AUSTRALIAN CABLES.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 10570, 27 September 1910, Page 4

AUSTRALIAN CABLES.

[By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.] (Per Press Association.) A HUMAN CANARY. Received September 26, at 8.25 p.m. Melbourne, September 26.' Dr Hardy has discovered a girl at Ballarat with a larynx different to the ordinary human being. Her notes are indistinguishable from those of birds, and she warbles like a canary. RIFLE CLUBS AND DEFENCE. Melbourne, September 26. The report of the Defence Department shows that though the membership' of rifle clubs is fewer, there has been pi marked increase in the number of efficient shots. AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, Melbourne, September 26. The Federal Government proposes Lo introduce this week Bills covering the referenda on questions of giving the Commonwealth unreserved power of industrial legislation within or beyond the limits of the States, and authority to nationalise monopolies. THE RANDWICK MURDER, Received September 27, at 1.10 a.m. Sydney, September 26. Nurse Brown, under- committal in connection with the Kensington murder has been allowed hail of £IOOO. Her son. John Brown, further remanded at the' Police Court, where he was charged as an accessory after the fact, has also been allowed bail of £4OO. NEW STATION OR NEW BRIGADE. Melbourne, September 26. The Beaufort Fire Brigade has _ resigned in a body as a protest against not getting a. new station. LAND FOR MILITARY TRAINING. Adelaide, September 26. The Mayor and Council strongly oppose the proposal to hand over a portion of the park lands to the Commonwealth for military purposes. PLAGUE IN THE ISLANDS. An outbreak of bubonic plague is reported from Bonde, New- Caledonia. The necessary precautions have been adopted in the Commonwealth. VICTORIA'S DRINK BILL. Melbourne, September 27. Official returns show that the average annual expenditure on intoxicating liquors in Victoria for the five-year period ended 1900 was £3,996,300, or 64s per head of population. Up to August last 407 hotels were closed by the License Reduction Act. VICTORIAN PRISONS. Melbourne, September 27. A prison return shows that the number of persons detained in the gaols' last year per ten thousand of population Was 63 per centum less than in 1881.

FEAR OF NATIONALISATION. Melbourne, September 27_. At the annual meeting of the Employers' Association the president voiced a strong complaint against labor legislation. Every visitor found something wanting in Australian enterprise, and attributed it to labor legislation. He prophesied that if the nationalisation schemes eventuated private enterprise would die out. EXPLOSION OF GELIGNITE. Received September 27, at 8.30 a.m. Brisbane, September 27. The destroyed launch was Government property. The explosion was caused by an attendant going to a magazine and striking a match, the head of which flew amongst the explosives. He tried to stamp out the. blaze, and failing jumped overboard and escaped with slight burns. The launch was blown to atoms and portions of the debris were carried over half a mile.

MR FOWLDS IN AUSTRALIA. Sydney, September 27

Mr Fowlds, in an interview, said that comparatively few people left New Zealand for Australia in quest of land except large property holders, a number of whom had been getting their estates resumed for the benefit of small settlers. New Zealand had not room for thatclass, and preferred the small settlers to land monopolists. None of the small farmers were coming to Australia. Mr Fowlds was struck with the growth and general improvement -of Sydney since his last visit- five years ago, and said there were signs of greater prosperity than ever before. TRAIN WRECKING. Received September 27. at 8.30 n.m. Melbourne, September 27.. An attempt was made to wreck a train of Gembrook. The locking bar of the points was wrenched off and a stone inserted. An engine and truck were derailed, but no one was injured.