great judgment and foresight, and with a due regard to the rights and privileges of each order, so that the clergy do not trench upon the Bishop's office, nor the laity upon that of the clergy, but all are combined together in harmonious action, labouring in their appropriate sphere for the common good. A machinery is thus put in motion, adapted to the exigencies of the Church as they arise, by duly constituted members of her own communion. The withdrawal of State assistance has so far been beneficial to her progress; and now, free and unfettered, she can act upon her own judgment, and furnish from her own resources the means of her legitimate development. A small endowment known as the Leigh Fund has been of great service to the diocese. In 1856 the Bishop was relieved of the charge of Western Australia, which was then formed into the diocese of Perth. As early as 1857 the Church in this diocese acknowledged the obligation of contributing towards the support of heathen missions by forwarding to the Society a contribution of 627. 10s. for the missions in Borneo, and in the following year a diocesan collection was made for the re-establishment of the Delhi Mission. Aid is given also to the Melanesian Mission. In 1858 the Society's annual grant of 500l. was renewed for a period of three years. In 1861, at the Bishop's request, the Society sent out a travelling missionary chaplain, the Rev. B. T. Craig, who, in a letter written soon after his arrival, gives the following pleasing picture of this colony :-"I do not think any one could ever regret having come to such a lovely country as Adelaide appears to be. I was quite surprised to see such fine churches, well attended, and in which the singing and chanting were equal to any in England; and also to see large schools, Sunday-schools, with more than 200 girls and boys, with some fourteen or fifteen teachers. I am sure very great exertions must have been made to bring the Church in this colony to its present prosperous condition; and there must have been much blessing bestowed upon the labours of our good Bishop and his clergy. The climate in Adelaide is the same as the best summer-days in England, and very healthy, while the gardens are full of peach-trees loaded like apple-trees, and vines, and figs. I can truly say that this is a delightful country." In 1863, at the Bishop's urgent request, the Society renewed its grant of 500l. for another term of three years. "I view," writes the Bishop, "with much apprehension the cessation of the grant. It will narrow still more the scanty incomes of the rural and missionary clergy, where the population is scanty. It has always been strictly reserved for part payment of stipend to missionary clergymen. If their incomes become more straitened (and we do all we can to make the voluntary system effective), I cannot expect them not to look for easier subsistence in the neighbouring diocese, where six are now employed who were employed in this. By the end of another triennial period the Adelaide Endowment Fund will possess an annual income more than equal to that which the Society has hitherto kindly and usefully supplied. The diocese by that time might fairly be left to its own resources. I hope that help will be continued for 1864-5-6." The endowment scheme has been so far successful that sixteen districts are already endowed with annual rent charges from 207. to 407. per annum, "which," the Bishop observes, "is very useful, small as it may appear." The laity are contributing to the fund upwards of 1,000l. per annum ; and the Bishop calculates that at the close of the septennial subscription a sum of nearly 10,000l. will be available for the partial endowment of parishes. "After thirteen years' experience of the voluntary principle," says the Bishop, "I know pretty well its power and its defects;" and in his judgment the evils inherent in the system are best counteracted by a partial endowment of the churches in the rural districts. The exact size of the diocese of Adelaide is not known; the two dioceses of Perth and Adelaide taken together contain an area of 300,000 square miles, more than double the dimensions of the British Isles. The soil and climate of Adelaide are fertile and healthy, and the discovery of some valuable copper mines has contributed largely to its present prosperity. All the habits and conveniences of civilized life are to be found within its limits, while the absence of a vicious and demoralized population adds greatly to its attractions. It contains a population of 109,917 souls, of whom 15,000 or more are located in the city of Adelaide. The number of clergymen is thirty-three, of whom seven are missionaries of the Society. The Collegiate School of St. Peter is now in active operation, containing above 100 pupils. A full description of this institution appeared in the Quarterly Paper of January 1853. An account of Australia would be incomplete without some notice of its native population. So far as can be ascertained, there are resident, within the settled part of South Australia alone, about 5,000 of the aborigines, and in Western Australia and North Australia a much larger number of these degraded beings still wander over the face of the country. They have generally been considered as the lowest type of humanity with which our intercourse with the uncivilized natives of the earth has brought us acquainted. Scarcely classed in the rank of the human species, the natives of New Holland have, as in Van Diemen's Land, been hunted down and slain like wild beasts, under the plea that they were untameable and incorrigible. Assuredly England has much wer for in her past treatment of this unhappy race. ontinent as it were has been committed to our keeping; A |