LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12229, 26 March 1903, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWS.

Tub public are reminded that the , :;, Weekly News 'Frisco Mail Number ■*' should be posted by Friday morning.: ', This issue of the News will prove highly attractive and useful to people in other parts of the world. The illustrations are ; ; numerous and varied. They form a pano- . ramic series of pictures depicting life and■••■■•'. scenery and local events in New Zealand. :; To send a Weekly News abroad is like sending a portion of New Zealand, for ~ the illustrations in it are from photographs : of actual events and places. Nothing i» so well able to give the people of other countries a clear and comprehensive know- : % ledge of this colony as an illustrated paper like the Auckland Weekly News.- "-'i Copies of the News may now be obtained from agents and runners.

Some doubt exists here as to whether ; the information published by us yesterday re the sale of Union Company's .; steamers is altogether correct. In refer- : ence to the Tarawera, there has been no '' information as to any proposed sale, and, ' indeed, it is thought she will be put into i the Fiji trade, connecting with the Canadian mail boats. The Ovalau has gone % down to Dunedin, and it is thought that she is under offer to another Eastern com- , pany than the one which has purchased the Kotorua, Waihora, Janet Nicoll, Upolo, and Omapere. The Janet Nicoll has;. been employed running to Oamaru, Timaru, Lyttelton, Westport, Greymouth, and". Bluff, in the coal trade. The Eotorua has been running from Wellington, Nelson, and Picton, and as a spare boat. The Waihora was to leave for the East on Monday last. ' The Eotorua was to leave some time this week. The Upolo and Omapere have been examined. The .: Union Company have purchased a steamer in England, which is to be renamed the Kakapo. They have also ordered a sister boat to the Moeraki, which is to be called the Manuka, after the tree or shrub of that name.

In the series of letters we have lately \ published, written to Sir George Grey, were several from Sir Julius Vogel, written while he was Agent-General . and Sir G. Grey Premier. In one letter there were several statements about the trouble he had had : with Mr. Vesey Stewart, of Katikati, who ■ was then at Home obtaining settlers. Mr. V Stewart now writes at considerable length,-' with the view of showing from official documents and otherwise that the Agent-General had no reason for these complaints. We are unable to print Mr. Stewart's letter because - * the matters referred to have now verv little general interest. He concludes as follows:, '■ —"In fact, reviewing my work of colonisa-' tion m this country, every settlement I have formed has been carried at the point of the | bayonet in the face of official obstruction, and at the present moment I am smarting "'; under a most cruel injustice by the pressnb . Government in connection with the Te Puke settlement, of which more may be heard ; hereafter. This is the return I have received for the capital and immigrants I have been the means of introducing to this colony." Perhaps, however, had I introduced parties of Socialists from Great Britain and America, 1 1 should have received more favourable coni sideration.