of Cbica^o
KUbrcmes
THE CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF THE
AUSTRALIAN CHURCH
THE CONSTITUTIONAL
AUSTRALIAN JC&URCH
By
R. A. GILES, M.A.(OXON.),
VICAR OF SHERIFFHALES
WITH A FOREWORD BY THE RIGHT REV.
THE LORD BISHOP OF SALISBURY
LONDON:
SKEFFINGTON & SON, LTD.
235 REGENT STREET, OXFORD CIRCUS, W.i
1929
Printed in Great Britain at
The Mayflower Press, Plymouth. William Brendon & Son, Ltd.
183134
VIRO REVERENDISSIMO
HENRICO LOWTHER CLARKE, S.T.P., I.C.P.
NUPER PER XV. ANNOS
MELBURNENSI ARCHIEPISCOPO
Qui summo ingenio praeditus
et vitas simplicitate insignis
Ecclesise sapientissime prsefuit,
necnon et res ecclesiasticas provinciales
praeclare et gessit et descripsit,
Hanc ecclesias australensis historiam,
Testimonium qualecunque reverentije et amoris
de.dicat
R. A. GILES
FOREWORD
" "TF the Anglican Communion is to render that service
I to the varied needs of mankind to which the Church
.-* of our day is specially called, regard must be had both
to the just freedom of its several parts and to the just claims
of the whole communion upon its every part." It is now
twenty years since these words were written in the encyclical
letter of the Lambeth Conference of 1908, 1 but they have
gained, rather than lost in poignancy during the intervening
years. The adjustment of loyalty and liberty is a problem
which goes back to the first great Christian missionary and
earlier. How to reconcile the claims of loyalty to the Church
Catholic with that liberty of spirit which is the privilege of
every community is one of the greatest problems with which ,
the Church in every age has been faced.
To effect this reconciliation we have to go down to the
very roots of our conception of the visible Church. Granted
that the Church is the expression of that inward fellowship
which belongs to all followers of Christ, what is its proper
organization upon earth ? Shall we aim at local autonomy
or centralized government ? Are we federalists or papalists ?
And if local autonomy is our ideal, how shall we prescribe
the areas in which autonomy is to be set up ? What is the
precise meaning of the phrase " particular or national
churches" in our 34th Article ? And again, is there any
nexus to safeguard the orthodoxy of these " national and
particular churches " other than the unity of spirit which
binds them together in the one body under the common
Head Who is in Heaven ? It is questions of this kind that
have occupied leading churchmen in all our young churches
of the Dominions, for the political aspirations of these Domin-
ions towards nationhood has its counterpart in the spiritual
sphere, and in one way or another each of these churches
is working out its own answer.
In Australia this process has been slow and only now is
finality in sight. The relationship between the Church in
1 Page 40.
8 FOREWORD
Australia and the Anglican Communion as a whole has never
been satisfactorily denned in theory, and the lack of definition
has both hindered effective work and also opened the door to
controversy. But a change is in sight. As a result of the
willing labour and co-operation of leading Churchmen
throughout Australia a Constitution has been evolved to
remedy the present state of affairs ; and by the readiness of
many of the dioceses to sacrifice time-honoured privileges,
the new Constitution has now reached the stage at which it
is practically certain to become law.
It is a thrilling moment in the history of the Australian
Church. After long and patient investigation the claims of
freedom have been harmonised with the claims of loyalty.
By its united action the Church has once more vindicated
the divine life which inspires love, and by God's grace the
Australian Church will now go forward to fresh labours and
more glorious conquests for Christ.
Mr. Giles has put us all under a great obligation by his
comprehensive survey of this great process. He has shown
in this volume how unsatisfactory was the situation before
the relationship between the Church in Australia and the
Anglican Communion was satisfactorily defined. He has
traced the steps by which that situation has been cleared up.
In this work he has built with loyalty and with discrimina-
tion upon the foundation laid by the late Archbishop of
Melbourne in his volume on Constitutional Church Govern-
ment, and he has had the advantage of Dr. Micklem's
Moorhouse Lectures on The Principles of Church Organiza-
tion. But the work here presented is the fruit of his own
zeal and application. It is frankly intended as a book of
reference ; but it appears at an opportune moment, and there
will be many who will find in it not only an accurate
presentation of the facts, but a story full of interest and
encouragement of the birth and development of a modern
Church.
ST. CLAIR SARUM.
THE PALACE,
SALISBURY.
PREFACE
AT the present time, the Australian Church is at-
tempting with an unprecedented determination to
set her constitutional house in order. The situation
in which she now finds herself is the result of a growth of
some 140 years, a growth in which there has been no uni-
formity of development. The Church in each Colony was
originally an isolated unit and this isolation has never been
successfully overcome ; effective unity has been an ideal
rather than a reality, at times hardly even an ideal; and
the bond of union has been rather the inheritance of a
common tradition than a visible outward organiza-
tion. To secure outward as well as inward unity and by so
doing to place the Church in the different States on a
uniform basis, is the purpose of the present endeavours of
the Church in Australia. It may involve the rupture of
some old ties, but those whose vision is widest are
agreed that the proposed legislative changes are highly
necessary.
It is the-aim of this treatise to trace out the development
of the history of the constitution of the Church in Australia
from the time of the first settlement on the Continent in
1788. Not unnaturally, the task has been rendered much
more difficult by the absence of any uniformity of growth in
the various Colonies ; but the correspondingly greater interest
resulting from this diversity has been a more than adequate
compensation. Chapter I, which is of the nature of an intro-
duction, need be read only by the unsophisticated ; it deals
with the romance of the exploration and civil development
of the Continent. The close connection between the ecclesi-
astical and civil legislation of the Colony at several
points rendered an account of the latter necessary
(Chapter II). ,
A third chapter is devoted to the history of the Church
in Australia (apart from specifically constituted problems).
Chapter IV, where our main theme begins, treats the course
io PREFACE
of development up to the middle of the last century.
Chapter V deals with the highly important Sydney Con-
ference of the year 1850. Then follow six chapters, devoted
to the growth of synodical government in the differing
Colonies ; Victoria and South Australia are treated first
since they exemplify in a pure form respectively the two
fundamental methods of Church organization in Australia.
In New South Wales, the oldest Colony (treated in Chapter
VIII), the development was particularly involved.
Chapter XII treats of legislation in so far as it con-
cerns Church property. In the remaining chapters we are
brought into contact with the later organization of the
Church, and its relation to the burning problems of
to-day.
As far as possible, I have used the original authorities.
Many of these will be found, printed (I believe in some cases
for the .first time) in the Appendices. Most of the Letters
Patent are to be seen in the Archiepiscopal Registers and
Act Books in the Lambeth Palace Library ; but in some
cases reference must be made to the Public Record Office.
For the legal documents, reference of course has been made
to the proper legal sources. Much invaluable material for
the early history of the Church is to be derived from the
Historical Records of New South Wales and the Historical
Records of Australia, two works which are admirably
edited, the latter of which is still unfinished.
It is necessary to make some reference here to the
enormous collection of material which was made by the
late Dr. H. Lowther Clarke, Archbishop of Melbourne, in
his Constitutional Church Government. That book will for
long be of the greatest value in directing those who are
working on the Constitutional History of the Church in our
different Colonies to those endless sources of information
with which the Archbishop was acquainted.
But a caution is necessary. The book is not only at times
inaccurate in the text, but even some of the documents
which the Archbishop prints are found not to agree on
comparison with the originals, since they have often been
amended (sometimes without any mention of the fact) in
accordance with later legislation. If Dr. Lowther Clarke
had been spared to revise the work for a second edition, no
doubt most of these defects would have disappeared. As
it is, they detract seriously from its value for the historian.
Such criticisms may appear ungenerous towards an author
PREFACE ii
no longer with us, above all on the part of one who knew
him, and valued him as a counsellor and friend and to
whose inspiration the present treatise owes its genesis. But
the Archbishop himself never allowed such matters to
influence his own considered judgment, and if I presume to
point out what I consider the defects as well as the merits
of his volume the only previous work on the subject I
am but following the noble spirit of its author. It is as a
slight tribute to Henry Lowther Clarke's sterling and single-
minded integrity of purpose that the author ventures to
inscribe his name at the beginning of this volume.
In conclusion, I have the pleasant duty to perform of
thanking those without whose generous assistance the
present work would never have been completed. First and
foremost my thanks are due to Professor Claude Jenkins,
Professor of Ecclesiastical History at King's College,
London, and Keeper of the Records at Lambeth, for
the directions of this study, particularly in its earlier
stages.
Several kind friends and acquaintances have assisted,
either in criticism of the manuscript or in supplying in-
formation. Among these are Dr. L. B. Radford, Bishop of <
Goulburn ; Dr. P. A. Micklem, Rector of St. James', Sydney,
and author of The Principles of Church Organization;
Dr. St. Clair Donaldson, formerly Archbishop of Brisbane and
now Bishop of Salisbury ; Professor the Hon. J. B. Peden,
K.C., M.L.C., Chancellor of the Diocese of Bathurst, New
South Wales ; Dr. W. Charles Prichard, Editor of the
Church Standard, Australia ; The Right Reverend G. A.
D'Arcy-Irvine, Coadjutor Bishop of Sydney. To the
Librarians of the following libraries for valuable assistance :
The Lambeth Palace Library ; the Library of the Middle
Temple ; the Library of S. Deiniol's College, Hawarden j
the Mitchell Library, Sydney ; the Royal Historical
Society's Library, Sydney ; and the Library of the Bishop's
Registry, Sydney. The last three named were consulted on
the occasion of two recent visits to Australia. For the loan
of books and documents I am indebted to Mrs. E. W.
Tufnell ; the Primus of Scotland ; the Bishop of Salisbury ;
and the Libraries of the S.P.C.K., the S.P.G., and the C.M.S.
To my former tutor, Dr. D. C. Simpson, Oriel Professor of
the Interpretation of Holy Scripture at Oxford, I am
indebted for much valuable advice ; to the Rev. F. L.
Cross of the Pusey House, Oxford, for assistance in the
12 PREFACE
preparation of the manuscript for publication. My sister,
Mrs. H. M. Spong, has devoted countless hours to the
transcribing of the text ; to her also I owe a great debt of
gratitude.
R. A. G.
SHERIFFHALES -VICARAGE,
SHROPSHIRE,
September ist, 1928.
CONTENTS
PAGE
FOREWORD 7
PREFACE 9
CHAPTER
I. AN OUTLINE OF AUSTRALIAN HISTORY . . -15
II. THE DEVELOPMENT OF CIVIL LEGISLATION IN
AUSTRALIA . . . . . .29
III. THE 'HISTORY OF THE AUSTRALIAN CHURCH . . 39
IV. THE BEGINNINGS OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY
OF THE CHURCH . . . . ... -55
EXCURSUS TO CHAPTER IV . . .71
V. THE 1850 CONFERENCE AND THE EVENTS WHICH
FOLLOWED . . . . \ '75
VI. VICTORIA: AN EXAMPLE OF "LEGISLATIVE ENACT-
MENT" 83
VII. SOUTH AUSTRALIA : AN EXAMPLE OF " CONSENSUAL
COMPACT" .. .97
VIII. NEW SOUTH WALES 103'
IX. TASMANIA , . . . . . . 114
X. QUEENSLAND . 118
XI, WESTERN AUSTRALIA 126
EXCURSUS TO CHAPTER XI .... 133
XII. CHURCH PROPERTY AND STATE AID . . .135
XIII. THE GENERAL SYNOD 146
XIV. THE LEGAL NEXUS 158
XV. THE DRAFT BILL . . . . . . . 168
XVI. THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION AND AFTER . 183
DOCUMENTS
A. THE FIRST CHAPLAIN'S COMMISSION. (1786) . . 195
B. LETTERS PATENT ADDING THE WHOLE OF THE
TERRITORIES WITHIN THE LIMITS OF THE CHARTER
OF THE UNITED COMPANY OF MERCHANTS "OF
ENGLAND TRADING TO THE EAST INDIES TO THE
SEE OF CALCUTTA. (1823) 195
C. LETTERS PATENT APPOINTING THOMAS HOBBES SCOTT
ARCHDEACON OF NEW SOUTH WALES. (1824) . 198
D. DISPATCH OF EARL BATHURST TO SIR THOMAS
BRISBANE. (2isi DEC., 1824) , * . 201
13
14 CONTENTS
PAGE
E. SKETCH OF A PLAN FOR THE ECCLESIASTICAL
GOVERNMENT OF BRITISH INDIA, AND OF CERTAIN
COLONIAL POSSESSIONS OF THE CROWN OF GREAT
BRITAIN. (1830) 204
F. LETTERS PATENT FOR ASSIGNING NEW LIMITS TO
THE DIOCESE OF CALCUTTA AND FOR CONFERRING
ON THE BISHOP 'OF CALCUTTA METROPOLITICAL
JURISDICTION IN INDIA. (1835) .... 205
G. DISPATCH OF GOVERNOR BOURKE TO RT. HON. E. G.
STANLEY. (SEPT. SOTH, 1833) . . . . 212
H. LETTERS PATENT , APPOINTING WILLIAM GRANT
BROUGHTON BISHOP OF AUSTRALIA. (1836) . 219
I. LETTERS PATENT APPOINTING GEORGE AUGUSTUS
SELWYN BISHOP OF NEW ZEALAND. (1842) . 226
J. LETTERS PATENT APPOINTING BISHOP BROUGHTON
METROPOLITAN OF AUSTRALASIA. (1847) . . 231
K. THE MINUTES OF THE 1850 CONFERENCE . . . 237
L. THE VICTORIA CHURCH CONSTITUTION ACT. (1854) . 247
M. THE CONSTITUTION OF THE PROVINCE OF VICTORIA.
(1905) . 251
N. THE CONSTITUTION OF THE DIOCESE OF ADELAIDE.
(1855) ^ 254
O. RESOLUTIONS OF THE DIOCESE OF ADELAIDE. (1852) 260
P. A MEMORIAL OF THE DIOCESE OF ADELAIDE TO QUEEN
VICTORIA. (1853) . . . . . 264
Q. THE REV. RICHARD JOHNSON'S LETTER OF SEPTEMBER
3RD (1793) . . . . . . .265
R. AN ORDER IN COUNCIL DISSOLVING THE CHURCH
CORPORATION. (1833) . . . . .266
S. THE MINUTES OF THE 1868 CONFERENCE . . .267
T. THE ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION OF GENERAL SYNOD.
(1872) . . . . . . . .271
U. GENERAL SYNOD DETERMINATION, No. i. SESSION
1876 275
V. GENERAL SYNOD DETERMINATION, No. i. SESSION
1881 . . . . . , . . 276
W. THE DRAFT BILL (1926) FOR THE NEW CONSTITUTION 279
X. REPORT OF A COMMITTEE ON CONSTITUTION TO THE
GENERAL SYNOD. (1921) 301
******
TABLE OF BISHOPS OF THE CHURCH IN AUSTRALIA 309
BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . ... . . . .311
INDEX t , , ., . ... . . . 315
The Constitutional History
of the Australian Church
CHAPTER I
AN OUTLINE OF AUSTRALIAN HISTORY
I. INTRODUCTION
r I \HE conditions under which Christianity grew up
in the British Colonies were unknown before in
the history of the Church.
