INTERCOLONIAL.

Otago Witness, Issue 2809, 15 January 1908, Page 25

INTERCOLONIAL.

MELBOURNE, January 7. No settlement has yet been reached in connection with taking over the Eastern Extension Tasmanian cables by the Federal I Government. The company asks £39,000 for their cables, building, and the balance of the subsidy. In view of the possibility of the negotiations breaking down, the Government has obtained an estimate of the cost of a survey and two new cables. The survey will cost about £120 per day, while it is understood that the cables will cost about £70,000. t January 10. j Mr Saxon, curate of St. Peter's, Easte-n ' Hill, has been unanimously invited by the officers and crew of the Nimrod to accompany the expedition as chaplain. Mr Saxon has accepted, and will join the Nimrod by a supplementary vessel. The Federal Government has declined the Eastern Extension Cable Company's i terms in connection with the Tasmanian ; cable. The specification for two" new j cables, to be laid before a certain date j in 1909, were sent Horn© by the mail. _ - _ SYDNEY, January 9. j The steamer Borderer, from Vani couver to South Africa, put into Sydney to-day. Five Chinese member^ of the crew are suffering from berriberri fever. A sixth succumbed . The trading steamer Queen Helena, from j Honolulu, while passing the small island ! of Sophia, which was supposed to be uninhabited, saw four men on the'beacb. The steamer hove to for some hours and made signals, but there -was no response. She then proceeded on her voyage. January 10. .Ben Lomond, one of the finest estates on the New England tableland, is to be subdivided for closer settlement. The Minister of Works, speaking at a | function, said that if the. Federal Govern- ' ment would only ask the State Government for a Federal capital 6ite the Government would be able to reply in a very few hours. ADELAIDE, January 8. Two children at Gaukalila, nine and six years old, found a bottle of whisky and drank the contents. The eldest died, but the other is recovering. A blacksmith named Clinton, at Daydawn, was set upon by three men and shot dead. His body was thrown down a mining shaft. The three men — Potter, Smith, and Bloomer — have been arrested. PERTH, January 7. A ■ railway employee named M'Guigan ' and a scrub-cutter named Hart quarrelled, id art borrowed a gun and shot M'Guigan dead, and then committed suicide. BRISBANE, January 10. There are further heavy rains in the north, and the railway traffic ifi much interfered with. PORT DARWIN, January 8. News from Sumatra states that Dr EJbert, the German geologist who is conducting researches in South Sumatra, reports that the alleged discovery of an apeman is false. He has found human remains on the island, which he estimates are 20,000 yeans old Hi-ey are hnm», not Simian, and his discoveries are directly opposed to the Darwinian theory.