public schools under proper arrangement during school hours, and to give unfettered Church instruction to children of members of their own Church and indeed of any other religious denomination, if the parents choose that it should be so. This provision was largely taken advantage of by our Church. In the Sydney Diocese in my time—and, I have no doubt, it is so still—we had many thousands of children under clerical and lay instructors—the expense being, of course, borne by the Church itself. As a rule, the other religious Communions did very little in this direction. Had they done more, no doubt greater difficulties of arrangement would have existed. In other Colonies the system of education was generally secular, although facilities for voluntary religious instruction, mostly out of school hours, were generally given. I must add that the effect of that secular system upon religious knowledge and upon character was most injurious, as the Bishop of Manchester has shown in relation to Victoria.”
“What of the parties in the Church in Australia?”
“I should say that the High Church influence is less in Australia than in England. The ecclesiastical position, however, varies considerably in various Colonies. In New South Wales the Roman Catholic population in my time was considerable, and generally voted solid on all subjects, religious or secular. The result was the creation
