AUSTRALIA

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 April 1936, Page 7

AUSTRALIA

[BY CABLE —PRESS ASSN. —COPYRIGHT.]

STATE MINISTRY. SYDNEY, April 17.

The United Australia Party’s Convention, ’sitting at Sydney, y® 8 . to-dav that the State Ministers should be selected by the Parliamentary Party, instead, as at present by the Premier. “When the selection of Ministers is left to the Leader of the Party alone, there always is room for the intrusion of outside influences, declared Mr R. W. Weaver, who was formerly a Minister in Mr Stevens Ministry.

WEEK. SYDNEY, April 18

The United Australia Party. Convention approved the principle of the forty-hour week. It was decided to urge the Federal Government to examine the methods whereby economic and constitutional difficulties precluding the immediate adoption of the forty-hour week may be overcome. Sir Frederick Stewart, M.P., pleaded for the application of a shorter working week to Australian industries. He moved the motion, which was agreed to by a large majority.

JAPANESE POACHERS. BRISBANE, April 18.

W. Turnbull, lessee of Hicks Island, near Thursday Island, declares that a Japanese sampan used hi.s island as a depot for crude oil supplies, and the Japanese stole some of his property. He has requested the Minister of Customs to obtain protection for a man named Charles Peters, who is employed by him on Haggerston Island, three miles from Hicks Island’. Residents of the island, he says, will have to use firearms if they are not protected.