New Zealand half the number of persons returned as sick and infirm includes all ages, while the other half only includes the population of 15 years and over. The following table shows the results of the tabulation for each of the colonies :—

*Included under more general heading. population over 15 years only, while 274 persons refer to the whole population. lation over 15 years only.

Of this number, 4,130 persons refer to the

Popu

HABITATIONS.

At the census of 1891 inquiry was made on the householders' schedules respecting the dwellings of the population. The information sought was in respect to whether a building was occupied, unoccupied, or in course of construction; the material of which it was built, and the number of rooms which it contained. The tabulation was not made with the same degree of completeness in all the colonies; but as far as comparative figures can be given they are shown below :—

The materials of which the dwellings in each colony were constructed are shown in the following table, as far as the particulars are available:—

The number of rooms is given below for all houses, whether occupied or unoccupied, except in the case of New South Wales and New Zealand, where the figures given refer only to occupied dwellings :—

In Queensland the habitations were enumerated under the Quinquennial Census Act, which does not provide for a statement either of the materials of which houses are constructed or of the number of rooms which they contain. From the foregoing figures it will be seen that in Australasia there are nearly 5 persons to every occupied house.

70

RELIGION.

THE progress of all matters relating to denominational Religion

since the early years of Australasian settlement has been steady and remarkable. For the first fifteen years after the foundation of the colony of New South Wales, only a single denomination was recognised by Government or possessed either minister or organisation-the Established Church of England. In those days the whole of Australasia was ecclesiastically within the diocese of the Bishop of Calcutta, of which it formed an Archdeaconry; this continued until 1836, when the bishopric of Australia was constituted, and the Rev. William Grant Broughton, D.D. (formerly Archdeacon), was consecrated the first Bishop. In 1841 the bishopric of New Zealand was established, and in 1842 that of Tasmania. Considerable changes took place in 1847, when the dioceses of Melbourne, Adelaide (including South Australia and Western Australia), and Newcastle (including the northern portion of what is now New South Wales, and the whole of Queensland) were established, and the Bishop of Australia was styled Bishop of Sydney and Metropolitan of Australia and Tasmania. In 1857 the diocese of Perth was formed out of that of Adelaide, and in 1859 the diocese of Brisbane out of that of Newcastle; in 1863 the bishopric of Goulburn was separated from Sydney; in 1867 the bishopric of Grafton and Armidale was formed out of part of the diocese of Newcastle; in 1869 Bathurst was separated from Sydney; in 1875 Victoria was divided into the two dioceses of Melbourne and Ballarat ; in 1878 the bishopric of Northern Queensland was established, with Townsville as seat of its Bishop; in 1884 the diocese of Riverina was formed out of parts of the dioceses of Bathurst and Goulburn; and in 1892 parts of the bishoprics of Brisbane and Northern Queensland were formed into the new diocese of Rockhampton. While the six dioceses of New South Wales were united under a provincial constitution, with the Bishop of Sydney as Metropolitan, no such union existed in Victoria or Queensland, and the decision of the Lambeth Conference of 1897, granting the title of Archbishop to Colonial Metropolitans applied, therefore, only to Sydney, whose Bishop thereby became Archbishop of Sydney.

Each colony preserves its autonomy in church matters, but the Archbishop of Sydney is nominal head or Primate within the boundaries of Australia and Tasmania. In 1872 the ties between the churches in the various colonies under the jurisdiction of the Primacy were strengthened by the adoption of one common constitution. A general synod of representatives of each of these colonies meets in Sydney every five years to discuss Church affairs in general. New Zealand is excluded from this amalgamation, and possesses a Primacy of its own. As already stated, a Bishop of New Zealand was appointed in 1841.

After various changes the constitution of the Church in New Zealand was finally settled in 1874, when the whole colony was divided into the six dioceses of Auckland, Waiapu (Napier), Wellington, Nelson, Christchurch, and Dunedin. After the departure of Bishop Selwyn, who has been the only Bishop of New Zealand, the Primacy was transferred to the see of Christchurch, where it remained until 1895. In that year the Bishop of Auckland was elected Primate of New Zealand. The missionary Bishop of Melanesia, whose head-quarters are at Norfolk Island, is under the jurisdiction of the New Zealand primacy. At present, therefore, there are twenty-one bishops in the colonies, including the Bishop of Melanesia, but excluding assistant bishops. The Synodical system of Church Government, by means of a legislative body, consisting of the clergy and representatives of the laity, prevails throughout Australasia, both in the individual colonies and as a group.