The Church, indeed, from the first has had an essentially
missionary character, and this has meant that growth is as
fundamental to it as to any living organism. But it is almost
solely to modern times that we must look for the growth of
a Church in a land where the great bulk of the population
were themselves Christian Colonists. For such, Christianity
is something which they have brought with them, and in
such circumstances the history of the Church is inseparable
from the history of the State. Throughout the Empire the
English Church has followed in the wake of the Colonists.
No apology, therefore, is needed for a short introduction
dealing with the growth of Colonisation in Australia.
II, EARLY EXPEDITIONS
This great southern continent-^-the Terra Australia
Nondum Cognita 1 was thought to form the southern shores
of the Straits of Magellan, and the old maps show a north-
ward projection of it in the region since found to be occupied
by Australia with New Guinea drawn as a separate island
off the main coast. It is probably to the Portuguese that
this reference on the map owes its origin ; for there is reason
to suppose that, while on the eastward passage to the
l Wyfliete's Map 0/1597. See Bartholomew & Cramp's Atlas of
Australian Maps, 1919, p. 47.
15
16 THE AUSTRALIAN CHURCH
Spice Islands, their ships were driven out of their course by
storms. This, however, is only hypothesis. There is no
written record to substantiate the theory, and Australia
was an unknown land at the opening of the seventeenth
century.
To the credit of the Dutch lies its early exploration, for,
in 1606, the Dutch authorities at Bantam despatched
William Janszoon to make investigations. Janszoon
explored the south-western coast of New Guinea and the
eastern side of the Gulf of Carpentaria, and, not realising
that a passage existed between them, thought that New
Guinea and Australia were one. In the same year, two
Spanish commanders sailed from South America with the
object of exploring the South Pacific. They discovered the
Polynesian Islands and then separated, Luis Vaez de
Torres, the more persevering of them, continued till he
sighted the east end of New Guinea, sailed along its south
coast, and proved it to be an island by passing through the
strait which now bears his name. On his return to America,
however, news of his discovery was not made public.
The exploration of Australia began again in 1616 and
during the next decade a series of Dutch voyages resulted
in the charting of the western, and of half of the southern,
coast by merchantmen driven out of their course on the
voyage from the Gape of Good Hope. Two voyages in 1623
and 1636 revealed parts of the northern coasts to the west
of the Gulf of Carpentaria. But Australia was not proved
to be an island continent till 1642, when Abel Tasman
sailed from Batavia to solve the problem. He first went to
Mauritius, and then sailed far into the Southern Ocean, and
turned eastwards until he sighted a land which he named
after Van Diemen, the Governor-General of the Dutch Indies. l
He pressed on farther east until he discovered the south
island of New Zealand, which he named Staaten Land.
Thence he returned to Batavia by the .north of New Guinea,
thus circumnavigating Australia and showing conclusively
that it was an island. Two points, however, should be noted :
first, he did not sight the eastern shore, which remained
unexplored for another century ; secondly, he did not
grasp the fact that Tasmania was a separate island. With
the voyages of Tasman, the exploration of Australia and
the Pacific ceased until the end of the seventeenth century,
mainly because the Dutch were seeking for rich trading
1 The name Van Diemen's Land was later (1853) changed to Tasmania.
AN OUTLINE OF AUSTRALIAN HISTORY 17
lands rather than for sites for settlement a fact which
also accounts for their lack of interest in new discoveries.
For some fifty years, Australian exploration remained at a
standstill.
III. DAMPIER
To the Englishman, William Dampier, must the revival
of interest in this little-known land be attributed. He was
evidently unaware of Tasman's discoveries, as he declared
himself uncertain whether the land was an island or not.
Dampier, as a West India buccaneer, made a visit in 1689
to the west coast. This, his first visit, was but a cursory
one, as he decided the place was useless for his own particular
business of piracy. But in 1699 Dampier again set out,
this time in command of a King's ship, the Roebuck, and,
in August of that year, reached the west coast, of which he
gave an account substantially identical with that previously
given : i.e. that it was of little value. These reports afforded
little inducement to further exploration. 1
IV, DEVELOPMENTS FOLLOWING ON SEVEN YEARS' WAR ,
The close of the Seven Years' War heralded the real
beginnings of Australasian development at the hands of
the British and the French. The English victories in that
War had aroused in ourselves the fever for further coloniza-
tion ; in the French the necessity for it. Four British and
three French expeditions sailed for the Pacific between the
years 1764 and 1771 with the hope of making discoveries in
these latitudes. Of the British navigators, the most note-
worthy was Captain James Cook, who, in 1769, in command
of the Endeavour, conveyed a party of scientists, including
Sir Joseph Banks, to Tahiti to view the transit of the planet
Venus across the disc of the sun. This object achieved,
Cook determined to visit the lands discovered by Tasman
in 1642,2 and "after some weeks spent zigzagging in these
uncharted latitudes" New Zealand was reached and
circumnavigated, and its coast charted with some degree
of accuracy. Continuing his voyage westward, Cook sighted
the coast of Australia at a point which he named Ram
Head from its similarity to a headland of the same name in
* For those who wish for fuller information relative to the early voyages
of discovery of Australasia, reference should be made to R. W. Giblin's
recent book, The Early History of Tasmania (1928), particularly Chapters
il-ix. * Banks' Journal.
i8 THE AUSTRALIAN CHURCH
Ireland. Landing at a small bay where the vegetation was
found to be most varied and luxuriant, Sir Joseph Banks
gave it the name of Botany Bay. Here Cook hoisted the
English flag, taking possession of the country in the name
of His Majesty King George III, and calling it New South
Wales. He returned to England by way of the Barrier
Reef, Torres Strait, and the Indian Ocean. By this time
the outline of the Australian coast was known, except that
Van Diemen's Land was still thought to be part of the
mainland. 1
On a second voyage, 1772-5, Cook penetrated far into
the Antarctic ; and on a third, 1776-9, he revisited Van
Diemen's Land and New Zealand, and tried unsuccessfully
to find the North-West passage from the Pacific side. On
his return voyage in 1779 he was killed by the natives of
Hawaii. 2
V. EFFECT OF AMERICAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE
One event of this period had considerable influence on
the development of colonization, viz. the loss of the American
Colonies. It was even suggested by a certain Matra 3 that
the Australian Colonies would prove a suitable place of
refuge for the loyal Britishers in America. In 1783 (under
the date Aug. 23) he sent a letter to Lord Sydney, the
Secretary of State for the Colonies, headed, " A Proposal
for Establishing a Settlement in New South Wales." The
letter contained a detailed account of the natural resources
of the Colony, and of the possibilities of their development.
" This country," he tells us, " will afford an asylum to
those unfortunate American loyalists whom Great Britain
is bound by every tie of honour and gratitude to protect
and support, where they may repair their broken fortunes,
and enjoy their former domestic felicity." 4 Full details
regarding the method of sending out expeditions to the
Colony are given ; and an attempt is made to alleviate any
fears that the Government may have regarding loss of
population through emigration. In fact, the whole scheme
was admirably worked out. The loyalists, however, were
1 This mistaken idea was not , corrected till 1798 when Dr. Bass dis-
covered the Straits which have since borne his name.
8 Giblin, op. cit., p. 67.
8 His history is obscure. He appears to have been of Corsican descent,
and was a member of the expedition referred to above sent out to Tahiti
to observe the transit of Venus. Cf. an article in the Journal and Pro-
ceedings of the Royal Australian Historical Society, Vol. X, Part III,
pp. 152 ff. * Quoted, ibid., p. 156.
AN OUTLINE OF AUSTRALIAN HISTORY 19
not favourable to so .hazardous an undertaking, but pre-
ferred the colonization of Canada. 1
But the American secession did contribute to Australian
development in another way. England had for many years
previous to this sent her convicts to serve their sentences
on the plantations of Virginia and Barbados ; but after
1775 their transportation to America became impossible.
England then adopted many makeshift schemes, one of
them being the confining of criminals in the hulks on the
Thames estuary, with the possibility of constant revolts
and escapes as thes'e prisons became more congested. Then
a plan for penal settlement was evolved, and several sites
proposed, among them being the West Coast of Africa,
which was rejected on humanitarian grounds as being
unhealthy.
Under the powers conferred by the Transportation Act,
George III, 1782, an Order-in-Council was issued from the
Court of St. James, December 6th, 1786, when New South
Wales was first named as a place of transportation. The
scheme is summarized in the following passage in the
King's Speech at the opening of Parliament on January
23rd, 1787, " A plan has been formed by my direction for
transporting a number of convicts in order to remove the
inconvenience which arose from the crowded state of
the gaols in different parts of the kingdom, and you will,
I doubt not, take such farther measures as may be
necessary for this purpose." 2
VI. EXPEDITION UNDER PHILLIP
In pursuance of this scheme, Sir Joseph Banks proposed
that a penal settlement should be established at Botany
Bay ; and a fleet of convict ships was sent out which arrived
there in 1788. The direction of the enterprise was en-
trusted to Captain Arthur Phillip, an officer who had served
with distinction in the navy. This " first fleet " consisted
of the Sinus and the Supply, together with six transports
for the convicts, and three ships for carrying the stores.
Of the convicts five hundred and fifty were men and two
hundred and twenty were women. To guard these, there
were on board two hundred soldiers and marines. Second
in command was Captain Hunter (afterwards Governor),
with Mr. Collins as Judge-Advocate and the Reverend
* Williamson: A Short History of British Expansion, p. 511.
8 Hansard, Vol. XXVI, p. 2ii.
20 THE AUSTRALIAN CHURCH
Richard Johnson, B.A., as Chaplain. A few free settlers
completed the number. The voyage, which was by way of
the Cape of Good Hope, occupied nearly nine months.
On arrival at Botany Bay, Captain Phillip, dissatisfied
with the general conditions of that locality and of the
anchorage, set out for Port Jackson a spot previously
marked by Captain Cook ; and there, on January 26th,
1788, a day since observed in Australia as Foundation Day,
he unfurled the English flag at a point to which was given
the name Sydney Cove in honour of Lord Sydney, the then
Secretary of State for the Colonies ; and to this site, within
a week of his arrival, he transferred the whole enterprise.
At the moment when Captain Phillip was effecting this
transfer, an expedition, sent out by the French Government,
under La Perouse, whose instructions were not only to
annex a site on Botany Bay, but also the whole eastern
coast from Torres Strait to Van Diemen's Land, hove in
sight. The French commander thus found himself fore-
stalled by six days, and after exchanging civilities with
Captain Phillip, sailed away and was never heard of again.
