quatter" assembles his family and dependants, the men of the
station, and perhaps a few neighbours. Everyone is glad of the
opportunity. The dining-room or woolshed is made to look as devotional
as possible. The old prayer books brought out from England are produced.
There may be no musical instrument available, but some well-known hymn
is raised by the lady of the house. The priest, in his long surplice,
preaches a practical sermon, for he understands his people and knows
their lives. The service revives old memories in the worshippers, and
carries them back in thought to ancient churches and devout
congregations in the land from which they come.

This early stage merges gradually into what may be called the Pine
period. The large sheep run is broken up into farms, each marked by its
sheltering plantations of _pinus insignis_. The typical place of
worship is now the school. To it the worshippers drive on Sunday, in
buggies or gigs. The services are carried on with some regularity:
different Christian denominations generally use the building on
successive Sundays of the month, and the same congregation gathers on
each occasion. The arrangements are awkward, the seats are comfortless,
but the singing is hearty and the feeling good. Memories of the old land
are less vivid: the young men and maidens are mostly native-born. There
is not the deep feeling of devotion, nor is there the old sense of the
overwhelming importance of divine things. Fewer of the labouring men are
present than were seen in the old woolshed services.

Years pass by, and a village springs up amidst the farms. Small
church-buildings rise almost side by side. The attendants of the
schoolroom no longer worship together. It is the Cypress or _Macrocarpa_
period, when trim hedges divide the gardens--and often the people--from
one another. But the little church, with its cross and other sacred
emblems, grows dear to some. The choir learns to chant and to sing an
anthem on a high festival. Perhaps now there is a vicarage beside the
church. Classes and guilds are carried on. "Church work" begins.

Such is the history of the Church in New Zealand during the latter
period of our hundred years. The frame of the picture is that supplied
by the originally treeless plains and valleys of the South Island. But
the picture itself, in its essential points, would represent other
regions as well--whether mining, maritime, or forest. As a picture, it
is not as bright as