MR. LATROBE AS SUPERINTENDENT 257 



and kindred unsavoury industries. It was well that this decision 

 was come to before any expenditure had been incurred, for the 

 eventual removal was inevitable. The original reservation is now 

 occupied by the extensive railway yards of the principal metro- 

 politan terminus ; by the gasworks, and by thronged wharves 

 under the control of the Melbourne Harbour Trust. 



The interest which Mr. Latrobe took in the social progress of 

 the colonists is easily recognisable in the annals of the period. 

 Within one month of his landing he laid the foundation-stone of St. 

 James's Cathedral for the Anglican body, and six years later he 

 performed a similar service for St. Peter's Church on the Eastern 

 Hill. He contributed personally towards the cost of these buildings, 

 also securing for them liberal monetary support from the Govern- 

 ment. But he earned his first manifestation of unpopularity by 

 refusing his patronage to a concert that was projected to raise funds 

 for the building of St. James's, having a conscientious objection to the 

 support of Divine worship by such means. He took an active in- 

 terest in the formation of the Mechanics' Institute, afterwards known 

 as the Melbourne Athenaeum, of which he was the patron and 

 Captain Lonsdale the first president. He was chairman of the 

 meeting that inaugurated the Melbourne Hospital, and on many 

 other occasions he helped forward by his presence and purse philan- 

 thropic and educational movements. His claim to be considered 

 one of the active promoters of the Melbourne University is affirmed 

 by Mr. G. W. Busden in his History of Australia (vol. Hi., p. 38), 

 although it has long been the custom to accord to Sir Eedmond 

 Barry the full credit of that important step. He was certainly acting 

 in conjunction with that learned judge, but it was the Lieutenant- 

 Governor's act, in the days when responsible ministers were not, 

 that granted the site on which the University buildings now stand. 



While the gradual improvement in the social surroundings of 

 Melbourne during the years that Mr. Latrobe was Superintendent 

 was a matter of much interest to him, he was the pilot who brought 

 several important public movements to a satisfactory issue. The 

 principal of these were the establishment of a branch of the Su- 

 preme Court, and the appointment of a Eesident Judge in 1841 ; 

 the incorporation of the Town of Melbourne in 1842 ; the initiation 



VOL. I. 17 



