New Zealand Spectator AND COOK’S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Wednesday, January 7, 1852.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 671, 7 January 1852, Page 3

New Zealand Spectator AND COOK’S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Wednesday, January 7, 1852.

Or is reported that the New Zealand Settleents Act of last session has been received py his Excellency the Governor-in-Chief, together with a despatch from the Secretary i °* the Colonies, relating to the future disposal of land in New Zealand. The effect | Act is, we understand, materially to Interfere with the arrangements that have peen made for bringing the administration | the Crown Lands in the Southern Settlements into one uniform system, particularly I panting leases for stations for stock, but I 8 no doubt the instructions received by the local Government will shortly be published P r the information of the settlers, we refrain »om entering further on this topic. a. , E are g] a( j to |j e a y e announce that | e school House erected at Thorndoh by

the Church of England Education Society is so nearly completed, that the Committee have determined to open the building publicly to the subscribers this afternoon, at four o clock, on which occasion it is expected that his Excellency the Governor-in-Chief, and the Bishop of New Zealand, will be present, and when it is hoped also there will be a numerous attendance of the members of the Church of England, of both sexes. After the business of the meeting is concluded, a collection will be made in aid of the funds of the Society for the erection of a School House at Te Aro, the site for which has been liberally provided by the Bishop of New Zealand, by the gift of a piece of land in the immediate vicinity of St. Peters’ Church.

An opportunity will also be taken, at the close of the School meeting, to bring before the consideration of the members of the Church of England the expediency of a general Church Constitution for the diocese of New Zealand. Perhaps we may assist in promoting the objects sought to be attained by shewing what has recently been done in South Australia, where the clergy have been suddenly deprived of support by the withdrawal, by a vote of the Legislative .Assembly, of the grant hitherto made to the Church of England in that colony. The Church of England in New Zealand (except from the salaries granted to the Colonial Chaplains, appointments which rest entirely with the Governors of either Province) receives no assistance from the Local Government, and is therefore in a similar position to the Church in South Australia, whose proceedings (which we have extracted from the South Australian Register of Nov. 8) may serve as useful suggestions to its members in these Islands, in their efforts to give it increased stability and further extension, and to provide for the spiritual wants of its congregations and the education of their children, the necessity for which must continually increase with the annual increase of the population.