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 CHAPTER XI.

THE CHURCH IN THE COLONIES.

as in other distant parts of the world, the light of the Gospel has been principally spread and preserved throughout the Australian colonies by the apostolic zeal and energy of Irish priests. True sons of St. Patrick, they triumphed over the grievous official persecution of the early days, they overcame the prejudices of race and creed, and they established themselves in the land by the main force of personal merit, generous self-sacrifice, and unceasing labours for the moral and spiritual welfare of their Catholic countrymen. The governmental policy at the period of the colonisation of Australia, and for a generation afterwards, was openly and