AUSTRALIAN NEWS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17935, 14 May 1920, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN NEWS

Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright,

SYDNEY, May 13. A satisfactory experimental flight has been made by an aeroplane using alcohol fuel instead of petrol. This fuel has for some montlis been advocated in Britain, in view of the rising price of petrol and the adverso state of the American exchange. A meeting of the Chamber of Commerce passed a resolution that, in view of the wheat shortage, tho export of wheat be stopped until the next crop is assured. The State Cabinet decided to guarantee wheat growers 7s 6d per bushel for the next wheat harvest.

(Received May 13, at 9.50 p.m.) The Methodist General Conference de- e cided, in yiew of the increased cost of living, to increase the supernumerary ministers' and ministers' widows' annuities 25 per cent., and the furniture grant 50 per cent.

MELBOURNE, May, 13. Giving evidence before a select committee of the House of Representatives on sea carriage, the secretary of the Commonwealth Steamship Owners' Association stated that the increased cost of coal and wages since the commonwealth requisitioned inter-State ships in 1918 amounted to £1,000,000 a year. In the House of Representatives Sir J. Cook stated that the expenditure on repatriation this year would .amount to £19,250,000, increasing next year to £21,000.000'. Fresh loan moneys amounting to £30,000,000 would have to be raised, and the outlook was about as serious as\it could be, but the financial position was sound.

■In the Federal Senate Senator Millen announced that the Government would consider whether to seek similar representation to what Canada had secured at Washington.