A LINK WITH THE PAST.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1754, 20 May 1913, Page 7

A LINK WITH THE PAST.

MELBOURNE'S OLDEST CHURCH. TO BE PULLED DOWN. ' By Teleisraph—Praia Association—Copyright (Rec. May 19, 11 p.m.) Melbourne, May 19. The Health Authorities have condemned St. James's Church, in Little 'Collins Street, Melbourne. It was the first church built here, being erected in 1838.

[An old Guide Book interestingly describes tho church now to be pulled down. "The corner of Little Collins Street and William Street (the recorder says) was the site of the first church of the colony —a very cheap wooden edifice on the then breezy sward of tho slope behind the market. Thither on the Sunday morning when the bell swung somewhat riotously from its gallows-like post tho superintendent, the thirty military, and tho small gang of convicts sent down from Sydney to make tho streets of tho new town, used to march in and listen to the ministration of a worthy little parson of tho name of Grylls, who received from tho Sydney Government a stipend of i£2oo a year. In 1839, Governor Latrobe, who was a devout churchman, led the way in getting lip subscriptions for a cathedral, of which enough was finished in is.ii to allow of service being held in it. But. its walls i f ugly brown stone and its squat-looking copper-roofed tower were long in rising, and it began to look ancient before it was finished. Of Into years, St. James's Cathedral, as it was called, has become hemmed in nil round by lofty buildings, ami the visitor must look for it, as lie' will not casually see the as'edlooking building which was for half a century the headquarters of I lie Church' of England in Victoria and the cathedral of the deeply-respected Bishop Perry."]