AUSTRALIAN ITEMS.

Feilding Star, Volume II, Issue 533, 28 March 1908, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN ITEMS.

[BY ELECTRIC TEMSGRAPH— COPYRIGHT.] £P£B PKBSS ASSOCIATION.] THE SYDNEY STRIKE. Sydney, March 27. Strike matters are quiet. The trouble in Sydney is causing a lot of the Northern Rivers trade to be diverted to Brisbane. THREE YEARS FOR MANSLAUGHTER. Sydney, March 27. The jury found Prince guilty .of the manslaughter of Sullivan at Newton on January 1, with a strong recommendation to mercy, on the ground of previous good character. Prisoner was sentenced to three years. MEGASS FOR PAPERMAKING. Brisbane, March 27. In reference to the cable re megase Mr Maxwell, Director of the Sugar Bureau, says there is nothing new in the statement that megrass is useable for paper-making. It was tried in Louisiana years ago, but it is believed it proved too expensive. He ridiculed the idea that sugar cane could be profitably cultivated for megass alone. [Yesterday's cable messages Btated that M. Lamarre, proprietor of a sugar plantation in the West Indian island of Trinidad, had succeeded in converting the refuse of sugar-cane, after it had passed through the sugarroill rollers and had been squeezed of its juice, into a pulp suitable for the manufacture of paper. M. Lamarre declared thai* it would pay to grow sugar-cane purely for the sake of the paper pulp accruing ; and solidity was given to his assertion by the statement that. his own mill was turning out fifteen tons of paper pulp daily.] A CHINESE ASSOCIATION. Received" March 28, 9.55 a.m.) Sydney, March 28. Chinese merchants havo drafted v series of resolutions for submission to a general meeting of their countrymen. They assert that the action of the Japanese with regard to the Tasu Maru incident is a violation of treaty rights, and they demand that the Japanese apologise for the indignity heaped upon the Chinese nation, which must be resented ; that the association has resolved to withdraw all support from the Japanese line of mail steamers in «very way, and that all goods imported and exported by Chinese firms shall be carried by other lines of steamships trading to the Far East ; that Chinese merchants shall refuse to transact business of any description with Japanese merchants in Sydney, and decline to handle all kinds of Japanese goods ; that ail! Chinese merchants and traders in Sydney and ■-' filler parts of New South Wales shall jj* required to enter into a bond providing a penalty of £50 for every , Sreacn of the agreement based on -these resolutions. STRIKE IN A TIMBER YARD. Received March 28, 9.55 a.m.) Sydney, March 28. The men employed at the McKenzie timber yard struck when about to discharge the Kaiapoi, from Kaipara, on the ground of the employment of four non-unionists. RETURNED KANAKAS. The Bishop of> Melanesia, when interviewed, stated that the idea that returned kanakas would be killed had proved erroneous. There were a number who were afraid to return because they had been concerned in murders before they went to Queensland. Otherwise the repatriated ones would be welcome, and the compulsory return of kanakas had proved the best '■' thing for them. It had made one difference, however, it had exaggerated their idea of the value of their labor an&the land which they bought, which they thought should realise prices ruling in Queensland. - . CARELESS EMPLOYEES. Melbourne, March 28. A grocer's shop in Richmond was wrecked by a gas explosion. Two employees of the Gas Company were searching for a leak, and ultimately found it with a lighted match. A son of the proprietor, and one of the gas men were thrown through the window, and were badly cut. The third man had his clothes set on fire, but the flames were extinguished by a passer-by. INCENDIARISM AND MURDER. Brisbane, March 28. A man, named Riley, who was sentenced to 14 years' imprisonment for burning a woolshed at Coongoola, in 1895, has also been sentenced to death for the murder of a man named Martyr, in the same year, at the same woolshed.