AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8440, 11 May 1907, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

NEW SOUTH WALES POLITICS. Received May 10, 10 a.m. SYDNEY, May 10. Mr Carruthers expects to have at the end of the year a surplus of £1,350,000, which will be devoted to public worKS hitherto carried on out of loans. Other proposals which he makes aret hefplackg of the business.administration of the Lands Department under a board of known ability and probity; the setting aside of £33,000 as pensions for invalids and cripples; subsidising friendly societies to the extent of £24,000; resumption of Peel River estate (250,000 acres) for eloser^settlement; examination of all lands within twenty miles of railways in the rainfall belt, with a view to resumption; extension of the Public Health Act, making consumption and other j diseases notifiable. NEW HEBRIDES. Received May 10, 10.58 a.m. SYDNEY, May 10. The Rev. Mr LeggStf, ?**&?- terian missionary, speaking at a missionary meeting, advised |Australian politicians not to stand so much on their dignity over the New Hebrides agreement, but to set to work/to make the best of the bargain. The Convention, with all its defects, was a distinct advance if it was properly administered. It would be a great improvement on the previous conditions.

W. P. CRICK. RecGiVs4 May 10, 10.25 p'.tff > SYDNEY, May M.The i& replying on behalf! Of the Attorney* General, to W. P. 6!i«*ft's [c6riisarnfc of the non-issue of sufahtonses Which he applied for, states th&fcJMr Wade did not authorise the refalalk/the Magistrate's acting on their ©vVn discretion. The reports from the Magistrates show that they refused to issue the summonses because Crick declined to give any partieulars't>f the alleged i conspiracy.

THE NAVAL AGREEMENT. Received May 11, 12.40 a.m. MELBOURNE, May 10. Sir John Forrest, Acting-Prime Minister of the Commonwealth, referring to the decision of the Imperial Conference to terminate the Naval agreement, thought that the old agreement was an excellent one, but that was not to say that some other such agreement as Mr Deakin has proposed was even better. Personally, he preferred that the recent agreement shou'd run its course until it expired by the effluxion of time, as the machinery and training was just getting into working order. It was never intended by Mr Deakin or the Government to interfere with the agreement, but the position had been changed by the Imperial Government, which had been so anxious for the agreement in 1902. It was impossible to say till Mr Deakin returned what should be done or when the present system would terminate. The tariff question would have such a prominent place next session that it might be inconvenient at the beginning to deal with the Naval question.