CABLE NEWS IN BRIEF.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19985, 21 July 1930, Page 17

CABLE NEWS IN BRIEF.

POPULATION OF AUSTRALIA. SYDNEY, July 19. The population of Australia on March, 31st last was estimated at. 0,429,417, an increase of 72,647 on the previous year. EADIO-TELEPHONE SERVICE. SYDNEY, July 19. A radio telephone service between Australia and Italy will be opened to the public on Monday. The Consul-General for Italy spoke for more than an hour with members of the Fascisti Government. SHEARERS AT WORK. SYDNEY, July 19. Two shearing sheds in the Moree district, which had gone on strike against the recent award, have resumed work. No further stoppages have occurred, and nearly all tho sheds are now in full swing. TWO MEN KILLED IN EXPLOSION. BRISBANE, July 19. Two mon, Antonio Simonelli and Edward Smith, were killed when a lorry on which they were riding, containing cases of gelignite, was blown to pieces at Mount Isa. The cause of the explosion is unknown. UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE FUND. LONDON, July 18. The House of Commons, without division, authorised Miss Margaret Bondfield (Minister for Labour) to increase the borrowing powers for the Unemployment Insurance Fund from £50,000,000 to £60,000,000. The fund is alroady £43,000,000 overdrawn. AUSTRALIAN LABOURERS HELD UP. VANCOUVER, July 18. Five Australian labourers who arrived by the Aorangi are held by tho immigration officials on the grounds of lack of funds, and are likely to become a charge on the country. Each will be asked to show 250 dollars. Unless the Government Immigration Department intervenes they will be deported. ESCAPED PRISONER'S REVENGE.

PARIS, July 18. There has just been enacted an astonishing prison drama, culminating in murder, the central figure of which was Joseph Giraudot, who waß arrested for murder in 1926, and escaped. He obtained a position as kitchenman and formed a liaison with a 'cook, Louise Dervaux. They quarrelled, and she betrayed him. He was rearrested, and escaped again. He ascertained where Louise was employed, and shot her dead, and also critically wounded a Chinese man servant who was her lover. Giraudot surrendered to the police. He says he intended committing suicide, but unfair statements in the newspapers made him reconsider his decision, and he decided to defend his honour. MAIL VAN ROBBED. (Received July 20th, 5.5 p.m.) CAPE TOWN, July 19. An audacious robberv of a mail van occurred on a train which was travelling between Port Elizabeth and East London. Twenty-seven bags were ripped open. The extent of the haul is not known. SUCCESSFUL NEW ZEALANDERB. (Received July 20th, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, July 19. Messrs Welling, S. S. Beckingsale, and A. W. Bowden, of-Wellington, have qualified for Associatoships in the Institute of Actuaries.