Description

This two-volume biography of George Augustus Selwyn (1809-78), the first Anglican bishop of New Zealand, after whom Selwyn College, Cambridge, was later named, was published in 1879. Selwyn was ordained in 1834 and served as curate at Windsor; in 1840, when New Zealand was declared an independent British colony, he was chosen as first bishop of the newly established diocese. The declared aim was to develop an Anglican organisation for the growing European settlement, while resisting too much state control, and by 1857 Selwyn had drafted a constitution for the Church of New Zealand which led eventually to disestablishment. A staunch defender of indigenous rights, he travelled widely throughout New Zealand and the Pacific islands, and subsequently played a leading role in the first Lambeth Conference. In Volume 2, H. W. Tucker describes Selwyn's later ministry, the effect of the Maori Wars, and his final years as bishop of Lichfield.