This document, also referred to as a word picture or Tablet, is framed in glass and timber with gilt trim, is handwritten with colour highlights. The penned letters rest on ruled guide lines, decorated where the lines intersect. The writing gives a description of the state of Borough of Warrnambool around 1875; its location, the area it covers, its population, Harbour and facilities, public buildings and institutions, imports and exports, financial worth, number of houses, connection with other areas of the Colony. A possible reason and origin for the document is found in an article ‘Link with US Exhibition’ from the Warrnambool Standard of December 19, 1981, written by local historian Bruce Morris. The writer mentions that the Warrnambool Borough Council met on 15th June 1875 and recorded a letter from G.C. Levey , secretary to the Melbourne group of commissioners representing the Colony, and Victoria in particular, for the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition of 1876. The letter asks Council to provide “statistics as to the population, social condition and commercial and industrial state of the district in and around Warrnambool.” A sub committee was formed for the project. The Mayor, Cr. Thomas King, wrote and signed a Report, presented to the council on July 14, 1875, in which “The Committee … begs to recommend that a Tablet be prepared setting for the particulars respecting the following matters relating to the Borough”. The matters included area, population, annual income, churches, schools, other public buildings, societies and companies, general description of houses erected, and returns of exports and imports for 1874. The minutes note that the Report was adopted. The article above also notes the opinion of Warrnambool printers who have examined the document; it is almost certainly to be an old lithograph, which means there could be several copies. It is possible that there may be a copy in Melbourne and another in Philadelphia. It is interesting to note that (1) the quoted location co-ordinates are for an “Unnamed Road, Packsaddle NSW 2880, Australia”, and that the DMS co-ordinates for Warrnambool’s Council Offices differ, being 38.23.9.12 South, 142.28.52.887. (2) the date for “Exports and Imports for the Year Ending 30th June 1875” is different to the period mentioned by Cr. King in the sub committee’s Report of recommendation “returns of exports and imports for 1874”. The information required to have the figures for the end of June 1875 would need to have been compiled very quickly for the Tablet to be ready for the opening of the Philadelphia Exhibition on 10 May 1876. The document/certificate shows the following – - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - “Victoria Australia, Borough of Warrnambool. Latitude, 30.24.50 South, Longitude 142.32 East The Principal Port in the Western District of the Colony and the Centre of its Choicest Agricultural Lands. Established a Municipality in 1855, and Created a Borough 1863. Population in 1875 4,500. Warrnambool is the nearest Port to Melbourne on the Western Seaboard, being about 160 miles distant. Coaches run to and from the Metropolis daily, in connexion [connection] with the Railway of Geelong and Steamers belonging to Local Companies sail between Melbourne, Warrnambool, Belfast [renamed Port Fairy], and Portland several times weekly. The Harbour is known as Lady Bay, and is partially protected by a reef of rocks stretching from the mouth of the Hopkins River. The formation of a Breakwater has been decided upon by the Government, to extend 600 yards, at an estimated cost of £100,000. There are two substantial Jetties, one of 800 and the other of 600 feet in length. The former is connected with the Town by means of a Tramroad, along which Goods, inwards & outwards, are conveyed, & the latter has been constructed solely for the purpose of facilitating the transit of material for the formation of the Breakwater. In addition to the trade of the Borough and District, the principal Townships up country receive their supplies from Melbourne and ship their exports through Warrnambool. Potatoes form the staple produce of the district, and the richness of the soil can be estimated by the fact that the Government Statistics for 1875 give as the average yield a return of Seven Tons to the acre. Several thousand acres between Warrnambool and Tower Hill are now being laid down in Potatoes by Tenants who have leased the lands at rates up to £5 per acre for the season 1875-6. Wool, Tallow, hides &c are also largely exported, while the shipments of all descriptions of Farm Produce are annually increasing. Area of Borough, 3362 Acres. Net Annual Value £27,000. Annual Revenue £5,500. Number of Houses in Borough 800. Public Buildings and Institutions Churches. Church of England, Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Wesleyan, Congregational and Baptist. Schools. Three State Schools, average attendance nearly 1000. New Building in course of erection. Several private establishments. Banks. Bank of Australasia, Bank of Victoria, National Bank, Colonial Bank and Savings Bank. Public Buildings. Court house, Custom house, Post & Telegraph Offices, Survey & Land Offices, Shire £, Town Hall, Mechanics Institute, Volunteer Orderly Room, Odd Fellows Hall, Hospital & Benevolent Asylum, Temperance Hall &c. Companies & Societies. Steam Navigation Co, Woolen Mill Co, Gas Co, Racing Club, Amateur Turf Club, Agricultural Society, Farmers’ Club, Cricket Club, Anglers’ Society, Building Society, Freemasons Odd Fellows, Foresters, Druids, Hibernians. Protestant Alliance, Rechabites, Sons of Temperance, &c, Fire Brigade &c. --- Exports and Imports for the Year Ending 30th June 1875 –-- --Exports Total Tonnage 27,800 (Calculated at the Current Warrnambool Market Prices) Potatoes Wool Wheat Barley Hides Skins Fowls Butter Cheese Eggs Tallow Leather Ale Pigs Sheep Sundries --Imports 13,000 Tons Of the Estimated Value of £520,000 Total Tonnage of Exports and Imports 40m900 Tons, Value £806,627 Passenger Travels, to ad from Warrnambool during year, 10,000 persons Revenue from all sources paid through Warrnambool Sub Treasury From 1860 to June 1875 £1, 292, 300 Thomas King [signed] Mayor Henry T Read [signed] Town Clerk” - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The document is of historical, social, economic and local significance in that it summarises activities, business, community, trade, travel and government at a point in time in Warrnambool’s history – 30th June 1875.Document, also referred to as a ‘word picture’ or ‘tablet’. Document is framed in glass and timber with gilt trim, handwritten with colour highlights. The penned letters rest on ruled guide lines, decorated where the lines intersect. Document outlines the establishment of Warrnambool as a Municipality in 1855 and Borough in 1863, with a population of 4,500 in 1875. It states geographic location, public buildings and institutions, harbor facilities and imports and exports for the year ending 30th June 1875. Two signatures "Thomas King" Mayor and "Henry T Read" Town Clerk. It shows the Coat of Arms of the Borough of Warrnambool.Signatures - "Thomas King" Mayor and "Henry T Read" Town Clerk. Warrnambool Coat of Arms; “British Coat of Arms, above sailing vessel and sheaf of wheat in sun, motto “By these we flourish” and around circumference “Borough of Warrnambool 1855”flagstaff hill, warrnambool, shipwrecked coast, flagstaff hill maritime museum, maritime museum, shipwreck coast, flagstaff hill maritime village, great ocean road, borough of warrnambool, municipality of warrnambool, document borough of warrnambool 1875, word picture of warrnambool 1875, tablet of borough of warrnambool 1875, statistics borough of warrnambool 1875, lithograph borough of warrnambool 1875, coat of arms warrnambool, warrnambool city motto – in these we flourish, establishment of warrnambool, warrnambool history, thomas king mayor of warrnambool, henry t read town clerk of warrnambool, warrnambool breakwater, warrnambool jetty, warrnambool imports and exports 1875, warrnambool agriculture 1875, warrnambool business 1875, warrnambool population 1875, centennial exhibition philadelphia 1876, framed certificate

The Douay (Douai) Rheims Bible is an English translation of the Latin Vulgate Bible (which had been the Latin Bible used by the Catholic Church since the 4th century). It was produced by Roman Catholic scholars in exile from Elizabethan Protestant England at the English College of Douai (then in the Spanish Netherlands but later part of France). The New Testament translation was published in 1582 at Rheims where the English College had temporarily located in 1578. The Old Testament was translated shortly afterwards but was not published until 1609-1610 in Douay (which makes it older than the King James version). The completed work was the only authorized Bible in English for Roman Catholics until the 20th Century. Its purpose was to uphold the Catholic tradition in the face of the Protestant Reformation and was produced as an alternative to the several Protestant translations then in existence. Prior to it being published, the Roman Catholic practice had restricted personal use of the Bible, in the Latin Vulgate, to the clergy. Bishop Richard Challoner issued a series of revisions (1749 - 1772) intended to make the translation more easily understandable and subsequent editions (including this one) were based upon this revision. In 1871, an edition of the Douay - Rheims Bible was published by Thomas Kelly & Sons of Philadelphia (and later, New York). Thomas Kelly described himself as a "Publisher, Printer, Binder, Lithographer and Steel Plate Engraver". In 1876, Thomas Kelly won an award (a Diploma of Honor and a Medal of Merit) for "the Best Catholic Bibles and Prayer Books" at the International Centennial Exhibition held in Philadelphia and his firm continued to print editions of the Bible throughout the 1870's but little is known of him after 1880 when this edition was published. This Bible has been in the Kermond family from 1888 until 1984 when Laurence Kermond (its last owner) died. The Kermonds were an old Warrnambool family with ties to the district going back to the mid 1840's. Joseph Kermond's mother, Catherine (1818 - 1895) and her husband John Kermond,, an ex-convict (1809 - 