This page has been validated.
250
THE IRISH IN AUSTRALIA.

churches, schools and religious houses for which he secured sites all over Victoria, and which, thanks to his keen and intelligent prevision, are flourishing institutions to-day, will be long-standing memorials of his organising and administrative abilities. His Honour Judge Quinlan, an old Victorian colonist, has supplied some interesting reminiscences of Dr. Groold's early episcopal career. "I had the good fortune," he says, "of making his lordship's acquaintance in the latter part of the year 1853. He was a bishop whose duties can never be equalled, by reason of their inseparable association with the circumstances of the early days. The whole face of the colony is now changed, and the circumstances of the diocese have so altered, that it is impossible that any of his successors can labour in his footsteps. The reason is this. He came at a time that was most exciting in the history of this colony, when people were pouring in at the rate of a thousand a week. He had to supervise a territory of enormous extent, teeming with human souls that wanted saving, and with children that wanted education. It was a task for a Hercules, but he did it. He was obliged to do all his travelling on horseback, and he did it. I remember his excursions through the bush in the olden times. How unostentatious he was! How zealous! How indefatigable! How under his mild bland exterior he carried the heart of the Christian warrior! I remember his coming to Ballarat at the time of the Eureka riots and I know for a fact that his presence and influence there had more effect in upholding law and order than all the soldiers and police put together. I remember when he went to Mount Eversley during the disturbances in that neighbourhood, and can recall the enthusiasm of the people—how they determined to build a