NEWS BY CABLE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3397, 23 April 1919, Page 36

NEWS BY CABLE.

FOOD CONTROL. Mr M'Curdy (Parliamentary Secretary to the Food Controller) announced that control was being- released rapidly, except in certain staple commodities. The Government was continuing the bread subsidy. Meat would be controlled until Michaelmas, in cvxordance with the agreement with the producers. Butter was also controlled, owing .to a shortage. They must carefully watch the operations of the food trusts in America. A commission had reported that these trusts tended to monopolise the world's supply for the purpose of securing extortionate profits. The Ministry intended to continuo the national kitchen, which was so successful, but was not opening others to compete with private enterprise. PREEFRENCE TO COLONIAL SUGAR. A deputation from the British Empire Producers' Organisation urged upon Colonel Amery (Under-secretary lor the Colonies) the necessity for preferential treatment of colonial-grown sugar. The proceedings were in private, but it is understood that Colonel Amery's reply satisfied the deputation. A NEW LINE OF STEAMERS. Mr Goldie, an Australian, has been commissioned by the Los Angeles Harbour Board to investigate as to possible support from outside Australasia of a movement to establish a regular modern line- of steamers between Los Angeles and New Zealand and Australian ports. The Los Angeles Pacific Navigation Company will shortly send a cargo steamer to Australia to test the possibilities of securing regular cargoes. WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY. The Schenectady General Electric Company is manufacturing a device by which wireless messages may be printed on a tape. This device makes a receiving speed of 400 words a minute possible. A PARIS SENSATION. Landau, a dealer in automobiles in Paris, has been arrested on charges of murdering a number of women. He possessed a villa on the borders of the Rambouillet Forest, where women were invited to spend a few days after Landau had become engaged to them. They never reappeared. Landau opened a shop in Paris, where he sold the furniture of the victims, whom he usually selected for the property they possessed. The police suspect that 11 women were murdered. None of the bodies has been found. AN ITALIAN TRAGEDY. A strange tragedy is reported from Rome. Twin brothers named John and Joseph Tocci, who were conjoined like the Siamese twins, accumulated a small fortune by appearing at circuses. They were separated by a surgical operation, and bought a farm. Many business quarrels ended in a desperate fight -with knives. Joseph was stabbed to death, and John, who was seriously wounded, has been arrested. SPANIARDS AND MOROCCANS. There was sharp fighting at Tetuan, a walled seaport town, between the Spaniards and Raisuli's bands. The Spanish party were surrounded and wiped out. Fourteen officers and 300 native and Spanish soldiers were killed or wounded. The Spanish fell back on Tetuan. A RACIAL AFFRAY. A shooting affray occurred at the East End of London. Six (coloured men are in hospitals, thuee being seriously injured. One white man was stabbed, and a policeman was injured. Four arrests have been made. The East End affray arose in a coffee shop. A coloured man fired a revolver at a soldier during a quarrel. The crowd, who resent the blacks' relations with white girls, besieged the shop for two hours, tore down the shutters and attempted to set fire to the building.- Finally they forced an entrance, and roughly handled the blacks, whom the police rescued. VARIOUS ITEMS. The Chicago wheat visible simply is 80,065,000 bushels. The United States has extended 100,000,000 dollars credit to Great Britain. Count Romanones has resigned the Spanish Premiershio, and Senator Maura has formed a Cabinet. Colonel Wedgewood, M.P. for Newoastle-under-Lyme, has ioined the Labour Party as a protest against the Liberal Party's lack of ideas and courage. Typh is exacting a terrible toll throughout Poland, and 10,000 deaths are occurring weekly.The Assembly is nationalising the potash industry, and introducing a seven-hours' day. A meeting of business men and bankers decided to establish a bank of foreign commerce, with a capital of £4,000,000. The Press Bureau states: At the Imperial Government's request Lord Buxton will continue as Governor-general of South Africa until June, 1920. The Board of Trade states that. the general license recently issued permitting the importation of wine other than French, Italian, or Portuguese has been temporarily susoended. The British Rod Cross and Order of St. John received £15.877,190 in the four years 1915-18. and expended £14,422,200. The income for 1917 was £7.425,399 and the expenditure £7.243,281. The Bar Association tendered a dinner to Baron- Reading, at which Mr Elihu Root, in the courso of a speech, said that union between Britain and the United States was necessary in order to preserve the peace of the_ world and prevent the spread of Bolshevism. AUSTRALIAN MEWS. The wave of criminal violence about Melbourne continues. A hotelkeepor was knocked senseless after the Moonee Valley races and robbed of £SOO. An Australasian Conference of fruitgrowers, to bo held_ at Brisbane, may be postponed owing to influenza. A sensation was caused in circles In Tasmania by allegations against a Labour member of bribery in order to influenco votes on liquor legislation. Four German internees at Darlinghurst bound and gagged the sentry. Three scaled the wall and escaped, but two wero subsequently recaptured. The other is still at liberty. The death of the Right Rev. John Francis

Stretch, D.D., Bishop of Newcastle since 1906, who recently retired, is announced. Born at Geelong, Victoria, on January 28, 1855, he was appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Brisbane, 1895; and was the first Australian born and bred to attain the episcopal bench. He was inducted as rector of Roma, and was known in West Queensland as the Bishop of Roma. A new Cabinet has been sworn in _in Western Australia, comprising the Premier, Mr Colebalch ; Minister of Lands, Mr Mitchell ; Minister of Public Works, Mr George; Attorney-general, Mr Robinson; Colonial Secretary, Mr Hodson; Minister of Agriculture" Mr Baxter. A Bolshevist who was attempting to interrupt a Labour meeting at Launceston was severely ha"ndled by the crowd, and was rescued with difficulty by the police, who escorted him to the police office. _ A crowd of 1000 lined up outside the station and sang the National Anthem. The police prevented any further disturbance. Mr Lawson, Leader of the Tasmanian State Labour party, outlined his policy, which includes State steamships, State flourmills, an export department, nationalising of the liquor traffic, abolition of the State Governor, the Legislative Council, and the Agent-general. Tlo also denounces the "One Big Union," 1.W.W., and Bolshevism. AN INSANE ACT. Mrs M'Veigh, who was arrested at Allora, Quensland, last week on a charge of murdering her three children, was to-day committed for trial. A doctor gave evidence that accused told him she had quarrelled with her husband, who threatened to leave here and take the children away. Rather than submit to that she determined to kill the children. It is believed that the woman is insane. HOOKWORM. Dr Lambert, who is investigating hookworm on behalf of the Rockefeller Foundation, reports that 23 per cent, of the coastal population in Queensland is infected, and that the infection is extraordinarily high amongst the aboriginals, who act as carriers of the disease. The infection is also having a progressive deteriorating effect on 40 per cent, of the sehool children, and if it be left to run for a few more generations it will mean a race of comparative imbeciles and physical degenerates instead of a dominant white race. A SYDNEY TRAGEDY. A man supposed to be named Spencer was found in a dying condition in Sydney, his head battered, and he subsequently succumbed. Investigation of his papers disclosed his real name to be Tuck. He received regular remittances from England, and it is believed that he was connected with a famous business house in London. The reason for the crime is not apparent. Quantities of jewellery and money in his room were not touched. Tire Government offered a reward of £IOO for the arrest of the murderer. The police have arrested a youth named William Doyle, aged 17 years, who admits that he struck Mr Tuck with a lead sling during a struggle, in which Tuck was the aggressor. It transpires that Doyle is a New Zealander. His occupation is that of a hotel worker.