AUSTRALIA TO-DAY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3030, 10 April 1912, Page 7

AUSTRALIA TO-DAY.

(From Och Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, March 23. It was not to be expected that the Goal Vend would die without a struggle. As soon as judgment was delivered against it by Mr Justice Isaacs two or three mouths ago preliminary notice of appeal to the High Court was given on behalf of the defendant colliery proprietors and skipping companies. It was estimated that the costs of the trial ran into something like £30,000; but the lawyers are to have some more money out of lit before the case is finally disposed of. It was a record case in several ways. It was a record for the length of time the hearing occupied. It was a record for the length of counsel's speeches, and Mr Justice Isaacs established a record for the length of his judgment—a ponderous mass of typewritten matter, aggregating about 120,000 words, enough to fill a couple of ordinary-sized books. It was the first prosecution of the kind in the Commonwealth, the prosecution of an alleged monopoly, and the judge not only called it a monopoly, but a shocking monopoly, a frightful " monopoly, an intolerable monopoly in restraint of trade. The proceedings" were taken under the Australian Industries Preservation (Anti-Trust) Act. Supplementary completed notices of appeal have now been lodged on behalf of the defendant companies. The colliery proprietors are contesting the soundness of the judgment on some 30 grounds, the shipping companies on 16, and Messrs J. and A. Brown on 12. Some of the objections are common to all of the defendants, but an analysis of the documents filed indicates that upwards of 30 separate, issues will be raised on the appeal. Amongst the contentions are that the judgment was erroneous, both as to its conclusions on facts and as regards the law applicable to those facts; also generally that it was against evidence and the weight of evidence. The appeals ask that the judgment and decree of Mr Justice Isaacs may be wholly set aside and reversed. The mass of evidence and the unusually extensive nature of the judgment render the preparation of the printed record a matter of unusual magnitude, and if the documents are to be read at the hearing practically an entire ordinary term of the High Court will be required to deal with the case. Meanwhile action has been taken by the Customs Department against the Melbourne Steamship Company and James Paterson and Co. in respect "of matters arising out of the Coal Vend cases. The department, it is understood, sought for certain information. One company, it is alleged, refused to give it, while the other company supplied information which the department avers was unsatisfactory. PRICES STILL GOING UP.

The price of everything continues to go up in Australia. The thing is getting chronic. Higher wages are paid to-day than ever were paid before, but the spending power of a sovereign is not nearly so great to-day as it was some years ago, and it is a question whether the average worker is any better off under the new artificially-created conditions than he was in the old days. Now the cost of living is to be still further increased. The oyster saloon keepers have raised their prices, and we shall no longer be able to get a plate of the " succulent bivalves" for Is, but must now pay Is 6d. But not only are the oyster saloons increasing prices, cafes and* tea rooms generally are raising the tariff. We have not yet reached the prices that prevail in America, but we are getting near them. Everybody is going to be hit by the new arrangement. There is to be a minimum charge of Is in the cafes, no matter what you eat, and tea or coffee are no longer to be given in with a meal —they are to be charged for separately. Some of the places are standing out, but most of them have adopted the new arrangement, and doubtless it is only a matter of time and they will all be in it. The present award of the Hotel, Cafe, and Restaurant Employees' Wages Board expires on April 1, and the j)ioprietors evidently expect further demands to be made upon them. It is the usual thing nowadays when an award expires, to adopt an" Oliver Twist attitude and ask for more. Everybody is getting more and everybody is paying more all the time. How long it will last one does not know, but there must come a day when the breaking-]x>int will be rea-ched at last—r>r is the science of economics a thing with no bottom in it? And just now it is interesting to note that even the price of legislation is going up—the members of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly are taking steps to give themselves £SOO a year instead of £3OO. Of course, they do not work (legislatively) for more than

half the year ; but what does that matter '! And what does it matter that the electors have not osen consulted on the point'.' If they want legislation—income tax and all the rest of it—let them pay for it! "OUR PRICES IS THE MAGNET."

