AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XIII, Issue 2776, 26 July 1907, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Electric Telegraph Press Association. CopyrightMISHAP TO A STEAMER. Sydney, July 24. The steamer Kakapo, from Dovonport, met the barque Eagle Crag, bound from Melbourne to Falmouth, with wheat, on Sunday, between Deal Island aud Gabo. The vessel requested to be supplied with Greenwich time and in rounding up ran foul of the steamer, denting one of her plates slightly. Tlie barque escaped serious injury. MUNICIPAL ENTER PRISE. .Melbourne, July 24. The Metropolitan Board of Works has accepted the offer of the Australian Mutual Provident Society to purchase £300,000 worth of debentures. THE EORTIiroMING SCULLING MATCH. Sydney, July 25. Webb, the New Zealand sculler, is putting in good work for his match with Charles Towns for the championship of the world, which is to he rowed on August 3rd. He is in excellent health, and i getting some good sprints out of a new sculler built for him bv George Towns. Webb has, however, kept touts in ignorance as to his speed. GEN ER AI, NEWS. Sydney, July 23. A serious epidemic of whooping cough, accompanied by bronchial pneumonia, lias been experienced. It caused more deaths for any one year since 1901. hut. is now abating. Melbourne, July 25. There is a remarkable decrease in the prison population of Victoria in fifteen years. The proportion .of prisonors to population lias decreased from one in 613 to one in 1229.