1877), had moved from Tasmania around 1843 and were living in the Warrnambool area in 1844 where their eldest son was born. They had six more children born at Port Fairy (or Belfast as it was then called). Catherine is buried at the Tower Hill cemetery. The last owner of the Bible was Laurence Kermond (1918 - 1984). He was the great grandson of John and Catherine Kermond and was a well known painter who lived in the Merimbula and Paynesville areas of N.S. W. and Victoria during the 1970's and early 1980's. The story of Joseph Kermond finding the Bible on a beach on the Shipwreck Coast near Peterborough on the southern coast of Victoria, Australia is plausible as it was not uncommon for items from shipwrecks to be washed ashore. However this Bible would not have come from the wreck of the Loch Ard as the dates don't align. The Loch Ard was wrecked in 1878 and this Bible was printed in 1880. It appears to have been printed for the Australian market as there is a page (with an engraved portrait) dedicated to the "Most Rev. Roger Bede Vaughan, O. S. B. Archbishop of Sydney, N. S. W.". It may also have been aimed at the Irish immigrants as the four "Family Register" pages are decorated with borders of shamrocks. The donor found the Bible in a box of secondhand books on a market stall in Gippsland and recognised its links to the Shipwreck Coast through the name of previous owners (a well-known Warrnambool name) and the story of it being found on a beach near Peterborough. This Bible is a rare example of Douay and Reims Catholic Bible of the late 19th century that was once a treasured item belonging to the Kermond family - one of Warrnambool's early settlers. It also has a most unusual story attached to it - being found (and rescued) washed up on a local beach and almost one hundred years later, being rescued again from a secondhand book stall.This Catholic Bible is an 1880 edition of a "Douay Bible and Rheims Testament", printed and published by Thomas Kelly of New York. Its full title is "The Holy Bible translated from the Latin Vulgate Diligently Compared with The Hebrew, Greek and Other Editions in Various Languages". It is revised with annotations by the Right Rev. R. Challoner D.D. The Bible has brown leather embossed front and back covers decorated with identical ornate gilt patterns and a central picture of a cross. It has two coloured illustrations and numerous black and white lithographs and engravings including portraits of past popes, events and places from Bible stories and decorative borders. The Bible includes the Old and New Testaments, approbations from Pope Pius the Sixth and Archbishops of the United States and other countries (including Archbishop Vaughan of Sydney), a Family Register with handwritten notes on births, deaths and marriages from the Kermond family (as well as a description of how they obtained the bible), a Catholic dictionary of the Bible, a history of the Holy Scriptures, a chronological list of heretics (Theological history) and a description of the "Centennial Award - Diploma of Honor and medal of Merit" won by Thomas Kelly (for the "Best Catholic Bible") at the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia in 1876. The Records section has a note on the Memoranda page written by William John Kennard in 1920.Spine: HOLY BIBLE Title Page: THE/ HOLY BIBLE /TRANSLATED FROM/ THE LATIN VULGATE/ DILIGENTLY COMPARED WITH/THE HEBREW, GREEK AND OTHER EDITIONS/ IN VARIOUS LANGUAGES/ THE OLD TESTAMENT WAS FIRST PUBLISHED BY THE ENGLISH COLLEGE AT DOUAY, A.D. 1600 / AND THE NEW TESTAMENT, BY THE ENGLISH COLLEGE AT RHEIMS, A.D. 1582./ REVISED WITH ANNOTATIONS/ BY THE RIGHT REV. R. CHALLONER D.D./ TOGETHER WITH REFERENCES, AND AN HISTORICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL INDEX./ NOW CAREFULLY CORRECTED ACCORDING TO THE CLEMENTINE EDITION OF THE SCRIPTURES/ NEW YORK / THOMAS KELLY, PUBLISHER/ 17 BARCLAY STREET. / 1880 Dedication Page: DEDICATION OF THE ORIGINAL EDITION/ TO/ THAT LOYAL, RELIGIOUS AND ENLIGHTENED BODY OF MEN / THE/ CATHOLICS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA/ IN ADMIRATION OF THE STEADY ZEAL WITH WHICH THEY HAVE KEPTTHE/DEPOSIT OF FAITH/ BEQUEATHED THEM BY THEIR FOREFATHERS/ AND HANDED DOWN, WITHOUT INTERRUPTION OT ADULTERATION, TO THEIR GRATEFUL POSTERITY/ THIS EDITION/ OF THE/DOUAY BIBLE AND RHEIMS TESTAMENT/ IS / WITH GRATITUDE FOR PAST FAVORS AND HOPES OF FUTURE ENCOURAGEMENT/ MOST RESPECTFULLY ENSCRIBED. Handwritten note: ""This Holy Book was found . on the beach . near Peterborough Vic. having been washed ashore . from the wreck of the Loch Ard, (sailing ship) in the year 1888 . By .Joseph . Kermond; and presented to . his mother . Catherine Kermond , who in turn passed it - on . to her youngest . son ; one Jacob Kermond. He in turn presented . it to his son . William John Kermond , (the writer), 23/3/20)" [Original punctuation]flagstaff hill maritime museum and village, warrnambool, shipwreck coast, peterborough, kermond, kermond family, loch ard, bible, douay and rheims bible, catholic bible, thomas kelly and sons publiisher, douai, rheims, holy bible, religious bible, catherine kermond, john kermond, william john kermond'