278 BELKHOUS IKSTBTTCnON TheflxaA church* Ereotod by the ChapUln. Groseand JohniOD. was service Held in al)iiilding deToted specially to religions purposes. The church was a temporary one, constrncted of wood, out of the Chaplain's privafce funds, at a cost of £67 128. ll^d.^ It appears from Mr. Johnson's letter to Dundas, 3rd September, 1793, that the erection of the build- ing was commenced on the 10th June, and that it had only just been finished at the time he wrotct It afEorded aocom> modation for five hundred people. Although Johnson did not ask in so many words tiiat his expenses might be reimbursed, it may be seen from the fact that he sent in to the Lieutenant-Governor a detailed statement of the expenditure, and from the letters he sub- sequently sent to the Secretary of State, that he expected to have the cost made good. But of this Grose by no means approved. He forwarded the Chaplain's letter to Dundas, but instead of recommending that he should be repaid for the money he had laid out, he informed Dundas that he could not allow the matter to pass without observing that the Chaplain was a very troublesome and discontented char- acter, the cost was, he thought, extravagantly high, and he was much surprised that any claim at all was made, as he had been given to understand by Johnson that the building was
- " The clorgyman, who sufEered as much inconyemence as other people fioin
the want of a proper place for the performanoe of diyine semce, himself undertook to remove the evil, on finding that, from the pressure of other works, it was not easy to foresee when a church would be erected. He accordingly began one under his own inspection, and chose the situation for it at the back of the huts on the east side of the cove. The front was seventy- three feet by fifteen ; and at right angles with the centre projected another building forty feet by fifteen. The edifice was constructed ox strong posts, wattles, and plaster, and was to be thatched. Much credit was due to the Bev. Mr. Joonson for his personal exertions on this occasion." — Collins, ▼ol. i, p. 299. The absence of churches in New South Wales had been brought under the notice of the ecclesiastical authorities in Kngland. In a letter of 8th June, 1793, to Under Secretary Nepean, the Archbishop of Oanteibuiy ■aid: — "I should be obliged to you for a hint of information whether any measure is taken in respect to a place or places of worship at Botany Bay, the want of which was so apparent from the letters which I communioi^wi to yoa for Mr. Dundafl's inspeiotion." — Historical Beoords, voL ii, p. 46. t Collins states (vol. i, p. 807) that the work was not begun untU July* 1798, and that the building was used for the fixat time on Sunday, 25th August, of the same year.
