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Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1310, 18 June 1880, Page 2

That Sir George Grey is a generous political opponent was fully evidenced in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, when he carried through the House a Bill for the purpose of perpetuating the memory of the services rendered to the Province of Canter r bury by Mr. "William Sefton Moorhouse. This gentleman was for many years Superintendant of the sister province and did probably more than any other man to push Canterbury ahead. The railway from Lyttelton to Christchurch, with its long tunnel through the hill, the most stupendous work of the kind ever undertaken in the Colony, was one of the schemes propounded and successfully carried out under his guiding care. Many of the old identities considered him- at the time little short of "stark staring mad," but he remained firm, and successfully carried out one of the greatest works ever attempted in the Colony, and certianly by far the most beneficial work to Christchurch and, indeed, the whole of the surrounding districts that has ever been performed. Had it not been for the "madness" of Mr. Moorhouse, who has 'rightly been designated the parent of the railway policy in New Zealand, Christchurch would not to-day have been a large and flourishing city. It would still have been a mere inland town, divided from a good port by a high range of mountains. Neither would the plains have been peopled as they are now by a large number of industrious farmers, whose produce now finds its way through the tunnel to the markets of the old world. The means of getting their grain and other produce to the seaboard has teen opened up to them by Mr. Moorhouse, and for this service alone he is folly entitled

to some recognition at the hands of the Colony, for he haa done much to promote settlement, to develope the resources of the country, and increase its national wealth,' besides largely increasing the value of a vast amount of Crown lands. His successor, Mr. Rolleston, who resigned the post of UnderSecretary in the Native Department in order to become Superintendent of Canterbury, was, on the abolition of the provinces, the recipient of a very handsome presentation from the public, made amidst much rejoicing and speechifying, notwithstanding that he was one of the heroes of the gridironing business, in which he was assisted by his present chief, the Hon. John Hall. The services rendered by Mr. Moorhouse, though paling into insignificance anything ever done by Mr. Rolleston, have not until now received | any public recognition, and even now the | very evident duty of the people of Canterbury has been left to a political opponent of Mr. Moorhouse to perform. Truly, Sir George Grey has done a noble act of justice in a generous spirit, and we are sure that Mr. Moorhouse will the more highly prize the recognitiotf he has received because the promoter is a political opponent with whom he has never yet voted upon any question.