In 1827 discoveries of wreckage of his two vessels were
made by one Captain Dillon at Vanikoro, a small island of
the Santa Cruz group. 1 A monument has been erected to
his memory at Botany Bay. 2
VII. EARLY CONDITIONS IN AUSTRALIA
The- task that lay before Captain Phillip was such a;s
confronted no other Englishman of his time new and
strange conditions of climate and environment ; the menace
of the natives, who though armed only with their own
primitive weapons and incapable either of sustained or
intelligent resistance to the new-comers were yet actively
hostile, and troublesome ; but above all the anxiety laid
upon him in the character of the convicts, the majority of
whom were men of most dissolute and depraved nature,
lacking all the attributes of industry and decency, and
amenable only to the discipline of the lash. Moreover, the
women, with few exceptions, were ill-fitted to become the
mothers of a new nation that was to occupy this southern
land, though, as an historical fact, they had little part in
the ancestry of present-day Australians. 3
1 Giblin,o. tit., p. 85.
4 One in honour of Captain Cook stands on the South Headland.
3 Williamson, op. cit., p. 513 n.
AN OUTLINE OF AUSTRALIAN HISTORY 21
Governor Phillip had only his officers and a handful of
marines to control these unpromising pioneers ; but in 1790
the Home Authorities authorized the establishment of a
New South Wales Corps to take over this duty, and its
officers and men, eventually receiving grants of land,
became the first free and genuine settlers of Australia. 1
Phillip remained till 1792, sufficiently long to see the Colony
through this anxious period of establishment ; and to his
administration, firmness, and discipline can be accredited
the averting of disaster and famine. It was not till 1794
that New South Wales was in a position to provide sufficient
com for its needs ; and on more than one occasion, starva-
tion and annihilation, owing to the failure of crops due to
the unskilled method of cultivation, were averted only by
the timely arrival of food ships. In 1798 the whole Colony
is said to have been " actually naked," having neither
clothes to wear by day nor blankets in which to wrap
themselves at night. 2
VIII. GROWTH UNDER PHILLIP'S SUCCESSORS 3
Phillip departed in 1792 on furlough, leaving Major Grose
in charge until the arrival in 1795 of Captain Hunter 4 to
occupy the position of Governor. At the close of. Hunter's
term of office in 1800 the British Government contemplated
the abandonment of the whole transportation policy on
account of its heavy cost to the nation ; but the pleadings
of Sir Joseph Banks averted this decision.
Captain King succeeded Hunter in 1800, and under his
administration, commercial enterprise was greatly de-
veloped. It was about this time that free settlers began to
arrive, taking up the land and farming it on a productive
scale. Private enterprise was beginning to supplant the
military control and State rationing of foodstuffs ; and the
social organization soon began to lose the entirely military
character which it had assumed. Moreover, the staple
1 Historical Records, New South Wales, Vol. Ill, pp. 167, 170, 217.
9 f*>f ITT'11* . *JT I' I * I
* Of. Williamson, op. cit., p. 514.
8 It may be convenient to give here the date of successive Governors
up to 1831.
I.Phillip Jan. 1788-Nov, 1792 5. Macquarie 1809-1 821
2. Hunter ' 1795-1800 6. Brisbane 1822-1825
3. King 1800-1806 7. Darling 1825-1831
_ 4- Bligh 1806-1809 8. Bourke 1831
_ Many interesting personal details and character sketches may be found
in R. Therry : Reminiscences of Thirty Years' Residence in New South
Wales and Victoria (London, 2nd edit., 1863).
* He had returned to England after the wreck of his ship Sinus.
22 THE AUSTRALIAN CHURCH
industries of coal, sheep-breeding and wool-growing were
started at this time. As regards the latter, John Macarthur,
a Captain of the New South Wales Corps, imported sheep
from India and South Africa and by careful experiment
raised a breed of merino sheep whose progeny produces the
finest wool in the world. Trade, however, did not develop
as rapidly as might have been expected. The East India
Company claimed the monopoly of trade in the Pacific, but
did little to turn its privilege to account ; and because of
this monopoly, English trade with the Colony was retarded
till 1813.
In 1803 Governor King, fearing the colonization of Van
Diemen's Land by the French, who after the Peace of Amiens
had sent out an exploring mission to the southern coast of
Australia, despatched a detachment of convicts with their
guards to form a subordinate penal station there. The
British Government also had apprehensions of French
projects, and feared an occupation by them of Port Phillip.
In the same year, one Collins was sent with a large party
of convicts, fifty-one soldiers, and thirteen free settlers to
form a settlement there ; but he abandoned it in 1804 an< i
transferred his whole command to a site in Van Diemen's
Land, which he named Hobart Town in honour of the
Secretary of State for the Colonies. In 1806 King was
succeeded by Captain Bligh, a seaman, whose courage had
been recognized even by Nelson but better remembered on
account of his connection with the Mutiny of the Bounty. 1
The choice was an unfortunate one, and ended in his
expulsion from the Colony in 1808.
The Home Government next sent Colonel Lachlan
Macquarie to take over Bligh's office, and under his leader-
ship and definite policy, the ex-convicts were encouraged
by grants of land and appointments to public offices to
make some effort to regain their self-respect. Many of the
freed convicts proved their worth, and amply justified
Macquarie's methods. But Macquarie combined with this
liberal attitude towards the convicts a narrow policy regard-
ing other settlers. He gave no encouragement to . the
immigrant. This policy was a failure as subsequent history
has shown. The future of Australia belonged, not to the
convict, but to the free man ; and though Macquarie's
1 His harsh treatment of the crew of this vesseHed to a mutiny which
resulted in his being turned adrift in mid-ocean to take his chance in an
open boat.
AN OUTLINE OF AUSTRALIAN HISTORY 23
policy here was a short-sighted one, it is to his credit that
he tried, by humanitarian methods, to convert these miser-
able convicts into reputable citizens.
IX. THE CONDITIONS OF THE CONVICT 1
It is essential for the understanding of this early history
to remember that the earliest population was drawn almost
solely from among the convicts. Many of those who were
transported were indeed sent out for offences which were
either political 2 or only of the most trivial nature ; but
there was also among their number a large proportion of
thoroughly hardened criminals. In any circumstances,
these latter would have exercised a bad leavening effect on
the whole lump. So much the more was this the case when
the good were forced to live for a period of over six months
in closest contact, on board ship, with the criminal class.
There was, however, an officer appointed on the staff of
each convict-ship who tended to render the conditions
somewhat better than they might otherwise have been ;
he was the " superintendent " of the convicts. An account
of those officers in some detail is given by Therry in the
work already referred to. He tells us that they were
surgeons of the navy, chosen on account of their meritorious
profession, as, in addition to a gratuity of ten shillings a
head for the landing of each convict, there were also at-
tached to the position liberal allowances ; and there was
very considerable competition for these berths; Impartial
patronage was exercised in these appointments ; and
throughout the whole period of transportation, the extensive
authority entrusted to these officers was beneficially used
in administering to the wants of the convicts confided to
their charge. These naval surgeons seem to have per-
formed their duties with firmness and humanity, and for
the benefit of the unfortunate persons over whom govern-
ment gave them a very large discretionary control. Those
who seek a more strictly historical, though hardly less
interesting account, than that of Therry will find such in
Dom Butler's recent biography of Bishop Ullathorne. 3
Had these superintendents been able to exercise control
1 A vivid account worked tip in narrative form of the convict conditions
m Port Arthur and Eaglehawk Neck (Tasmania) is to be found in Marcus
Clarke : For the term of Us Natural Life.
* e.g., those evicted from Ireland at this time.
8 Dom Cuthbert Butler : The Life and Times of Bishop Ullathorne
(1806-1889), 2 Vols. (London, 1926), Vol. I, pp. 90-116.
24 THE AUSTRALIAN CHURCH
over the convicts after their disembarkation, many might
have been reclaimed. But the treatment of them suffered
among other defects from the absence of any classification
of convicts according- to age and the nature of their crimes ;
and as was to be expected, the herding together of large
numbers of the criminal population bore- dismal fruits in
Botany Bay. 1
In such circumstances, the maintenance of discipline was
no easy matter. The uncontrolled use of the lash was
resorted to as an incessant and almost sole instrument of
punishment, and; too often, those who inflicted this degrad-
ing punishment were irresponsible agents who kept no
record of their darkest deeds ; and when the lash had done
its work, the scaffold was called in aid. It is recorded that
in the years 1826, 1827, and 1830, 153 convicts perished on
the scaffold out of a population of less than 50,000, being
an average annual estimate for the three years of ap-
proximately one man in every thousand. 2
The worst characters among the convicts were not kept
in New South Wales, however. They were despatched to
Norfolk Island, some 900 miles east from Sydney, in the
Pacific Ocean. The locality appears to have been not
unfavourable, but the conditions resulting from a popula-
tion of the worst criminals were appalling. Others, again,
as we have seen, were sent to Van Diemen's Land until
they exceeded those on the mainland in numbers. But
Therry's description of conditions in Norfolk Island at this
date may lead us to doubt if there were anywhere a worse
place existing on the globe at that time than this small
island in the Pacific.
Once public opinion had been aroused in Great Britain,
it was recognized that the treatment meted out to the
convicts was as great a blot on its morals as had been the
slave trade in earlier times. A Parliamentary Committee,
appointed in 1837, revealed the more inhuman features of
the system, and recommended the cessation of transporta-
tion. There is little doubt that this course was largely
determined by continual agitation on the part of the settlers
1 The generic name given to the penal settlements of New South Wales,
Van Diemen's Land, and Norfolk Island,
2 For the sake of comparison the similar statistics for England and
Wales are added : the population of England in 1826 was 12,000,236.
In that year there were executed in England 56 persons; in 1827, 75
persons ; and in 1830, 53 persons, giving an average annual estimate of
about one in 200,000.
AN OUTLINE OF AUSTRALIAN HISTORY 25
in the Colony who never ceased to resent the presence of
the convicts in their midst. In 1840 an Order-in-Council
carried the recommendation of the Parliamentary Com-
mittee partly into effect, and directed that transportation
to New South Wales should cease. In 1852 the last
convicts were disembarked in Van Diemen's Land, but for
another sixteen years there were convicts brought inter-
mittently to Western Australia. From first to last, 137,161
men and women were transported.
X. DEVELOPMENT SUBSEQUENT TO THE NAPOLEONIC
WARS
The post-Napoleonic War period, with the bad economic
and social conditions in England, naturally led to a con-
siderable increase in emigrants. There were large numbers
of ex-soldiers in search of employment, and their campaigns
abroad had opened their eyes to a wider vision, and had
made them well fitted for emigrants. Consequently the
population of Australia rapidly increased. The Govern-
ment, moreover, gave them every support, and that for
two reasons. First, there were fears of French colonization
on the Australian Continent, fears which appeared justified
when Governor Darling received a report that the French
had landed at Western Port in Victoria. An expedition to
the spot, however, soon manifested that they had no in-
tention of starting a Colony there ; for they had already
left before the English expedition arrived. Secondly, the
Government found the settlers of the greatest value in
organizing the convict supply of labour. Only a small
proportion of the convicts were kept in prisons. Most of
them were " assigned " out to settlers, for whom they had
to perform compulsory labour. These settlers proved first-
rate organizers of this convict labour, and the Government
saw they were of great service in turning this labour to
good account.
Exploration, moreover, was beginning at this period in
the Colony. In 1813 a good track across the Blue Mountains
in New South Wales into the Bathurst Plains was discovered
by Gregory Blaxland and, a few years later, John Oxley
penetrated towards the Murray River. The river itself was
actually discovered and crossed in 1824 by Hume and
Hovell ; and it was about the same time that Allan Cunning-
ham, the botanist, undertook his excursions far into the
interior in the cause of scientific investigation.
26 THE AUSTRALIAN CHURCH
XL GRANTS OF LAND
In the earliest times, all property was regarded as vested
in the Crown ; and the Crown vested its power of making
grants in the Governor. Consequently, if anyone wished
to emigrate, he might wait until he disembarked, and then
he could be tolerably certain of receiving a grant of land
from the Governor. In general, grants were made by him
in proportional magnitude to the amount of capital which
the Colonist brought with him. It was generally considered
advisable to make application to the authorities at home,
prior to emigration, for a certificate recommending a grant
of land ; if this were obtained (as it invariably was if the
applicant were of good character), the emigrant had a legal
claim on the land on arrival, whatever the Governor's own
personal wishes might be. 1
After the discovery of the pastoral areas on the far side
of the Blue Mountains in 1813, and the nearly contempo-
raneous introduction of sheep into the Continent, there was
a large unauthorized tracking by sheep owners into this
new area. The settlers set out with their sheep till they
came to a suitable spot and there " squatted " and en-
deavoured to make a fortune out of wool. Of course, such
" Squatters " had no legal rights to these lands, but the
Government saw that they made the best use then possible
of land lying idle and consequently did not interfere. In
1836, Bourke dealt effectively with the problem created by
this general " squatting " and gave the " Squatters "
licences for security of tenure within prescribed boundaries.
Macquarie, as has been pointed out, was opposed to any
extensive policy of admitting settlers. But all this was soon
to change; 1830 saw the formation in England of the
Colonization Society. This organization, one of the leading
spirits of which was E. G. Wakefield, besides advocating
responsible government for the Colonists, urged that a
systematic plan of colonization should be brought into
effect. It pointed out that there were large areas available
for settlement purposes in the Colonies and that at home
there was sufficient capital available for .their development
in Australia. The scheme had the support of Governor
1 See Historical Records of New South Wales, Vol. Ill, p. 385 (1798).
Grants of land to settlers were made of 100 acres at Port Jackson prior to
sailing. The immigrants were to be victualled on the voyage and also fed
and clothed from the public stores for twelve months after arrival. Stock,
seed, grain, and agricultural implements were to be provided for them.
AN OUTLINE OF AUSTRALIAN HISTORY 27
Bourke, who urged that Colonial lands should be not given
to, but purchased by, the Colonists, and that the revenue
thus obtained be used to assist further immigrants who
were without capital. The problem of the supply of labour
began to become serious as the number of convicts intro-
duced fell off. It was this far-sighted policy which saved
the situation. By selling land at a minimum of 2 an
acre, Wakefield showed that it was possible to raise an
emigration fund, sufficient to maintain a proper supply of
labour.
