(b_ telegraph.—press association.)

Wellington, this day. j The Wellington Diocesan Synod opened i yesterday. In his address, the Primato said he learnt with regret that Bu»hop ! Selwyn had been obliged to reburn to Eng land, and thab a doubt existed aa to Avhether he would ever be able to resume work in the Melanesian Mission. He also, Avith deep regret, learnt Bishop Suter's ill-health still afforded anxiety to his friends. Referring to the diocese, he said that during the last two years there had been a very large increase to the population in the outlying districts, and he hoped some efforts would be made towards raising more funds for the purpose of supplying these places with resident clergymen. He had written to his commis sary in England to send one or two clergy men suitable for rough country work, but he had failed to find suitable persons. Coming to the absence of religious training in Government schools, Hi"b Lordship said the very fact that the majority of electors saw no evil in a system which excludes all reference to that which in all ages has been recognised as the strongest support to order, and the most potent restraint to bhe commission of crime, was a serious and alarming fact and constituted the main difficulty in any efforts to reform the system. But the monstrous injustice of taxing the whole community for the sup port of a system from the benefit of which many on conscientious grounds were ex cluded was utterly indefensible. The in ference to be drawn from tbia state of affairs was that the clergy ought to encourage Sunday-school teachers to qualify themselves for the important work-of teaching in Sunday-Schools, as the clergy could rarely do any thing except in the direction of organisa tion. In conclusion, the Primate referred to the various pantheistic, materialistic, and agnostic theories which had of late years been so widely promulgated, and Avarned the younger clergy especially against attempts to adapt interpretations of Holy Scripture to every ephemeral phase of scientific opinion, and on the other hand to accommodate the doctrines of Chris tianity to the varying dogmas of philo sophic speculations. The Synod adjourned until to-night.
