244 A HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



The members of that church were loud in their complaints at being 

 sent so far out into the bush ! 



Meanwhile, the two buildings in use were admittedly insufficient 

 for the requirements of the settlers. The wooden room on the site 

 of St. James's Church was only 20 feet by 16 feet, and after serving 

 the Anglican community in the morning was lent to the Presby- 

 terians in the afternoon. The other, belonging to the Wesley ans, 

 was a brick building, 30 feet by 16 feet, at the corner of Swanston 

 Street and Flinders Lane, and its congregation appeared to thrive 

 numerically and financially from the first. 



There was no place of amusement, though even in these early 

 days the horse occupied a post of honour, and race meetings were 

 held with considerable frequency. The responsibility of preserving 

 order was vested in the police magistrate, aided by one chief and 

 eight ordinary constables. A Court of Quarter Sessions had been 

 inaugurated four months previously, and had introduced the jury 

 system into the district at its first sittings in May. 



A small company of military had been sent round from Sydney 

 with Captain Lonsdale, and these were subsequently increased to 

 about forty in all, but their duties were clearly defined, and mainly 

 concerned the supervision of about fifty convicts and a hundred or 

 so of ticket-of-leave men, who were employed by the Government 

 in forming the streets and putting up such buildings as the ad- 

 ministration required. 



Of the approximate 3,000 inhabitants of Melbourne when Mr. 

 Latrobe landed, about 400 were, as merchants, traders, shopkeepers, 

 auctioneers, and small farmers, the holders of more or less capital, 

 and employers of labour. There was a small official class ; the 

 soldiers, convicts and conditional pardon men made up about 250 ; 

 and the remainder consisted of servants and labourers, and a con- 

 tingent of newly arrived immigrants from Launceston and Sydney 

 waiting for something to turn up. The preponderance of the male 

 sex was roughly two to one female. So far as the substratum of 

 the community was concerned, there was not much ground for 

 complaint. The conditions of life were rough, the fare was not 

 delicate, and the lodgings were makeshift. But there was no 

 absolute poverty. Work was abundant, wages were high, bread 