XII. NEW ZEALAND
Something may be said here of the early history of New
Zealand. The Islands owe their Dutch name to their
discovery by Tasman in 1642. Tasman was unable to land,
however, and it was not till 1769 that any real knowledge
of the country was obtained. In that year Cook succeeded
in effecting a landing at several points and got into touch
with the natives, called Maoris. These Maoris appear
themselves not to have been the original inhabitants, but
to have come from some other islands in the Pacific at an
earlier date. As subsequent history showed, they possessed
a very exceptional degree of intelligence among the primitive
tribes; they were always a force to be reckoned with ; and
unlike the Australian Aborigines, they themselves recognized
that the white man was a power not to be scorned. It is
somewhat difficult, however, to estimate their exact numbers.
In 1839 it was estimated that there were about 100,000 in
the North Island and 5000 in the South Island. There was
no systematic settlement of the country till about 1840.
The white population before that date consisted mainly of
escaped convicts, whalers, and traders driven out of their
course, and a few Christian Missionaries, amongst whom
was Samuel Marsden. 1 By 1839, the year in which the
British Government decided to assume sovereignty, there
were computed to be in all some 2000 white settlers.
In 1837 the chairman of the newly-formed " New Zealand
Association," Sir F. Baring, M.P., introduced a Bill into
Parliament "for the Provisional Government of British
Settlements in the Islands of New Zealand." Among other
things, the Bill arranged for the purchase of lands, as well
as for the protection and moral development of the natives.
The Bill, however, did not go through the House, and the
1 Cf. infra, p. 41.
28 THE AUSTRALIAN CHURCH
" New Zealand Association " gave place to the " New
Zealand Land Company." This organization was much
more definitely intent on financial interests. They urged
the British Government to assert supremacy, not indeed
with any thought of the protection of the natives, but solely
as they imagined that it would mean an increase in the
value of the land. In 1839, accordingly, the Government
altered the commission of Sir George Gipps, the Governor
of New South Wales, so that New Zealand was included
within his jurisdiction. He acted without delay, and sent
out Captain Hobson to take possession, and "to establish
a settled form of civil government." He made a treaty
with the natives at Waitangi, explaining to them that "the
shadow would go to the Queen and the substance would
remain, and that they might rely implicitly on the good
faith of Her Majesty's Government." 1
This led him in February 1840 to proclaim the Queen's
sovereignty over both Islands ; and in November of the
same year, New Zealand was proclaimed an independent
Colony. With the object of continuing to protect the
Maoris, he proposed to make Auckland rather than Welling-
ton (the chief settlement of the New Zealand Company)
the capital of the Colony needless to say, to the great
dissatisfaction of the white population whose interests were
fostered by the " New Zealand Company."
1 Quoted H. W. Tucker: Life of Bishop Selwyn (London, 3rd Edit.,
1900), i., 99.
CHAPTER II
THE DEVELOPMENT OF CIVIL LEGISLATION
IN AUSTRALIA
I. ORIGINAL CONSTITUTION
THE original constitution of New South Wales was
as simple as it was inevitable. All powers, both
of legislation and of jurisdiction, were vested in
the Governor of the Colony. It is true that in the exercise
of these powers, the Governor was limited to some extent
by the existing legislation in the Home Country. In this
matter, the principle laid down by Blackstone in his Com-
mentaries 1 was generally taken as binding, namely, that
" If an uninhabited country be discovered and planted by
English Subjects, all the English laws then in being, which
are the birthright of every subject, are immediately there
in force. But this must be understood with very many and
very great restrictions. Such Colonists carry with them
only so much of the English law as is applicable to their
own situation and the condition of an infant Colony ; such,
for instance, as the general rules of inheritance and of pro-
tection from personal injuries. The artificial refinements
and distinctions incident to the property of a great and
commercial people, the laws of police and revenue (such
especially as are enforced by penalties), the mode of mainten-
ance for the established clergy, the jurisdiction of spiritual
courts, and a multitude of other provisions, are neither
necessary nor convenient for them, and therefore are not
in force. What shall be admitted and what rejected, at
what times and under what restrictions, must, in case of
dispute, be decided in the first instance, by their own pro-
vincial judicature, subject to the revision and control of the
King in Council : the whole of their constitution being also
liable to be new-modelled and reformed by the general
superintending power of the legislature in the mother-
1 Section 108, Commentaries on the Laws of England, by Sir William
Blackstone, Vol. I, :6th Edit., pp. 107, 108 (A. Strahan, London, 1825).
29
30 THE AUSTRALIAN CHURCH
country." But the totally new conditions of the Colony
made these provisions of dubious value when cases arose,
and though the Governor had to report periodically to the
Home Government the progress of affairs in the Colony,
to all intents and purposes he had a free hand.
II. AGITATION FOR A CHANGE
It was after the Napoleonic Wars that the desire for a
change was generally felt . It expressed itself in three ways
1. One of the leading Colonists in the year 1819 brought
out a book with a view to giving the English public better
information on the actual state of the Colony than was
usually possessed in this country, in the hope of inducing
more emigrants to go out. 1
Its author, W. C. Wentworth, pointed out the need for
some Constitutional form of government, and went so far
as to suggest a detailed scheme suitable to the needs of the
Colonists. The Government of the Colony was to be vested
in two Houses, an Upper and a Lower. The former was to
be filled with nominees of the Crown; the latter to be
elected by the Colonists themselves. For membership in
the Lower House, it was necessary to possess at least three
hundred acres of land ; for the right of election thereto it
was necessary to possess twenty acres or an equivalent
rent qualification. Freed convicts, except those who had
been convicted of certain classes of crime, were to be allowed
to vote if they had the necessary property qualifications.
The introduction of trial by jury was also advocated. The
book was reviewed in the Edinburgh Review at some length,
and attracted much attention in consequence.
2. Independently, the Colonists petitioned the Crown in
that year for a less autocratic form of government, Macquarie
was not the type of Governor that the Colony needed at
that juncture. He persisted in the idea that New South
Wales was intended solely for the purposes of a convict
settlement, and that, therefore, any others who chose to
reside there must not expect any legislation except such as
could be applied to convicts. Consequently, he was heartily
disliked, and the Home Government had frequently received
messages from the settlers petitioning for a change. But it
1 The book was entitled, A Statistical Account of the British Settlements
in Australasia. The book is full of interesting material relative to the
state of the Colony at this time, and it also gives a full account of the
difficulties with which emigrants were then faced.
CIVIL LEGISLATION IN AUSTRALIA 31
was in 1819 that a formal petition from a large body of
Colonists was first sent.
3. In the same year, the Government, acting on inde-
pendent advice, decided to send out a Commission to
investigate the actual state of the Colony. As head of the
Commission, was appointed a London lawyer named Bigge.
As his Secretary, there accompanied him a Mr. Scott, who
was a few years later appointed the first Archdeacon of the
Colony. 1
But Bathurst took the same view as did Macquarie ;
for he wrote to Bigge (1819) : " They i.e. New South
Wales and Van Diemen's Land must chiefly be considered
as receptacles for offenders. So long as they continue
destined by the Legislature of this country for these
purposes, their growth as colonies must be of secondary
consideration." 2
The Commission drew up four reports, which were sub-
mitted to Parliament in 1822-3. It is worth noting, in
view of the part played later by Mr. Scott in the history
of our subject, that he was responsible for one of these
reports, namely, that on the subject of the need for
increased educational facilities in the Colony.
III. THE NEW SOUTH WALES JUDICATURE ACT, 1823
Within four months of the presentation of Bigge's Third
Report to Parliament, on March 23rd, 1823, an Act was
passed for the more effectual government of the territory
of New South Wales. On the Statute Book, it is 4 George
IV, c. 96. Its most important section was Section 24, which
provided for the constitution of an "Advisory Legislative
Council." Though this Council was to be appointed by the
Crown, there appears from the first to have been the inten-
tion to appoint to it some of the Colonists, and this was
what actually happened. On two of the early Councils sat
T. H. Scott, who had, in ,the meantime, been chosen to fill
the new office of Archdeacon. The Council was to consist
of not less than five, nor more than seven, members, and
the Governor alone was to have the right of initiating Bills.
Moreover, such Bills as the Governor initiated were to
become law if only one member of the Council supported
! p< P- 42.
. Quoted in E. Sweetman: Australian Constitutional Development
(.Melbourne, I 925), p. 32. For much in this chapter we are indebted to
that valuable work.
32 THE AUSTRALIAN CHURCH
them. In times when the Colony was deemed by the
Governor to be imperilled, not even the support of this one
member \yas necessary ; so it is doubtful if, in fact, the
power of the Governor was much curtailed by this new
Act. Still, it was highly important as showing that the
Home Government was aware that there must come a
change-
Provision was also made by the Act for the establishment
of a Supreme Court to try civil offences. The old Court of
seven military and naval officers was to continue for the
trial of convicts (Section 4). But by Section 6 of the Act,
in certain cases trial by jury should be the rule, and Section
8 provided for the extension of the principle as soon as the
Colony was deemed fitted for it.
In the same year, Letters Patent were issued, dated
October I3th, for the creation of this Court. It was to be
under the control of one judge, entitled the Chief Justice.
If His Majesty wished, however, he could increase the
number of judges to three. As regards its powers, it could
exercise "such and the like jurisdiction as the superior
Courts of Westminster in all civil and criminal matters."
It was also given equitable jurisdiction, such as the Courts
of Chancery in England exercise, as well as such portion of
the jurisdiction as the Ecclesiastical Courts of England then
possessed relative to the probate of wills and the granting
of letters of administration. Sir Francis Forbes was the
first Chief Justice to preside over this Court.
Such were the new conditions created by the 1824 Act.
Up till this date, Australia had been, in the eyes of the law,
purely and solely a penal settlement. Now the English
Government began to recognize that a tremendous future
awaited this outpost of the Empire. The beginnings of
that new era had become manifest. They were not to
culminate till the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution
Act, which established the Federal Constitution in 1900,
was passed ; and on January ist, 1901, the Federal Com-
monwealth came into being.
IV. AN EXAMPLE OF COLONIAL LEGISLATURE
An example of the type of legislature which the Colonial
Council passed may be given here. We select an instance
bearing on the history of the Church, namely, the first
Licensing Act. The Australian Acts are usually quoted by
"Numbers" and not by "Chapters," and hence it is
CIVIL LEGISLATION IN AUSTRALIA 33
designated 6 George IV, No. 4, and not 6 George IV, Cap. 4.
There was required from all applicants for licences a
certificate by the Church of England " minister." There
appears somewhat later on the Statute Book (6 George IV,
No. 21) an Act passed for the Registration of Births,
Marriages, and Deaths, which also recognized the official
position of the Church of England clergy in charge of
parishes. Every minister of religion in the Colony, of what-
ever denomination, was compelled to send a certificate of
any baptisms, marriages, or burials which he solemnized,
to the Anglican minister of the parish in which the service
took place ; and delinquents were to be visited with severe
penalties. It would thus appear that, at this early date,
an attempt was made to give the Church of England a
degree of recognition not accorded to any other denomina-
tion. It must, however, be pointed out, that the scheme
proved impracticable, and it was later replaced by one
which gave official recognition to four religious bodies.
V, VAN DIEMEN'S LAND A NEW COLONY
Van Diemen's Land tended more and more to become the
convict Colony par excellence. Since 1803, the year of its
foundation, it had been under the control of a Lieutenant-
Governor, who was himself subject to the Governor of New
South Wales. The time was now ripe for the establishment
of Van Diemen's Land as a separate Colony. Accordingly,
an Order in Council, dated June I4th, 1825, was issued,
establishing for that Colony a legislature parallel to that
of New South Wales ; provision being made for a Governor
and Council nominated by the Crown. The Imperial Acts
of 1842 and 1850 granted the Colonists power to nominate
or elect the members of the Legislative Council, and Tas-
mania (as well as Victoria and South Australia) decided on
the "elective" principle; and for the Lower House, i.e.
the Legislative Assembly, the method of election of members
is by an adaptation of the Hare System of proportional
representation involving the multi-member electoral division.
This system was invented by a certain Miss Hare of South
Australia ; but so far, Tasmania is the only State, which,
by its use, makes provision for the representation of
minorities. 1
1 Federal Handbook on Australia (British Association for the Advance-
ment of Science), 1914, p. 551. -
34 THE AUSTRALIAN CHURCH
VI. THE NEED OF FURTHER REFORMS
The provisions of the 1824 Act were clearly intended to
be more or less of a temporary nature. The Colonists
themselves generally felt that their wishes had been only
very imperfectly acceded to. Almost before they had
become acquainted with the terms of the Bill, agitation
began for further reforms. In 1825, Wentworth, in con-
junction with a friend, Dr. Wardell, started a paper called
the Australian, to be devoted to the cause of freedom. The
party was determined on active steps ; and, at a farewell
meeting given on October 2ist, 1825, to the honour of
Brisbane, he was implored to use all the influence he could
in the Home Country for the extension of the principle
of Trial by Jury, and the introduction of Taxation by
Representation. 1
Somewhat over a year later, 2 Governor Darling addressed
a letter to Under-Secretary Hay, pressing the need for
greater Constitutional government. He suggested the
creation of a blended House, and put forward two schemes ;
in the one, proposing 15 and in the other, 20 members of
this House. Thus, in the former scheme, the House was to
consist of the Lieutenant-Governor, the Chief Justice, the
Archdeacon, the Colonial Secretary, the Attorney-General,
the Surveyor-General, the Auditor of Accounts, six country
gentlemen, and two merchants.
