LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 22 June 1923, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Otago Daily Times of Wednes-1 day, j un e U 1863, had the following- ! | Ihe news brought by the Lord Aahley ol the important and successful j operations at Taranaki is generally of a most satisfactory nature. The Maoris i have at last been shown what Brit^h • soldiers can accomplish when properly i commanded. The attack and capture of ' the rebel pa. 1S one of the most bril-, , iant and important events that have been achieved in New Zealand We are at a. loss which to admire most—' the admirable skill with which the at- | tack wasjjlanned, or the dashing manner m which it was accomplished. The usually wily natives were' thoroughly surprised and. as thoroughly beaten It is tne more satisfactory as only om of' our soldiers was kille<l during* the action. Two others have since died of their wounds, and there were «i«rht others wounded .. ." [This must refer to the defeat of the natives at Katikara on June 4, 1863, by a force '. under General Cameron. In those days i there was no telegraphic commuuicn-' tion, hence the delay in the news reaching the South Island.] "Wa were taking the nanites of so many of them that we did not have' any tim e to listen to excuses," said a i constable at the Christchurch Maeis- j trate's Court last week, when asked if ! a youth, charged with cycling at ni^ht '• without a light, had offered any ex-1 cuse. Sixty-three defendants who had cycled at night without lights on their machines v/ere charged with the ofte*ice. Alany interesting excuses were offered the most usual explanation being delay at work through the floods, breakdown of machinery, rush of business and other exceptional causes. One youth 18 years v of age, who said he was still attending school, gave as his explanation that although he had a lamp, he did not light it because he was conservmg his supply of two matches "I don t smoke, and so I don't carry many matches with me," he said. However, when the constable took his name h« borrowed some matches from the guardian of the law witfi which to ]jc»ht his lamp. *""