NEWS FROM OVERSEAS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 2 December 1927, Page 7

NEWS FROM OVERSEAS

CABLES IN BRIEF. Exotic American Dances: The War Ministry lias circularised regiments drawing attention to the incompatibility of exotic American dances with the austerity of military demeanour, and orders officers to refrain from public indulgence in the Charleston Suspected Thief Arrested: Detectives in Sydney arrested a man whom they charged with obtaining £2165 by. false pretences from Albert Pearson, of Auckland A Lover of Animals: Miss Harris, who died at Katoomba, left estate valued at £3154. which she bequeathed to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The will asks that her dogs, parrot, an'fl canaries be par 'essiy destroyed.

British Air Force: Sir Phillip Sassoon, British Under-Secretary for Air, stated in the House of Commons, in reply to a question, that of the 750 aeroplanes possessed bv the Air Force none was l.mlt before 1919. He declined in tho public interest to state how many were built in each year from that data.

Family Endowment Burden: Evidence was given before the Family Endowment . Commission at Sydney that public utilities were heavy sufferers by the tax. For instance, it would add £30,000 to the cost of the North Shore bridge and £55,000 in charges to the Metropolitan Water Sewerage Board.

Expensive Luxuries: in the House of Representatives at Canberra, Mr. Stanley Bruce in reply to a question, stated that during the past financial year boards and commissions ap pointed bv.the Federal Governmem lor various purposes cost' nearly £500,000.

Illegal Betting; The growing prevalence of illegal betting in Sydney is shown in the police report for the three months ended October. A total of 243 people in the nietro;>olitai’ area were charged with illegal betting and fines of over £lO6O were in. fileted.

Opium Convention: The Foreign Secretary stated in the House of Commons that besides Great Britain, only France and Poland had ratified the Geneva opium convention of 1925 The ratification by Great Britain covered al| parts of the Empire other than Canada and the Irish Free State.

Increased Fares: The N.S.W. State Cabinet has approved of increased railway and tramway fares estimated to yield an additional £1,800,000 annually. The railway increases apply to the country as well as the metropolitan area. The increases amount to about 7 per cent. The revenue for the balance of the financial year will benefit to the extent of £500,000.

Loss on Sale of Ships: The French Senate and the Chamber of Deputies formally ratified the sale of the Government's 400 merchant ships, bought in the war time at a cost of ]450 million francs, which was then in the region nf par. Realisation on the railing franc resulted in a nett loss of more than 1000 million francs.

Unemployment Insurance; The House of Commons, in committee on the Unemployed Insurance Bill with the Government’s assent, r’educed the contributions' which disabled ex-ser-vicemen are required to make before participating in the benefits to ten, compared with an ordinary worker’s 30 contributions. Clause five was carried and the debate was adiourned

Empire-Grown Tobacco; Imports into Britain of tobacco grown within the Empire have increased rapidly during the past year, amounting >n ten months to 34,0(10.000 pounds ih weight, as compared with less than 16.000,(XX) pounds in the corresponding period of 1925 and 25.000.(XX) in the ten months of la.st year.

Palestine Loam 131? subscription list of the Palestine Government loan of £4,475,000 bearing interest at 5 per cent, and offered at £lol} per cent was opened in London on Wednesday morning and closed in about two hours. It is understood the loan ha s been many times oversubscribed. The principal and interest are guaran. teed by the British Treasury.

Byrd’s South Pole Flight: Arctic Eskimos will for the first time be taken to the Antarctic. This is a project of Commander Byrd’s expedition, according to the announcement of the commander, who says six Greenlanders, including two women, have agreed to start an Eskimo colony there. The remainder of the expedition will consist of whites. Commander Byrd has received thousands of applications ffom adventurous spirits to accompany him. Scores of these are from Australia and New Zealand. .