MR. LATROBE AS SUPERINTENDENT 269 



siastically welcomed. Mr. Latrobe and the Mayor headed a large 

 number of friends who went down to the bay to offer him welcome, 

 and when he landed at the Yarra wharf he was received with 

 vigorous acclamation. No doubt some of the enthusiasm so readily 

 displayed for an unknown man was due to the feeling that the 

 appointment of a bishop was some recognition by the Crown of 

 the growing importance of the town, now to become a city, which 

 was appealing to Her Majesty for permission to shake off the 

 incubus of Sydney control. This was the first act since the advent 

 of Latrobe indicating that Her Majesty's advisers had the interests 

 of the settlement in mind, its spiritual welfare at least, and if that 

 were assured it would be the fitter to secure its political salvation. 



The population of the district at the date of Bishop Perry's 

 arrival was about 43,000, of whom fully one-third resided in and 

 around Melbourne, about 5,000 in and around Geelong, and the 

 remainder scattered thinly over the interior. The only centres 

 of population outside those named were Portland, laid out in 

 1839, Port Fairy and Port Albert, holding less than one thousand 

 inhabitants amongst them. The spiritual requirements of the An- 

 glican community were attended to by only three ordained ministers, 

 and the arrival of the Bishop, with Dean Macartney and three other 

 clerical assistants, gave a decided impetus to Church affairs. 



The Bishop belonged to the low or evangelical division of his 

 Church, and his influence was very strongly marked on its develop- 

 ment. His rule was strict, his piety was undoubted, and his zeal 

 for all matters ecclesiastical undeniable. But he was not in touch 

 with modern thought, or interested in the problems which were 

 beginning to disturb the Episcopal dignity in the land he had left. 

 Books like the Vestiges of Creation or Essays and Reviews were a 

 scandal to him. Colenso was anathema ; and he had so little con- 

 ception of the trend of scientific investigation as to be satisfied 

 that he had demolished Darwin and all his theories in the course 

 of an hour's lecture. His antipathy to the Eoman Catholic Church 

 was manifested by a discourteous refusal of the Eev. Father Geo- 

 ghegan's friendly overtures, and a stern refusal to put him on his 

 visiting list. But he steadily and faithfully worked for his own 

 Church, and when after twenty-six years' service he left the colony, 



