AUSTRALIAN CABLES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3576, 26 September 1922, Page 26

AUSTRALIAN CABLES.

five wives. Charles Henry Royle, 37, a school teacher, charged with bigamy at Sydney Quarter Sessions on September 8, admitted having been married five times. Royle pleaded guilty, haying married a women in South Australia in 1918, deserted her and a child of the marriage after 18 months, and married again at Bondi in 1921, a woman whom lie deserted after two months. The police stated that Royle lxad admitted marrying and deserting three other women —one iq Pretoria, South Africa, in 1914, one in Capetown in 1915, and one in Western Australia in 1916. Royle was sentenced to 12 months’ hard labour. RECKLESS MOTOR DRIVING. A furiously-driven motor car dashed among people alighting form a tram at Petersham, Sydney, and killed Robert Thomas and his wife, and injured five others. One of the injured, Joseph Warner, subsequently died. The driver of the car disappeared. Subsequently tile ear was identified as one stolen iust before the smash. HEAVY DAMAGES CLAIMED. Jn the case in which Alderman Bramston claimed £10,060 damages from the Herald newsepaper for alleged libel in connection with allegations of corruption, to the effect that one alderman in the City Council had accepted £SO as an instalment of £7OO to be paid as commission in a certain woodblock contract which had been engineered through the council, the jury returned a majority verdict in favour of the defendant newspaper. WOOL AND MEAT FREIGHTS. A representative deputation from the Graziers’ A ssociation asked Mr Hughes for a reduction of the freights on meat and wool for export, explaining that Australian growers wore charged .269 d tier lb more for wool than the New Zealand growers were charged, which made a difference of £640,000 for the season’s clip. Mr Hughes promised to consult the management of the Commonwealth Line and ask it to assist in every way possible. NEW SOUTH WALES FINANCES. The Auditor-general has issued a warning to the Government calling attention to the grave financial situation, and making re fere not; to the increasing interest bill, which had jumped from £3,503,000 to £7,747,000 wilhin the past 10 years. He also points out that the measureable limit of taxation has been reached, and the Stale is suffering from the effects of overtaxation announced. COCKATOO ISLAND. A conference of the iron trade officials has been notified by a private syndicate that it is negotiating with the Commonwealth to take over Cockatoo Island, Sydney, as a general engineering workshop. Uio conference passed a resolution deprecating the handing over of a national enterprise to private enterprise, but assuring the latter of the co-operation of the unions in the event of the negotiations succeeding, provided that the new company .conforms to the conditions previously existing in the shops on the waterfront. Mr Hughes, Prime Minister, denies that there is any truth in the statement. The balance sheet of the Cockatoo Islana doekvards for the past. 12 months shows a profit of £326. The management regarcls the small profit as particularly commendable considering the period was the worst yet experienced in ship repairing and docking. INCREASED AREA OF WHEAT SOWN. The total wheat area sown this season in New South Wales is 3,368,000 acres, an increase of 179,C00 acres over last year. The growers expect to cub 504,000 acres of hay. THE YEA TRAGEDY. The jury disagreed in the case in which Reuben Fox is charged with murdering Mrs M'Laughlin at Yea. 80 miles from Melbourne. Both attended a dance on the night of the tragedy (July 23). Evidence was given that the clothes Fox wore at the dance were blood-stained. Fox strongly denied his guilt. A new trial has been ordered. BURIED TREASURE. It is ascertained that only the first nugget found" in t.hc Sydney railway excavations (supposed to be a plant of some old-time robbery) was gold. The others were copper. It is suggested that the first discovery led to the perpetration of a practical joke at the expense of ihe excavators. THE WHEAT POOL. The chairman of the Wheat Growers’ Corporation stated that the total sales to date of wheat in the pool were 29,793,000 bushels at 5s 4Jd. The board earned £65.000 from the Chartering Commission. The net return to the growers was 4s 4d per bushel. MISCELLA NEOU.S ITEMS. A fire at Gladstone, Queensland, destroyed four business premises and did damage to the value of £IO.OOO. . Mr Alfred Hill has been appointed to succeed Mr Skalski as conductor of Ihe New South Wales Orchestra. 4 fire gutted the Melbourne show rooms of Lane's Motors Proprietary (Ltd.) the damage to which is estimated at £4OOOO. A fire in Alien’s confectionery factory at Kensington, Victoria, caused damage estimated at £30,000. Mr Hughes announced tnat the Commonwealth Government had signed an agreement with Victoria providing for the introduction of 2000 new land settlers, being an instalment in a comprehensive proposal to spend £30.000,000 on immigration. A representative meeting of bydney citizens appointed a committee to take the necessary steps for the erection of a memorial to perpetuate the memory ot Henry Lawson. • , A ‘distress wireless message was received from the Japanese steamer Kiso Maru Stating that she had broken her propeller shaft 300 miles north e-as, c ■ j* 1 -. 1- -' • The steamer Atauta Maru picked up the message, and is hurrying to her assistance.