AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3396, 16 April 1919, Page 41

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

The Eight-hour Day procession and sports in Melbourne were a success. Great crowds watched the, proceedings. One stipulation was that - only'national flags be carried, and the Leads of the procession strictly observed this. ■ t The population of New. South Wales on December 31 last was 1,928,175, comprising 956,238 males and 971,937 females, including 2021 full-blooded aborigines. The largest of all Australian -. steel-built colliers—the Biloela, of 10,000 tons —will be launched at Cockatoo Island. The New South Wales State Government has decided to license butchers' shops, and to cancel the license if excessive prices are charged The Dromana, the second steel steamship laid down under the Commonwealth shipbuilding scheme, was successfully launched »at Williamstown. The Premier of Western Australia_ resigned owing to the want of unity of ideas among the Nationalist party. A meeting of the party will elect a new leader. On the recommendation of the Inspectorgeneral of Police, the New South Wales Cabinet has reprimanded and transferred from Headquarters Division six detectives who were engaged in the investigation of the I.W.W. case. The chief cause for this action was the judge's remarks on the _ acceptance by the detectives of concessions on clothes' obtained throufih one of the parties in the case. ' ■ . ARMED FOOTPADS. The police in Melbourne are baffled by the exploits of an armed and masked gang, which is holding up trams in the suburbs, relieving conductors of cash, using violence, and shooting where resisted. The gang operates a different locality each night. In connection with the doings of the armed footpads the police in the morning followed a van driver. Seeing the van followed, he deserted it and escaped. The police unhitched the horse and followed it home. They there' secured evidence of stolen pronerty which led to the arrest of two -men . BUICTDE OP A STUDENT. A verdict of suicide was returned at the inquest upon William Sim, of Wellington (New Zealand), a medical student. He had been worried over his failure to pass a medical examination. He attached some rubber tubing to the gas jet, and placed the other end under the blankets. Pie was found dead in bed. A SYDNEY TRAGEDY. A' mysterious tragedy is reported from Elizabeth street. Albert Spencer, a man of independent means, residing in a flat alone, was found dying, with his head battered, and he succumbed to his injuries. Marks were found in the bath, where the murderer Iwashed. Shortly before the discovery an unknown youth visited Spencer. No other person is known to have been near. A DOMESTIO TRAGEDY. Mrs Moveih has beeen arrested at Allora, Queensland, for murdering her three young children. She told a doctor that, after putting them to sleep, she took them one at a time and held their heads under water till they were dead. She said she was not sorry for her deed. Apparently she is demented.