INTERCOLONIAL

Otago Witness, Issue 2663, 29 March 1905, Page 25

INTERCOLONIAL

MELBOURNE, March 22. An outbreak of anthrax has occurred at Penshurst.

March 24.

A meeting of the Ministerial party decided to form a National Democratic party, with Mr Bent, the Premier, as president The chief aims of the party will be the development of the State's resources, decentralisation, opposition to Socialism and to the Arbitration Act. The New Chum mine, Bendigo, struck gold-bearing quirtz at a depth of 4162 ft, the deepest in the world.

March 25

As a result of the representations of a recent deputation, it has been decided to grant a margin of one-eighth of an inch on certain timber imported 1 for doors, instead of charging by rough measurement.

The only definite proposition before the Cabinet was the Orient S.S. Company's offer to provide a mail service for £120,000. Mi* Reid states that no decision was arrived at in the matter. Further consideration is postponed for a week. No reason for the delay is given.

SYDx^TEY, March 21.

The Daily Telegraph strongly urges that it is high time that the Federal Government took definite action in the New Hebrides. It says that the abolition of the duties imposed on Commonwealth products for the settler should be regarded as part of the imperative duty of Australian statesmanship, and no less than a forcible representation made, to the Imperial authorities as to the importance of the international issues involved. March 22. More plagued rats have b.een found in Darling Harbour.

The Prohibition party asked the Chief Secretary to include the following provisions in the new Liquor Bill : — Rights of veto by a simple majority without any form of compensation ; the issue of all liquor-selling licenses ; effective closing of hotels on Sundays and election days, and the closing on week nights at the same hour as ordinary businesses ; the prohibition of the sale of liquor to persons under 18 years ; non-employment of barmaids ; abolition of storekeepers' licenses ; placing clubs on the same footing as hotels ; the substitution of elective licensing committees for licensing benches.

Mr J. G.^ Bruce said his experience of prohibition in New Zealand was that it had proved the only effective method of dealing with traffic.

Mr Hogue promised that some suggestions would be included in the bill. Others wouM have to come gradually. With regard to barmaids, unless there were conditions affecting health attaching to the occupation, it was unsound to argue that the employment of women was wrong. To his mind there were stronger temptations to go astray in some other walks of life than behind a bar. Barmaids were better paid, therefore more independent and better able to look after themselves than women in some other callings.

March 23,

The health authorities consider the increase in plague rats serious, and propose to give a bonus of 6d a head for rats and Id for mice.

O'Hara has been sentenced) to death for the murder of his wife at Surry Hills on November 19.

[O'Hara, a labourer, actuated by jealousy, attacked his wife with a razor, almost severing the head from the body. He then attempted to comnv't suicide, but his wound was not serious.]

March 24,

Inquiries at the Shipping Exchange as to when the Induna message was posted elicited the information that the name of the informant could not be divulged, but that it had been received from a very reliable source. It is now proved that the Exchange was hoaxed. Messrs Burns, Philp, and Co. intend to demand an exhaustive inquiry into flic matter.

Splendid rains have fallen on the coastal and southern districts.

The body of William M'Aullay. a well-to-do mm-er, was found in the bush near Glen Inncs. The head was battered in. A stick was grasped in one hand and a stone in the other, as if he died defending himself. There is no clue to the murderer. Deceased left his home some days ago to search for horses.

A deputation from the Public Moral. 1 ? Association asked the. Chief Secretary to introduce legislation checking street immorality and suppressing houses of ill-fame. Startling statements were made as to the growth of immorality and the increase of bouses of ill-fame. It is alleged that 2000 fallen women are plying the streets of the city, and that many young girls are in the houses. The deputation asked that the owners be made responsible for the character of their houses.

Mr Hogue promised Cabinet consideration. Tli© subject, he said, was most difficult to deal with. It might, perhaps, Teappear in a worse form.

