The urgent necessity which exists for enlarging the present straitened church accommodation, so as to meet the wants of the rapidly growing population in this city, has been long known and felt. Indeed, so little room do our present places of worship afford, that were they doubled in number they would yet be insufficient to contain all the members of our communion in Melbourne, who are willing and anxious to attend the public services of the sanctuary. The evils which such a state of things necessarily creates must be very great, and are daily increasing. It is lamentable that many who wish to participate in the ordinances of the Lord's Day should be prevented from doing so by the mere want of room for them in our churches. Persons have frequently come to the doors, and finding it impossible to obtain a seat within the building, have returned disappointed.

While this deficiency, with all its consequent evils, is perceived more or less in all parts of the city, it is experienced most sensibly among that large mass of our population dwelling between Russell Street on the east and Queen Street on the west; and we are sure that the attached members of the Church of England will be gratified in learning, that with a view to supply the wants of this portion of the community, two pieces of land have been obtained from the Government as sites for churches, one in Swanston Street, near the Princes' Bridge, and another at the junction of Elizabeth Street with La Trobe Street, and that there is a prospect of further steps for the accomplishment of the same purpose being speedily taken.

In consequence of a suggestion made by the Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Melbourne at the last monthly meeting of the committee of the Melbourne Diocesan Society, a subscription towards the erection of a church, to be called St. Paul's, on the site above mentioned, in Swanston Street, has been entered into, and through the Divine blessing on the exertions of those engaged in the undertaking, has been so successfully carried on and so generously responded to, that in a very short time a sum exceeding £1,300 was collected, eleven gentlemen contributing £100 each, and the remaining contributions being also on a very liberal scale.

There is, moreover, building on the latter of the two sites described above, viz. at the corner of Elizabeth and La Trobe Streets, a schoolroom, in which it is contemplated to hold Divine service so soon as it shall be completed.