LATEST CABLES.

Northland Age, Volume IV, Issue 47, 13 July 1908, Page 4

LATEST CABLES.

The Australian Naval Scheme.

LONDON, July 11

In the House of Commons Mr. R. McKenna, First Lord of the Admiralty, in reply to Mr. William Redmond, brother of the Nationalist loader, said that the Commonwealth naval scheme would require much amplification before it could be fully considered from tho standpoint of possible adoption as an alternative to the present naval agreement.

British Wages Boards.

LONDON, July 11

Sir Hartley Williams, ex-Viotnrian judge, in a letter to the “ Daily News” dissents from Mr. Ernest Aves’s assertion that the main function of wages boards in the United Kingdom would be the dissemination of information and in other respects criticises the conclusions arrived at in regard to the effect of industrial legislation in the Colonies. [Seemingly Mr. Aves has been acquainting the British public with the futility of the Wages Boards and Conciliation Courts of Australasia, and Sir Hartley Williams is upholding these institutions per medium of the “ Daily News.”] South Africa and Preference. Abandonment Proposal Defeated. CAPETOWN, July 11. During the recent meeting of the South African Customs Union Convention Mr. J. X. Merriman, the Cape Premier, and Mr. Abraham Fischer, Premier of the Orange River Colony, supported a proposal for the abandonment of the tariff giving preference to the United Kingdom. Mr. Louis Botha declared that such abandonment would be calamitous at a time when the United Kingdom waß obviously working round toward tariff reform and preference. Mr. Fischer then sided with Mr. Botha and the abandonment proposal was defeated.