Thames.

In one sense the most important difficulty to be overcome in the
formation of the new diocese was the raising of the capital to provide
for the endowment, a _sine qua non_ to the Parliamentary sanction. The
requisite sum was provided by voluntary contributions, great and
small, throughout the undivided diocese of Rochester, and throughout
the country; not the least interesting item being the "shilling fund,"
promoted by the Rev. T.B. Dover, Vicar of Maiden, which resulted in
an Easter offering of exactly L2,200. The capital was brought up to
L109,000 by the time the new appointments were made. It is intended to
provide a minimum income of L3,000 for the Bishop of Southwark, and a
house for his successor in the See of Rochester, in lieu of the house
at Kennington Park, transferred from the old to the new diocese. The
funds of the latter have since been augmented by a grant of L25,000
from the Bishop of London, out of the compensation money (L100,000),
paid by the City and South London Electric Railway Company for
undermining the City Church of St. Mary Woolnoth in order to build a
station. This sum of L25,000 is specially destined for church
extension, and Dr. Talbot set apart L2,000 of it, directly it was
granted, for that purpose in the Woolwich area.

Mr. Harry Lloyd, of Woodlands, Caterham, is acting as Hon. Treasurer
to the fund which has been opened for the complete equipment of the
diocese.

The Cathedral Church of St. Saviour is as yet without endowment, and
depends entirely upon voluntary offerings for its expenses. These were
estimated on the average at about L2,500 till last year, when the cost
of maintenance amounted to L3,096, besides which about L350 was
required for the College of Clergy. Attention was called to this
matter by the Ven. Archdeacon Taylor during his Visitation held in the
Cathedral on 25th May, 1905, when he made an earnest appeal to the
church people of the diocese for their help and sympathy on behalf of
the Cathedral, the Bishop and his Suffragans, and all concerned in the
work.

The duties before them, in the arrangement and control of the various
elements of which the diocese is composed, will obviously not be
light, but ought to be extremely interesting and rewarding. They will
have to deal with extremes, which may there be said to meet, in a
combination of rural and urban, ancient and modern, commercial,
industrial, and aristocratic life, a variety in unity such as the