Page:Distinguished Churchmen.djvu/88

62 the mainland, and one in New Guinea. Under these sixteen Bishoprics there are now, at least, 1,200 clergy, and, roughly speaking, the Church population must be between one and a half millions and two millions.

“In 1872 it was arranged that the Bishop of Sydney should become Primate of the whole of Australia and Tasmania, so that, curiously enough, Colonial Federation, which has only recently been secured in civil matters, was long ago accomplished in the ecclesiastical sphere. In all the government of the Church it should be observed that representatives of the clergy and representatives of the laity are co-ordinated under the presidency of the Bishops, and no Canon of the Church, either Diocesan or general, is carried without the consent of both clergy and laity and the sanction of the Bishop, or Bishops, as the case may be. It may be noted also that the election of the Bishop is made by the Diocesan Synods.

“As to the constitution of the Church, it is to be observed, in the first place, that by a free act of their own the Synods have determined not to depart in essential doctrine, worship or discipline from the Church at home. In other things they are entirely independent. The work of the Church in Australia for our English people only differs from the work at home in the fact that it requires continually to expand, in the geographical sense,