AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Evening Post, Volume LXX, Issue 37, 12 August 1905, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

[PRESS ASSOCIATION.] NEW SQUTH WALES LIQUOR BILL. (Received August 12, 9.43 a.m.) ! SYDNEY, This Day. The Liquor Bill, introduced in the Assembly, provides for local . option, the abolition of barmaids, and the establishment of State hotels. . NOT WANTED. MELBOURNE, This Day. Copies of the correspondenme with the German Company proposing to lay a cable- from one of the German possessions in the Pacific to Queensland were laid on the table of the Federal House of Representatives. Mr. Deakin referred the matter to the consideration of the Imperial Government. He expressed the opinion that the existing cables provide I sufficient accommodation at present. ! RETIRING GRATUITY. MELBOURNE, This Day. Sir Charles Todd, Deputy-Postmaster-General in South Australia, has been granted a retiring gratuity of £4000 after fifty years' service. REMEDYING A DEFICIENCY. SYDNEY, This Day. A Bill has been introduced in the Assembly to cover the deficiency in the law which resulted in the release of Slattery, convicted on a charge of larceny as a bailee, the' sentence being subsequently quashed by the High Court. OBITUARY. SYDNEY, This Day. Another prominent Methodist, the Rev. Edward King, is dead. TREATMENT OF ABORIGINALS. PERTH, This Day. Captain Hare, Commissioner of Police, has forwarded a report to the Government on his trip to the north-west. He gives a general denial to the charges Dr. Roth made against police and pearlers in their treatment of aborigines. He declares that Dr. Roth only visited the seaports and never went into the interior, j Moreover, he refused, says Captain Hare, j | to examine experienced persons, and took j the evidence of newcomers. Witnesses had ! no chance of checking the reports of their | statements, which, as pnblished, were full of misconstructions. The cases against "Toby" and "Monkey," aboriginals, charged of being connected wiili an alleged series of murders in the north-west recently, have broken down. The medical evidence tendered showed that the bone? of the bodies of the aboriginals found showed no signs of violence and that the natives apparently died from natural causes. A CLAUSE DENOUNCED. BRISBANE, This Day. The Employers' Federation denounces the "Union label" clause in the Trade M-irks Bill as "a- serious infringement of the rights and liberties of the people." THE FEDERAL BUDGET. MELBOURNE, 11th August. Mr. DeakiD has announced that tho Budget will be delivered on the 22nd I inst. i RECLASSIFICATION OF PUBLIO SERVICE. MELBOURNE, 11th August. Details of the Government's scheme for the reclassification of the public service were laid on the table of the Federal House of Representatives to-day. The scheme provides for the promotion of officers for zeal and efficiency instead of by the old system of seniority. W. N. WILLIS. SYDNEY, 11th August. The Government has declined W. N. Willis's offer to lelurn from Durban under his own bond of £1000. The funeral of Councillor Geo. Wiltshire took place this afternoon. There wae a large and representative gathering of citizens in the cortege which wended its way from "Uplands," Rintoul-street, to the Earori Cemetery. The Mayor, members of the City Council, and the heads of the Corporation departments, and other citizens who had been connected with the City Council during the period Mr. Wiltshire had served the city as Engineer and Surveyor, paid their last respects by their presence. A number of tramway 'employees also attended the funeral. Numerous wreaths were sent to the late residence of the deceased gentleman. The chief mourners were Messrs. George and Henry Wiltshire (sons), and W. J. Mason (son-in-law), and the pall- j bearers were the officers of Court Robin Hood, A.O.F. The officiating clergyman was the Rev. R. C'offey, The South African Trade Journal, referring to the revelations 'of the Butler Commission, says : — "Much has been said in connection with this matter in depreciation of the condition of British public life, and that freedom from corruption as to which the world freely ascribes to Great Britain the premier j position. We do not agree with those j j comments, and we consider they evince a wrong view-point altogether. The | point is not that so far as individual ! human imperfection in this regard is con- ! corned tlio millennium has arrived in j Great Britain, but that, in addition to the fact that a wondei fully high sense of honour and duty does undoubtedly in&l>hc our public men and those entrusted with the care of tho nation's affairs, any serious hp^e from that high standard is practically certain to \fe, expofed by the press, condemned by public opinion, and vi.sited with punishment irrespective of the position of the offender — whom no influence jan sayfc The really notable point in connection with this scandal is not that it should have occurred — rare as such an occasion is in British life — but ..hat the whole thing should have been brought to light by the insistence •of the press, of members of Parliament, supported by public opinion, and that the Commission appointed to investigate the matter should have set about its work with only one object in view — namely, that of ascertaining tne truth at all costs, and irrespective of the positions of the guilty parties. So long as such a state of things exists, we need have no fear that cases of the kind will be but few and far between, or that they can be , brought of>" successfully.."