INTRODUCTION.

ERRATA ET CORRIGENDA.

Page 30, line 1, dele "have" at beginning of the line.

43, line last but one, for "July" read "January."

71, line last but one, for "G. Moon" read "G. Moore."

75, last line, after "long" insert "(i.e., between the bishop's two visits)."

119, line 13 from top, after "narrative " insert "written thirteen years after his first arrival in Adelaide."

169, line 4 from top, dele inverted commas.

182, line 6 from top, after "date" insert "his lordship in

the presence of."

242, line 16 from bottom, for "sacramentarian

"sacramentalist."

253, line 4 from bottom, for "1881" read "1879,"

read

those directly interested in it. ret even now it is suggestive to recall that the island of Australia has an area of some three millions of square miles, or-to speak by

CHAPTER XV.

NUNC DIMITTIS.

The beginning of the end-A mute farewell-The attack of angina pectoris-A peaceful end-Tokens of love and sympathyObituary sermons and letters-A Christian burial-Some dried marigolds from the garden of Bishop's Court, Adelaide The grave in Warblington. churchyard-No

PAGE

INTRODUCTION.

T was suggested by an English correspondent, whose opinion is entitled to every consideration,

that if the history of Bishop Short's life is to be read with intelligent interest by any outside the colony in which that life's work was done, some account should be supplied of the colony itself, so that such readers may be able the better to realize the bishop's surroundings as he struggled on in the building up of his diocese. To meet this most reasonable request some colonial information has been compiled.

The huge island continent of Australia, with its record of two centuries of discovery but only one of colonization, is no longer the 'great unknown land' which up to recent times it has been to the inhabitants of the old world. The growth of Australasian commerce, and the great advance made in the direction of means of intercommunication, have done much to practically bridge over the eleven thousand miles which separate the Australian colonies from the centre of the British Empire, and to spread a knowledge of colonial affairs which heretofore has practically been confined to those directly interested in it. Yet even now it is suggestive to recall that the island of Australia has an area of some three millions of square miles, or-to speak by

comparison- is about twenty-six times as large as Great Britain and Ireland, and within one-fifth of the size of the whole of Europe. Some geologists say that our great island belongs to the oldest class of rocks and was formerly a rim of mountains with an inland sea from which has risen the vast low lying plain which occupies the centre of the continent. The general physical characteristics of Australia are the prevalence of wide stretching plains and the absence of rivers of any importance—always excepting the noble River Murray, with its generally navigable course of two thousand miles. From the nature of the country, and its situation between 10° 39′ and 39° 11' south latitude, and 113° 5′ and 153° 16′ east longitude, it may be inferred that the Australian climate is mainly dry, warm, and healthy: the hot winds which frequently distinguish the summer season are regarded as highly unpleasant, but they are by no means unhealthy, though they must be held largely accountable for the severe droughts which not seldom visit different parts of Australia, and prove so disastrous to the pastoral and agricultural interests. Our island continent is politically divided into five independently governed provinces, viz., New South Wales (the parent settlement), Victoria, Queensland, and South and Western Australia, the two latter colonies together formed the original diocese of Adelaide, and comprise more than three-fifths of the total area of the island.

The principal Australian staples are pastoral, agricultural, and mineral.

To give some idea of the

commercial growth of the colonies, reference need only be made to a valuable paper read just five years ago before the Royal Colonial Institute by Sir F. Dillon Bell, Agent-General for New Zealand. Sir Dillon pointed out that the Australasian group -that is, the Australian provinces together with the islands of Tasmania and New Zealand-with its then population of some two-and-three-quarter millions, already did a trade the total volume of which was one-sixth that of England: that of the ninety-six millions of capital borrowed for colonial development, fifty-six millions had been spent on railways, twenty millions on other public works, and more than ten millions on immigration, while the revenue of the colonies had more than doubled itself since the year 1870, and only twenty-five per cent. of such revenue was absorbed by the charge of the public debt—a percentage much below that of any important country of the old world: more than one hundred million pounds worth of wool had been shipped to England in five years, and of gold Australasia had, up to the date of Sir Dillon Bell's figures, produced two hundred and sixty millions value, or nearly one-half of the gold coinage of the world, and twenty-one per cent. of all the precious metal known to be extant. These statistics are not only of interest to the statesman : the Church also has to consider the responsibilities which grow upon her in regard to communities which are progressing with such giant strides.

South Australia proper-to which the diocese of Adelaide has been restricted since the creation in 1856