A Cabinet Minister is at times called upon to solve some knotty questions, but it is not every day that a Minister of Public Instruction is given such a poeer as was presented the other day to Mr Canniehuei, Minister of Education in New South Wales. Ministers doubtless are supposed to have some special knowledge or matters pertaining to the department which they administer, and it seems only a fair proposition that an Education Minister should be an authority on grammar. Of course there have been Education Ministers whose grammar was very faulty, and " English as she was spoke by them would have caused many a Fifth Form boy's hair to stand on end, had it not been for the watchful eye and careful pens of the secretaries which oftentimes cover a multitude of Ministerial sins. When we were boys we used to have a catch question put to us : "Which is right —' two and two is five ' or ' two and two are five ' V And sometimes our answer would show that our grammar was better than our arithmetic. Mr Carmichael has been appealed to by a coun- j try storekeeper, who put up the sign "Our prices is the magnet," and was laughed at ; by his friends. " I maintain," he says, ••that 'prices' is a collective noun, and tiiat ' is ' and not ' are ' is right. As head of the Education Department I ask you to settle the matter." Mr Car- j michael dodged the question. He was not quite sure that someone was not trying : to "pull his leg," and he was astute enough to pass the question on to the i Director of Education. "I am hero to deal with matters of policy," ho ex- : plained, " and I leave the questions on grammar to the officers of the depart- | ment." In other words, he declined to commit himself on such a delicate question. So the learned grammarians of the department tackled the question, with the result that the country storekeeper has scored a victory. The real subject of the sentence "Our prices is the magnet that draws,'' it is pointed out, is the word j magnet. But some other learned gram- j marians may come along and dispute the correctness of the finding. It is undoubt- | edly " the magnet that draws," but it is j —or it are—the prices that arc—or is— j the magnet. Instead of "prices," suppose we consider horse-power. Shall we say "Our horses is the power that: draws " ? A JOURNALIST'S STORY. Apropos, let me tell a little story about a well-known journalist, who, by the way, is not unknown in New Zealand. Years ago, when he was young and fresh from school (when our grammar lies thick upon us) he obtained employment on a Sydney daily as a junior reporter. One day he received a note in blue pencil from the news' editor —''Please see me." He went into the news editor's room in fear and trembling, for a " blue paper '' was a thing to be dreaded in that office! The editor had a copy of that morning's paper open in front of him, with one sentence underlined with blue pencil—" None of the officers was present." " Did you write that?" he asked. "Yes. sir!" " It's very bad grammar—very bad. How did you come to make such a slip as that?" The young reporter read the sentence —read it twice —thrice—and he could see nothing wrong with it. " What is the matter with it, sir?" he asked timidly. " What is the matter with it?" thundered the news editor. " Why, you say ' none of the officers " was " present,' instead of ' were.' Officera is plural, and takes ' were,' of course." The youth began to argue it. "The subject is not ' officers,' " he said, " but ' none ' —' not one' of the officers was present.'' The news editor glared at him. " Don't let it occur again," he said, "or the consequences may be serious." There is a sequel to the story, which I had from the reporter himself. Ho wrote to Professor MacCallum, of the Sydney University, for his opinion of the sentence, stating that he desired to settle an argument. The professor's reply was " ' None of the officers was present ' is absolutely correct." The young man debated for two days as to whether he should show the professor's answer to the news editor, but in the end he decided against it. He had just enough experience of the world at the time to know that some things are never forgiven. He works on another newspaper now, so he will not mind my publishing the story, though lie has a very high i opinion of his old news editor. "A great ! journalist," he calls him—" the man with the best nose for news in Australia. And the chances are that most of the readers of the paper thought it was bad gram- j mar.'' AUSTRALIA AND CANADA. The Federal Government is awakening

