are its temples, and among white and black its priests labour in the propagation of their religious principles. Their influence in this colony has already been materially demonstrated, and the buildings of the Church are among the finest in the land.
The head of the Catholic Church in Western Australia is the Most Rev. Dr. Gibney, D.D. This reverend gentleman has shown an estimable devotion to his cause, and his labours in this colony have been untiring, and filled with laudable earnestness. Many monuments of his sojourn and influence are apparent, and under his special guidance the Roman Catholic denomination has increased tenfold. Bishop Matthew Gibney, D.D., was born in County Cavenagh, Ireland, in 1839. When his dawning reason enabled him to look out over the fields of life to choose that in which he would most love to work, his eyes rested with gladness on the Church. There, he believed, was sphere for altruistic labour where temporary aggrandisement had no place, and where unselfishness and devotion to one's fellows, and charity, embraced life's Alpha and Omega. He determined to enter the Roman Catholic Church as a novice, and, if worthy, to eventually be ordained and live as one apart from men, but yet labouring day by day to benefit them. In the abstract, this is the very ideal of life. With such a noble resolve ever before him the lad pursued his studies, and then entered All Hallows College, Dublin. There, separated from the busy, jostling crowd, he laboured constantly to prepare himself for his life's mission. He strove to cast aside as much as possible the allurements of the world, and to purge from his mind the passions which annihilate so many beings. Those "fond offences" which cling so pertinaciously to man must be cast out, or, at least, made subservient to the dominant object of the young student's future. In 1863 he was ordained into the priesthood at Dublin, and in the same year he came to Western Australia to apply his energy and his earnestness in the service of his Church. He had now left all his old associations and his previous life far behind, and he set to work with untiring constancy in this young land. Quietly and without ostentation he toiled year by year in Perth, and his greatest happiness was attained when he observed some visible result. Often he had to endure hardships enough, but being strong and fearless they troubled him not. Conscious of his own rectitude and high purpose, he went about among rich and poor propagating his Messages of Peace.
The first distinguishing and apparent memorial of his Australian career lay in the establishment of an orphanage for poor boys. He obtained from the Government a grant of land at Subiaco, and erected suitable buildings upon it. The boys received a splendid education and religious instruction at the orphanage, and were taught avocations which would be useful to them when they became men. Much of the large grant of land was cultivated by the lads, and thus their lives were made as happy as possible in the absence of the much-loved and well-remembered home influences. The Boys' Orphanage still carries on its altruistic work. So successful was this endeavour that Father Gibney turned his attention to orphan girls. He worked eagerly to open an orphanage for them, and was at last successful, and now many little waifs live happily in their orphanage, tended and taught the most useful lessons of life by Sisters of Mercy. If for nothing else these two institutions merit for Father Gibney blessings from every West Australian.
In order that Roman Catholics in the colony should have healthy literature, specially dealing with matters in which they all had some interest, he conceived the determination to publish a newspaper. Out of his private funds and the fertility of his own mind he gave birth to the Record, which at once became the official organ of the Church. In addition to religious news, this paper gives a general résumé of contemporary matters. It has now been in existence twenty-three years, and for a period Father Gibney personally edited it. As the publication grew larger, and the demands on his own time became more numerous, he handed this part of the work over to priests. About twenty years ago he opened a private school in Irwin Street, and now a community of pupils, numbering 130, is presided over by the Christian Brothers. Last year Bishop Gibney presented them with a grant of land in St. George's Road, worth £10,000, on which a wing of a prospective large structure has been erected, wherein reside over sixty boarders. He also presented the Oblates of Mercy with 300 acres at Subiaco, where (1896) a public school is in course of erection.
All this time Dr. Gibney rose in his Church, and became the chief pastor or vicar-general of the body in Western Australia. When Governor Weld introduced his measure for Government assisted denominational schools, Father Gibney was an earnest supporter of it, and he was able to substantially help in the final passage of the Bill. This Act was in operation until 1895, when it was abolished, and the Roman Catholic Church received as compensation £15,000. Such activity as Father Gibney displayed in watching over the interests of his flock was bound to have its good effect, and the Church expanded rapidly. It threw tentacles out in every direction until it had adherents and churches in all the chief centres of population. The colony was in 1886 erected into a see, and as Dr. Gibney's work stood out in bolder relief than that of anyone else, he had the distinction of being raised to the episcopal chair. On 23rd January, 1887, amid much pomp and ceremony, he was solemnly consecrated bishop by Cardinal Moran. That was the climax of the early ambitions of the lad. He had laboured in the field he chose from among all others, and that one portion of his labour had not been in vain was demonstrated. It was the solemn, serious, and beautiful reward for the sincerity and earnestness and value of his work in this colony. Since then the Roman Catholic Church in Western Australia has expanded most remarkably, and both in wealth and adherents it at present probably doubles what it possessed in 1887. In 1889 Bishop Gibney opened a Mission for Natives in the Kimberley district, which, although under his superintendence, is directly controlled by he Trappists' Order. The mission is situated at Beagle Bay, and is known as the Dampier Land Mission. Twenty priests devote their lives to the enlightening and religious raining of the sable heirs to West Australian lands, and their work is as successful as the characteristics and ignorance of the poor natives will allow. The courage and simple earnestness of Bishop Gibney's character were well demonstrated some years ago in Victoria. He was visiting the colony collecting funds for his Church in Western Australia when the Kelly bushrangers were prosecuting their marauds. While in the Glenrowan (Kelly) country, he happened to be present when the gang was trapped in a hotel. Mr. J. F. Hogan, member of the British House of Commons, in his work, "The Irish in Australia," writes:—"The outlaws, who had long defied capture, and had carried on a career of murder and robbery, descended from their haunts in the mountain ranges and took possession of the village, making all the inhabitants prisoners. They cut the