VII. THE 1828 BILL
These proposals resulted in a new Bill. It was intro-
duced on April ist, by Huskisson, who was at that time
the Secretary of State for the Colonies. It had the some-
what long title, " A Bill to provide for the Administration
of Justice in New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land,
and for the more effectual Government thereof ; and for
other purposes relating thereto." The Crown was author-
ized to introduce trial by jury for " all crimes cognizable
by juries." For any Colonial Bill to become law it was
henceforth necessary for the Governor to have a majority
vote in the Council and not simply the consent of one
member. The Bill received the Royal Assent on July 25th,
1828, and not long subsequently in 1832 the Crown gave
to Governor Bourke its consent to introduce Trial by Jury.
It is also interesting to note that the composition of the
1 Sweetman, op. cit., p. 60. a February gth, 1827.
CIVIL LEGISLATION IN AUSTRALIA 35
Legislative Council was practically that proposed by
Darling.
VIII. NEW COLONIES, WESTERN AND SOUTH AUSTRALIA
Settlements were started on the West Coast of Australia
in the year 1829. It was quite impossible for the legislative
body in New South Wales to govern this Colony on the
Swan River. Hence, an Act was passed which empowered
the Crown to appoint persons to make laws for this Colony
until December 3ist, 1834. Eventually in 1889, Western
Australia acquired responsible government with its Constitu-
tion based substantially on that of New South Wales,
except that the members of the Legislative Council are
elected and not nominated to that office, and receive a
salary in the same way as do the South Australian and
Tasmanian members of their respective legislatures.
By the Imperial Act 4 and 5 William IV, Cap. 45, the
Crown was also empowered to erect South Australia into
a British possession and to provide for its colonization.
This led to the formation of the Colony of South Australia
(1834). The executive and legislative powers of the Colony
were vested in the Governor and a Council of Government
in just the same manner as in New South Wales.
IX. THE 1842 ACT
The next important event in the history of the Constitu-
tion was the passing in 1842 of the Act 5 and 6 Viet.,
Cap. 76. It provided for the creation of a Legislative
Council, constituted on a new basis. The majority of its
members were to be, not Nominees of the Crown, but
representatives elected by the Colonists. As the basis of
franchise, the property qualification was taken. It took,
therefore, well over twenty years before the Home Govern-
ment gave effect to the proposals put forward by Wentworth
in his famous book. 1 This Council was given control of the
Colonial expenditure and revenue ; the only exception
made was in the case of the Land Fund which was deemed
to require the guidance of experienced statesmen such _as
the Colony at that time did not possess.
One important proviso in the Act should be noticed. All
the legislature in the Colony was subject to the veto of the
Governor. We see here a reflection of Lord Durham's
Report on the A/airs of British North America. Durham,
1 Cp. p. 30 n.
36 THE AUSTRALIAN CHURCH
it will be remembered, had been sent out in 1838 as Governor
of Canada, and the report which he sent back was> strongly
coloured by his own views. He regarded the Colonies not
so much the inheritance of the present Colonists as the
destined home of the crowded masses in this country.
"They were," he said, "the ample appanage which God
and Nature have set aside in the New world for those whose
lot has assigned them but insufficient portions in the Old."
X. THE SEPARATION OF VICTORIA
It was inevitable that a separation between New South
Wales and Victoria should come about. Owing to the
situation of Melbourne, travel by land between the two
capitals was even more difficult than by water ; and, in
practice, the Colony at Port Phillip was an Overseas de-
pendency of New South Wales. 1
Though it was not till nearly ten years after the 1842
Act that this state of affairs was remedied, that Act clearly
recognized the situation. By it, not only was a completely
independent Land Fund set up for the southern Colony,
but it also granted to Victoria the right to elect and send
six members to the New South Wales Legislature. On
paper, the latter might seem to be a liberal concession ;
but in practice, it really amounted to very little, since it
was not possible to induce the right class of representatives
to undertake the expenses and inconveniences which the
journey to Sydney involved. The irony of the whole
position is seen in the fact that, in 1850, Lord Grey, the
Colonial Secretary in England, was actually elected as the
representative of Melbourne. 2
It was in 1850 that effect was given to the necessary
changes. By the Imperial Act, 13 & 14 Viet., Cap. 59
(August 5th, 1850), the land on the two sides of the Murray
River became each a separate Colony, Like New South
Wales and South Australia, Victoria was granted a Legis-
lative Council, partly nominee and partly elective. On
July ist, 1851, formal effect was given to these proposals.
It is remarkable how opportune was the moment for this
change, for the population of Victoria went up by leaps
and bounds in the next few years, consequent on the dis-
covery of gold. 3 From 1855 to 1890, emigration from Great
1 Cp. G. Goodman : The Church in Victoria during the Episcopate of
Bishop Perry, pp. 149 fl. * Ibid., p. 150.
3 The population of Victoria in 1851 was 70,000 ; in 1855, it was
333,000. Williamson, p. 525.
CIVIL LEGISLATION IN AUSTRALIA 37
Britain continued in considerable volume, 1 and during the
'seventies, after the gold-fever had subsided, that Colony
was settling down to the stable and permanent pursuits of
the pastoral and agricultural industries. So rapidly did
these flourish and extend that the demand for more land
for settlement purposes became greater, until to-day,
Victoria, owing to the varied and productive resources of
the country, is in a more highly developed condition of
settlement than any of the other states.
XL COLONY OF QUEENSLAND
The spread of settlement in the northern portion of New
South Wales led to the formation, in 1852, of the New
Colony of Queensland. The growth of population, it is
true, was slower than for the corresponding period in
Victoria, and hence the necessity for a separate government
arose only later. But when there were some 30,000 in-
habitants centred mainly in the areas round Brisbane, 8
the demand for the establishment of the Colony was granted.
The Constitution of Queensland followed that of the
parent Colony of New South Wales, and the members of
its Legislative Council were appointed by nomination;
though, some few years ago (March 23rd, 1922), a most
revolutionary constitutional alteration was made, when the
Legislative Council was abolished entirely at the instigation
of the Labour Government then in power.
XII. FUNCTIONS OF THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCILS
AND LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLIES
The Constitutions of the several States, with the exception
of that of Queensland (as noted above), provide for two
Chambers. The functions of the Assemblies (or Lower
Houses) are purely legislative and democratic in basis,
and in their control of Ministers of the Cabinets, their
limited term of office, and their liability to dissolution,
follow closely the constitution and procedure of the British
House of Commons. The fundamental factor of responsible
government existing in the Legislative Assemblies of the
State Parliaments of Australia lies in the harmony of the
Cabinet with the majority opinion of the Lower House,
1 In 1890, the population of Victoria was 1,118,500.
8 The foundations of this city, as we have seen, had been laid in 1824,
during the term of office of Governon Brisbane, who at that time had
established a penal settlement there.
38 THE AUSTRALIAN CHURCH
We have seen that the Legislative Council was the first
form of local government granted to the Colony, but after
responsible government took the place (between 1855 and
1889) of the earlier method, the Constitution of the Legisla-
tive Councils throughout the various Colonies differed
somewhat in composition and method of election; and,
designed as conservative bodies, they have certainly ful-
filled the controlling function of a Second Chamber exercising
its revisory power (when it considered it advisable) on the
legislation sent to it by the Legislative Assembly.
XIII. THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
As we have seen, the federation of the States of Australia
was accomplished in 1901. The Federal Parliament consists
of a House of Representatives, and an Upper House,
designated the Senate, the members of both Chambers
being elected on the basis of proportional representation
from the whole of the Commonwealth.
The legislative functions of the Federal Parliament are
those which concern Australia as a whole, in such matters
as Defence, Post Office, Customs, Tariffs, and Administrative
problems.
Thus, Australia, with its Governor-General of the Com-
monwealth, its Federal Parliament, its six State Governors,,
and the corresponding number of State Parliaments, totalling,
in all, thirteen Parliamentary bodies, may either pride or
pity herself on the multitude and variety of her legislative
experiments, and can claim, with no danger of challenge,
to be the world's political laboratory, even though it has
to govern only six millions of people !
CHAPTER III
THE HISTORY OF THE AUSTRALIAN CHURCH
I. BEGINNINGS OF THE CHURCH
IN Australia, the history of the Church is as old as the
history of the Colony ; for the first fleet that left the
English shores with its freight of convicts was provided
with the ministrations of a Chaplain in the person of a,
certain Richard Johnson. It would appear that the ships
might easily have left without the presence of a minister to
the spiritual needs of the donvicts, for an early historian
writes : " The first ship which bore away its freight of
despair, of braised hearts and woeful memories and
fearful expectations, would have left the shores of England
without even a solitary minister of religion but for the
timely remonstrance of a private individual. The civil
authorities deemed their work complete when they had
given the signal to raise the anchor and unloose the sails ;
the rest was no concern of theirs." 1
The writer who quotes these words tells us that the
individual referred to is Bishop Porteus, who together with
Sir Joseph Banks recognized the necessity of a " religious
instructor" being provided for the unfortunate prisoners. 2
Another version of Mr. Johnson's appointment 3 tells us
that, just two days before the convicts sailed, William
Wilberforce, finding that no provision for the spiritual
welfare of the convicts had been made, represented his
views to the Bishop of London, whose counsel to the
Government resulted in the appointment of Johnson, who
volunteered his services.
It should be noted, however, that Johnson's commission
is dated as early as October 4th, 1786, seven months before
the first fleet left the English shores on May i3th, 1787.
Furthermore, a presentation of books was made" by the
1 T. W. M. Marshall : Christian Missions, Vol. II, p. 81.
2 R. Therry : Reminiscences of Thirty Years' Residence in New South
Wales and Victoria (London, and Edit., 1863), p. 12.
3 Two Hundred Years of the S.P.G., 1701-1900, C. F. Pascoe, 1901,
P- 386.
39
40 THE AUSTRALIAN CHURCH
S.P.C.K. to the Chaplain of the " first fleet " for New South
Wales on November i8th, 1786. It seems, therefore, that
the appointment of the Chaplain had been included in the
government scheme of transportation.
The first Chaplains were appointed by the State. It
follows that they were all Anglicans. They were to exercise
their office throughout the new Colony, for we read in
Johnson's Commission : " We do by these presents con-
stitute and appoint you to be chaplain to the settlement
within our territory called New South Wales." 1 It may
be worth noting that Lord Sydney was Secretary of State
for the Colonies at the time of Mr. Johnson's appointment.
In this way it was natural that the Church of England
should be the one and only Church which received any
official recognition, both at home and in the Colony, in the
early history of New South Wales.
The famed and heroic labours of Mr. Johnson's successor
must not be allowed to eclipse the first Chaplain's work.
The task of the latter was no easy one. Within a fortnight
of his arrival, he conducted a service under a tree on the
western side of Sydney Cove. This was the first service in
the Colony, and on that memorable occasion he chose for
the text of his sermon, " What shall I render unto the Lord
for all His benefits towards me ? " 2 To it, came the marines,
the seamen of the vessels, as well as the male convicts. 3
Services continued to be held under trees till the completion,
in 1793, of the first church (if one may so designate it),
which Mr. Johnson had erected at his own expense. 4 It
was a small T-shaped building constructed of stout posts
interwoven with branches of ti-tree and bound together with
clay, or, as it is generally called, wattle-and-daub. 6
In spite of the mean materials used in its construction,
it was capable of accommodating 500 people, and was also
used as a school for about 150 children. But it was not
destined to last long, for five years, after its erection it was
destroyed by fire. The site has been verified beyond dispute,
however ; and as recently as March 2gth, 1925, the founda-
tion stone of a Memorial Cross was laid on the spot. On
1 Cp. Document A. a Psalm cxvi. 12.
8 The female convicts were not landed at that date.
* He was, however, refunded the cost of it 6j during Governor
Hunter's term of office, in 1797.
5 It is interesting to note that this was the material of the first historical
church in our own land, at Glastonbury. Cf, Wakeman ; History of the,
Ghwch of England, p. 3.
HISTORY OF THE AUSTRALIAN CHURCH 41
April 4th, of the same year, the handsome obelisk which
now surmounts it was unveiled in the presence of the
Governor, Sir Dudley de Chair, and stands in the busiest
thoroughfare of Sydney as a permanent witness to Mr.
Johnson's labours. His term of office was not a happy one.
It is recorded that he received little support or sympathy
from the authorities, " only a bare toleration at best ;
more commonly a frown and a hard word for the solitary
priest of the Church of England." 1
Johnson returned to England in 1800, and became Rector
of St. Mary, Aldermary, and of St. Antholin, City of London.
He died in 1827.
