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New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 4955, 8 February 1877, Page 4

We think- that a large 1 majority of the, parishioners of St. Peter's will be pleased to hear that there-is no probability of the :Synod granting 'power to mortgage the parsonage; Most people concurred in the view which has apparently been taken by the members of Synod; that such a'proceeding would have been contrary to law, and that no matter what decision the Synod came to, it would not alter the: position of' the trustees, 1 or empower: them to act in anillegaliinanner." It'is to.be regretted that this ill-advised,course: was persisted in. Wellington might have been saved the humiliation- which has ; been so' unnecessarily cast a section of the community.

The opening, of the railway from Christchurch, to Oamaru, ■■• over which the colonists' in the •South' have been so jubilant, is an incident in New Zealand progress on which' the colony may with pride congratulate itself. A series of links of" railway have been joined thereby,. and we have not. to draw largely on fancy for a picture of the locomotive steaming' along' from one extremity to the other -of the South Island. 1 : We clip the following suggestive remarks'from the Dunedin Star, and would particularly commend them; to the notice of English readers :—" The vast extension. 1 of our railway system which isgoing on is illustration of the energy-of the colonyfin; this direction. How much has been done during the last five or six years'is perhaps'scarcely appreciated. The opening' of short sections of ■ ■ line, as they • • are completed, [ takes off-the'Significance of the progress''' which is' making. > - >The event' which ' was; celebrated will impress upon- the. j! pubUc; 'itimd J thatthe. connection' of '.Ghristchurch with'JDun-' ediri by.railway' is no longer'a dfeain,'' The 'fact that trains regularly'.between Ghristchurch . and Oamaru is one; that .renders •it 'almost ' laughable 1 , .to think that: anybody should doubt that within' a reasonable period the two principal cities of ■ the South Island wiU be in railway:conimunication with each 'other I .' 'And- yet it .isnot so very lbng.< ago J that 'intelligent persons were found to believe'that' it'" would prove beyond the means-" of the-colony "to accomplish this' work for the next ten'or fifteen years.' True, it is not yet finished; The heaviest part of £he line, in an engineering point- of view, namely,' that between Moeraki "and Port Chalmers", is yet only: in- course r Of formation; but'we have the assurance of the"Engineer-iri-Chief, as expressed in his last annual 'report, that there is every reason to suppose'that the whole line rwill be 6pen> for : traffic by the end of 1878.' That, :too, is not all. ' The gap in the southern line, between*ißalclutha and Mataura, will probablyibejfillediupjiby that time, aridcoriße.queritly"thereiwill! be j»l clear a-un of s. fully 400 miles from AmberleyiCin-; Canterbury; to-' the l Bluff, supposing-theiini)rthern.f :partof ■> the Ime is riot pushed beyond Amberley in the-mean-■whikv } ln ,addition,^! jthere l will be - several branch .-lines; feeding, theutrunk. railway.' > The whole will form a work worthy of ;a" much l older, community, than ..the colony -of New Zealand." •'i ' '-•