FIFTY YEARS AGO.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20897, 12 June 1931, Page 8

FIFTY YEARS AGO.

EXTRACTS FROM THE HERALD. The following are extracts from th« New Zealand Herald of June 13, 1881: The population returns for the North Island show that there are 98,169 persons in the Auckland provincial district, 61.049 in Wellington, 17,027 in Napier and Clive, and 14,639 in Taranaki. In Waitemata, Auckland East, Auckland West, Parnell, Newton, Onelninga and Eden, the population is now 44,494. A very great amount of dissatisfaction exists among the railway employees of Auckland regarding the alterations recently made in their wages. They recently showed they had just cause for complaint against the reductions. The final result, however, is the greatest cause of dissatisfaction.. Softie officials have had their salaries raised Is, others 6d, and others not at all. The men complain that they have not been treated according to the fixed scale existing on Southern railways. Following the crowning of Malietoa as King of Samoa the Atuas. or old party, want to have Mataafa as their king. A great gathering was held at Leulomuega, when Tamasese was crowned King of Atua and Anua. In four years, lie is to be succeeded by Mataafa. The foreign Consuls declined to attend the ceremony because they recognise Malietoa as the only sovereign in Samoa. On April 28, the German warship Hertha arrived at Apia and fired a salute of 21 guns in honour of Malietoa A strange tale of cannibalism has been reported from the interior of Viti Levu. The native teacher at Na Drau, on being given food by the townsfolk, was horrified to see it was partly human flesh. Those who offered the food said they had killed and cooked a Government officer, and, if the teacher refused to eat, they would kill him also In terror of his life, the man consented to cat a little of the flesh. *