page 82

II.

It was certainly discouraging to find a smaller attendance at my second Sunday's service at the Town Hall of Perth than I had at the first, but it was easily enough accounted for. People had come the first time to hear a new man about a new faith. They found the new man nothing wonderful, and the new faith as expounded by him to be the oldest of all religions and the common ground of all. But the smaller congregation was, I think, worth the more, and gave more reason to hope for some permanent result of my short visit.

On the following morning I passed the Salvation Army barracks, and went in to see their hall. The day before they too had an English visitor, a Commissioner from London. They managed to pack 900 into the space seated for 720, and then had to shut the doors upon a crowd eager to come in. Their band accounts for a good deal, their message for a good deal more: "Sinner, choose which you will have, Heaven or Hell" was printed in large letters upon the wall. We had no attractions to offer and no excitement, and no music except a piano. Perhaps, under the circumstances, we did well to get as many as 150, a larger congregation, from all I heard, than most of the churches were used to.

I invited any who were disposed to help in making arrangements for a regular meeting for worship after our manner to meet me on the following Wednesday page 83 evening; and I found some eighteen persons assembled when I went to the appointed place. This was my last meeting at Perth, and it gave me more encouragement than any I had had. They were men and women in earnest, and if they can get over the curious dislike which so many Unitarians have to worship conducted by other than the regular minister, I have no doubt they will begin a congregation with good promise of success.

West Australia has advanced in the last ten years from being the most backward to being the most thriving and progressive of the States. This is, of course, due to the discovery of gold in the interior, but along with the gold has come the awakening to the many other possibilities of wealth which the development of so vast a territory offers. The supreme difficulty is the scarcity and dearness of labour. The immigration of Chinese and other coloured people is strictly forbidden here as throughout Australasia, and so wages are maintained at a high level. Consequently, everything is dear. The working man must pay from fifteen shillings to a pound a week for a small house; provisions of all kinds, even apples, are not to be had below English prices; clothing and all other imported and, therefore, duty-paying goods cost considerably more.

The climate, though perhaps somewhat relaxing in summer, seemed to me delightful, and certainly it must be so in the hills. Life is simpler than in England, and it is rare for well-to-do people to keep more than one servant, whose wage will be at least page 84 £1 a week. The community consists largely of young people; I found myself quite a patriarch among them. They are not given to church-going, and if we had a church there we should have to be satisfied with small congregations, and rely a good deal on outside sympathy, which, from all I heard, would not be wanting.

I left Perth on May 18, Mr. Campbell and Mrs. Macdonald, those faithful supporters of the cause who first gave us a welcome, accompanying us to Fremantle, and bidding us farewell only when the boat left.

On Whit Sunday we anchored in the afternoon off Largs Bay, the roadstead of Adelaide. The tug put off from the shore to meet us, and I was cheered by the welcome of a dozen or more members of the congregation who had come down some ten miles by rail to meet the Representative of the British and Foreign Association. It was about four o'clock, and we were conducted to the house of our kind hostess, Mrs. Kay, who as a girl was a member of Mr. Turner's congregation at Newcastle. After tea we went to the church, where I conducted the service and preached. It It was very much such a congregation as I should have expected to meet at Mill Hill, and there was nothing to remind me that I was so far away, except, perhaps, that they were evidently unaware that it was Whit Sunday, which people who keep Whit Monday as a Bank Holiday could not be oblivious of, however devoid they might be of any ecclesiastical proclivities. And my first impressions have been confirmed by all page 85 I have seen and heard since. They are eminently respectable, thriving people of all classes, merchants, manufacturers, shopkeepers; some of them holding a high position in the community. Were it possible to transport a few of the elders to Perth we should very soon be assured of a settled church there.

I lectured on Wednesday evening in the schoolroom, and was flattered by an audience of over eighty in number; a good attendance we should consider it at home when the lecture had been advertised as free, but here it is not the custom to give lectures free any more than entertainments, and a charge of a shilling was made for admission.

On Saturday afternoon the Rev. J. C. Woods and Mrs. Woods gave a garden party in their grounds at Burnside, to which all persons connected with the congregation were invited, and over 160 were present, The Australian May answers in the calendar to our November, but in character it much more resembles a fine September. There are very few deciduous trees, all of them importations from colder climates, and they drop their leaves late, and, as it were, unwillingly. Crysanthemums, roses, salvia, bougainvillea, and other flowering plants made a gay show; and a gay party of young folks walked among them holding forth promise of a good Unitarian congregation when the present supporters of the cause shall have passed away. A sight doubtless never seen before here, or, perhaps, in the Southern Hemisphere, was the group of four Unitarian ministers. Mr. Whitham, who is now the Assistant Inspector-General of Education, page 86 came out as a minister in 1874, and still frequently acts in that capacity. Mr. Reid, who was once a Presbyterian, and then, like myself, a University Extension Lecturer, has been minister of the congregation at Adelaide since 1902, and the only fault I can find with him, or can hear brought to his charge, is that he has just kept his golden wedding, and must needs plead guilty to old age, although, indeed, his activity and the amount of work he does for religion and education would seem to indicate a man in the prime of life. Then there was our host, the Rev. J. C. Woods, whose infirmities of body do indeed accuse him of his fourscore years; but in mind and temperament he continues young, and enjoys the meed of old age in the reverence which all pay to him and the affectionate regard which was shown to him by younger members of his connection. He came out here as minister of the church in 1855, when the congregation was founded, and resigned in 1889, but continued taking occasional services as long as his health permitted. By some accident his name has dropped out of our Essex Hall list of ministers, a mistake which, I hope, will be corrected in the next issue. It was indeed a happy gathering of all ages from three to eighty-three, and I trust that I shall be able to bring home a record of it, as a photographer, coming past the house by chance or sent providentially, took the large group as best he could.

On the Sunday I preached morning and evening. The evening congregation was really the better of the two, though only half that of the morning, for the page 87 conditions were such as to deter all but the most zealous. The rain came down in torrents, and the ways were dark, and the distances long, and the gutters over-flowing. For myself, I went into the pulpit with shoes full of water, but I quickly had them off without attracting attention, and preached very comfortably in my stockings. I was sorry for those who could not take the same liberty, and worship for once after the fashion of Mahometans.

So far I have met with nothing but an excess of kindness. I am mindful that it is not Mr. Hargrove, a stranger who has no claim upon them, to whom they show such flattering attentions and respect. It is in my official capacity as representative of English Unitarians and their Association that I am honoured and fêted. And I entertain the hope that this visit may have a lasting effect in drawing the Church of Adelaide into closer fellowship with our churches at home. We are very far apart by measurement of distances, but we hold the same faith, stand by the same principles, use the same books; and, indeed, I could easily forget, as I stood yesterday at the Communion-table between Mr. Reid and Mr. Whit-ham, that I was in a far-away land, and imagine myself among English friends in body as I truly was in spirit.

C. H.