AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIII, Issue 1709, 27 December 1919, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

By Electric Telegraph.--Copyright. Australian-New Zealand Cable Association SYDNEY, Dec. 26. Tho dairy workers have given their employers 14 days’ notice of a stril ' unless demands for increased pay ale granted. . \ Hot sultry weather characterised tho Christmas holidays. Beyond the enormous . shopping rush, Christmas Eve passed quietly. The Health Department’s report shows 6244 deaths in New South Wales influenza during the year, whereof 3770 were males, largely young men. It was estimated that 290,000, or 3G per cent, of tho population in the metropolitan area, were attacked. The deaths in tho area amounted to 3902, a mortality rate of 1.3 per cent, of those attacked. Statistical evidence indicates the high value of vaccination as a means.of diminishing more severe complications and loss of life. Norman Ross, champion swimmer, arrived by the Niagara. After competing at Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide, he proceeds to New Zealand. Two tragdies marked Christmas Eve. A policeman saw two men quarrelling in a street in the Surrey Hills district. Before he was able to roach them a shot was fired. One of the men dropped dead. The constable chased the assailant who turned and fired, wounding the constable in the neck. The latter picked out the bullet with Ins fingers, and succeeded in arresting the man after a desperate struggle. At Bexley a butcher battered his wife to death with the bnot of a gun. and then shot himself. » MELBOURNE, Dec. 24. , Tho Herald has inaugurated tho first regular aerial newspaper delivery service along the shores of Port Phillip Bf The proposed howling tour of Now Zealand has been abandoned owing to insufficiency of nominations. Received December 27. 8.40 a.m. SYDNEY. Dec. 27. A disastrous hailstorm passed over Ihe Orange district doing damage to the orchards and crops estimated at £20,000. Received December 27. 9.50 a.m. ADELAIDE. Dee. 27. Obituary: Sir Edwin Smith, cx-Minister °f the f - ro '™- ORT MOREgBY , Doc. 26. 1 A mass mcotimr of citizens adopted a motion urging Mr Hughes (Prime Minister) to grant Pamia direct representation in the Federal Parliament.