’Your loving Brother,

‘J.  C. P.’

On March 5 Mr. Codrington safely arrived, bringing with him Mr. Bice.  The boon to the Bishop was immense, both in relief from care and in the companionship, for which he had henceforth to depend entirely on his own staff.  The machinery of the routine had been so well set in order by Mr. Pritt that it could be continued without him; and though there was no English woman to superintend the girls, it was hoped that Sarah Sarawia had been prepared by Mrs. Pritt to be an efficient matron.

’Kohimarama:  March 23, 1867.

’My dear Cousin,—­Our last New Zealand season, for it may be our last, draws near its close.  On Monday, only two days hence, the “Southern Cross” sails (weather permitting) with our first instalment.  Mr. Palmer has got his house up, and they must stow themselves away in it, three whites and forty-five blacks, the best way they can.  The vessel takes besides 14,000 feet of timber, 6,000 shingles for roofing, and boxes of books, &c., &c., without end.

’I hope she may be here again to take me and the remaining goods, live and inanimate, in about eighteen or twenty days.  I can’t tell whether I am more likely to spend my Easter in New Zealand or Norfolk Island.

’I see that in many ways the place is good for us.  The first expense is heavy.  I have spent about £1,000 already, sinking some of my private money in the fencing, building, &c., but very soon the cost of all the commissariat, exclusive of the stores for the voyage, and a little English food for the whites, will be provided.  Palmer has abundance of sweet potatoes which have been planted in ground prepared by our lads since last October.  The yam crop is coming on well:  fish are always abundant.

‘I think that in twelve months’ time we ought to provide ourselves with almost everything in the island.  The ship and the clergymen’s stipends and certain extras will always need subscriptions, but we ought at once to feed ourselves, and soon to export wool, potatoes, corn (maize I mean), &c.

’I never forget about the idea of a chapel.  At present the Norfolk Island Chapel will be only a wing of my house:  which will consist of two rooms for myself, a spare room for a sick lad or two, and a large dormitory which, if need be, can be turned into a hospital, and the other end a wing in the chapel, 42 x 18 feet, quite large enough for eighty or more people.  The entrance from without, and again a private door from my sitting room.  All is very simple in the plan.  It seem almost selfish having it thus as a part of my dwelling house; but it will be such a comfort, so convenient for Confirmation and Baptism and Holy Communion classes, and so nice for me.  Some ladies in Melbourne give a velvet altar cloth, Lady S. in Sydney gives all the white linen:  our Communion plate, you know, is very handsome.  Some day Joan must send me a solid block of Devonshire serpentine for my Font, such a one as there is at Alfington, or Butterfield might now devise even a better.