Proof that Rev. William Pascoe Crook had preached the first sermon at Port Phillip was furnished by the president of the Congregational Union (Rev. W. Albiston), when he unveiled a memorial over Crook's grave in the Melbourne General cemetery yesterday. The tablet has been erected by the Old Pioneers' Memorial Fund.

Rev. W. Albiston said the question of whether Mr. Crook had preached the first sermon at Port Phillip had been disputed by historians. A letter had been written by Crook to the treasurer of the London Missionary Society on November 8, 1803, in which he stated that he had conducted services at Port Phillip, and had under his care 77 children and two congregations of adults. This was first-hand evidence that he had preached the first sermon there.

Mr. Albiston said Crook, who had been born in Devonshire in April 1775 had been one of the first missionaries to the South Seas. He had left England in the ship "Duff" in 1796. He was the first man to translate the Bible into the Polynesian tongue and was the founder of the first Congregational Church in Australia, at Sydney, in 1810. He arrived with Captain Collins at Sullivan's Bay, now known as Sorrento, by the "Ocean" in 1803, and preached in Port Phillip. Later he preached in Sydney and Melbourne, where he died at the residence of his son in June, 1846. Crook's biography was still waiting to be written, the material was available, and his services in many fields of activity made him a worthy subject.