to the fact that reciprocal trade relations with Canada are in the best interests of the Commonwealth. A Canadian importer of butter and meat, on a visit to Australia, interviewed the Minister of Customs, Mr Tudor, and succeeded in enlisting his sympathy and the promise of prompt consideration of his suggestions. He said that New Zealand was reaping the benefit of pioneering work which had been done by Australia and that Australia had now to put up with New Zealand's leavings in the shape of refrigerating space. The service established with NewZealand included Sydney as a port of call; but, as New Zealand had the first call on space, not a single box of butter, so he stated, had been shipped from Australia to Canada since the discontinuance of the Vancouver line of steamers. New Zealand had, on the other hand, shipped 350 boxes of butter to Canada, and was also exploiting the meat trade. Mr Tudor indicated the probability of an early agreement being arrived at between the Commonwealth and Canada on the subject of a reciprocal tariff. He had, he said, opened up negotiations with the Canadian Government, and he recognised the urgency of the question. Referring to the advisability of establishing direct steamship communications with Canada, he added that without a reciprocal tariff arrangemest it would be of little use talking of a direct service. The duty on Australian meat in Canada is 3d per lb, as against 2d per lb from New Zealand, and on Australian butter 4d per lb as against 2d. SYDNEY TO PORT DARWIN. There is an agitation for a railway from Sydney to Port Darwin, via Bourke and Camooweal. The idea of those advocating this project is, for one thing, that New South Wales generally, and Sydney in particular, will secure the bulk of the South-western Queensland trade. When the North Coast line is finished a fair proportion of the trade from the rich districts through which the trains Mill nm will be diverted to Queensland. By the Sydeny to Port Darwin project New South Wales is to get even with its northern neighbour. But that is by no means the chief advantage of the through connection, which, by the way, is not now advocated for the first time. In times of drought such a line would be of great assistance in the conveyance of fat stock, either to market or to grassy country. More important than all, the project is also advocated on broad national grounds-—for defence purposes, and for settling and developing the Northern Territory, as well as for opening up and peopling the vast tracts of vacant land through which the line would pass. The distance from Sydney to Port Darwin by the route advocated would be 2173 miles, as against 2966 by the route from Adelaide, via Oodnadatta and Pine Creek. The New South Wales Minister of Works (Mr Griffith) gave a favourable reply to representations made on the subject by an influental deputation last week. A WEALTHY WIDOW. Probate has been granted in Sydney in respect of the will of Mrs Mary Clarissa Ireland, widow, of Epsom, near Auckland, who died on December 13, 1910. The deceased ai"ointed her daughter, Clara Gertrude Tisdall, wife of Rev. Charles Archibald Tisdall, of Rotorua, and her sons, George Barton Paxton Ireland and Henry Ezekiel Ireland trustees and executors of her estate. She benueathed the whole of her jewellery, plate, books, pictures, furniture, household effects, pony, phaeton, and harness to her daughter Clara Gertrude and a legacy of £BOOO, together with all moneys in the Savings Bank at the time of her decease.. She devised her vineyard at Wahgunyah, Victoria, known at " St. Leonards," to her son Henry E. Ireland ; and the residue of her estate to her children — viz., Mrs'Tisdall and G. B. T. and H. E. Ireland —in equal shares. In a codicil to her will she bequeathed the household furniture at Wahgunyah to her son Henry Ezekiel, and in another codicil a legacy of £IOO to Miss Mary Buchan. The net value of the New South Wales estate was sworn at £49.805 3s 7d, of which £37,152 lis 9d represented shares in public companies and' £10,246 13s 6d money on deposit in the banks. " OUT AND OUT EMBEZZLER." Frank Denison Brown, general supervisor of agencies, and John Macpherson, accountant of the Singer Sewing Machine Company, have been committed for trial in Sydney on a chargo of conspiring to defraud the company out of £12,774. Describing himself as an l; out and out embezzler,'' Macpherson made a remarknble confession yesterday. In a letter which he addressed to the manager of the company he said : —" I cannot continue in the company's employ any longer, as I am nothing less than an out and out embezzler, and whatever the consequences to

myself, whatever the trouble I bring to others, I have but the one alternative — to make a clear confession :ts far as it lies in my power; then await arrest on your warrant. 1 have no wish to plead to you, no excises to make. I merely place myself before you a self-condemned embezzler. Ever since I took over my present position 1 have been tampering with the coniDanv's moneys, so much so that my defalcations amount to thousands of pounds. 1 suppose it is the old story of expecting to make good your shortage and getting further in the mire. I wish to exonerate here all blame from anyone else in the employ for any entries made in central excise cash book not in my handwriting, for such entries were made at my direction. I would suggest to you (unless you call for public auditors) to get Mr Lough's services from New Zealand, as he would b? the only officer competent to straighten out the books, as the others have not had the experience necessary. Before giving you a list of the shortages as are known to me, I want to say 1 want no mercy shown me, as all I get I deserve. My only sorrow is for the terrible disgrace I have brought on my own people, and the injury I have done to my fellow-employees. I am glad I have written this confession, as I have-suffered more in mind during the past few years than I would a lifetime in gaol." NEW ZEALAND PRODUCTS. A number of New Zealand wool fleeces have been received from the Government for display at the New Zealand Agency in Sydney, including strong and fine combing merinos from the ilawkesbury run, near Blenheim; Romney ewe from Almerdale, near Feilding; Romney hoggets from Clinton, near Balelutha; Border Leicester ewes and hoggets from Wood lands, near Invercargill; Lincoln ewes from Penrose, near Masterton; Corriedale hoggets from Mount Royal, near Palmieraton South; and fine crossbred hoggets. These have been inspected and favourably commented upon by a number of people interested in the industry. Mr Montgomery is also displaying New Zealand winee. from the Te Mata vineyard at Hawke's Bay.