AUSTRALIAN NEWS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18632, 16 February 1935, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN NEWS

The net .gain to the population of Australia through migration during the vear was 2?BQ persons.

* ‘ Special 2(1 and Is postage stamps arc to be issued to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the Gallipoli landing. A report by the Government Statistician shows that the population <M tlm metropolitan area of Sydney last September, was 1,243,335. During a thunderstorm in the Newcastle district, lightning struck two trains, a school, and a house, but only slight damage was done. Professor D. H. McLaughlin, one- of the world’s greatest economic geologists, is corning from America to report on Australian mines.

Au association representative of practically all tlie British film interests in Australia and New Zealand lias been formed in Sydney.

The Victorian Marine Board has approved a proposal to remove the Melbourne oil wharves to another site at a cost .of £500,0C0. Senator Pearce will not go to London with the jubilee delegation. The Prime Minister states that in order to limit the size of the party a third Minister would not be included.

Three men were burned, one seriously, \vhen a huge petrol tank on which they were working at Clyde, (N.SAV.), ignited.

On two charges of attempting to evade income, tax assessments, Ernest L). Currie, a shearing contractor, yvas fined £IOOO in a Sydney court. The Federal Government has decided to leave to the States the distribution of its '£I2,OGO,COO grant for rural rehabilitation.

Schemes submitted) by the States for unemployment’ relief, and approved by the Federal Cabinet, now total £1,664,750.

At Goondiwiucli a station employee, who made a hobby of collecting snakes, diod after lie had been bitten by an adder.

Conversion of the. North Melbourne cable-tram line, to electric traction, at an estimated cost of £112,0C0, lias been decided upon. At a special meeting of A.M.P. policyholders, proposals to alter th-> scale of voting power and the system of voting for directors were defeated. A proposal by the hoard to alter the conditions .on which policy-holders could requisition a special meeting was adopted. Damage to crops by rust has causetl heavy losses among Victorian wheatgrowers, and it is now estimated that the total production will be less than 30,(XX),000 bushels. Just before the harvest, the, yield *yas expected; to be approximately 55,C00,0C0 bushels. A light armoi'ed car, the first of its kind in the Empire, lias been built in Australia and is undergoing trials. Parliament House, %dney, will be remodelled or rebuilt. Tlie. Government is considering what form the improvements will take.

During the 91 years of its life, tho Sydney Water Board has spent more than iHB,(XX),OGO on new works.