GENERAL NEWS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 294, 14 September 1910, Page 6

GENERAL NEWS.

There are now 11 warships building on the Tyne, three being battleships, two protected cruisers, one scout, and the remainder destroyers. At a meeting of the New Zealand Rugby Union on Sept. 2nd., a letter was received from Mr W. T. Parata, manager of the Maori Rugby Union team, which recently toured Australia, applying for permission for a team of Maori footballers to tour Great Britain in 1911. The letter stated that the team would number about 27 players, and would comprise chiefly members of the team lately disbanded. There was reasonable prospect of the tour being financed by a number of leading Maoris, and any profits would be devoted to charities or to some other worthy object, such as the founding of a scholarship for Maori boys at the universities. It was suggested that the team should travel by direct route, and that a programme of 28 matches be arranged. The Union decided that the matter would be considered at its next meeting. According to Mr Henare Kaihau, member for the Western Maori district, every effort is being made by the natives to complete arrangements with the Government for the settlement of the large area of land, which it was decided at the recent conference at Waahi should be thrown open. Altogether, about 800,000 acres will be dealt with, of which 50,000 will be offered for sale and 300,000 leased to Europeans. The remainder will be retained for the use of the natives, and for the purposes of the papakainga. The land is in the Waikato, the King Country and near the Thames. Mr Kaihau states that provision will be made for the establishment of a special native land board to confirm the leases and sales, and act with the proposed Maori Parliament in administering the interests of the owners. According to Mr Kaihau the natives are very anxious to have the land settled, and he blames the Government for the delays that have taken place. "There is too much taihoa," he said. "We are anxious to settle the land on a fair basis. The Maori, as a rule, does not get a fair price for the land from the Government. Not half the value offered by private individuals. Let the Government show us the money, and we will give them the land." During the month of August 280 vessels entered the port of Wellington, and 295 vessels took their departure. Of the inward vessels 263 were coastal steamers aggregating 171,261 tons and manned by 7789 men, and seven were coastal sailers, totalling 453 tons. Foreign vessels numbered 109, steamei-3 aggregating 31,046 tons, and a sailer of 177 tons. Coastal steamers crossing inwards numbered 279, of a total tonnage of 187,,558 tons, and nine coastal sailers, aggregating 659 tons, also left the port. Six foreign steamers, totalling 21,538 tons, departed, and one sailer of 152 tons also left. An old man. who claims to be over 100 years, and to have been the first European in the Waimate district (South Canterbury), was removed recently from a tent in which he has led a lonely life for some years in the bed of the Waimate river, and taken to the Waimate Hospital. His tent was simply a network of holes, and his bed-covering consisted of sacks. He gave Lowrie as his name. In his much-discussed new book, John Foster Frasersays: "Mark how pleasant, soft-voiced, and delightful the Queenslanders are! Come south and you find more commercialism in the air of Sydney than Brisbane. Drop further south still, to Melbourne, and there, three is really something like energy. Continue south till you get to New Zealand, and there you can pass from the charming easy manners of the top of the North Island until you get amongst the rugged, determined business men who live at the bottom of the South Island." Says an Auckland "Star" writer: - "In a certain suburb recently a motor car broke down. While the chauffeur (and proprietor) was trying to put his machinery in order again the inevitable small boy appeared, and amused himself by scratching his name un the immaculate enamelling of the body of the car. He was caught in the act, and, as he justly deserved, wa3 soundly cuffed. His wailing attracted a group of loafers of both sexes. Presently they were scattered by the boy's father, who was exclaiming valiantly, "Who struck my boy? Show me the man who struck my boy!" As he kept on making this request the chauffeur came from under his machine —he wa3 a few inches over six feet high, and well proportioned. "I did," he said. "Serve 'im right," said the man, in a different key; "and I'll give 'im another when I get 'im 'ome!"