II. APPOINTMENT OF SAMUEL MARSDEN
As the Colony increased, it was naturally impossible for
a single Chaplain to do all the necessary work. Before long,
an. Assistant Chaplain, Mr. Samuel Marsden, was appointed
to help Johnson in his duties. His selection is said to have
been due to the recommendation of William Wilberforce, 2
and the wisdom of his choice was clearly shown by the
later deeds of Marsden, whose strong personality soon made
a great impression. His commission was dated January ist,
1793. He had not been long in the Colony before Johnson
resigned, leaving Marsden " to carry on, single-handed, for
many years a most determined struggle against the vilest
imaginable iniquities, the grossest abuses of authority, and
the most shameless licentiousness shielded by official
influence. As a sure consequence, he provoked the virulent
opposition of powerful and unscrupulous adversaries men
interested in maintaining the abuses he exposed who
strove for years, though happily without success, to blacken
his character and drive him from the Colony. The story is
one of painful interest. Suffice it to say that Samuel
Marsden, though not distinguished by brilliant abilities or
literary power, was a man of singular strength and energy
of character, of intrepid resolution and indomitable per-
severance, joined with an admirable singleness of purpose
and largeness of heart. With ardent philanthropy, more-
over, he combined an ample measure of those qualities for
which Yorkshiremen are famous all the world over
practical sagacity and shrewdness, and strong common
1 The Church in Greater Britain : G. Robert Wynne, D.I)., 1911, p. 72.
2 Cp. H. Jacobs : New Zealand, Colonial Church Histories; p. 2.
42 THE AUSTRALIAN CHURCH
sense." 1 Marsden returned to England for two years in
1807, and determined to devote his main energies, for the
future, to the conversion of New Zealand under the auspices
of the C.M.S. It was not, however, till November 1814
that he was able to make his first missionary visit to New
Zealand. Marsden died on May I2th, 1838, and was buried
in his own churchyard at Paramatta, New South Wales, at
the age of seventy-four years.
III. DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHURCH TILL 1824
The growth of the Church followed the growth of the
Colony. The circumstances were indeed such as to render
the progress of religion but slow. In a community in which
such a large proportion of its members were drawn from
the criminal classes, it was no easy task to inspire high
religious and 'moral ideals, and it is greatly to the credit of
the first Chaplains that the Church in Australia owed such
vitality as it possessed in early times. There were only
three Chaplains in the Settlement during the first ten years
of its history. Reference has already been made to Johnson
and Marsden ; the third was the Reverend James Bain,
who was appointed in 1790, just four years previous to the
arrival of Marsden. Little is known of Bain ; his name
appears in the register of St. John's Church, Paramatta,
and Johnson refers to him in a letter dated March I5th,
1793, written to S.P.G. In this communication, Bain is
mentioned as " Chaplain to the New South Wales Corps." 2
In January 1792, he embarked on board the Queen for
Norfolk Island with some settlers and convicts.
The year 1824 saw the appointment of an Archdeacon 3 ;
who, though under the Governor or Lieutenant-Governor,
ranked next to them in the Colony, and under whose super-
vision the Chaplains, Church Services, and Educational
System were organized.
Thomas Hobbes Scott was the first to fill this office.
The son of a clergyman, in 1813 he matriculated at Oxford,
and took his M.A. degree five years later. Before his
appointment to the Archdeaconry he had had a varied
career. He had held a position in the Consular Service in
Italy ; he had been a wine merchant ; he had been out to
1 Cp. H. Jacobs : New Zealand, Colonial Church Histories, pp. 2 f .
2 Two Hundred Years of the S.P.G. , p. 387.
3 Register of Acts and Proceedings, Archdeaconry of New South Wales in
Diocese of Calcutta. This Register is to be seen at the Diocesan Registry,
Sydney, N.S.W.
HISTORY OF THE AUSTRALIAN CHURCH 43
the Colony as Secretary of Bigge's Commission which the
Government appointed to investigate the conditions in
New South Wales. On his return to England he took
orders and was instituted Rector of a Northumberland
parish in 1822. The fact that he placed a locum^tenens in
the parish suggests that he intended to remain in Australia
for only a limited time. 1 Scott's experiences, therefore,
were wide and varied, and even if some of his activities
were not such as we are accustomed to associate with a
clerical career, the peculiar circumstances of the Church in
New South Wales demanded at this time a man of his
stamp. Shortly after his arrival the Archdeacon held his
first Visitation at Sydney, in June 1825. At this time the
number of Chaplains on the Government Staff, including
the Archdeacon, was eleven, all of whom attended the
Visitation. They were (excluding the Archdeacon) the
Reverends S. Marsden, W. Cowper, R. Cartwright, H.
Fulton, R. Hill, J. Cross, G. A. Middleton, T. Reddall,
F. Wilkinson, and T. Hassall.
On March 2nd, 1826, the Archdeacon held his first Visita-
tion at St. David's, Hobart Town, Van Diemen's Land.
The following Chaplains attended : the Reverends J. Youl,
W. Bedford, W. Garrard, H. A. Robinson, and R. Knopwood.
On September 6th in the following year another Visitation
was held by the Archdeacon, when three additional Chaplains
attended, namely, the Reverends M. W. Meares, J. E. Keane,
and C. R. N. Wilton.
To the events which led to the appointment of an Arch-
deacon, we shall return below. Scott, however, held the
office till 1829, in which year William Grant Broughton
was appointed by the Duke of Wellington as his successor.
IV. ARCHDEACON BROUGHTON
The story of the life and work of Archdeacon, afterwards
Bishop, Broughton will always command an important
place in the history of the Australian Church.
He was born in Bridge Street, Westminster, in 1788, and
six years later the family removed to Barnet,- Herts. He
was educated at King's School, Canterbury, and for a time
served as clerk in the East India House, eventually going
1 On resigning the Archdeaconry, he returned to his former parish. He
was made an Honorary Canon of Durham, October, 1845. He died in
1860. For further details, see Historical Records of Australia, Series IV,
Vol. I, p. 948. Cp. Sweetman : Australian Constitutional Development,
P- 31-
44 THE AUSTRALIAN CHURCH
up to Cambridge at the age of twenty-six. He graduated
at Pembroke as sixth Wrangler, and, in 1818, at the age of
thirty years, was admitted to Holy Orders.
For the next eleven years he held the curacies of Hartley
Wespall and Farnham, Hants, and his literary abilities
attracted the notice of Bishop Tomlin of Winchester, who
designed high preferment for him. The Bishop was not
alone in his recognition of Broughton's work, for the Duke
of Wellington, whose seat, Strathfieldsaye, was near to
Hartley Wespall, sought out the young priest, and offered
him the Chaplaincy of the Tower, an office he accepted and
held in conjunction with his curacy. In 1829 the Duke,
recognizing Broughton's capacity for leadership, offered
him the Archdeaconry of New South Wales, then recently
vacant owing to the resignation of Hobbes Scott.
This was the turning-point in Broughton's life ; and
subsequent history has shown the wisdom manifested by
the Duke of Wellington, who saw what type of man was
needed for the Church in Australia.
The manner in which the offer was made is to be seen in
an address by Broughton to the S.P.G. in 1852. 1 In making
the offer, the Duke said : "If, in my profession, a man is
desired to go to-morrow morning to the other side of the
world, it is better he should go to-morrow or not at all."
He desired that Broughton should take the subject into his
serious consideration, and give him his reply within a week.
At the same interview, the Duke used the oft-quoted and
now historic words in speaking of the Australian Colonists,
" They must have a Church ! "
Within the week, he received Broughton's acceptance of
the Archdeaconry ; and in the words of Broughton himself,
when addressing the meeting referred to above, we read
" hence my connection with the Colonial Church."
For seven years he served the Church in this capacity.
Towards the end of that period (1834) he visited England,
in order to press the claims of the Colonists upon the
members of the Church at home, 2 and he asked " whether
England was going to allow Australia to become a nation of
infidels." 3 " Even for your prisoners," proclaimed Brough-
1 Printed in W. G. Broughton : Sermons on the Church of England,
London, 1857. In the prefatory Memoir by B. Harrison, p. xiii.
* G. R. Wynne states, cp. Church in Greater Britain, 3rd Edit., p. 74,
that the Duke of Wellington called the Archdeacon home to be consecrated
Bishop of Australia.
8 Quoted op. cit., p. 75.
HISTORY OF THE AUSTRALIAN CHURCH 45
ton, " you are bound to provide food and light. Is it not
equally your duty to furnish them with the Bread of Life
and the Light of the Gospel ? " 1
So powerful was his appeal that no less than 13,000 was
subscribed by the S.P.G., the S.P.C.K., and private indi-
viduals ; and as a result, he was able to double the number
of clergy in the Colony, the S.P.G. sending, in one year,
no less than thirty clergymen for service in New South
Wales and Tasmania. 2 Broughton moreover, during this
visit, reminded the people in England that, during the
years 1826-1834, the mother-country had not contributed
a shilling for the spiritual needs of the convict population,
which, at that time, numbered 25,000, 3 while the Colonists
themselves were contributing 3000 a year, and further-
more, that the members of the Church of England in the
Colony of New South Wales had engaged to contribute,
and to a great extent, had paid up, within one year, upwards
of 13,500 for Church extension. Sydney, alone, had, at
this time, a population of 20,000, of whom 3500 were
convicts. 4
Broughton's story of these conditions in the far-off
Colony aroused such widespread interest that plans were
immediately formulated for erecting the Archdeaconry into
a Bishopric, and, naturally, the choice of the first Bishop
fell on Broughton.
V. AN AUSTRALIAN BISHOP
Archdeacon Broughton was accordingly consecrated
Bishop of Australia in the Chapel of Lambeth Palace on
February I4th, 1836, and he left England to take up his
new task refreshed with help and fortified with new
authority. 5
The outstanding features of his Episcopate, apart from
his .strong personality and devotion to duty, are to be seen
in his vigorous and thorough Churchmanship, and in his
staunch belief in Church School Education.
He was, as Bishop, a member of the Legislative Council
of the Colony. On one occasion he appealed to the Governor
1 Quoted Here and There with the S.P.G. (First Series, 3rd edit.), p. 15.
a Mission Heroes : S.P.C.K. ; Bishop Broughton, p. 10.
8 Ibid., p. 9.
4 G. R. Wynne, The Church in Greater Britain, p. 76.
5 The title " Bishop of Australia " was laid aside in 1847 when new
Letters Patent made Broughton Bishop of Sydney with metropolitical
powers.
46 THE AUSTRALIAN CHURCH
against the injustice of treating the Church of England as
merely one of the Protestant sects.
A proposal (1839) that the State should provide 4000 a
year for education, dividing it in the proportion of three
parts for all Protestant children and one part for Roman
Catholics, 1 was, through his influence, effectively negatived.
Church School education was a vital part of his work,
and he stoutly defended this policy all through his
Episcopate. 2
He never gave a " confirmation address," as we under-
stand the term to-day, but spoke to each candidate person-
ally, at the conclusion of the' service, and he frequently
remained many days in the one place, giving instruction to
the candidates before the Confirmation itself. His generosity,
ekercised even to the point of sacrifice towards the Church
he served, is to be seen in the frequent voluntary surrender
of part of his income, in order that other bishops could be
consecrated to meet its rapidly increasing and urgent needs.
His episcopal abode was, at first, a second-rate hotel, and,
afterwards, a miserable and high-rented house. As Bishop
of Sydney he had 2000 a year ; and -in 1847, to facilitate
the erection of the new Sees of Newcastle and Melbourne,
he surrendered one-half of this sum ; so that his income,
towards the close of his episcopate, was considerably less
than it was when he arrived in the Colony as Archdeacon.
There is no need to dwell here upon his leadership as
Chairman of the Sydney Conference in 1850 ; his whole
heart was given to the furtherance of its objects.
He left for England in 1852 in order to obtain, by Royal
Licence, liberty for the Clergy in Synod, and for the Laity in
Convention, in accordance with the Resolutions passed at
the late Conference. He voyaged by way of Panama and
South America ; and after a calamitous passage from the
West Indies, having lost the captain, purser, one of the
engineers, and several men, chiefly by yellow fever, he
arrived in England on the very day of the funeral of the
Duke of Wellington, November igth, 1852.
In February of the next year he contracted bronchitis,
and died. on February igth after a fortnight's illness, in the
1 " The (Church of England) Schools, which, if your Excellency's plan
be carried, must be abolished, are to her as her right hand, by means of
which she is to execute the work which is given her to do." Cp. Church
Standard, Oct. 26th, 1917, p. 6. Also Document G.
2 The King's School, Paramatta, was, obviously, so named after his
own school, King's School, Canterbury.
HISTORY OF THE AUSTRALIAN CHURCH 47
sixty-fifth year of his age. He lies buried in Canterbury
Cathedral.
Bishop Broughton must ever remain a noble and pre-
eminent figure, if not one who stands quite alone, in the
annals of the Colonial Episcopate of the nineteenth century. 1
VI. THE NEW BISHOPRICS OF 1847
The year 1847 saw the establishment of no less than three
new Sees, 2 namely, those of Melbourne (Victoria) ; New-
castle (New South Wales) ; and Adelaide (South Australia).
Broughton was instituted Metropolitan of Australasia and
Bishop of Sydney. The first occupants of all three Sees
were men of considerable force of character; and the
biography of each of them is consequently good reading. 3
Perry and Short were very definitely Evangelical and High
Church in their respective outlooks, and the impress of
their views is traceable in the theological temper of the two
Dioceses even to the present day.
