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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
C.O.885
Reference -
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
:ds 16 Viet, T. 52,
No. 3.
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province in which he proposes to officiate, or of having, holding, or enjoying, or of being admitted to any parsonage or other ecclesiastical preferment in England or Ireland, or of acting as Curate therein, without the consent and approbation of the Archbishop of the province, shall be repealed, so far as relates to persons ordained by Bishops actually residing and lawfully exercising episcopal juris- diction or episcopal functions without legal jurisdiction, over or with respect to clergy, congregations, or persons professing the religion of the United Church of England and Ireland in any of Her Majesty's colonies or foreign possessions: Provided always, that no person so ordained shall officiate in any church or chapel of England or Ireland without the permission of the Bishop of the diocese in which he proposes to officiate; which permission may be given either generally or for any limited period of time, or for any particular occasion, as the case may be.
VI. The provisions of the Act passed in the session of the fifteenth and sixteenth years of Her present Majesty, intituled "An Act to enable Colonial and other Bishops to perform certain Episcopal functions under commission from Bishops of England and Ireland ;" and of another Act passed in the session of the sixteenth and seventeenth years of Her present Majesty, intituled “ An Act to extend the provisions of an Act of the fifteenth and sixteenth years of Her present Majesty, intituled An Act to enable Colonial and other Bishops to perform certain episcopal functions, under commission from Bishops of England and Ireland,” so far as relates to persons ordained Deacons or Priests by such Bishops as therein respectively mentioned, in pursuance of any request and commission from the Bishop of any diocese in England or Ireland, or upon the request in writing, and in and for the diocese of the Bishop of any of İler Majesty's foreign or colonial possessions, shall be deemed to have applied, and to apply, to all persons who may have been, or may be hereafter, ordained Deacons or Priests by any such Bishops as hereinbefore-mentioned, in pursuance of any request or commission from the Bishop of any diocese in England os Ireland, or upon the request, in writing, and in or for the district or reputed diocese (although the same may not be a diocese in law) of any Bishop lawfully exercising Episcopal functions under any Royal Letters-Patent, Mandate, or License, in any of Her Majesty's foreign or colonial possessious (as the case may be); and for the purposes of this Act, and of the said recited, Act of the fifty-ninth year of His late Majesty King George the Third, all persons ordained, or to be ordained, Deacons or Priests for the purpose of actually officiating as such within the district or diocese, or reputed "diocese, of any Bishop then usually residing, or about to reside, in such district, diocese, or reputed diocese, and then lawfully exercising, or appointed to exercise, Episcopal functions whether with or without legal jurisdiction) therein, shall be deemed to have been ordained by a Bishop actually residing within such district or diocese, or reputed dincese.
XII. Nothing in this Act contained shall confer upon any Bishop any jurisdiction to which he would not otherwise have been hy law entitled, or shall give to any such Letters-Patent, or Royal Mandate, or License as aforesaid, or to any act done by any such Bishop, any force or effect which they would not otherwise by law respectively have had, save as herein expressly provided.
SIR
No. 3.
Copy of a LETTER from Sir FREDERIC ROGERS, Bart., to the ATTORNEY- GENERAL.*
Downing Street,,October 27, 18935.
1 AM directed by Mr. Secretary Cardwell to transmit to you the inclosed copy of a despatch from the Governor of New Zealand, accompanied by a petition from the Anglican Bishops in New Zealand, and a memorandum by the Colonial Ministers.
The petitioners pray,—
1. That they may be allowed to surrender their Letters Patent.
2. That the Royal mandates under which they were consecrated may be declared to have been merely the authority for their consecration, and to have no further effect.
+
Similar letters were address; to the Solicitor General and Queen's Advocate
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3. That the power may be recognised in them of consecrating Bishops in the manner described.
I am directed by Mr. Cardwell to request that, jointly with the Solicitor- General and Queen's Advocate, you will favour him with your opinion whether there is any objection, in point of law, to an acquiescence in the prayer of the etitioners, and if not, what legal steps would be necessary to give it
effect?
The Attorney-General.
I have, &c.
(Signed)
FREDERIC ROGERS.
Inclosure 1 in No. 3.
Governor Sir G. GREY to the Right Hon. EDWARD CARDWELL, M.P. (No. 101.)
Government House, Wellington, August 10, 1865.
SIR,
I HAVE the honour herewith to transmit a petition, addressed to Her Majesty by the Bishops of the Church of England in the Colony of New Zealand, together with a Memorandum which my Responsible Advisers have prepared in relation to the inclosed petition, and which they have requested me to bring under your notice.
The Right Hon. Edward Cardwell, M.P.,
&c.
&e.
&c.
Inclosure 2 in No. 3.
I have, &c. (Signed) G. GREY.
PETITION from the Bishops of the Church of England in New Zealand.
To the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty,
The humble Petition of the undersigned Bishops of the Anglican Church
in New Zealand, Shewgth.
1. THAT your Majesty's Petitioners were duly consecrated according to the form and manner of making, ordaining, and consecrating of Bishops according to the order of the United Church of England and Ireland; and humbly express their conviction that all the powers necessary for the due administration of the office of a Bishop in this Colony were conveyed to them by the Ordinance of Consecration.
2. That your Majesty's Petitioners accepted Letters-Patent from the Crown, the validity of which has now been denied by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in the following words: —
· Although in a Crown Colony properly so-called
Incl. 1 No. 3 *
Incl. 2 m No. 5.
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•
a Bishopric may Ou l'etition of the
March 24, 1865.
be constituted and ecclesiastical jurisdiction conferred by the sole authority of Bishop of Natal. the Crown, yet the Letters-Patent of the Crown will not have any such effect or operation in a Colony or Settlement which is possessed of an independent Legislature."
That the Letters-Patent granted to your Majesty's Petitioners were issued after the Colony of New Zealand had become possessed of an independent Legislature.
3. That your Majesty's Petitioners, therefore, humbly crave permission to surrender their Letters-Patent, and to be allowed to rely in future upon the powers inherent in their office for perpetuating the succession of their order within the Colony of New Zealand, and securing the due exercise of their episcopal functions, in conformity with the Church constitution hereinafter described.
4. That your Majesty's l'etitioners, în conjunction with Representatives of the Clergy and Laity from all the Dioceses in New Zealand, and with Bishop Patteson, have agreed upon a constitution for associating together the Members of the United Church of England and Ireland in New Zealand, by voluntary