GENERAL CABLES

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 174, 11 April 1923, Page 7

GENERAL CABLES

BY Telegbaph.—Frees ASSOCIATION. —Copyright.

The Norfolk farm-workers’ dispute has adjourned. It is understood tho farmers refuse to alter their terms. Tho New South Wales Board of Trade has increased the male living wage by a shilling to £3 195., and the female by sixpence to £2 per week.

The Ottoman Public Debt Commissioners objected to prohibition on tho ground that it would cause a loss of revenue of four millions sterling annually. Tho vital statistics of the Commonwealth for 1922 show a death rate of 9.2 per 1000, ths lowest on record. The birth rate is higher than any other year, except 1914, and thd marriage rate. 8 per 1000, was .6 and 1.6 below 1920 and 1921 respectively. Numerous French girls, married and deserted by American soldiers, cannot get divorces as they are legally American subjects, and desertion is an insufficient ground. The French legal authorities are seriously considering making alterations in tho laws to meet the case.

The United States Steel Corporation, the largest individual employer of labour in America, has announced an 11 per cent, increase in wages for unskilled labour and proportionate increases in other grades, affecting 150.000 emp’oyeos. It is expected that independent companies in the steel industry will follow the example.

The objection of five stokers to pay income tax prevented tho La France, the largest French transatlantic liner, from leaving Le Havre. When the men refused pavment, the revenue authorities garnished their wages, to the extent of 30 to 40 francs apiece. The stokers referred the matter to their trade union, and as the whole engine-room staff made common cause with the stokers the passengers wore disembarked and sent to Paris.

Tho Canadian Government .has ordered a search for an international fleet of narcotic traffickers operating off the Canadian coast. Tho Government has also advised tho League of Nations’ Secretariat of the fleet’s activities. It is believed that largo quantities of drugs are smuggled from Germany to French and Spanish ports, and thereafter nro shipped to small islands off Newfoundland, .whence the smugglers ship tho goods into Canada and America.