AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Evening Star, Issue 14638, 7 August 1911, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

I The vital statistics show that tlte popuJa- ! tion, of West Australia last- year was 288.239- The births numbered 7,535, or 26.85-per 1,000, and the illegitimate. births were 513, or 4.13 of the total births. There hsu> been a fcteadv iuereasre in the birth rato since 1905, when it- was 30.80 per 1,000. The deaths averaged 9.71 per 1,000. Messrs Jk!l and Prater left York for Forth in a motor car. When nineteen miles out a mob of kangaroos came across the road, and one jumped into the motor car and clung to the steering-wheel. Its claws cut Fraser's lips, and he hud to abandon his efforts to control the steering of the car, as the kangaroo retained possession of the wheel. Tli3 car, after going for some distance, run into • a tree, and Hell was thrown out and his ankle broken. Fraser was ako injured. At a meeting of a Victorian State school committee it was resolved —"That, in view of the fact that a number of children attending the school have long distances to travel in all kinds of weather, means bo devised so that the children shall have a warm drink of tea- or milk during the dinner hour." It was arranged that, in cooperation with the head teacher, 40 children living some distance from tiio school slxmid have either a cup of hot tea or milk with their lunches. Each child will pay Id per week to defray expenses. The innovation is greatly appreciated. —A Big Order.—

The Minister for Home Affairs (Hon. King O'Malley) intends to a-sk the Federal (iovenimeru to resume the whole of the block between Martin pla-ce and King street, flanked by Pitt and George streets, on part of which the Sydney Poet Office stands. He speaks of the- need' of looking, well ahead regarding tho accommodation for post and telegraph offices. The Department of Trade and Customs and the national bank block are right in the heart of Sydney, and city men speak of the scheme as stupendous, and say it is impossible to give off-hand an estimate of the value of the block, but the quotation must be in millions. To thorn the thing seems preposterous. --Line Family, One Teacher.—■

New regulations are being framed by tit? Department of Education. New South Wales, for a system tor supplying subsidised teacheis. At present two families in isolated places where no school are available may combine and obtain a teacher, with the assistance of a (Jovernmcnt subsidy. Tho two families, even if they eiiculd consist of ono pupil each, can do this-, but one family of half a dozen cannot. A teacher will now be made available for any family of four or more children. The department also proposes to increase slightly the amount of the subsidy in districts in which .special living allowances arc granted. "The new regulations." raid tho .Minister of Kduc.it ion '(.Mr Beeby), "will provide teachers for a great number of families who have been debarred under the present rule;-'." —Australia's "Coming Countiy."—

Papua is a coming country, says Senator Blakeley, one. of tho half'-dozen Federal members who have just reached Sydney on (ho return trip. "The (soil is magnificent," he added. " Malaria? Nona of ns had a touch of it, eo far as 1 know._ YYe saw white men at work, and the climate didn't seem to trouble them. Native labor is so cheap that the whites don't liav© to do any really hard work. Of course, wo saw. *he place at its lw>nf, in winter; but they say it's not much hotter in summer time. Dr M'Clintock, who is an expert in tropical diseases, and has had experience everywhere except at Panama, says Papua is tha healthiest tropical country he has ever been in. The only trouble is malarial fever, and that's not so bad ; ho has never had if, though he has been in Papua (at Canosia) for some time. Meat people get it, bat it's only !ike,getting a touch of influenza." —Ordered to be Forfeited.— An unusual application was mad a to the District Court at Melbourne. Henry Rattray, inspector of explosives, staked that ati order be made against Fied. Megsuer for the forfeiture of 10.000 cartridges. He said that Messuer had imported cartridges from. Germany, ami upon examining them witness found that they were not safety cartridges, and that tho explosion of one would explode all the others. Messuer agreed that the cartridges should bo forfeited, and an order wag made, accordingly. —Death of a Black.— , Settlors on the far west coant. iwys an Adelaide message) have been concerned over the manner of the death of a native named Yendinna Jack. An inquest was held at Fowler Bay, and the jury found that the aborigine died from tho effects of a gunshot wound inflicted by Bertram Taylor in self-defence, and that Taylor was justified in firing tho shot. Reports afterwards reached the city suggesting thai the native had been shot in cold blood. It was alleged that Constable Muegge wished to arrest him for a trifling theft. Yendinna was known to be camped near Streaky Bay. It was further alleged that Muegge authorised two scrub-cutters named Clinch and Taylor to bring him in, and that they went cut ajid shot the black in tho legs. Without receiving any attention, it is alleged, he was driven in a cart past Streaky Bay, a long distance to Fowler Bay. and that he bled to death. Owing to tire stir made over the oa.se/, Detective Fraser was sent to the district to investigate, and ho hue arrested Taylor, Clinch, and Constable Mueggt\ who have been charged with murder, and remanded. —The Anglo-Japaneee Treaty.—

