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New Zealand Mail, Issue 810, 9 September 1887, Page 15

' The village settlement experiment near Opunake has missed fire, as (says the Stratford correspondent of tbe Taranaki Herald) might have been expected. Such a settle, ment would do very well indeed within easy reach of a larg9 city, and might succeed on the railway line here, but to plant people without capital where there is little or no work to be had, on land that cannot afford them a bare living for the first three or four years, is absurd. Why don’t the authorities give their attention more to supply a demand that actually exists ? People are coming here from the South Mand and elsewhere, looking for land in sections of 100 to 150 acres, and goiog away disappointed. There is hardly a section of Crown laud in the market in Stratford district, whilst within a few miles to the eastward are thousands of acre 3 of the best land in Taranaki lying idle. The Herald writes on the same subject “The demand for land on the deferred payment system iu this district still continues. During the last fortnight four sections have been taken up in the _ Huiroa block and one in the ICaupokonui, thus diminishing the limited area of the unsettled land in these blocks. The new block, the Ngatimaru, on the banks of the Waitara river, opposite tho Huiroa Block, will not be in the market for some time yet, as the Government do not want the land opened for selection until the Waxtara river is bridged.”

What is thought to be the shortest courtship and quickest marriage on record have just- taken place at Green Biver City. Frank Tracy went into a restaurant, where he was taunted by one of the waitresses at being a bachelor. He at once proposed, and within thirty minutes Miss Hannah Wilson and Frank Tracy were man and wife.