AUSTRALIAN SUMMARY

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 821, 21 May 1910, Page 9

AUSTRALIAN SUMMARY

"WIRELESS" ACROSS THE COK° TINE NT. t

Sydney, May 11. Mr. J. H. A. Pike, the yonng wireless telegraphic expert, of this city, has eclipsed all his previous achievements, by taking messages from Fremantle, a distance of considerably over 2000 miles. Tho "Daily Telegraph" states that he <\H- \ tinctly hc-ard a conversation carried on , between H. 31.5. Encounter, in port at : Fremantlo, and H. 11.5. Powerful, steam- , ing across the Great Australian Bight, on. : her way from Hobart to the AVestera. ; Australian port. The Encounter, which was recently recommissionod at Colombo, for another term on tho Australian station, at Freniantle, was awaiting tho arrival of the flagship and the ships that are accompanying her. The feat accomplished by Mr. Pile is all the more remarkable by reason of the fact that the waves travelled over a large area of land, thus rendering the work of detecting messages much more difficult than would have been tho case had tho wireless communications been received direct froin sea. Recently Mr. Pike succeeded in keeping in touch with the Canadian-Australian mail liner Maknra all the way from Sydnev to Suva, and received a number of messages.

THE CAPITA! SITE QUESTION. It appears that there is a possibility of the Federal capital question being reopened. At any rate, it is curious that a number of Victorians and some others, who havo no desire to shift the temporary seat of government from MelDouTOe, are expressing the satisfaction at the selection of Mr. O'Halloy for tho position, of Minister for Home Affairs. The movement they regard as hopeful for the consummation of tho fcchemo to prevent tho work of settling the site at Yass-Canberra from proceeding. It is pointed out that there is no need to leave Melbourne, and that in Victoria particularly a number of members havo been returned hostile to the present settlement. Tho new Government is being looked to now for an early pronouncement of its intentions with respect to the capital, so that the assurances which were given at the Federal elections that tho Yass-Canberra compact would be safe if a Labour Government was returned to power shall bo shown to have been justified. SUNDAY TRADING.' ' Judge Docker, 'in the course of h53; remarks concerning an appeal against a conviction at Katoomba for Sunday trading, made pointed reference to the administration of the law governing this offence. It had been contended by tho solicitor for tho appellant that his client, the proprietor of a Kateomba refresh-ment-room, wae really meeting a need o* the travelling public. It was stated that shopkeepers at Manly and near Circular Quay wore permitted by "tho authorities" to keep open. His Honour doubted if oither chief secretaries or Inspector-Gene-rals of Polico had power to give permission to any person in any particular locality to keep his shop open when the law distinctly said, those shops must bo closed. He regarded such alleged "permission" as "an unauthorised interfer-i enco with tho law in Hi© interests of special persons." In the case before tho Court ho could not seo that any special necessity existed for tho keeping open of tho shop of tho 'appellant. Even if a necessity existed in any,such case, the power rested with Parliament to alter the law in accordance with what might be considered the needs of tho community, but until the law was altered, it duty of judges, polico, and other "authorities" to see that it was faithfully administered. For a judge to do lesa would be to dishonour the obligation or tho oath which he took to do justice without fear or favour, affection or malice, or ill-will. If it were a fact that some "authorities" had directed the police not- to prosecute in certain cases, that was not an example which tie Court cduld follow. It was not for the Court to give any sort of sanction to any iaea that "authorities" could rightfully; instruct the officials empowered to administer the law to exempt special persons in special places from tho duo operation of the law. It was said that some magistrates only inflicted nominal punishment m such cases. To do that was to make u farce of the law, a thing which that Court would not do. While the law remained in its present form it was the duty of the Courts to administer it, otherwise the discretion of some minor official might be supremo over the law. Tho conviction was accordingly uptiekl, costs being allowed against appellant.

A STATISTICIAN'S DrfFIOTLTY. Tlie Trades Hall Council at Melbourne has adopted a hostile attitude towards the endeavour of Mr. G. H. Knibbs, Commonwealth Statistician, to obtain information, as to the cost of living. Apparently the council thinks it sees in the Statistician s request a deep laid plot to obtain information that might be used against them.. Mr. Knibbs, however, has explained,, through the "Age," what his Departmentwas aiming nt was merely to obtain reliable information that wonld permit of a comparison being made between- the cost of living in Australia, and in other parts of tho world. Tho information was purely far statistical purposes, and would bo treated as confidential. Similar information was collected in Germany and tho United States, and the Board of L'rado in England had recently obtained figures showing the cost of living in Germany. He had put the proposal before tho ex-Minister for Home. Affairs, Mr: Fuller, with the idea of ascertaining what people did live on when they were in receipt of a given income, and liow they divided their income up ■ among the ent sources of expenditure in tho household. His desire was to embrace as many classes of the community as possible. Books were to be issued to householders; who would be asked to give detailed items of expenditure common to tho average household, and to state tho number of children in the family, tho occupations of the husband, wife and children, and the amount of income received. At the end of the year the book was to be forwarded to his Department. All information sent in would be regarded as confidential, and the holder of the book would not even bo required to sign his name.

MOTOR TRAINS. The Victorian Premier and Attorney. General have been conferring with tho Hailway Commissioners on tho question of running motor trains on country lines where the present service is slow, and infrequent. The Premier, in giving an account of the proceedings, subsequently stated, that Hγ. Drysdale Brown, who has taken a keen interest in the subject, and is a great believer in the value ,of motor trains, on lines where thero is a comparatively light traffic, in providing a quicker and moro frequent service, and thus developing the traffic, laid a largo amount of information before the conference as to the successful working of motor trains in England, Hungary, and other places. The Hailway Commissioners, however, thought they could provirtu -.i bi'tter service Tvita tho light F engines which had gone out of use. It would be better to utilise them in this way than to scrap them. They pointed out certain objections to tho motor train, or combined engine and car, irnd, on tho other hand, tho advantages of a separate engine. "My own opinion," Mr. Murray said, "is that we should get a motor train, and run it as ah experiment. 1 am inclined to take the same view as tho Attorney-General as to the utility of this kind of service. It ,>,ppear.< tint a later type of motor train is lrei»s used now in England, which alight jivo a more suitable service for this country- I fed t'ae necessity of duini; something to improve the , service in many country districts where the train service now is slow and unsatisfactory." Further inquiry is to be imulo, and the question will be discussed at the next meeting of tho Cabinet.'