INTERCOLONIAL. MELBOURNE, September 27.

Otago Witness, Issue 2690, 4 October 1905, Page 26

INTERCOLONIAL. MELBOURNE, September 27.

The State Assembly is debating a Pure Food Bill, whicli is designed to secure the proper supervision of the food supply. It is intended to appoint a scientific fyoard to determine what is a pure and what am impure article.

Dr Otake, director of the Senju Woollen Mills, Tokio, who is at present in Sydney , ; states that Japan is likely in the near future -to be the best customer Australia has in the matter of wool. Hitherto they have used wool bought in London, bub lately they had been making most of their purchases in Australia. They had also been buying Indian and Chinese wools, but these were of poor quality and would no doubt be replaced by Australian wools.

September 28.

■ The flagship, coining from Sydney, met with a heavy gale. A huge sea came over her bow, and damaged her forward. A 1 seaman was injured. During the voyage of the Margarita from Kaipara the gale did considerable damage to the fittings. None of the. cargo was lost.

September 29-.

Mr Dealdn has received a communication from the Governor-General of Canada asking, on behalf of his Government, thafj preferential trade relations be established! between Australasia and Canada. Ths Governor-General asks whether the Commonwealth is prepared to offer tariff concessions to Canada, or whether she would! prefer to make the subject one- for consideration by a conference of delegates rw presenting Australia and Canada. The possibility of a new mail service witK Europe was mentioned at the Select Com> mittee appointed to inquire into steamship; coniinunicatioa, with Great Britain. Tlia

chairman stated that he had asked the Russian Consul to obtain particulars for transmitting mails by tEe Siberian railway. October 2. The Federal authorities have no official knowledge that an arrangement, announced by Sir J. G. Ward, has been practically fixed for the establishment of wireless telegraphy between New Zealand and akustralia. The only letter received by the Government on the matter is one from Messrs Shoemaker and Co. offering to establish the connection on certain terms. The Federal Customs and Excise revenue for the Sept-ember quarter amounted to £2,305,000, a decrease of £65,000 on the corresponding quarter, last year. The decrease, is chiefly the result of the nonimportation of sugar, Australia now practically supplying her own wants. SYDNEY, September 26. The Laira, from the Thames to Melbourne, "was spoken off Twofold Bay. She reported all welU Heavy weather prevails along* the coast down to Tasmania. ■ Snow fell in the southern highlands, and ' the cold is severe. • • TEe. Attorney-general has announced that the rWages, Board Bill, • which has been introduced, •will largely supplant the Arbitration Act. / _ The fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the first .railway line in Australia, that from Sydney to Parraniatta, was celebrated to-day. The "trains on the various ; suburban lines were decorated. _ The chief j feature of- the celebration was an lexhibition j of ancient and -up-to-date railway -appliances, which, was opened by the Premier (Mr Carruthers) in the=» absence ! of the- Governor during the afternoon. One exhibit shows, side by side j with- a present-day" Pullman express train, - the first train that ran, thus - affording s ~ an object lesson of the progress made. The electrical branch display is the finest ever .witnessed in Sydney. September 29. News from Manila states that cholera is spreading. The mortality is- from" 40 to 50 daily. -Many Europeans are victims, and a number of the crew of Tne interned' Russian warships have been atFacked.October 1. j Mr M'Conechy, the representative of the ' Manchester Ship Canal Company, is a passenger by -the Monowai, -which sailed-ior - Wellington^ -on- Saturday. - He. will confer' with the authorities relative to "the exten-.-; sion"of New Zealand\trade via the Man,- ; chester..Cahal.^ ' . ' \ • ■ ' ' " October 2. William. Mailer, ex-jiccountant^ in_ the" UniSn -Steam Ship Company's office, here, . was iound .shott dead in -laic home nnder^ ■"circumstances pointing- to' suicide. '' The weather was -fine for^the eight-hours demonstration celebrations. Immense crowds witnessed the procession, in which*, 53 unions participated, as compared with 57 last, year. In the display was a number of imposing banners- and emblematic designs. Forty thousand people attended the- sports meeting in the Agricultural Grounds. .The Eight-hours Wheel Race resulted as follows: — Holder 1, Harris 2, Fowler 3. - ~ ' The Bishop of Tasmania, in an address on '' Socialism," declared that Socialism was not necessarily antagonistic to Christianity. He equality of opportunity for all. '' The Primate, who presided, said that-he agreed with what jvas broad and general in Dr Mercer's address, but not with the arguments about Socialism. ADELAIDE, September 28. "A quantity of wreckage was found on ' the Kangaroo. Islands. This gives rise to , fears that' the . Loch Vennachar, overdue j from Glasgow, may be lost. j September 30. ! There was a severe shock of earthquake in the Northern Territory lasfc' night, but:no damage was done. ; ; " " _ ' v October 2. Amongst a large quantity of wreckage at Kangaroo Island a- portion of a ' boat « bearing the /'name Loch'" Vennachar "was ' found. . . - BRISBANE, September 26. P. Levaux,- charged with' the niurde^ of P<eter Ljzfiiberg, was remanded. The grounds for the remand were chiefly that the police have certain finger-marks by which to establish the identity of the murderer/ also a knife with which the deed was perpetrated. September 28. Levaux, charged with the murder of Peter Lumberg, was discharged by the magistrate, who said he could not commit him on the evidence adduced. - September 30. A heavy hail and rain storm, lasting seven minutes, did over £7000 worth of damage to drapery stores through flood water. Eighty-four points of rain fell in this time. October 2. A boat containing three youths and three girls is missing from Southport. It is feared they have all been drowned. PERTH, September 26. At the inquest on De Winton (secretary of the Kalgoorlie Club), his housekeeper, Mrs Xeon, gave evidence. She stated that 'deceased was worried over the financial position of- the Kalgoorlie Club. They both agreed to die together. Deceased mixed some morphia, and she drank her , portion. Both of them destroyed all ' papers prior fo the deed, including the .will, by which De Winton left everything in her favour. The secretary of the club stated that an audit had rev.ealed a shortage in deceased's accounts of £527.

September 28. Espada, a native of Manila, accuses Hagan, a Norwegian, and Marques, another Manilanutn, of being the actual murderers of Liebgild. Deceased was decoyed aboard the vessel and assailed with sling-shot and a glass bottle. Espada remonstrated, but Marques said : " This white man no good, not even n, Cluistian, only a Jew ; better , kill him."