AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3995, 7 October 1930, Page 48

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

STATE ELECTIONS.

NEW SOUTH WALES CAMPAIGN. SYDNEY, October 1.

The State election campaign is probably the most bitter oil record. Commercial interests are speculating where Mr Lang is to obtain his millions to enable him to fulfil his lavish promises, and the Premier and his supporters are telling the people that the return of Mr Lang’s party will spell disaster not only to the State but to the Commoonwealth.

There was a significant development to-day. Mr Lang appeared unexpectedly in the Federal Capital, and it is understood that he asked the Federal Cabinet to refrain from announcing a salary and wage reduction in the case of civil servants on the ground that it would prejudice the State Labour Party’s chances at the forthcoming elections. He claimed that Labour’s return to power was already assured. He then left for the adjoining centre of Queanbeyan, where he kept in touch with the Federal Cabinet’s doings.

NOMINATIONS RECEIVED. SYDNEY, October 2.

The nominations for the New South Wales general election on October 25 have closed. There are 276 candidates for 90 electorates, only one candidate being unopposed. The National Party is dontesting 42 seats in the metropolitan area and 23 in the country, Labour is contesting 42 in the metropolitan area and 46 in the country, while the Country Party is contesting 22 exclusively rural seats. The Com--munists are putting forward 52 candidates, of whom five are women. Australian Party nominees and Independents comprise the balance of ' the aspirants. NEW COASTAL SHIPPING. • A FREIGHT WAR BEGUN. SYDNEY, October 1. A freight war has been begun in the coastal shipping services of Australia at the instance of the Patrick Line, whose two small steamers have repeatedly made serious inroads into trade which was originally handled by large interstate shipping .ompanies. The Patrick Line’s rates have been reduced by 20 per cent., but the associated companies to-day fired a broadside by announcing reductions in freight from 24 to 5 per cent, below that of the Patrick Line. It is calculated that the saving to shippers will thus aggregate £200,000 per year.

AUSTRALIAN STUD SHEEP.

EXPORTS TO RUSSIA. SYDNEY, October 1

The Guardian makes what it terms an exposure of an alleged plan to export stud sheep to Russia and South Africa through New Zealand, where they would be pastured for a brief period and sent on. The Guardian says that £50,000 is available for the purchase money of the first instalment. It is expected that 10,000 Australian merino sheep will be exported to Russia, and a lesser number to South Africa.

Five thousand sheep were shipped to Russia from Sydney last November, the Commonwealth Government’s preventive action not being taken quickly enough to block the steamer’s departure.

A TRUSTFUL NEW ZEALANDER. NOTES HANDED TO STRANGER. -SYDNEY, October 1. Robert Bowie, a visitor from New Zealand, became acquainted with a man in a Sydney hotel who offered to change £2O of New’ Zealand notes into gold. Bowie handed over the money, and the stranger disappeared from the bar and has not since been traced. JUDGE’S SCATHING COMMENTS. EVIDENCE IN WILL CASE. SYDNEY, October 3. In giving judgment in a will suit in which ‘undue influence was alleged against the testator’s widow, Mrs Jessie Massy, of Gundaroo, Mr Justice Davidson scathingly criticised a leading Sydney practitioner, Dr Chisholm Ross, whose evidence related to the testamentary capacity. The judge, after adversely commenting on the doctor’s evidence, said: “I can only say that when a man sets himself up as a mental specialist and acts as Dr Chisholm Ross has done in this suit, he is nothing less than a menace to the public and a disgrace to his profession.” The judge dismissed the widow’s suit asking that probate be granted to her and another executor. MUNGANA MINING LEASES. BRISBANE, October 3. The Attorney-general for Queensland (Mr N. F. M'Groarty) has issued writs against Frederick Reid, William M'Cormack, Edw’ard Theodore, and Peter Goddard, claiming damages for “ causing damage to' an estate of the King,” or, in the alternative, damages in connection with the purchase of certain mines at Mungana, and on two other alternatives.