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Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 13645, 27 March 1915, Page 8

The three motor-buses ordered by the Wellington City Council to serve as feeders to the tramway system are now oil the water, and should be delivered within a month.

i New Zealand once nearly captured a Belgian cdmmunity (says a writer m the SycUigy Bulletin.) In the early '80's gay Bang Leopold conceived the idea of exporting surplus population by annual .drafts, and accordingly sent a prominent business man ol Antwerp, Emil JJ'Haarven, to Maoriland, charging him to investigate the prospects for expatriated Belgians. Sir Hercules Robiiison, Governor of New Zealand at that time; was m favor of the scheme. The Government of the day regarded it favorably, and the Belgian emissary was htnided over to Edward Wakefield, a well : kno wn pressman at Timai-u, who made a hobby of plans- of this kind. The l two men drafted a scheme, and together inspected many localities m search of a suitable one for the experiment. Eventually they decided upon a tract of fertile land m the Hakataramea Valley; and the Government consented to. 'this- lump of country being handed over. After spending a year m; Maoriland D'Haarven returned to Belgium to^ report to the JKing. He was too late. Stanley ''had just' persuaded the old man to devote all his surplus cash and eneiyy to the Conogo Basin. So the Belgian surplus was pushed- out to the Congo to earn, dividends, and Maori - land just missed some much-heeded settlers. %,