GENERAL NEWS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume I, Issue 73, 22 December 1880, Page 4

GENERAL NEWS.

Talking of newspaper affairs (says a London cor espondent), I give an item relating to the London Times which I know to be true, and which will afford an idea of the scale on which business is carried on in Printing-house Square. The over-matter — that is, news and other newspaper material set up, but distributed without being us-ed, from pressure on space — rt>i>rt>Ber>tß &» a»»nal expenditure of from £14,000 to £16,000.

A curious case is reported from Napier. It appears that a Supreme Court writ was served on some Maoris on the Omaranui block, who had held possession for ten years of some land owned by Mr. Sutton. Tbe Maoris thought fcb&fc ibe Europeans would not evict old men, women, and children, if only such were left in charge ; but when the bailiff and his assistants proceeded to turn them off, a novel method of defence was resorted to by the women, who suddenly began to strip off their <?lotfringt and were wita difficulty QOTM>travn«*i[ to preserve «toii a smgfe garment. Tbe Press Association reports that when at last they were carried out, kicking and struggling and screaming, they wore only chemises.

About eighty Waikato settlers have written to the Waikato Mail on tbe Fatehere land purchase. They say the Government's "seven years' negotiations have resulted in an utter failure, from a settlement point of view. They have spent £14,000, only a few hundred pounds of which have reached the native owners. For this £14,000 and their seven years' labor they have got nothing — not an acre of 250,000, nominally under their negotiations, having been surveyed or passed through the Native Lands Court by them. These facts alone prove the incompetency of any Government to deal successfully in native lands, and are an ample justification o! tbe demand of tbe taxpayers of the colony, that the Government should sum« marily desist from all native land purchases."