AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3442, 2 March 1920, Page 40

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Th© damage by Risby's fire at Hobart is estimated at £20,000. The last batch of German deportees has been sent from Sydney to-Melbourne, en route to Germany. -Fire destroyed a picture show and the Greyhound and Exchange Hotels at Narrabi (New South Wales). The damage is estimated at. £20,000. The Federal Government has increased the .price of cheese by a penny vex pound, although the local markets are overstocked with the new season's cheese. ' Stock Exchange in all States are experiencing an unprecedented business in stocics and shares. The mining boom continues.

The Arbitration Court decided that preference to unionists is no longer legal, as returned soldiers and sailors are entitled to first preference. The Minister for Housing states that Sydney is 20,000 houses short of requirements. The Government is doing everything possible to fill the breach. The Whea.t-grow?rs' Conference at Perth, W.A., unanimously resolved that the time had arrived for the establishment of a compulsory wheat pool. The commonwealth revenue returns for tfie half-year show an increase of £4,061,712 ascompared with a similar period in the previous year. The- New South Wales stock returns for 1919 show a decrease of 399.578 cattle and 7,023.852 sheep in New South Wales compared with 1918. The decreases are at-tril-iutnble to the- drought.

Perth, W.A., is suffering- severely from a meat famine, caused by the butchers' striking 1 for increased wages. All the butchers' shops have been closed since Thursdav. The New South Wales Government has decided to give returned soldier prisoners convicted of criminal offences reformative treatment, not ordinary gaol imprisonment. in an effort to restore 'them to mental and physical -normaiitv. The New South Wales Government is issuing' a local loan of £1.000,000 in the form of Treasury bills, with a currency of two years, and bearing interest at 5i per cent., free of income _ tax. The loan is for advances to necessitous farmers.

Kahleen Morton was arrested when disembarking from tile Maheno at Sydney on a charge of embezzling £343, the property of the Wellington Young Women's Christian Association. ' She has been committed to custody until her return to New Zealand. Tho' New South Wales State Orchestra returned to Sydney by the Maheno. The director is highly satisfied with the success oE the tour. He expressed pleasant memories of the joyous-hearted New Zealanders. He hoped" to return soon. Tho gross takings of the tour amounted to over £12,000. Taking advantage of its recently-created majority in the Queensland Legislative Council, the Government is revising and rushing through a number of defeated Bills, including the much-condemned Unemployed Workers and Land Act Amendment measures. METHODIST CONFERENCE. The Methodist Conference opened in Sydney on the 24th. It discussed the question of sending missionaries to foreign fields, and it was decided to allow Dr Bromilow to return to Papua. The Rev. J. Margetts will proceed to New Britain. The Rev. T. B. Holmes was elected president. In connection with the declared intention of Chaplain Wilson to stand for election to the State Parliament, the Conference decided that he be required either to relinquish his candidature or retire from the ministry, as clerical influence in Parliament is undesirable. The Conference decided to recommend the transfer of the Solomon district "to the New Zealand Methodist Church from January, 1922. AUSTRALIAN TRAGEDIES. It transpires that Charles Minchin, who shot Mrs Wittner Steyne at an hotel _ at Manly, Sydney, and then committed suicide, was born in New Zealand. The woman has recovered. . » The New South Wales police are investigating another shooting mystery. The decomposed body of a woman with a_ bullet wound in the temple was found in, the scrub at Woronora Park, near Sutherland. Foul play is suspected. The body has been identified as the wife of Constable Worrall, who recently returned from the front. She was married on Christmas Eve. No further details are available. NEW SOUTH WALES STATE ELECTIONS. The election campaign is t in full swing:, with no fewer than six parties in the field. Tho crop of candidates is exceptionally large. The breakaway of the Progressives from the Nationalists' camp is regarded es serious, and considerablv weakens the Nationalists' chances. Strong efforts are being made to heal the breach and also to bring one or two of the smaller parties into line against the Labourites, _ whose chances are enhanced by the divisions. „ Mr _W. Holman (Premier) is securing the limelight by touring his electorate in an aeroplane. No fewer than 314 nominations were received for the State elections, including four women. •