), and, generally, by the excellent press of the Dominion.

FRANK WM. BOREHAM.
HOBART, TASMANIA.

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