AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3399, 7 May 1919, Page 37

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

The Federal Government has repealed the regulations controlling the consumption of paper. The annual war pensions liability now totals £4,974,805. The Royal Commission has opened its inquiry into the sugar industry. The manager of the Colonial Sugar Company submitted a lengthy statement dealing with the national value of the sugar industry. Messrs Massey and Greene (honorary Federal Ministers) promised a deputation of banana-growers at Murwillumbah that the Federal Government would impose a duty against Fiji bananas. Mr Harry Lauder, the Scotch comedian, has arrived in Sydney. He has received a cablo message announcing that the King has conferred a knighthood on him. Mail robberios are again in evidence in New South Wales. A daring case occurred on the, South Coast line, in which two men, by moans of a faked telephone message, induced flio handing over of mail bags containing cheques and other valuables worth a considerdable amoiint. An arrest has been made. Tho Sydney City Council has increased the rating by fd in the pound. An analysis shows that in- the past 10 while the labour employed by the council has increased by 33 por cent., tho expenditure thereon has increased by 156 per cent. SMALLPOX Three transports have arrived at Melbourne each with smallpox aboard. One death is reported. A DOUBLE TRAGEDY. A sensational double tragedy is reported from Perth, W.A. A, Murray, a station ttanager, shot uead Eva Downey, a barmaid, in a motor car, and then killed him-

self Murray was a married man with nine chiJdren. Ho resented Downey s indifference to his attention. TAINTED WHEAT. The Sydney Sun newspaper charges the New South Wales Government with attempting to coerce millers to make flour from tainted wheat. This wheat, the paper states, was part of the 1916-17 crop, which the British Govefhmnt rejected. It was damaged by weather and contaminated by dead mice and ..other vermin. It was unfit for human consumption, and might c *use the disease known as rope plague. Ine Sun adds: "Some millers refused this wheat, demanding clean grain, of which a plentiful supply was available." ... In replying to charges regarding the 1916-17 wheat the Premier maintains that the crop is not less wholesome than other wheat; in fact, New-South Wales millers have been using the same wheat for over two years. PREFERENCE TO THE MOTHER COUNTRY. A deputation from the Association of British manufacturers asked the Minister of Customs for substantial and effective preference to be given to British manufacturers in the revision of the. Customs tariff as* a set-off' against Britain's trade sacrifices in the war. The deputation urged that it would be impossible to survive the competition of Japan and America without substantial preference, and asked for a 20 per cent, minimum in place of the present 5 to 10 per cent. The Minister replied that the Government was endeavouring to give tho of preference to Britain which the position justified. It was not losing sight of the Japanese and Americans' better opportunities for extending trade during war time. If, however, the Commonwealth granted Britain a substantial preference it would expect Britain to reciprocate. PETROLEUM IN NEW GUINEA. Reports are current of the discovery of great petroleum wells in a portion of New Guinea formerly held, by the Germans. Acording to these reports parties of American and Australian experts who visited the Pacific River in 1913 and 1914 discovered evidences of extensive oilfields extending inland for 40 miles. In one place the oil was bubbling from the rocks, and the river was covered for miles with heavy crude oil. The discoveries were reported in 1914 to the Federal Government, which, however, up to the present, declines to made any announcement on the subject. Mr Glynn (Minister of, Home Affairs and Territories) denies knowledge of the alleged discovery of large flows of petroleum in Papua, though he received a report some time ago that oil seepages.had been found in German New Guinea.