1426 THE CHURCH IN THE DOMINIONS [PART vil 
part of the letters patent which gave the bishop the power 
of summoning witnesses and examining them on oath, 
on the advice of the Law Officers new letters patent were 
issued in 1849 omitting the power to summon witnesses, the 
power to examine on oath, the express mention of jurisdic- 
tion, and the express power to punish by suspension, depri- 
vation, or otherwise, and only authorizing the bishop to 
visit the clergy, to call them before him, and to inquire as 
to their morals and behaviour in their office and stations. 
This question being settled thus, the bishopric of Australia 
was divided in 1847 into four bishoprics, Sydney, Newcastle, 
Melbourne, and Adelaide, metropolitan powers over these 
dioceses as well as Tasmania being given to the Bishop of 
Sydney, and in all these dioceses the ecclesiastical powers 
were reduced to those of visitation. The diocese of Adelaide 
covered South and Western Australia. In 1856 a bishopric 
was created at Perth, in 1859 one at Brisbane which coin- 
cided with the newly separated Colony of Queensland, and 
in 1863 one at Goulburn, in all these cases powers of visita- 
tion only being given.! 
In New South Wales an Act, 8 Will. IV. No. 5, ss. 19, 20, 
invested the bishop with the power of licensing clergy and 
withdrawing their licences upon cause being shown, and this 
Act clearly was in force in Queensland, since it was passed 
before the separation of the Colonies. The Legislature of 
Victoria, by an Act of 1854 (No. 19), enabled the bishops, 
clergy, and laity of any Victorian diocese to meet in synod 
and make regulations for the enforcement of discipline. In 
Tasmania similar provisions were made by a local Act of 
1859. 22 Vict. No. 20, which enabled the bishop to examine 
! After the recognition of the new state of affairs, more bishoprics were 
created in New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, and Western Australia, 
but there is only one bishopric both in Tasmania and South Australia, while 
the Northern Territory was part from 1900 of the diocese of Carpentaria. 
In 1866 New South Wales adopted a constitution (see 7 C. L. R. 393), and 
1868 and 1872 saw the example followed by Queensland and Western 
Australia. In 1872 a general synod of dioceses in Australia was agreed 
on, and remodelled in 1896. Since 1903 there have been three archbishops, 
the primate being elected by the bishops; see Year Book of Australia (1908), 
pp. 442 seq.