COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 136, 10 June 1926, Page 7

COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS.

COAL RUNNING SHORT. GOVERNMENT TO CONTROL. FUEL FOR THE RAILWAYS. (By Cable.—Press Association.—Copyright../ ■ R'::eived 12 noon.l SYDNEY, this day. As a result or" the coal strike, supplies ■ of coal tor the railways are running short. The Railway Commissioners have issued an ultimatum to all mine owners . whose pita are not affected by the strike . that from to-day the Commissioners reserve the right to com-mandeer tifty per cent of all coal hauled in their trucks. It i= understood the coal will be paid for at existing port rates. — i i . and N.Z. i EXPERT EVIDENCE. EFFECT ON LOWER ANIMALS. (Received 12 noon.) .MELBOURNE, this day. In th-e House of Representatives, speaking on the Small Page anti-tuberculosis treatment, General Sir Neville Howse. V .C, said the Commonwealth laboratory experiments showed that disintegration and fragmentation of tubercle bacilli did not occur after treatment with splenic extract: that there was no evidence of any lytic principle in splenic extract: that guinea pigs artificially infected with human tubercle bacilli were divided into two groups, one group being treated and the other group being kept as controls in which the disease was allowed to develop abnormally. Almost all the treated animals are dead. The control animals are still alive. Some rabbits infected with bovine tubercle bacilli were similarly divided into two groups, some treated by different methods approved by Dr. Small Page, the others kept as controls. The treated animals died more rapidly than the controls. The acting-director of the laboratory in a summary says the results indicated that neither the serum nor the Extract had been of the slightest avail in saving the liveg of the guinea pipg infected with human tuberrle bacilli. On the other hand they indicated that death had Iwen hastened by the rise of those arrentiA. and X.Z.) FIGHTING CONSUMPTION. MELBOURNE, June 9. The Minister of Defence and Health, Sir Neville Howse, announced in the House of Representatives that interim reports on Dr. Small Page's anti-tuber-culosis treatment had been received from five States. These reports generally were unfavourable, said the Minister. They recorded aggravated symptoms resulting from the use of the serum. Not one report expressed the opinion that patient* had materially benefited from the treatment' iA. and N.Z.)