Page:History of Adelaide and vicinity.djvu/306

 280 ADELAIDE AND VICINITY Most Rev. J.O-Reily Archbishop moved to All Hallow's College, Dublin, in September, 1864. At this time this celebrated institution enjoyed the reputation of being the largest purely missionary college in the world in connection with the Roman Catholic Church. At the time of the Archbishop's entrance there were no fewer than 300 resident students in the college. One year in this advanced hall of learning was spent in the study of Mental Philo.sophy, and four more were subsequently absorbed in forming a more intimate and deeper acquaintance with theological knowledge. In June, 1869, the Archbishop was ordained a priest, and a few weeks later he left Ireland for Perth, in Western Australia. There e.visted in that then little-known Province a wide field for the future Archbishop's labors, for Western Australia was then still the " Cinderella " of the Australian group. It had no pretensions then to development beyond a ha|)hazard and precarious tillage of the soil ; all its potentialities were crude and latent. If Father O'Reily in anticipation conjured up a mental vision of rich oriental vegetation luxuriantly clothing the shores and slopes of his place of disembarkation, he must have been woefully disappointed when his ship arrived off the sandy beach of F"remantle. There was no fine harbor there then. He could have been as little enchanted as was Darwin in his voyages round the world with the deserted, cheerless prospect afforded by the coast of Western Australia. In those days it was especially depressing in its sandy barrenness of aspect, and Father O'Reily probably felt it was small matter for wonder that the country to which he had come was not a popular Province. But landscapes did not concern the reverend Father to a degree likely to affect his inclinations for the work he was about to take up. He was first stationed at Perth ; and here he remained for some time to enable him to acclimatise and adapt himself to the new life that spread itself before him. For a brief interval. Father O'Reily had charge of Newcastle and Northam, now two well-known agricultural centres, but then mere hamlets. Thence he was transferred to the charge of PVemantle, where he remained for the rest of his term in Western Australia. During his residence in the West, Archbishop O'Reily, in addition to the discharge of his ordinary parochial duties, did much for the advancement of the Catholic press. In 1874 the U^estcrn Australian Rccoi'd, a journal published in the interests of the Roman Catholic body, was founded in Perth through the energy of Bishop Gibney, then Vicar-General of the diocese. For this organ Father O'Reily wrote the first leading article, and he remained an active contributor to its columns until he left the Colony for South Australia. His journalistic abilities, though they suffered somewhat from restriction to the main ends the journal had in view, were of a high order, and reflected a talent that only required exercise for its full development. One of the decisions of the Plenary Council of Australasia in 1885 was that of petitioning the Holy See for the establishment of fresh dioceses in Australia ; and one of the centres cho.sen as a seat for an episcopate was Port Augusta, in South Australia. For this See, F"ather O'Reily was recommended, and in course of time was duly nominated by Propaganda. The dioce.se comprises the northern portion of South Australia proper, together with a strip one degree of latitude in width belonging to the Northern Territory. The area of the dioce.se is 370,000 square miles, and the Roman Catholic population in that district in 1891 numbered 11,156, a proportion of one Catholic to every 2>o square miles, while the whole population of his See did not exceed 53,184. During His Lordship's eight years of epi.scopate, considerable progress was made. In 1889 there were 7 parochial