Constructing Colonial Christianities: With Particular Reference to Anglicanism in Australia,ca 1850–1940*

This paper argues the need for new histories of the various settler churches or Christian confessions of Australia and for a new approach to colonial confessional history itself. It suggests that the confessions should be seen not as transplants (as is commonly done) but as variants of their churches of origin and, taking Australian Anglicanism as the primary example, demonstrates a method by which their evolution might be examined. The shaping effect of an assortment of influences, ideas, events, and pressures is explored in a series of settings, from the global to that of local micro‐cultures. It is suggested that if the many forms each of the churches has taken in myriad contexts can be identified in this way it should be possible to construct new, variegated colonial confessional histories.     

Limits reaffirmed: new wheat frontiers in Australia, 1916–1939

At the opening of the twentieth century, it was apparent that good agricultural land was getting scarce even in the New World. There was still a strong political need, especially in countries that owed their existence to an agricultural frontier, to open new land and increase farming population. During the 1920s, Isaiah Bowman in the United States devised what he called “scientific settlement”, a form of social planning. In the countries that had already embarked on extending their farm land, their initiative was something less than scientific settlement. As an illustration, South Australia and New South Wales legislated the resumption of certain pastoral areas for re-allocation as primarily wheat-based farmlands that would provide the heavier rural population sought by politicians. The need to reward soldiers for service in the First World War became a major stimulus to expansion. Whereas there was ample evidence of the unreliability of conditions in most of the areas chosen, the authorities dispatched settlers to relatively small properties and provided only disjointed and tardy support. When the new wheat frontier proved to be expensive and rife with failures, the authorities blamed the settlers. In the circumstances, however, the performance of the settlers was more praiseworthy than the weight of historical opinion has suggested. Even the soldier settlers, who were put at a disadvantage by the high cost of their land and interest, ultimately achieved a success rate comparable to that of civilian ‘closer’ settlers who generally had better land and easier terms of purchase.     

Rural Accessibility of General Practitioners: the Case of Bruce and Grey Counties, ONTARIO, 1901–1981

Using data from censuses and medical directories and various measures of availability and accessibility, trends in patterns of access at the two-county and township level are considered against the backdrop of substantial changes in the spatial organization of rural areas and in systems of health care delivery. The results suggest that the negative impact of the decline in, and centralization of, general practitioner services available to the dispersed population of the region between 1901 and 1981 was only partly offset by increases in mobility. Individual rural localities fared differently, largely dependent on their location relative to the central place network.
A l'aide de donnkes provenant des recensements, des annuaires medicaux et de d'autres mesures de la disponibilite et de l'accessibilite, nous en venons h considerer, au niveau des deux comtts et des cantons, les types d'accts, tout en gardant en mtmoire les changements importants dans l'organisation spatiale des regions rurales et dans la dispensation des services de santt. Les resultats de notre etude impliquent que I'augmentation de la mobilite a tres peu compenst pour les effets negatifs decline et de la centralisation des services de medecine generale dispensts aux habitants eparpilles de la region entre 1901 et 1981. I1 est evident que le bien-Ctre de chacune des localids rurales a varie grandement et dependait de leur emplacement par rapport au rtseau central.