The Acting Prime Minister (Mr Hughes) made furt.hen' reference at Melbourne to the renewal of the Anglo-Japanese Treaty. He said that any statement to the effectthat the Dominion Governments had been consulted v.ould be quite untrue ,is far a-s the Commonwealth was concerned. The Government had not been notified nor approached in any way ; there had not been up to the time he spoke any official notification of the fact. Ho could not say, of course, whether the matter had been mentioned to Mr Fisher, but it was a very obvious thing that tho Government of the country was quite distinct from its representatives at any conference. He felt sure that had the representatives been consulted officially tho Administration would have been notified by them. In reply to a question as to whether he considered the Dominium -should have been consulted, Mr Hughes eaid : "Yes, I think so; I certainly think we ought to have been notified simultaneously with tho conclusion of the treaty." —Federal Note Issue.—

Official returns compiled up to July 26 thow that the issue of Commonwealth notes has reached £8,<01,317, and that the total amount of gold coin held in reserve is £3.960.581. The Acting Federal Treasurer (Hon. C. K. Frazer) stated that, ho had authorised a loan to the National Bank of Tasmania of £25,000 for a term ot two years, lx>aring interest at the rate of 3£ per cent. 'This bank had not participated in the loan of £1,000,000 recently distributed among tho .various banks. Mr Fraser added that ijn connection with the Tasmania-!! advance tho money had not been taken at present from tho notes fund. There was more than 40 per cent, of (he- -whole issue represented by the gold reserve, and in order that this might not bo reduced, at any rate for the- present, tho money had bean taken temporarily from other trust funds, representing credit ' balances in connection with tho surplus of tho financial year. In the event of the. money being required for other purposes, thes i trust funds would be recouped from the Avetraliaii notes fund at a later date. Referring to the remittance of £500,000 to London to meet Federal liabilities, the Minister explained that the Commonwealth was making a small profit on tho transfer of this amount to England. —Death of a Centenarian.— Mrs Ann Jane Quinn, up to the time of hor death at Feter«ham recently, at the age of 104, was a halo old lady, who was capable of doing the most delicate needlework, and wh-CGe only health difficulty was rheumatism, from which of recent years she had suffered. She was bom in Dublin in July, 1807, and was the daughter of Colar-sergeant Clark, ono of

those who fell at Waterloo, where her uncle, an adjutant hi the British forces, also gave his life for his country. Heonly brother died iu the China' War m 1839, making tho contribution of the Ckuk family to the cause of Empire a liberal one. Mies Clark arrived in Sydney about 1840, and thus she lived in this- State for oyer 70 yeans—36 years in the Hartley district, and nhny years at Forbes. Her husband was, Charles Wellington Quinr, son of Color-sergeant Quinn, of the 3rd Buffs, with which regiment ho took part ::n tho battle of Waterloo. Color-sergeant Quinn nuns with the regiment to Port Arthur, soon after the return from Waterloo, and settling subsequently in Australia, he died at Parramatta in 1848. His eon, who married Miss Clark, was the first white boy born in Wellington (N.S.W.) and his father being "with the colors," tho boy. was designated " tire child of the regiment." Mrs Quinn had five eons, four of whom are alive, the oldest, Mr John 11. Quinn, at 68 years, being a fine.stalwart hearty man, straight as a gun barrel.' He was born at Hartley.