A GREAT COLONIAL BISHOP

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2433, 12 April 1915, Page 4

A GREAT COLONIAL BISHOP

Bishop Moorhouse, whose death is announced in a cablegram which appears in another column, was a great personality as well as a distinguished Churchman. He made his mark in colonial Church history as Bishop of Melbourne. His fame reached far beyond the limits of his own diocese, and he was one of tho few bishops of the Anglican' Church in the overseas Dominions who have' been translated to an English dioccso. ' A similar honour was conferred upon the first Bishop of New Zealand (Bn. G. A. Selwyn). Dr. Mookhouse went to Manchester in 1886, after a. decidedly interesting episcopate of ten years' duration in Victoria. His directness of speech, his moral and intellectual courage, and his powers of-leader-ship won for him a high place in the estimation of the people of Australia. He was a Broad Churchman, but he always held the balance justly, and was scrupulously fair to clergy of every school of religious thought. He was a strong believer in efficiency. On one occasion he declared, that he had made it a rule for himself that he would always accept a call to a wider sphere of usefulness as long as he was able to do tho work required of him in a thorough manner.' As soon as he felt that the-duties and responsibilities of the diocese of Manchester were getting beyond his physical powers ne resigned in order to make way for a younger and stronger man, and in doing so he renounced an allowance'of £1600 a year to which ho was entitled. He did not want to hamper his successor in any way. Since 1903 Dr. Moorhouse has been living in retirement. His ten years as Bishop of Melbourne were full of life and incident, and tho older generation of Anglicans in Victoria still look back to those _ times as> to a "golden, age." His keen intellect and force of cha-racter dominated the whole diocese. Ho was a power both in the pulpit and on the plitform, and dealt with tho great moral questions of .his day with an insight and courage that commanded attention and respect. He aI J ways regarded the ten years he spent in Australia as the most fruitful period of his career. _ The free, full, and virile life of, Victoria in those days suited his temperament, and he threw himself into his work with all his abounding energy. The man was never lost in the theologian, and Victorians still remember his generosity, his big-heartedness, his keen sense of humour, and his hostility to sham and : pretence. Dr. Moorhouse was one' of the greatest I of colonial bishops, and has secured an honoured place among the makers of Australia.