ROTORUA NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7719, 18 August 1886, Page 5

ROTORUA NEWS.

[BY TELEGRAPH. — OWN CORRESPONDENT.] Rotorua, Tuesday. The Native Lands Court is at last engaged upon Te Koutu. This most important block is situated in our immediate vicinity, skirting tho margin of Lake Rotorua, and extending along its shore to the Ivakara lands. A portion of Te Koutu was years ago reported to the Government as the most suitable site in Rotorua for a township, and a deposit on the purchase was shortly afterwards made, the non-completion of which is a mystery to everyone. To acquire now any portion of this block will indeed be a difficult matter. The natives are wide-awako to its value, and the 101 sections about to be allocated to the different claimants will bo keenly contested for, and will probably engage the attention of the Court for months to come. Referring back again to the Tarawera disaster, I have learned a few particulars relative to one of the European victims who perished at Te Arilii, viz., Samuel Brown, who, with his wife, Merepoka Poia, and six half caste children, met with such an untimoly end. Brown served his apprenticeship in Auckland about IS years ago, as a journeyman baker. Two yaars after he was engaged by Mr. John Macpherson, of Matata, and for the last five years or so he was variously employed in the Rotorua district. Brown's pareuts are supposed to be living in Auckland, and probably are not aware of the melancholy circumstance of his death.