THE FOUNDATION STONE OF A CHURCH
Devoted to the Service of Almighty God, for the use of that body of the Christian Church, known as
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND,
And called in Honor of the Proto-martyr, St. Stephen, was laid by
The Right Rev. Charles,
Lord Bishop of Melbourne,
On the twentieth day of June, Anno Domini, One thousand eight hundred and fifty: in the fourteenth year
of the Reign of Her Most Gracious Majesty
QUEEN VICTORIA.
Governor of the Colony of New South Wales,
Sir Chas. Augustus Fitzroy, Knt.
Superintendent of the District of Port Phillip,
Charles Jospeh Latrobe, Esq.
Trustee of the Church:
The Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Melbourne.
Building Committee:
Edward Bell, Esq.; Henry Ghinn, Esq.; George James, Esq.; Wm. Highett, Esq.
Daniel Stodhart Campbell, Esq.
Architects:
Arthur Newson, and James Blackburn, Junr.
The proceedings closed with an address from the Bishop, and a liberal collection towards the building fund.
A commotion was caused unwittingly, by Bishop Perry, at whose instigation his Chancellor (Mr. Henry Moor), as a Member of the Legislature of New South Wales, introduced in the Council two measures, (a) for the regulation of Church Temporalities, and (b) a Church Discipline Bill. General dissatisfaction was expressed by the other denominations, and even shared by no inconsiderable number of the Episcopalians. An impression prevailed that the ruling powers were disposed to unduly favour the Church of England, and instances of undue preference were not wanted. From the earliest times the Episcopalian Minister was allowed by the Executive Regulations £50 a year more in his stipend than the clergymen of other churches. Then there was the "Cabbage Garden," a trifling but significant item, followed by the endowment of the Bishopric with land and money. These circumstances, and others existing only in imagination, fomented such an opposition to the Church Bills that the Mayor (Dr. Greeves) was requisitioned to convene a public meeting on the subject, which was held in the Mechanics' Institute on the 7th August and the attendance was numerous and influential. Addresses were delivered by the Revs. James Clow, T. O'Dell, A. Morrison, A. M . Ramsay, Messrs. J. P. Fawkner, J. O'Shanassy, J. A. Marsden, and Dr. P. M'Arthur. The proceedings were characterised by an unusual unanimity amongst sectional representatives, and a fixed determination to resist, by every constitutional means, the passing of the Bills. Several resolutions were adopted, as well as a petition to the Legislative Council, praying that body not to pass into law such "obnoxious Bills" because "they were partial in their character, subversive of the principle of denominational equality evidently recognised by the present constitution of the colony, calculated to aggrandize a particular sect, and to plant a dominant Church in the country " — and further, "that these Bills, by arming an Ecclesiastical Court with secular powers, are fraught with the utmost danger to our civil and religious liberties, and cannot be viewed by an enlightened British Community, but with feelings of jealousy and serious apprehension." Dr. Perry affected much surprise at the storm of discontent thus evoked, and declared that no harm to other Communions was meant by, or contained in, the Bills. In the Legislature they were also opposed ab initio, and Mr. Moor, under the pretence of desiring to allay popular dissatisfaction in Melbourne, withdrew them. The fact was the Bills would have been rejected, and this, Moor was about the last man not to foresee—but as a dexterous politician he made a virtue of necessity, and so secured a clever retreat from a position at the time far from enviable.
On the 25th August there was an interesting ceremony at the opening of a new church by Dr. Perry at Broadmeadows, or, as all that country side was then better known, the Moonee Ponds.
