AUSTRALIA

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 May 1934, Page 7

AUSTRALIA

(by CABLE —PRESS ASSN. —COPYRIGHT.] PARLIAMENT AND PRAYER. ~ SYDNEY, May 17. For the first time since 1862, the Legislative Assembly opened yesterday with prayer, Ministers and Members standing at attention with heads bowed. PROHIBITED MIGRANT. BRISBANE, May 17. When Raman Singh, 53, an Indian, was prosecuted on a charge of being a prohibited immigrant, it was revealed that Singh had been in Australia for 34 years. He could not sign his name, and failed to pass a dictation test. Accused was remanded, WESTRALIAN SECESSION. PERTH, May 17. The second reading of the Secession Bill was carried in the Assembly, without dissent. Answering criticism from the Labour cross-benches, the Premier (Mr Collier) said that he was opposed to secession, but the Government was giving effect to the will of the majority of the people, as expressed in the referendum. PREHISTORIC RELIC. BRISBANE, May 17. The Queensland museum has received a fossil of the top jaw of a diprotodon, which was found projecting from the bank of the Condamine River, 20 feet below the surface, following recent floods. No part of Australia has produced more fossilised remains than the Dalby district. Early marsupials must have existed there in large numbers, and grown to an enormous size. TASMANIAN ELECTIONS HOBART, May 16. Nominations have closed for the Tasmanian State General Elections on June 9. There are 77 nominations for 30 vacancies. All of the retiring members of the House of Assembly have re-nominated, but the Premier, Mr. McPhee, is retiring from politics owing to ill-health. The candidates comprise 41 Nationalists, 27 Labourites and nine Independents. CENTENARY EXHIBIT. MELBOURNE, May 16. The Shiplovers’ Society of Victoria have been loaned a square-rigged sailing vessel, named the “Shandon,” for the purpose of holding a Centenary Maritime Exhibition. The vessel will be rigged as a barque, and her tweendecks space of 7.400 square feet, will house hundreds of sea relics. Each week, former seamen will take iho ship to sea, tramping round her capstan, and hauling on the braces and halyards to the tunes of old sea chanties. H.M.A.S. SYDNEY. MELBOURNE, May 17. The historic name of H.M.A.S. Sydney, the first Australian warship to engage in a sea battle, will be perpetuated in the new cruiser which the Federal Government has decided to add to the Royal Australian Navy.

H.M.S. Phaeton, which will bo completed in August, 1935, will be taken over from the British Government and renamed the Sydney. The Phaeton replaces H.M.A.S. Brisbane, which will bo scrapped by the end of 1936. The name of the new sloop now building at Cockatoo dockyard will be H.M.A.S. Yarra.