Wanganui Herald. [PUBLISHED DAILY.] TUESDAY, JUNE 12, 1877.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XII, Issue 2956, 12 June 1877, Page 2

Wanganui Herald. [PUBLISHED DAILY.] TUESDAY, JUNE 12, 1877.

The charge against the meeting at Waverley, convened for the purpose of considering the railway route, that it was a " hole and corner " affair, is justified by the want of publicity beforehand of the question it was to consider. It is very well to take advantage of a church meeting in order to get an audience, but it must at once be obvious that there are many people who would attend to discuss the proper route for a railway, who are seldom found at ceremonies such as laying the foundation stone of a church. Mr Peat said he understood the advertisement calling the meeting to refer to church matters, and lie was only present by pure accident. Many others deeply interested in tho question no doubt were absent who would have been present if proper notice had been given. It is no slight thing to pass a resolution at a public meeting in favour of the deviation of a route once agreed upon ; but when it is known that the meeting was convened without sufficient notice of the intention or object, any resolution that may be passed is at once deprived of more than half its value. Nor is it any excuse that the meeting was well attended, for every settler who might have desired to be present should have been given the opportunity. It is to be regretted therefore that the meeting was not adjourned as proposed to a future day. The meeting on the adjourned day would have shown whether the settlers felt very strongly on the matter. It has been said that the church meeting was taken advantage of because the settlers were indifferent, and did not care very much whether a change of route was effected, and that they could not have been got together in strength on another occasion. How is this objection to be met ?

It is because we sympathise with the resolution adopted at the meeting that we think no excuse should have been given for saying that the result might have been in some way different if due publicity had been afforded. There is doubtless much force in the observation that " the action of the meeting would tend to retard the progress of the railway altogether, as the Government were only wanting an excuse to hang it up indefinitely.". But we do contend that the settlers in the permanent interest of this district ought to express their views fully on the subject, and that it is better to have the line delayed than a bad route chosen. The first principle of railway communication is to open up the country, and if a line passes over sand-hills where there are few settlers, avoiding a route where they are numerous, an injury is done not for a time but for ever to. the industrial prosperity of the district. The Government have not shown much alacrity even in • pushing forward the line which they have adopted, and very little- if any harm will be done by inducing them to reconsider tho matter. Waverley is a settlement the opinion of which on such a subject especially is entitled to the utmost consideration and respect. Alone it will largely conduce to the prosperity of the line when finished. In all public matters hitherto, it has taken broad views of public questions, and has never exaggerated petty local interests or feelings regardless of the general interest, like many districts in the colony. On this question, if the people of Waverley feel very strongly, they will be able to vindicate the public importance of the change, the expediency of which they are prepared to estabby facts and sound reasons.

•' ' Wool improved in tone." Such are the 'words of the calograni published this day, and gratifying intelligence it must be to every one. The French buyers are again competing, while the home demand ia weak. The foreign competition seems to regulate the price even more than the English trade, and the presence of the German and French buyers in the Exchange always results in a rise in value. March rates are sustained for greasy and medium, but cross bred fleeces are one penny lower.

Our war telegrams have been very particular in detailing the movements of the Emperor of Russia, and we have received the exciting intelligence -that he had arrived at Ployesti on more than one occasion. His presence at the scene of operations indicated that active measures would immediately be commenced, but the Russians find that the commissariat difficulty one not easily surmounted. They are some distance from the sources of supply, and notwithstanding the fact that the country traversed is friendly, the means of communication are so defective as to make the task of supplying so numerous a body of men a work requiring the genius of a Moltke to direct.' This will account for the delay in attempting to make the passage of the Danube, but from the calogram to hand this day it appears that the arrangements have been perfected, and the crossing expected to take place at Nicopolis. This town has 8000 inhabitants, and is principally built on heights. The river at this point is narrower than at any other part of its course, and it is really the best crossing to be obtained. The Russians have been there before, for it was dismantled by them in 1811, and it stands a very good chance of having the operation repeated. The calograms will now be eagerly looked for, as the entry of the Russians into hostile territory oa the European side is imminent.

The recent wholesale creation of Knights of the Order of St. Michael and St. George, including among^ne number His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, has drawn more than ordinary attention to the honor. The N. Z. Herald thus describes it:—" 'The most distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George,' as Sir Bernard Burke designates it, was in-

stituted in April, 1818, under the Greet Seal of Great Biitain, for natives of the United States of the lonian Island?, and of the Island of Malta and its dependencies, and for such subjects of the Sovereign as may hold high and confidential situations in the Mediterranean. Within the past few years the Order has been extended to the colonies, and many leading men have been recipients of the distinction. The members of the Order enjoy rank and precedency immediately after the corresponding classes of the Order of the Bath, and wear distinguishing insignia of a star, collar, ribbon, and badge, with mantle of Saxon -blue satin, lined with scarlet silk, for the higher classes of the

Order ; a blue satin cliapeau, also lined with scarlet, and surmounted by a plume of white and black ostrich feathers. The motto of the Order is Auspicium Melioris JEvi, which, being interpreted, meaneth • ' A pledge of better times." So mote it be in all Great Britain's Colonies, and especially in our own !