Page:Handbook of Western Australia.djvu/154

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Western Australia.

the Chaplaincies, the Colonial Government co-operating in its provision of (one half of) the stipend. In 1857, the See of Perth was constituted, and Dr. Mathew Blagden Hale, a graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge, who had been for several years Archdeacon of Adelaide, was appointed to the Bishopric. Dr. Hale arrived here as Bishop in 1858; but some months before his arrival Archdeacon Wollaston had entered into his rest. A long official journey undertaken in the heat of summer was followed by a brief illness, and his death. He is a man to be had in remembrance for his patient untiring zeal, and for the great simplicity and unselfishness of his character. Bishop Hale's episcopate lasted from 1857 to 1875. During it the Church of England here passed through many stages of progress. The vacant Archdeaconcy was filled up, a Dean appointed, and a site purchased for the Bishop's residence, which was subsequently erected in a great measure at the Bishop's cost, with lodgings for the Clergy in proximity to it. A little later, new chaplaincies were formed, a second Archdeaconry (now for some years in abeyance) founded at the North.; various Churches and Parsonages erected, and Synodical action established.

A great effort was made, supported by the munificence of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, to establish a good Collegiate School, after the model, on a smaller scale, of St Peter's School in Adelaide. Local contributions to the amount of £550 met the Society's grant of £1100, and after the opening of the school many endeavors were made to release it from accumulating debt, and to render it self-supporting. Unhappily, a few were left to struggle against the difficulties that the interest of the many would have surmounted, and the school was closed and the premises