and Hawkesbury. The Sydney "Gazette" of May, 1803, contains a paragraph to the effect that the Roman Catholic congregation assembled for the first time at Sydney on Sunday morning, May 22nd, the officiating priest being the Reverend Father Dixon.
From this happening the position of both Churches became more sharply defined. The Church was hemmed in and harrassed on every side by restrictive orders and rules, the offsprings of hatred, bigotry, and jealousy, rules and restrictions offensive alike to priest and people. For some years Father Dixon officiated, although constantly exasperated by petty annoyances, until at last, smarting under a sense of gross injustice, humiliated by officialdom, and thwarted in his every effort, his position became unbearable. His allowance for clerical duties was withdrawn, and his rations stopped. This was tantamount to a dismissal, and, sadly recognising that his usefulness was gone, he left the' Colony in 1808. After his departure Father Harold came to Sydney from Norfolk Island to officiate.
"Father Dixon was a man of singular meekness and of a retiring disposition." "He was remarkable for silence and for inoffensive manner." He was of blameless life. His death took place on January 4th, 1840, in his 82nd year.
About this time a regulation was made by Government that the whole of the prison population should attend Divine Service in the Church of England, the penalty for failure so to do was: First offence 25 lashes, second offence 50 lashes, third offence to be sent to a penal settlement. This arbitrary and malicious regulation was vigorously enforced. Such were the moral methods used to enforce the high religious spirit of those in temporal power. The exquisite irony of the Government's action in this regard is impossible of expression in words—comment is useless. In 1809 Father Harold reached the limit of priestly endurance and worn out by continued restrictive interferences returned home.
The Church of England was during all this time enjoying a period of exceeding prosperity, while the Catholic Church persecuted and oppressed sank into desuetude. "The Catholics were denied all help; not an acre of land was allowed
