Submitted by scott on

But South Australia deserves much, for apparently she is a hospitable home for every alien who chooses to come; and for his religion, too. She has a population, as per the latest census, of only 320,000-odd, and yet her varieties of religion indicate the presence within her borders of samples of people from pretty nearly every part of the globe you can think of. Tabulated, these varieties of religion make a remarkable show. One would have to go far to find its match. I copy here this cosmopolitan curiosity, and it comes from the published census:

  • Church of England, 89,271
  • Roman Catholic, 47,179
  • Wesleyan, 49,159
  • Lutheran, 23,328
  • Presbyterian, 18,206
  • Congregationalist, 11,882
  • Bible Christian, 15,762
  • Primitive Methodist, 11,654
  • Baptist, 17,547
  • Christian Brethren, 465
  • Methodist New Connexion, 39
  • Unitarian, 688
  • Church of Christ, 3,367
  • Society of Friends, 100
  • Salvation Army, 4,356
  • New Jerusalem Church, 168
  • Jews, 840
  • Protestants (undefined), 5,532
  • Mohammedans, 299
  • Confucians, etc, 3,884
  • Other religions, 1,719
  • Object, 6,940
  • Not stated, 8,046
  • Total, 320,431

 The item in the above list "Other religions" includes the following as returned:

Not Wanted Here


Agnostics, Atheists, Believers in Christ, Buddhists, Calvinists, Christadelphians, Christians, Christ's Chapel, Christian Israelites, Christian Socialists, Church of God, Cosmopolitans, Deists, Evangelists, Exclusive Brethren, Free Church, Free Methodists, Freethinkers, Followers of Christ, Gospel Meetings, Greek Church, Infidels, Maronites, Memnonists, Moravians, Mormons, Naturalists, Orthodox, Others (indefinite), Pagans, Pantheists, Plymouth Brethren, Rationalists, Reformers, Secularists, Seventh-day Adventists, Shaker, Shintoists, Spiritualists, Theosophists, Town (City) Mission, Welsh Church, Huguenot, Hussite, Zoroastrians, Zwinglian, About 64 roads to the other world. You see how healthy the religious atmosphere is. Anything can live in it. Agnostics, Atheists, Freethinkers, Infidels, Mormons, Pagans, Indefinites they are all there. And all the big sects of the world can do more than merely live in it: they can spread, flourish, prosper. All except the Spiritualists and the Theosophists. That is the most curious feature of this curious table. What is the matter with the specter? Why do they puff him away? He is a welcome toy everywhere else in the world.

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