In 1803 a grudging recognition was extended to Roman Catholics, one of whose chaplains was for some time placed on the Government establishment; but it was not until 1820 that any regular provision was made for the due representation of the clergy of this body. Until 1834 the Roman Catholics of Australia and Tasmania were under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Mauritius (the Rev. Dr. Ullathorne being Vicar-General from 1830 to 1834), but in that year Sydney was constituted a see, and the Rev. John Bede Polding, D.D., was consecrated Bishop, with jurisdiction over the whole of the Continent and Tasmania. In 1842 Hobart was established as a separate diocese, and Sydney became an archiepiscopal see. The diocese of Adelaide dates from 1843, that of Perth from 1845, and those of Melbourne, Maitland, Bathurst, Auckland, and Wellington from 1848. During this year a diocese was established in the Northern Territory of South Australia, which since 1888 has been designated the diocese of Port Victoria and Palmerston. The bishopric of Brisbane was founded in 1859, and that of Goulburn in 1864. In 1867 the Abbey-nullius of New Norcia (Western Australia) was established. The dioceses of Armidale and Auckland date from 1869, and those of Ballarat and Sandhurst from 1874. In 1876 Melbourne became an archdiocese, and Cooktown was formed into a Vicariate-Apostolic. Other changes took place in Queensland in 1882, when the diocese of Rockhampton was founded, and in 1884, when the Vicariate-Apostolic of British New Guinea (with residence at Thursday Island) was established. In 1885 the Archbishop of Sydney was created a cardinal, and placed at the head of the Roman Catholic Church throughout Australasia. Following upon this appointment great alterations took place in the arrangement of dioceses in 1887, when the new dioceses of Grafton, Wilcannia, Sale, Port Augusta, and Christchurch, and the Vicariates-Apostolic of Kimberley and Queensland (the latter with jurisdiction over all the aborigines of the colony) were established, and Adelaide, Brisbane, and Wellington became archdioceses. In 1888 Hobart was also made an archiepiscopal see; and a new see was established in 1898 at Geraldton, in Western Australia. At

the present time there are six archbishops, sixteen bishops, three vicarsapostolic, and one abbot-nullius, or in all twenty-six heads of the Church with episcopal jurisdiction, irrespective of the Vicariate-Apostolic of British New Guinea and of several auxiliary and coadjutor-bishops. Amongst the earliest free colonists who settled in the Hawkesbury district of New South Wales was a small party of Presbyterians, and one of the first places of worship erected in the colony was put up in 1810 at Portland Head by their voluntary exertions. Services were conducted there for years before any ordained minister of the denomination reached New South Wales; indeed, it was not until 1823 that the Rev. Dr. Lang and the Rev. Archibald Macarthur, the first Presbyterian ministers in Australasia, arrived in Sydney and Hobart respectively. The Presbyterian Churches of New South Wales, Victoria (with which the Presbyterian Church of Western Australia is connected), Queensland, South Australia, and Tasmania, are united in a Federal Assembly which meets every year in rotation in the capital cities of the colonies mentioned. New Zealand is not included in this federation, and the Presbyterian Church in that colony is divided into the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand and the Presbyterian Church of Otago and Southland. Besides the churches mentioned, there are several small bodies of Presbyterians unconnected with the larger churches, such as the Presbyterian Church of Eastern Australia in New South Wales, and the Free Church in Victoria. The church in each colony, however, acts independently as regards local ecclesiastical administration, and preserves its autonomy in respect of funds and property.

The first Wesleyan minister came to New South Wales in 1815, but it was not until 1821 that a Wesleyan place of worship was erected in Sydney, and it was even later before the denomination was allowed to share in the Government provision for religion. The first Wesleyan Church in Hobart was established in 1820. From 1815 to 1855 the Wesleyan Church in the colonies was regarded as a mission of the British Wesleyan Church, and from 1855 to 1873 it was affiliated to the British Wesleyan Conference; but in the latter year it was constituted into a separate and independent Conference as the Australasian Wesleyan Methodist Church. At present the Church is divided into five Conferences, viz., New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia, and New Zealand. These Conferences meet annually, while a General Conference is held at triennial periods within the boundaries of each annual Conference in the order decided upon. At the General Conference held in Auckland on the 10th November, 1897, it was enacted that Western Australia should be constituted a separate Conference, the division to take place and the first Conference to be held in the year 1900.

A Congregational minister arrived in Sydney as early as 1798; and in Hobart the Congregational Church was established in 1830. At present there exists a separate Congregational Union in each of the seven colonies. Federal meetings have been held, and a Congregational