the church, are entirely thrown upon the freewill offerings of the people. The revenue of the church is derived from pew rents, and the weekly offertory, and occasion, collections.
Within the last thirteen years, a new chapel, a spacious schoolroom, and a commodious manse have been built at a cost of over £4,000. The chapel will hold three hundred, and there are two hundred children in the Sunday school.
In the year 1852 a meeting, consisting of six persons, was held in a private house at Fremantle, to promote the establishment of an Independent or Congregational Society in that town. The Rev. Jos. Leonard and Mr. H. Trigg, of Perth, were requested to apply to the Congregational Missionary Society for a minister; and subscriptions having been obtained, the first stone of a chapel was laid September 7th, 1852. The building was not, however, completed until June 1854, but the Rev. J. Johnston, formerly a missionary at Tahiti, who was sent by the Society, arrived in June 1853, and commenced Divine Service in his own house, and reestablished a Sunday school.
In 1857 the chapel was found to be too small for the congregation, and was accordingly enlarged.
In 1862 a manse was erected for the minister's residence; the cost of the chapel and manse was £1,300. As the congregation was composed of members of various religious denominations, the practice of open communion was observed until 1869, when it was deemed desirable to form the communicants into a church on the Congregational model; a basis of union was adopted by twenty-six members, and Mr. G. B. Humble was chosen Deacon.
