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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IX, Issue 293, 11 December 1874, Page 4

pl^Tane ffawfies Bay Herald thus |g«rritea of tha approaching decrease of l^tM?*'? 01 B— When, however, the !fj*PP7 '--time shall arrive when propg:yn»cwliem aball be no more, and when I there is one united Central Government gf dyer the whole colony, the vast re- !^ sources : of the country from north to || Math will be developed. Money that |l is wasted in keeping up the five petty with their separate |£ parliaments and cumbrous adjuncts, all fighting for themselves, and with little gregard for the good of the country, will i£-h6 devoted to more legitimate purposes, end be more equally expended. That provincialism baa had its day, and must p die boob, is admitted by all but a very ! small section of the community, bot we |f should like to see it die more gracefully |??than it appears to be doing, at all events in Auckland and Wellington. f> At the meeting of the General Abuemblyqfthe Presbyterian Church of J New Zealand, the Eev Mr M'Kinney, iOf Auckland, was elected Moderator for |r the eosning term. .Mr M'Kinney a lengthy and interesting adII drest, , J»j which the following is the |: I concluding portion : — " In referring Iv again to these matters to which I have !!: been calling your attention, Froude says, 'The creed of eighteen centuries ifl not however, about to fade away like 'f, an exhalation, nor are the new lights of §■ science so exhilarating that serious persons can look with comfort to ex- ; changing one for the other.' No, I say, assuredly not! The creed of ! : : eighteen centuries is not about to fade ;| away like an exhalation; and it would i; he bat » poor exchange tbat mankind |;: would make if they exchanged it for i : the dreamy reveries of Pantheism, or the cheerless dogmas of Positivism, or .. the hopeless beliefs of Materialism./ : There may be dark days coming iv the c - history of the Christian Church. There were dark days before Christianity ; when it was first introduced. It needed centuries before, the light of the apostolic sun could penetrate through that darkness. What has been in this respect might be again. Ido not mylelf, however, dread even that. But even if it did take place, of the oltimate triumph nevertheless of our bledsed religion I do not myself entertain a -' doubt. r It comes from the Eternal. : Its troths, io their divine simplicity, -and in their fitness to meet the deepest 1 ',.. needs of our fallen humanity, bear the Stamp of His character, and they shall £- -be like Himself — eternal in their duration. Heaven and earth"£hall pass r***"ihray,. but not one jot or one tittle of these troths shall pas* away. They shall live and exercise a potent influence ; for good when the speculations of our modern unbelievers shall have passed into that oblivion which in due time . awaited the speculations of the various races of their predecessors. The rains may descend, and the floods may come, " and the winds may blow and beat upon the Church, bot it shell not fall, for it is founded upon a rock, We have His words for it, which we know are true, v that the dominion o( our Lord is an . "everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which ■hill not be destroyed." Western Australia is becomingLthe subject of curious iovestigaticn.aqCresearcb. We learovthat fresh discovefws have been made,* and detailed information has been supplied, of our 60,000 square miles of territory, of which pre- . • viously nothing was known. Much of the country explored is worthless, but there is stUl a large portion of a valu* ' able character. Much of the scenery, if extremely wild, most nevertheless be ▼cry varied and picturesque, and .the and ranges cannot be otherwise than grand and imposing to the view. The elevation of some of the peaks and . mountains is far greater than might be expected to the westward. The height of one of these is as much as 4113 ft., of another 3428, of a third 2760, and of a fourth 2050. Though there was much bad country passed through, "there were long stretches of wellgrassed land, large valleys with rich soil, water-courses through good pastores, splendid flats covered with fattening herbage, -including vetches and native geranium, and here and there undoubtedly permanent water, cape- . cially at Ayer's Rock." This eminence, which is 1000 feet high, is a very extraordinary formation, out of which issoe springs of water. Mr. Gosse doabts, but the South Australian liesT^giitor hesitates to accept tbeconclusion, { . Vthat a practical route will ever be ! lionnd between the lower partof Western j '/ Australia and the telegraph line." The t explorer speaks unfavorably of the ter- i 9 ritoty of that colony, into which be • penetrated to 26 deg. 21 mm. S. lat., and 126 deg. 59 mm. E. long. The hopes long entertained of the discovery of valuable country within the limits of Western Australia,-*^ certainly raised bj what Mr. Gosse has found so near the boundary. It most be remembered that first explorers always see the worst. They are obliged to go straight ahead ; the length of their journey being too great to permit them to beat backwards Mid forwards from bad country into fgood. If they get into a strip of worthless territory fifty or a hundred miles wide, they may have to follow it, fearlog 7 to lengthen their journey by turning -^ aside. It was so with Captain Sturt when he penetrated into what, for p years after his expedition, was supposed to be a great central Auslralian i desert. Burke and Wills got into it, ; bat by striking to the east for 50 or 60 ? miles they quite cleared it, and pursued their coarse through a good country to the Gulf of Carpentaria. There is room between the latitude of WarburJon's course and that of Gosse fora

large area of good land. In fact, the unexplored portion of Western Australia ia almost as extensive as the colony of South Australia proper. Theib is epace yet for a large sod valuable colony in the blank tract that still remains on the map of Western Australia ; and we continue to hope tbat further explorations, which we are giad to hear are likely to be carried out, will reveal large available territory, and lead (0 such colonisation in that quarter as will give a great impetus to Western Australia, as well as South Australia, whose spirit and enterprise in opening up the Island-Continent deserve the highest commendation and reward. — Herald. The Waitarapa News reports a very narrow escape which Mr Stewart, the assistant engineer in that district, lias bad. He was in the act of cleaning a revolver, one of the chambers beiog loaded without his knowl dge, when it exploded} the ball passing between bis finger 'and thumb, making a Blight wound, and then so close to his forebead as,^) sever some hair therefrom, he stooping slightly at the time.