AUSTRALIA

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 July 1930, Page 5

AUSTRALIA

[BY CABLE —PRESS ASSN. —COPYRIGHT.] BROKEN HILL MINES. SYDNEY, July 22. The Communist Party at Broken Hill are urging the workers to close every mine and to declare a. general strike. FEDERAL LOAN. SYDNEY, July 22. Nearly - nine millions has already been subscribed to the Federal Government’s ten millions loan in Australia. The issue has been open five weeks, and it closes next Monday. DANCER’S DEATH. PERTH, July 22. /A girl dancer at the Perth theatre brushed against an electric radiator in a dressing room. Her flimsy dress burst into flames and the girl was dreadfully burned. She died from the effects. DEARER POSTAGE. CANBERRA, July 22. The House of Representatives has passed a Bill increasing the letter postage rate from three-halfpence to twopence, and also increasing slightly the newspaper bulk postage rate. The Postal Department expects to gain from these sources and other adjustments of the postal .rates at least one million sterling extra revenue. BASIC WAGE. SYDNEY, July 22. The Federal basic wage has been reduced 'in all States, in sympathy with prices and living costs,. Queensland workers under the Federal awards, lose 5/6, New South Wales one shilling, and other States from sixpence to eighteenpence weekly. FEDERAL BUDGET SYDNEY, July 23. ' Copies of the Federal estimates of receipts and expenditure for 1930/31, were circulated in the House of Representatives. The revenue is estimated at £65,585,770, of which fourteen millions is expected to be derived from new taxation. The administration proposed will increase Government costs by a million sterling. Overseas trips will cost £l4OOO, political expenses £75,000, League of Nations £30,000 and iron and stel bounties £300,000. The principal feature of the Federal Budget debate was an address by the Leader of the Opposition (Mr. Latham). He gave details of his proposal to reduce the estimates by four millions sterling. These included the withdrawing of a million sterling for unemployment relief, and limiting the maternity bonus to persons receiving not more than six pounds a week. Federal estimates of expenditure which total .£65,610,000, of an increase of £10,940,000 over last year include £14,707,000 on business undertakings, namely railways and Post Office, an increase of over half a. million. Of this expenditure, £869,000 will be contributed from general revenue. Post. Office revenue is expected to be £15.577.000, an increase of over a. million and a-half. £312,000 would be voted for the Federal capital territory from which revenue is expected to reach £228,000.