Page:Notable South Australians.djvu/260

 worked hard, not only in connection with his own parish, hut also with the Church Institute and ecclesiastical work generally. In the more immediate labour of the parish he was assisted by four, and at times by six curates, public school men and old Etonians. But with all these auxiliaries he nevertheless found sufficient to do in looking after the well-being of the numerous institutions connected with the church, all of which, at the time he severed his connection with the parish, had been brought into a flourishing condition. Some idea of the improvement effected under Dr. Kennion's ministration will be readily observed by the following statistics. The number of candidates for confirmation, a crucial test of a church's life, rose to an average number of 100 each year for five years, and the total number of communicants in 1877 was 2,524, and in 1881 5,785. The baptisms in a somewhat proportionate ratio rose in the same period of time from 201 to 318. In addition to these gratifying results there was also a corresponding improvement in other respects, such as mothers' meetings, a Bible class, a sick club, a Church of England Temperance Society with a membership, juvenile and adult, of nearly 500, together with Sunday-schools, all in an exceedingly flourishing condition. In the latter there were about 1,700 scholars, and Dr. Kennion personally acted as superintendent of the boys' department, proving himself quite as much in his element there as when ministering to the older portion of his flock from the pulpit. The day schools, in which he also took interest, were left likewise prospering. Mission work in connection with the parish was vigorously and successfully prosecuted by Dr. Kennion, by whose exertions a mission church was built at Dirk Hill in 1877, and several other missions also received great impetus. He was one of the most active members of the Church Institute, and conducted in connection with it a Sunday-school teachers' class and lay readers' class, and gave several lectures on popular subjects.