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Observer, Volume 1, Issue 13, 11 December 1880, Page 109

The following is from Life of Oct. 2nd :— "I hear a strange story of a bishop and a young doctor, of which the authorities of the Eoyal College of Surgeons are aware. In the course of this year a colonial bishop, of the evangelical pursuasion, who, not long ago, exchanged a Holborn incumbency for a semitropical Australian diocese, applied to the College of Surgeons to recommend a first-class medical man. The appointment Avas said to be wortli a thousand a year, and a young doctor, with first-rate testimonials, was speedily named, accepted, and desired to go out as soon as possible. He took the appointment and also a newly -married wife, the young daughter of a well-known ex-actor. The episcopal directions were that, on arriving at Adelaide, the happy doctor should telegraph to his northern head-quarters and then due authorization and papers would be sent to Sydney. Arrived at the capital, the hopes of the young couple were dashed to the ground by a message from the local authorities that the bishop had sailed for England, having said nothing about his medical protege" for whom he had effusively thanked the authorities of the College, and that the appointment had been filled up three weeks before. The Melbourne people sympathized with the victim of tins cruel hoax, the medical men of Sydney were indignant, and one and all advised an immediate return to England, and a full explanation with the bishop. So back they came, but the explanation of the right reverend humourist has not yet been elicited. Such practical jokes must prove expensive for a colonial bishop jokist. Law, Physic, and Divinity will, I hear, all be mixed up in the denouement."