The schooner Enterprise, from Long Island, reports that she discovered the beaches strewn with large quantities of Oregon timber, and evidence of the wreck on a recent date of a large lumber ship, or deck cargo washed overboard. There were no marks on the timber to lead to identification. She also discovered an abandoned hut on the island wherein was stacked a quantity of timber and glass, but there were no signs of recent habitation. Amongst papers found in the hut was a note dated November, 1896, Signed by the mate of the ketch Siskin, which was wrecked on the island, stating that he and five of a kanaka crew wei-e then leaving for Cooktown, and asking anyone not in need of the stores theie to leave them, as tlie owner expected to come back and take them away. The only living creatures

seen on the island were half a, dozen goats and a cat.

March 25. It is considered probable that the timber at Long Island is part of the dock cargo of the wreck of the Siskin, which occurred in 1896, when tli.3 ship was engaged in an Island cruise. All the crow escaped, and the owner subsequently returned and took off the stores.

-March 26. The steamer Albany is ashore at Nambucca. The cr.ow landed, the officers standing bj- the vessel. She is bumping heavily, and is making so much water that the stokers were unable to keep steam up. Assistance will be. sent in the morning. The Albany will be better known in New Zealand as the Claud Hamilton, of the old -M'Meekan-Blackwood line. The British Post Office cabled to the Commonwealth Postmaster-general that it is proposed to establish penny postage to Australia without stipulating the date when the Commonwealth should reciprocate. It is laid down as a condition, howover, that the Commonwealth should reduce the postage from 24d to 2d. The Federal Cabinet considered and agreed to the proposal The Postmastergeneral states that he hopes soon to reduce the homeward) rate to one penny, but the state of the finances precluded this being done immediately. The new rate operates on the Ist of April.

March 27. Two cases of phigue Lave occurred at Newcastle. The steamer Albany (formerly the Claud Hamilton), which went ashore at Nambucca,. has broken in two. The crew arc now all ashore.

A steamer, supposed to be the Marjorie, from Bellamb-i, is ashore off Cronulla. The crew are believed, to be safe. BJKISBANE, March 22. A grasshopper plague is causing much damage to the crops.

The natives report that the remains of a large ship drifted ashore on Yorke Peninsula 50 miles south of JJatavia Kiver. The beach is strewn with wreckage, including stanchions, a deckhouse, and large quantities of sago and flour. There is evidence that these have not been long in the water. The Government steamer °has gone to investigate the matter.

The dengue epidemic has not abated. The Chief Justice and) a number of otlier prominent men and a majority of the garrison on Thursday Island are victims. A few fatal cases are reported.

March 24.

With a view to inducing immigration, the Government will introduce a much more extensive scheme of advertising the lands and resources of Queensland.

Rockhampton is in the giTp of dengue fever, many cases being reported. A man named Munday was stuck up on the Toowong road and shot, the bullet passing through his arm into the abdomen. The robber, hearing assistance coming, decamped. Subsequently an old man named Wharton was arrested, the arresting constable felling him as he was drawing a loaded revolver. Munday is iv the hospital in a serious condition. He identified Wharton os his assailant.

The Worker newspaper, in an aticle dealing with the forthcoming Labour Convention, says :— " The convention will have to ask the serious question, What is the aim and object of the Labour Movement? Freetrade or Protection will make no material difference in the conditions of labour. The experience of Australia showed that under both policies the wage-earners were robbed of the fruits of their industry. They have Arbitration Acts in New Zealand, New South Wales, and Westralia. In none of these States were the workers better off than in Queensland." The paper adds: — '" The labour movement must become conscientiously Socialistic. Nothing short of a policy of straight-out Socialism, vigorously and persistently puisued, will be of much avail. ..Labour will not be revolutionary in its methods, but will be revolutionary in its aims."

March 25

The man Mnnday, "who was stuck, up on the Tooivong road and shot at, the bullet passing into the abdomen, died in the hospital from the effect of the injuryreceived.

March 27. The Moana hns arrived. She made * fruitless search for the Pilbarra.