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Religious Institutions. 



By Frank J. Donohue. 



Owing to the series of peculiar circumstances influencing and forming 

 social conditions in the colonies, there is perhaps no country in the 

 ^yorld, not even excepting the United States, where a wider popular 

 sentiment of religiovis freedom exists with an equal absence of inherited 

 prejudice. Every church and creed is at liberty to pursue its work 

 with an utter absence of restriction, ancl at the same time without any 

 unduly favourable countenance or assistance on the part of the State. 

 Such a thing as a State church is unknown, and with the exception 

 of a small grant to a few ministers under certain special circum- 

 stances, to be noted in their place, each denomination is entirely self- 

 supporting and dependent on the voluntary contributions of its 

 members. The consequence of this is that the activity, the enterprise, 

 the successes and failures of each body, are its own ; and to this cause 

 perhaps, more than any other, is attributable the healthy and self- 

 reliant spirit which characterises church energy for the most part in 

 all the colonies. In a community which has grown up like ours, it is 

 not to be expected that the same conditions would exist as may be 

 found in an English cathedral town or a flourishing Nonconformist 

 centre. With us it is no uncommon sight in a small town to find 

 half-a-dozen churches of different denominations within almost a 

 stone's throw of each other, the members of which are in hourly 

 contact during the week as they go about their resjjective businesses, 

 and unconsciously learning from each other the lesson that good 

 citizenship and personal character are independent of creed. We 

 have already seen how the gold-fields and other attractions of the 

 colonies drew immigrants by thousands from all classes and from all 

 parts. Naturally, they brought their prejudices Avith them, and it 

 would not be quite correct to say that these died out all at once. But 

 the process of elimination went surely on, and as the younger genera- 

 tions grew up together prejudice became weaker, so that by this time 

 any attempt to excite ill-feeling on that ground would be more likely 

 to provoke amusement than resentment. The way had been gradually 

 prepared for this state of things, as a rapid retrospect of the develop- 

 ment of our religious institutions will show\ 



Although there is no State church in New South Wales, the Church 

 of England takes a leading place both by numbers and influence. 

 For a time in the early days it was really the State Church, and the 

 circumstance has not been without its later advantages. But of course 

 the very earliest beginnings were in keeping with the surrounding 

 modest circumstances of the settlement. The first ships brought out 

 wath them a chaplain in the person of Eichard Johnson, a Cambridge 



