AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Evening Star, Issue 14163, 13 September 1909, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

0 * Mr Chas. M. Heidsiock. the famous '; French manufacturer of champagne, is ; on a visit to Australia. Ho has visited each of the States in the Commonwealth, and informed an interviewer that he ha* been surprised by the illimitable resources of the country. He recognises that Australia's chief requirement is population, and points out that the bar to immigrants coming '.rom Europe in large unmbers is the .■rswnsfi TMq fares are too high when Pilfer wjnsiries with vast resources may be reached for less than half the nmoimt. Mr Heidsieck says that the people on the Continent are almost entirely ignorant of Australia and Australian affairs, and many, if told, would hardly believe the richness and importance of this country. A correspondent writes to the ' Sydney Morning Herald': —A boy named Archie Smith, whilst playing near his home at Wondabyne on Monday, fell ir.to Mullet Creek, an arm of' the Hawkesbury Bivor. His mother, hearing the splash caused by the youngster's fall, ran out, and. without, hesitation, sprang to her boy's relief. Bertha Smith, her (laughter, aged fourteen years, coming upon the scene, found her mother in distress, and instantly jumped in also. Meanwhile a neighbor, Mrs MoGeath, hearing Miss Smith's appeal for someone to Have her mother, raised an alarm, which brought Mr William Ward, a blacksmith.' to the rescue. Ward, who is a good swimmer, immediately essayed the dangerous task, but was seized by Mrs Smith, and rendered helpless. Despite a most desperate effort to clear himself, Ward was firmly held, and dragged down by the unconscious woman, who meanwhile held the child between hem If and Ward. The receding tide and current had by this time carried the four drowning persons a considerable distance from land. However, stilt another rescuer appeared upon the scene in the person of Mr Frank McCann, a boarding-house keeper on the duplication works, who immediately jumped in and swam to the quartet of unfortunates. Skilfnllv evading the fatal grip of the now thoroughly exhausted swimmers, he obtained a hold of Miss Smith, who in tuni held her mother, thus completing the chain from McCann to Ward. McCann succeeded in getting the whole of them ashore. When the order was placed for the construction for the Commonwealth Government of three river class destroyers with Messrs Den-iys r-nd fairfields in February hist, it was'expected that the vessels would be completed within twenty-two months, and that the boats would he in Australia bv about next Kaater. There lias, howrvor, been some delay in getting the work under way, and it is'like'.v'that the completion and despatch of the vessels will be a few months later than was anticipated. Advices which, have been received from London state that :._t the end of last mouth the construction of the boats was well under wav, a pood deal of plating having been finished. It is expected that they will ho complete in July of next year'. All the Australian naval engineers and artisans were at work in the. yards when the advices were despatched The quarterly estimate of the population of New South Wales, issued bv Mr J. B Trivett, Government Statistician, shows that the number of persons in the State was 1,(520,500, of whom 871,4(59 were males and T00.121 female On .March ,11 last the population was 1,011,552, so that the inni during the quarter was 12,038, of which 6,779 wen' due to the natural increase, and 5,250 to the excess of arrivals over departures. As regards the movement of pop.il.itio.i between Xew South Wales and other countries, there was a net gain of 555 from other Australian States, and 1,701 from countries outside Australia. Of countries beyond the Commonwealth by far the largest gain was 3,897 from New Zealand. There is usually a gain from New Zealand in this quarter, but the above mentioned figur- is considerably above the average. Mr Long, M.L.A., waited on the Tasmaninn Attorney-GeneraLand presented a petition, signed by 1,000 electors of Gormanston and Linda, requesting that the by-law framed by the local municipal council, prohibiting the carrying on of sports on Sunday—viz., cricket and football—be declared ultra vires. The petitioners claimed that th:> municipal council had no power under the Sunday Observance Act to frame such a by-law, and Mr Long pointed out that the people there were peculiarly situated, inasmuch as no weekly half-holi-day was observed on Saturdays, the working hours on that day being the same as the rest of the week. Sunday was the only day upon which the population as a whole were free. Football and cricket had been played there on Sundays for many years past, and always without "the semblance of rowdyism. Support to that statement would be found in the fact that in twelve years there had not been one prosecution for conduct that in any degree conflicted with the good orders or morals of the community. The Attor-ney-General (Hon. A. E. Solomon), in reply, stated that he would look into the matter, and ascertain whether the municipal council had exceeded their powers under the Act, and let Mr Long know tho result. The question of doctors' fees and lodge payments was warmly debated at tho annual Congress of Oddfellows in Perth. Some time ago the Grand Lodge adopted a scheme for a medical fund, by which every member of tinlodges affiliated-to the fund could obtain the services of a doctor on handing the latter a stamped coupon, on which the doctor could collect from the lodge monthly. The Grand Secretary moved that the scheme should be abandoned, and all the doctors and chemists notified that after September ,'SO no liability for coupons would be recognised. The speaker complained that Tloctors and chemists were not satisfied with a fair deal. The scheme was at present in debt to the amount of £512. A case was cited in which a doctor charged los lOd for each visit, and refused"to make a deduction, as he said he was insufficiently paid. The chemist's charge was only 2s (id, and the doctors did not like it. Another speaker declared that the lodge members had used coupons to get tootli and nail brushes. The wives of others paid visits to the doctors which were unnecessary. Members had, in fact, been putting Gd into the management fund and the medical

