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Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 97, 7 December 1911, Page 2

At the Gisborne Magistrate’s Court a Maori had been sued for debt. Defendant, who did not appear, sent a letter written in good English, stating that as he was of Maori blood he should bo furnished with a translation of the summons into the Maori language. The Magistrate remarked that it seemed very funny that a man who could write good classical English wanted a translation. The native was a skilled wool-classer. As lie was not living with his tribe, as stipulated by the Act, he did not come under the statutory definition of a Maori, and judgment was given against him by default. A Dunedin correspondent has boasted that the number of marriages in the southern city is an outward and visible sign of the prosperity which it is claimed, exists there. it seems that for the eleven months that ended on Thursday last, the Registrar in Dunedin recorded 682 marriages, which is a record. There is no desire to lessen the satisfaction felt by Dunedin in the state of the marriage market, but it is pointed out that for the same term there were in Christchurch no fewer than 881 marriages, over 250 more than in Dunedin. As comparisons are in the air, it is also pointed out that there were 150 births in Wellington in November and 206 in Christchurch.