FIFTY YEARS AGO.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20882, 26 May 1931, Page 6

FIFTY YEARS AGO.

EXTRACTS FROM THE HERALD. The following are extracts from the New Zealand Herald of May 26, 1881— Our correspondent at Alexandra reports that the King " Maoris in the Waikato appear to be in high glee since the conclusion of the meeting at liikurangi. lawhiao has gone to Puniu with a number of his people and Wahanui has come down to take a printing press from Kopua to Hikurangi in order to start 3 newspaper. There are in this colony, nearly 200.000 persons residing in towns and their suburbs out of an entire population of some 450,000. Such a 6taie of tilings, in a new country, cannot be regarded as satisfactory. The people of tins colony'have been extravagant in the past. Bonowed money has been spent :r: a prodigal manner, as if the sums had been surplus revenue raised within the colony. The illusion is past, and the ster\i realities of our position have to be faced. Instead of spending money in a reckless manner upon a highly-paid and ornamental Civil Service out of the borrowed millions, our care now is how to meet regularly the recurring quarterly interest upon the borrowed uionpy, much o{ which has been wantonly bpent. Wo will have to learn to supply our own wants to a much greater extent than in the past. There has been for some time past an evident determination among the good people of Coromandel to make s Birthday a real holiday The rowdy element appeared once or twice this year, but, by the prompt intervention of the police, was quickly quelled.