AUSTRALIAN AFFAIRS.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXVII, Issue 5563, 14 April 1905, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN AFFAIRS.

CABLE NEWS.

UNITED PEES 3 ASSOCIATION. —BV ELECTRIC TELEGEAPH. COPYRIGHT.

THE CAPITAL SITE. NEW SOUTH WALES PROTEST. SYDNEY, April 13. Air Carruthers, Pr.em.er of New South Wales, has submitted to the Federal ■Minister of Homo Affairs a strong memorandum against the selection of a capital site at Dalgety, which, he says, would involve a cost of £2,000,(XX) to provide proper railway facilities. Tho Constitution, according to Mr Carruthers, never contemplated taking nine hundred square miles of territory, which was equivalent to the confiscation of New Soutii Wales territory, while the desire to secure a seaport would penalise the State, owing to the loss of Customs duties. The -memorandum refers to tho eligibility of tho Lyiidhurst, Tumut, and Yass sites. STRAINED RELATIONS. SYDNEY, April 13. Strained relations exist between Mr Carruthers, the State Premier, and the Federal Government, owing to a failure to obtain a settlement of a matter affecting £25,000 till money advanced to the Savings Bank. Air Carruthers is disinclined to hold any further negotiations. FEDERAL SUGAR DUTIES. JAM INDUSTRY STRANGLED. MELBOURNE, April 13. At a meeting of the Central Fruitgrowers’ Association, Air Peacock, jam manufacturer, stated that fruit-growing and the jam industry were being slowly strangled by the Federal sugar duties, amounting to £G per ton. Before federation Queensland sugar was available for £l3 per ton, but it now cost £23. The Colonial Sugar Company was the biggest monojioly in Australia. It was able to distribute the enormous sum of £850,000 to its shareholders. A FEROCIOUS MURDER. MELBOURNE, April 13. The finding of the dismembered body of a man in a sack floating in an irrigation channel at Tatura has led to the conclusion that the murder was one of great ferocity. It is supposed, that the deceased was a navvy, and was engaged in irrigation works at Waranga. Tho body was in an advanced state of decomposition. NAVIGATION LAWS. MELBOURNE, April 13. It is behoved that the Navigation Commission will recommend that the mail steamers he exempt from coastal conditions under tho Navigation Bill. QUEENSLAND’S WHEAT CROP. BRISBANE, April, 13. The wheat yield is estimated at 2,149,000 bushels—a decrease of 287 bushels.