VII. BISHOP PERRY
Charles Perry (1807-1891) was a brilliant scholar. After
leaving Harrow, he graduated at Cambridge in 1828 as
Senior Wrangler, 4 and for a short time read for the Bar,
though he soon discovered that a legal career was not to his
liking. Before his appointment to the See of Melbourne in
1847 he had not worked in the Colony, but had spent
most of his time as, Fellow and Tutor of Trinity College,
Cambridge, after his admission to Holy Orders by the
Bishop of Ely in 1837. While at Cambridge, he came under
the influence of the Reverend C. Simeon, a priest, who at
that time was exercising a remarkable influence for good
in the town as well as in the .University.
It is not surprising that such an Evangelical as Perry
should have been a friend and disciple of Simeon. 5 In 1842,
Perry was appointed incumbent of St. Paul's, Cambridge,
a position in which he served until he was recommended by
1 A Biography of Broughton, by F. Whitington, Archdeacon of Hobart
(Tasmania), has been in course of preparation for some years. This much-
needed work will be greatly welcomed.
2 For a complete list of the Australian Bishoprics with the dates of
their foundation and their respective Bishops, see Appendix. ,
8 i. The Church in Victoria, by Canon G. Goodman ;
ii. Life and Labours of William Tyrrell, D.D., by R. G. Boodle ;
iii. Augustus Short, First Bishop of Adelaide, by F. Whitington.
4 Goodman, The Church in Victoria, pp. 33 and 52.
8 Op. cit., pp. 34, 56, 58.
48 THE AUSTRALIAN CHURCH
Henry Venn 1 to Earl Grey, Secretary of State for the
Colonies. Perry's appointment was made by Grey, acting
in communication with Archbishop Howley and the Bishop
of London as members of the Colonial Bishoprics' Fund ;
and he was consecrated first Bishop of Melbourne on June
29th, 1847, at Westminster Abbey. Three months later, he
sailed for Australia.
When he arrived in Melbourne, at forty years of age,
some doubts were felt as to his fitness for work amidst
surroundings so new and different from any of his previous
experience. Yet every year of his long episcopate of twenty-
nine years only demonstrated the wisdom of his selection,
particularly as an ecclesiastical statesman. 2 On his arrival
he found the conditions of life in general far from satisfactory ;
he had but six clergy and three catechists under his super-
intendence, and of these, three were fellow-passengers with
him from England. But with a firm resolve and steadfast
purpose, he set himself to his great task. In those early
days, a bishop travelled throughout his diocese mainly by
road ; there were few railways, and not many good .roads ;
and the territory within Perry's Diocese was np exception.
After the labour and effort of many years, he succeeded in
dividing his Diocese and in founding that of Ballarat, which
contained an area of nearly one-half of the whole State., He
seems to have regarded this work as the crowning effort of
his long episcopate, and after a Bishop had been appointed
to the new Diocese, Perry began to prepare for his own
retirement, and as he was approaching seventy years of age
he returned to England, and resigned in 1876. Queen
Victoria recognized his work in Melbourne and Victoria by
making him Prelate of the Order of St. Michael and St.
George. He lived for many years in England, and for some
time was Canon of Llandaff. He died in 1891 at the age
of eighty-four years.
VIII. BISHOP TYRRELL
William Tyrrell (1807-1879) was born at the Guildhall,
London, where his father held the office of City Re-
membrancer. He was educated at Charterhouse, and
afterwards graduated at St. John's, Cambridge. Leaving
there he commenced to read for the law, but soon dis-
covered (as Perry did) that the legal profession did not
1 Secretary of the C.M.S., and Perry's friend of his University days.
2 Cp. infra, pp. 83-90.
HISTORY OF THE AUSTRALIAN CHURCH 49
appeal to him, and he decided to be ordained. At Cam-
bridge, he made a life-long friendship with Selwyn of New
Zealand, who, after his consecration, invited Tyrrell to
accept the office of Archdeacon in his (Selwyn's) Diocese.
The offer was declined, and Tyrrell remained at his post as
incumbent of Beaulieu, in Hampshire, until 1847, when
Archbishop Howley (to whom Tyrrell was known only by
repute) asked if he would consent to being nominated to
the Crown for the Diocese of Newcastle, New South Wales.
Tyrrell responded, and he was consecrated Bishop of New
castle at Westminster Abbey on the same day as Perry
and Short.
Shortly afterwards, he sailed for his diocese, and never
once returned to England after his appointment.
Tyrrell lived and died a celibate, and is buried at Morpeth,
in the. Diocese of Newcastle, 1 the scene of many of his
labours, and where he presided at the first Synod in his
diocese. He was not so endowed with literary gifts as
Perry ; but in their place possessed charm of personality,
devotion to duty, and sympathetic interest in the well-
being of his clergy. He was a good horseman, and during
his episcopate, practically all his Visitations qf his huge
diocese, involving hundreds of miles of travelling, were
made on horseback. In his will he left a princely sum of
money which he estimated would eventually realize a
capital amount of 250,000 for diocesan purposes ; and
though his successor, Bishop Pearson, retired shortly after
his appointment, broken down in health and mind by the
temporary failure of his predecessor's munificence, these
endowments still exist and flourish to-day,
IX. GOLD
The discovery of gold in Victoria in 1850 was a crisis for
the Church no less than for the Colony. It had three highly
important effects on the history of the Church :
i. The great increase in emigration. 2 Nearly all classes
of society except the clergy were attracted to the
Continent, consequently a decline in the number of clergy
in proportion to the population resulted. Perry soon
grasped the seriousness of the situation, and his journey
tp England in 1852 was largely concerned with this
question. He appealed to the Missionary Societies, and
1 On Bishop Tyrrell as an administrator, cf. pp. 103-111 and Chapter X.
2 .The population in.the years 1850-1852 rose from 77,345 to 150,000.
50 THE AUSTRALIAN CHURCH
succeeded in inducing several other clergymen to return
with. him.
ii. It resulted in a great shifting of the population. It
meant that such clergy as there were, were not to be found
in the most advantageous positions. Since definitely
parochial organizations had been built up, often only after
many years' labour, it was no easy matter for the Church
to transfer her activities to those places where her ministra-
tions were most needed.
iii. It meant a deterioration in the ideals of the people.
In men who were willing to abandon their ordinary oc-
cupations in the hope of success in the gold areas, there
arose a spirit of restlessness which was anything but favour-
able to the growth of religion. And still more difficult was
it to create enthusiasm for religion in people whose purposes
were frankly materialistic. It took several years before the
immigrants were again of a class who felt the needs of the
ministrations of the Church,
X. BISHOP NIXON
As far back as 1803, Tasmania was made a convict settle-
ment, but the Church cannot claim such an early date for
its beginnings there, though the first chaplain to the convicts
arrived in 1804. We have seen that Archdeacon Hobbes
Scott held two visitations in the Colony then known as
Van Diemen's Land. Broughton also visited this part of
his territory ; and soon after his appointment as Bishop of
Australia, a new Archdeaconry was formed for Van Diemen's
Land, in March 1836, to which Broughton collated the
Reverend William Hutchins, one of his contemporaries at
Pembroke, Cambridge, and a Wrangler in the same tripos as
himself. 1
In 1842, the Bishopric of Tasmania was created ; it
might have been expected that a See in Port Phillip
(Melbourne) would have been established first, but it must
be remembered that Van Diemen's Land had long been an
independent Colony with its own Lieutenant-Governor.
The establishment of the See was largely due to the exertions
of the Governor, Sir John Franklin (who was a life-long
friend of Bishop Nixon), though mention should be made
of the generous grant of 2500 from the S.P.G. towards
1 See Memoir of Broughton, by Harrison, in a volume of Sermons by
W. G. Broughton, 1857, p. xvii. The name of William Hutchins is per-
petuated in the Hutchins' School (the Church of England Grammar School)
atHobart. He died in 184:;
HISTORY OF THE AUSTRALIAN CHURCH 51
the endowment of the Bishopric. 1 Nearly a third of the
population were convicts who had served their sentences ;
and as late as 1847 the Bishop spoke of a degree of wicked-
ness among the convict gangs unexampled in the annals of
the Christian world. 2 But conditions gradually improved
after the cessation of transportation in 1853 ; and Tasmania
was the first of the Australasian Colonies to maintain a
self-supporting church and undertake missionary work in
New Guinea and Melanesia. 3 '; "
Francis Russell Nixon was born in 1803, and educated at
Merchant Taylors' School and St. John's College, Oxford,
of which college he became a probationary Fellow. He
graduated in 1827, taking a third class in Classics. His
father was a clergyman, so that the Bishop's early life
came closely under the influence of the Church.
After his ordination, he served at Naples as Chaplain to
the;. Embassy, and/later, held the parishes of Sandgate and
Ash in Kent. He also held the position of one of the Six
Preachers attached to Canterbury Cathedral a no small
distinction ; and was well-known as the author of a book
on the Catechism. 4
At the age of thirty-nine years he was nominated to the
Crown by the Archbishop of Canterbury (Howley) and duly
consecrated as first Bishop of Tasmania, by Bishop Blom-
field of London, under commission of the Archbishop of
Canterbury, at Westminster Abbey, on August 24th, 1842.
Probably no other bishop of the early Australian episcopate
faced greater physical discomfort and hardship than Nixon ;
and a thrilling story of adventure is told by him in a small
volume,? of a tour of part of his diocese in the islands
adjacent to the coast of Tasmania.
Possessed of a strong will, a vigorous intellect, and
benevolent purpose, he guided the early building of the
Tasmanian Church ; and after an episcopate lasting twenty-
one years, he resigned, and returned to England. The
Archbishop of York appointed him to the Rectory of Bolton
Percy, near York ; but his health began to fail as the
result of the severe and rigorous Tasmanian life, and, he
was soon compelled to resign the living. He spent the
1 Cp. F. W. Cornish : A History of the English Church in the Nineteenth
Century, Part II, p. 467. ' a Ibid, 3 Ibid., p. 408.
4 Lectures : Historical, Doctrinal, and Practical, on the Catechism of the
Church of England. London, 1843.
6 The Cruise of the Beacon : Bishop of Tasmania. Bell and Dalby,
London, 1857.
52 THE AUSTRALIAN CHURCH
eventide of his life near Lago Maggiore in Italy amid the
quiet companionship of a few friends. Queen Victoria, who
honoured him greatly, sent her physician to see if anything
more could be done in his last illness, but in vain ; and he
died in his seventy-seventh year in 1889. His remains lie
in the cemetery at Stresa, which he had himself consecrated
as a burial-ground a few years before.
XL BISHOP SHORT
The tremendous part played by Bishop Short (of Ade-
laide), and the service rendered to the Church in Australia
during its early history, will be described in detail else-
where i 1 there remains but the simpler task of recording
briefly the more personal characteristics of so great a figure.
His biographer, the present Archdeacon of Hobart, has told
the story of his career and episcopate so fully that it seems
almost an intrusion to attempt to collaborate, and comment
upon his labours and successes.
Augustus Short, the son of a London barrister, was born
in 1802, and began his education in 1809 at Westminster
School, whence he proceeded, in 1820, to Christ Church,
Oxford, where he graduated with a first class in Classics in
1823. Though, strangely enough, like Broughton and
Perry, he had been intended for the legal profession, he
became tutor of his College, and for some time one of his
pupils was the late William Ewart Gladstone. In 1835, he
accepted the living of Ravensthorpe, a poor living in a
country district in Northamptonshire.
In 1846, he delivered the Bampton Lectures 2 at the time
when the Tractarian controversy was at its height. As
later history showed, 3 Short was a staunch Tractarian, and
to these views he rigidly adhered throughout his career.
In July 1847, while still Vicar of Ravensthorpe, he
received the following letter from the Archbishop of Canter-
bury, offering him the choice between that portion of the
Colony which formed the Diocese of Newcastle, and the
Diocese of Adelaide :
" REVEREND AND DEAR SIR,
"It being a matter of the utmost importance to
obtain the services of men who are qualified by ability,
attainments, judgment, and temper for important stations
1 Cp. pp. 97-99.
8 Title, The Witness of the Spirit with our Spirit,
9 Cp. p. 97.
HISTORY OF THE AUSTRALIAN CHURCH 53
in the Church as bishops in the newly-constituted dioceses
of Australia, I trust that you will be disposed to accept an
office in which, from all I have heard; I consider you will
be eminently useful. In temporal respects, these bishoprics
have little to offer; the salaries of the bishops are little
more than eight hundred a year. But this, I understand,
is sufficient to bear all the expenses in a country where
incomes in general are small, and money goes further than
in England. The diocese over which you would preside is
situated in the north-east of Australia. It is not yet
determined whether the See shall take its name from
Newcastle or some other town. I have reason to think
that, in point of situation, it is the most desirable of any
of the new Sees. The climate is uniformly represented as
very fine.
" I remain, dear Sir,
" Your laithful servant,
" W. CANTUAR.
"REV. AUGUSTUS SHORT.
" P.S. A new See is also to be established at Adelaide, in
South Australia, and it is indifferent to me which of the
two you would choose. Before you determine, however,
you might consult Mr. Hawkins, the Secretary of the Society
for the Propagation of the Gospel, who can give full in-
formation of all particulars." 1
Short accepted Adelaide, and Archbishop Howley wrote
to him : " Your acceptance of the Bishopric of Adelaide
for this, I understand, is your choice has given me sincere
pleasure. I anticipate the greatest advantage, under the
Divine blessing, to the infant Church of the Colony from
your zeal and ability." 2
Short was duly consecrated first Bishop of Adelaide, in
Westminster Abbey, on St, Peter's Day, 1847, together
with the Bishops of Cape Town, Melbourne, and Newcastle.
