NOTES CONCERNING THE MELANESIAN MISSION. 205 
folk Island, however, was to continue, but was to take in only senior 
boys and no girls whatever; its numbers would thus be reduced consid- 
erably and special attention could then be given to individuals and 
special facilities afforded for the training of ordinands. Under these 
conditions it is obvious that the Bishop would have to intrust the head 
of the Norfolk Island school with considerable powers. But a prece- 
dent might have been found for this in the fact that Bishop Patteson 
had previously entertained the idea of locating himself in Fiji in order 
to conduct work among the Melanesian laborers there and of intrusting 
to others the care of St. Barnabas; Bishop J. R. Selwyn, also, proposed 
leaving Dr. Codrington in charge at St. Barnabas, so that he himself 
might be free to build up the lives of the Christians in the islands. 
The intention at the beginning of the episcopate of Bishop Wood was 
to modify the original plan of work by providing that the missionaries 
and the Bishop look upon the islands as their main field of operations 
and should definitely make their home in the islands, but that the chief 
training-school should be away from the islands, 7. ¢., that the original 
plan should still stand in part. But in the light both of the failure of 
the situation of the school (in a temperate climate) to affect materially 
the mental or spiritual vigor of the scholars as was hoped, and also 
having in consideration the undoubted fact that a-school to serve the 
same purposes could easily be established in these days in the Solo- 
mons or in the New Hebrides, one can but think that the Norfolk 
Island school might well be closed altogether. The Presbyterians have 
their college on Tangoa in the New Hebrides and the Anglicans in 
Papua have theirs at Dogura, and both of these colleges can turn out 
teachers every bit as capable of doing their work as the Melanesian 
teachers from Norfolk Island are for doing theirs. 
Possibly it was thought that to close St. Barnabas altogether would 
entail the running counter to a vast amount of sentiment, and even if 
the closing of it could be shown to be likely to effect a saving financially 
considerations of sentiment seemed likely to rule out the project as 
impossible or as unwise. One remembers that there was some talk a 
few years ago of making Sydney the headquarters for the ship, but inas- 
much as the doing of this would have involved the changing of the 
business headquarters also (and these have been in Auckland from the 
start), it was deemed inadvisable to make any change. Sydney, how- 
ever, is the metropolis for the Pacific and caters specially for the island 
trade, and there is no doubt that the trade requirements of the Mission 
would have been more easily satisfied and a saving in price would also 
have been effected by dealing in Sydney; but old associations carried 
the day. The history of the monetary contributions to the mission in 
New Zealand shows, however, that propinquity to and constant asso- 
ciation with the Mission and its work are not the all-important factors 
in determining the amount of money likely to be subscribed in a place. 
The Auckland diocese used to be far ahead of all the other dioceses 