scheme, and had been taking out Is. The Grand Secretary's motion" to abandon the medical scheme was carried. The record of the operation of the finger-print branch of the N.S.W. l'olico Department shows that the results for last year eclipsed all previous operation!. Tfee uumber of identifications for the p4&i fartl was 862. In twelve cases <J&-» mK Wgher courts, finger-prints were tt\e 'Aoans of securing convictions, and in eleven of theso cases the accused persons pleaded guilty. For the year there were sixteen cases. Criminals recognise that it is futile to contend against the evidenco of their own finger impressions. Fin-ger-prints were sent to and received from the other States of the Commonwealth, England, America, South Africa, New Zealand, and Fiji, aud there were numerous identifications. In one case the impressions sent to England (Scotland \ard) were identified as those of a most notorious criminal, who, being desirous of evading the pro-'--j»>ns of the Habitual Criminals Act, loft Australia. His finger-prints and photograph were sent to the authorities at Scotland Yard, with the intimation that it was believed he would resort to his criminal practices there. That turned out to be correct, for shortly

inter ms arrival ne was arrested, ana sentenced to seven years' imprisonment for horse-stealing and to twelve months' imprisonment for assaulting the police. In New South W'ales the police have secured more convictions through the medium of the system than in hll the other States of the Commonwealth combined, and its value is now recognised by the judges, magistrates, The Press, and the public. The Rev. Wellesley Moody was proceeded against at Sydney last week for evading tho payment of tram fares. During July he had offended sixteen times Mr Barnett, S.M.: "What is your occupation?"—"l have been a clergyman for fifty-three years. I am 73i years of age. I am a Congregationalist."—"They say that in July you did this sixteen times?"—" Yes; I have done it for a long time when I have been hard up. I always pay Mr Kneoshaw (manager of the" tramways)." Mr Barnett: " I cannot make the line more than £2, though you deserve more. You are fined £2' or twelve days." Mr Smart, the Victorian Collector of Customs, has just retired after a long and successful career. He made a remarkable coup for the department in 1901. Reading in a newspaper a preliminary notice of an auction sale of Japanese goods, he visited the auction rooms, and, as a collector of Japanese eu'ios, he immediately recognised their value. The sale was to take place at II a.m. next day. Turning up the Customs entry in the morning, he found that the whole collection was valued at £250. He formed the opinion that the goods had been greatly undervalued, and five minutes before the time of the sale he had the goods seized. The Japanese owner admitted that the goods were entered at much below their ordinary value, but ho claimed that, in consequence of the war, he hi»d purchased them cheaply. When the goods were seized the Japanese was paid 10 per cent, above the invoiced price—£27s .'ls Id—and the sale was allowed to proceed. The gross receipts from the sale amounted to £1,857 ]ss, and the clear profit to the department was £1,293 8s 4d, instead of the £7O or £BO of Customs duty originally paid. A third line of defence, made up of civilian riflemen, is now 10,000 strong in i\ew South Wales, and, according to the annual musketry returns just completed, 10,000 are classified as efficient. In two years the rifle clubs have increased from 190 to 270. and the total strength from 10,827 to 10,1 IS. The efficients have increased j from (5,939 to 10,281. Those classed | as marksmen have advanced from 2,227 I to 3,852, and first class shots from 2,1~15 I to 2,975. | A miner named Thos. Austin was I bound over at the sessions in Sydney last week to appear for sentence when called upon. Austin pleaded guilty to a charge of bigamy in that he went ; through the form of marriage with '. Sarah Sutcliffe, his actual wife being i then alive. Accused produced a state" ; nient, which His Honor said seemed to show that Austin was morally innocent. ; He thought his wife was dead, and she ' seemed to have acted in a way that ' kept him in the dark, inasmuch as she was living under the name of Hammond, and not Austin. A remarkable thing was that Austin and his true wife i had been living within ten miles of I each other for the last seven years, and seemingly did not know of each other's existence. The action in which the Mutual Life I and Citizens' Assurance Company sued ! William Walden, an insurance agent, ' employed by the A.M.P. Society, for alleged defamation, damages being laid at £I,OOO, was concluded before Mr i -Justice Ileal and a jury at Brisbane last j week. It was alleged that Walden had I made statements damaging to the : plaintiff company, practically to the | effect that the company did not meet ! their claims. The jury, after a brief re- ; tirement, found the words defamatory, | and assessed the damages at £I,OOO. ; A sequel to the lawsuit came a few I days later, when AYalden was found in j a paddock a mile from Boonah hanging j by the neck from the limb of a tree ' 2bout eight feet from the ground. De- ■ ceased's neck was fastened to the limb |by a piece of old fencing wire. The | neck was dislocated, so that death must i have been instantaneous. In deceased's insurance book was found a letter addressed to his wife, who resides in j Brisbane. I Maxwell Hyslop, a J.P., has been ' called upon by the Victorian Crown Law Department to submit, without delay, his resignation as a magistrate. Hyslop dealt with minor business at I the Prahran Court on .the 2nd inst., and intimated that he did not intend : to take any further part in the work ' pertaining to the office of justice of the peace. Complaints had been made to the Crown Law Department that he had been drunk in the watch-house one day m November, 1908, and that on the same afternoon, in the Children's Court, be used a swear word in regard to the late mayor, who presided at the Court. Hyslop denied the charges made against him, and states that he will demand an inquiry to ascertain who his accusers are. It was on account of Hyslop's explanation to the Crown Law Department that he was called upon to resign, : his explanation being deemed unsatisI factory.