The area of the Diocese of Adelaide then included Western
as well as South Australia, and over this he presided until
the See of Perth was founded in 1857, after which date he
still continued his episcopate as Bishop of Adelaide.
It should be mentioned here that the endowment of the
See was provided by Miss (afterwards Baroness) Burdett-
\ This letter is taken from Whitington : Augustus Short, p. 44.
* 76i(f.,pp. 44 f.
54 THE AUSTRALIAN CHURCH
Goutts, whose name will always be recalled for her generosity
towards the extension of the Colonial Episcopate. 1
Like his brother prelates of this era, Bishop Short had
many administrative obstacles to overcome ; but his
tenacity of purpose and churchmanship by conviction, and
in action, stood him in good stead, and he was recognized as
an energetic and successful administrator.
We shall discuss in detail later 2 his constitutional policy
for the governing of his diocese, but we may here illustrate
briefly his standpoint. Addressing his successor, Bishop
Kennion, after the latter's consecration at Westminster
Abbey, Short said, when presenting to him the pastoral
Staff of his diocese : " I earnestly wish that the Church of
South Australia may ever remember and hold fast its
connection with the Church of England." 3 His general
position was, that the Church in Australia had not broken
away from the Mother Church, but had been left to its own
counsels and discretion. He wished to see union with the
Mother Church preserved and strengthened, whilst he was
not prepared to surrender liberty of action, or to subject
the Church to State authority a policy which was advocated
by his former pupil, Gladstone, so far as the Church in the
Colonies was concerned.
He resigned his See in 1881, when convinced that the
state of his health no longer justified his holding the reins
of office, and he departed for England in that year. He
died on October 5th, 1883.
1 Between 1847 and 1857, these gifts amounted to 50,000. She
intended that the Colonial Bishoprics should remain in dependence on the
Anglican Church at home. Cp. Dictionary of National Biography, Second
Supplement, Vol. I, p. 261. Smith Elder & Co., 1912.
2 Cp. pp. 97-99-
3 Cp. Church Standard, Sept. 28th, 1917, p. 6.
CHAPTER IV
THE BEGINNINGS OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL
HISTORY OF THE CHURCH
I. THE REV. R. JOHNSON
" "\/"^ are * ^ serve an d follow such orders and
Y directions from time to time as you shall receive
from our Governor." With these words from
the King's Commission, 1 the earliest Constitution of the
Australian Church is summed up. The first chaplains were
appointed solely by the State, and owed their allegiance to
none save ,God, the King, and the Governor. Their duties,
as we have seen, were to tend the spiritual needs of the
convict population ; the convicts were government property ;
and any ministrations which they might need were to be
paid for from the Government purse. Hence that was the
source from which Mr. Richard Johnson drew his meagre
salary of 182 los. od. a The State paid him, and looked
for a tangible return for its expense. With the payment
of his stipend, the Government regarded their obligations
to the chaplain discharged. No provision was made for the
building of churches, and had it not been for Johnson's
enterprise, there would have been no church at that period.
He, however, was, as we have seen, sufficiently self-sacrificing
to erect a church, and though he was eventually reimbursed,
it was not till Governor Phillip had been replaced by Hunter.
The appointment of these chaplains, moreover, was the
only recognition accorded to religion, though careful in-
structions were issued in the original Commission to Governor
Phillip for the " due observance of religion . . . and due
celebration of public worship." 3 Additional instructions to
Governor Phillip, however, issued in 1789, state ; " It is
Our further Will and Pleasure that a particular spot in or
as near each town as possible be set apart for the building
1 Document A.
8 Historical Records of New South Wales, Vol. I, Part II, pp. 27, 33.
Ibid., p, 90.
55
56 THE AUSTRALIAN CHURCH
of a church, and 400 acres adjacent thereto allotted for
the maintenance of a Minister and 200 for a School Master." 1
II. His SUCCESSORS
Johnson was not for long the only chaplain. He soon
received help from the Reverend Samuel Marsden as
" Assistant Chaplain " in 1793. At first these chaplains
were directly responsible to the State ; but after 1800
Governor Macquarie no longer required submission from
the subordinate chaplains, who were henceforth responsible
to the Principal Chaplain alone. 2 The Crown still continued
to appoint the chaplains, however. 3 The instructions
issued to Phillip in 1789 were repeated in Hunter's Com-
mission. 4
The new Governor on his arrival proceeded to do his
best to fulfil them ; for within three years he reported to
the Secretary of State for the Colonies, that he anticipated
"laying the foundation-stone of a church building." His
attitude is well summed up in the following despatch : 5
" I cannot help observing, my Lord, that this Colony has
now been a long time established without a proper building
for the clergy to perform divine service in, which is really a
disgrace to us as a Christian Colony and had not my hands
been so tied up, a church should have been raised long
since ; but being weak in public labour and in danger of
considerable loss for want of proper public buildings, I
have not been able to attend to so necessary a work except
by involving considerable public expense. I trust, however,
that I shall soon be able to lay the foundation of a church."
Here we see a clear indication of the policy of the Governor
towards the infant Church ; he recognized the maintenance
of religion as being part of his official duty. So, too, did
the Home Government. In the Instructions issued to Sir
1 Historical Records of New South Wales, Vol. I, Part II, p., 259.
a In a government and general order, issued at Sydney on Sept. 1 5th,
1810, we read : " The Assistant Chaplains are, however, to consider them-
selves at all times under the immediate control and superintendence of
the Principal Chaplain and to make such occasional reports to him respect-
ing their clerical duties as he may think fit to require or call f or . " Historical
Records of New South^ Wales, Vol. VII, p. 409.
8 Cp. The Commission of the Rev. H. Fulton, dated May sist, 1811,
Historical Records of New South Wales, Vol. VII, p. 539.
* And in the Commission of subsequent Governors down to Brisbane.
Cp. Instructions issued to Brisbane, Historical Records of Australia, Vol. X,
Series I, pp. 598-602.
* Sent from Sydney Jan. loth, 1798, to the Duke of Portland. Historical
Records of New South Wales, Vol. Ill, p. 350.
- CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY 57
Thomas Brisbane in 1821, we read, " aii~d.it is our further
Royal will and pleasure that you do by all proper methods
enforce a due observance of religion and good order among
the inhabitants of the said Settlements, and that you take
particular care that all possible attention be paid to the
due celebration of public worship." 1
III. APPOINTMENT OF BISHOP OF CALCUTTA
An event which was destined to have some bearing on
the history of the Australian Church took place in 1814.
That event was the granting of Letters Patent establishing
the Bishopric of Calcutta. For some time there had been
agitation in this direction, and following this, Parliament
in 1813 2 foreshadowed the creation of the episcopal office
by passing an Act which embodied the condition that if
the Crown should issue Letters Patent for the foundation
of a Bishopric for the whole of the territories of the East
India Company's Charter, the salaries of the Bishop and
Archdeacons should be paid, by that Company. Letters
Patent were issued on May 2nd of the following year,
providing for the establishment of the Bishopric of Calcutta. 3
The sphere of his jurisdiction, however, was not that of all
the territories within the East India Company's Charter, as
had been provided for in the original Act (1813), but those
within its sphere of Government, i.e. India itself.
Thomas Fanshaw Middleton 4 was appointed the first
Bishop of the "United Church of England and Ireland
within the territories of the United Company of Merchants
of England, trading to the East Indies." He was subject,
in his office, to the Archbishop of Canterbury, " in the same
way as any bishop of any See within the Province of Canter-
bury in our kingdom of England," except that appeals
against " judgments, decrees, and sentences " of the Bishop
of Calcutta were to be made to a special court of com-
missioners. Subject to the Bishop, were appointed three
Archdeacons of Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay respectively.
It should be noted that these Archdeaconries were created
1 Historical Records of Australia, Vol. X, Series I, p. 598.
8 53 George III, c. 155. Clause 49.
8 The document is of excessive length even for Letters Patent ; it is
too long to print. A copy of it (which I have used) is to be found in
the Lambeth Palace Library (Button's Register, Vol. I, p. 242).
4 A valuable biography of him has been written by Rev. Charles Webb
Le Bas : The Life of T. F. Middleton, London, 1831, 2 vols. Le Bas was
Professor in the East India College, Haileybury, Hertfordshire.
58 THE AUSTRALIAN CHURCH
by the Crown, and that the Bishop of Calcutta, was unable,
on his own authority, to increase their number ; he had,
however, the right to " collate " to the three Archdeaconries.
With reference to property, the Bishop and Archdeacons
were to be " bodies corporate." The Crown had the power
" to revoke or recall " the Bishop or any of his Archdeacons.
Middleton was duly consecrated Bishop on Sunday, May
8th, in the same year, in Lambeth Palace Chapel.
By these Letters Patent then, Australia was not included
within the Diocese of Calcutta. The Bishop of Calcutta had
no jurisdiction at this time outside India, as he himself
recognized. Referring to some questions asked by the
Reverend Samuel Marsden relative to the subject of educa-
tion in New South Wales, the Bishop of Calcutta wrote in
October 1819 : "Mr. Marsden writes like a man who will
readily and thankfully accept any assistance from me ; so
that I do not expect any opposition or untowardness in
that quarter. I believe, however, that New South Wales
is, by courtesy, if not by law, in the Diocese of London, and
I am no friend to intrusion." 1 Reference, of course, is
made here to an Order in Council of Charles I, whereby all
British subjects overseas were under the spiritual jurisdiction
of the Bishop of London. 2
IV. THE APPOINTMENT OF THOMAS HOBBES SCOTT
The original Letters Patent constituting the See of
Calcutta gave the Bishop, as we have seen, jurisdiction
over India only ; and they did not enable him to create
new Archdeaconries. Consequently, when it was decided
three years later to establish a fourth Archdeaconry for
Ceylon, it was necessary to issue two series of Letters
Patent, the one to create the Archdeaconry itself and the
other, to increase the extent of the Bishop of Calcutta's
jurisdiction and to place the Archdeaconry under his
control. Both series of Letters Patent were dated September
27th, 57 George III. In this case, moreover, the Bishop
had not the right of collating to the office, when vacant, as
in the case of the other three Archdeaconries.
Further Letters Patent were issued on May 27th, 1823.
These placed the whole of the territories within the Charter
of the East India Company under the control of the Bishop
1 Quoted Le Bas, op. tit,, II, p. 99.
8 Quoted in Phillimore ; Ecclesiastical Law, 2nd edition (1895), p. 1770..
CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY 59
of Calcutta. 1 In this way, Australia and Tasmania became
subject to the episcopal jurisdiction of India. It was thus
only natural that when an Archdeacon of New South Wales
was appointed in the same year, he should be under the
control of the Bishop of Calcutta. The Letters Patent were
issued on October 2nd, 1824, and a somewhat detailed
summary of this highly important document 2 for the
Constitutional history of the Australian Church must be
given. " It is expedient," the letters tell us, " to make
further provision for the due regulation and order of persons
duly ordained to officiate as ministers of the United Church
of England and Ireland ", within the Colony of New South
Wales. With this end in view " we have determined to
constitute one Archdeaconry, subject during our pleasure to
the Jurisdiction, spiritual and ecclesiastical of the Bishop
of Calcutta for the time being." Thomas Hobbes Scott
was recommended to fill this office, and his appointment
he owed solely to the Crown. "-By virtue of this our
nomination alone (he shall) enter into and fully and abso-
lutely possess and enjoy the said office of Archdeacon."
His duty is to be " assisting the Bishop of Calcutta in the
exercise of his Episcopal Jurisdiction and Function accord-
ing to the duty of an Archdeacon by the Ecclesiastical Laws
of our Realm of England." " During a vacancy in the
office, his duties shall be undertaken by some discreet
minister in Priest's Orders of the Church of England, who
shall be nominated for that purpose by our Governor."
The Governor is also to assist the Archdeacon in the exercise
of his office, more exact details being given in the letter of
Earl Bathurst to Governor Brisbane referred to below.
The Archdeacon is to appoint his own Registrar. The
Supreme Court of Jurisdiction in New South Wales is to
exercise Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in certain matters as it
had done in the past, 3 but only in " so far as the same does
not relate to the correction of clerks or the spiritual super-
intendence of Ecclesiastical persons or to give to the said
Archdeacon or his Successors any authority or Jurisdiction
whatsoever in causes testamentary or matrimonial or in
matters now cognisable in the said court, except as herein
last before excepted." The Archdeacon is constituted "a
1 Patent Roll 4256. George IV. Part 5, No. 10. It is printed as an
Appendix (Document B).
2 The document is to be found in the Public Record Office, London,
Patent Roll 4275. George IV. Part g, No. 2. It is printed as an Appendix
(Document C). 8 Cp. Therry, op. cit., p.
60 THE AUSTRALIAN CHURCH
body corporate," and capable of " purchasing, having,
taking, holding and enjoying Manors, Messuages, Lands,
Rents, Tenements, Annuities and Hereditaments of what
nature or kind so ever." The Crown retains the power of
" revocation and recall " of the Archdeacon.
Such, in essence, were the provisions of the document
which appointed the first Archdeacon of New South Wales.
Two months after the issue of the Letters Patent, Earl
Bathurst, Secretary of State for the Colonies, in his Despatch
No. 47 to the Governor, 1 Sir Thomas Brisbane, issued
additional instructions relative to the
