CABLEGRAMS

Horowhenua Chronicle, 24 March 1915, Page 3

CABLEGRAMS

[ELKOTRIC IKIikOBAPH—COPYRIGHT.] |_i>EK 1-UKBS AIgOCIAI'ION.J

(Received This Day 8.50 a.m.)

CHARGE OF MURDER.

London, March 23. George Smith has now been charged with murdering. three- wives.

(The Home Office last month ord-

ered the exhumation of the bodies of two wives of Smith, both of

whom died in a bath shortly after

their marriage with Smith.)

Smith, after marrying Mundy , , purchased a bath for 37s (3d on sth July. The woman njade her will on the Bth. Prisoner on the 10th called in a doctor and said his wife had a fit. The doctor examined her but found no signs and similarly on the 12th when the doctor was again called. On the 13th he found Mundy in a bath witli her head submerged.

Mr Bodkin, K.C.. asserted that tho head must have been forced under the water or the legs raised in order to allow the head to slide down.

Smith insured Burntiam for £500 on 4th December and arrived at Blackpool on the 10th. He refused apartments where there was no bathroom, and consulted a doctor in connection with Burnham's headaches. Site was drowned on the 12th. A quantity of hair was found on the side« of the bath a.s though there was a struggle.

Prisoner insisted that Mundy ml Burnham be buried inexpensively in a public grave.

(Received This Day 10.5 a.m.)

WHAT STATISTICS SHOW

Sydney, This Day

Official statistics show that the percentage of trades unionists among the ti idcsnien who enlisted in the Expedition Force is 6.27 per cent and other than trade unionists 4 per cent. NEW SYSTEM ENFORCED. Tile new system of street traffic enforced ifi considerably relieving vehicular congestion. Pedestrian traffic also it regulated and stiff penalties are provided. WOOL EASIER. At the wool sales there was a further easing tendency, particularly in the lower grades. THE WHEAT CASE. J u the wheat case the High Court also found that the Constitution gave the Commonwealth Parliament no power to create an Interstate Commission at all. Cost were allowed against the New South Wales Government. The Hon. D. Hall is gratified with the result. He says that the real issue at stake \va« whether the people through their Parliament still retained the full powers of sell-government, or whether the dead hand of the Constitution had been laid upon tbp ■States and the Commonwealth. The Hon. W. M. Hughes views the position seriously and there are possible further developments. ■* The wheat trade generally is relieved at the Court's decision as an ipposite finding would have raised all vorts of complications in regard to the commandeering of wheat. STATE BREAD SCHEME CRITICISED. The executive of the Employeiw' federation, in criticising the Hon. D. Hall's State bread scheme, says that the experiment would ruin a large number of established businesses, accentuate the industrial evils already created by extensive Government employment of labour, and tend to check the ( investment of money in private industrial concerns. It adds that the Government monopolies are only successfully workable where labour is uncier the Control of the Government; they ar* foredoomed to failure in Australia where organised labour controls. OBITUARY. Monsignor O'Brien, rector of St. John's College. RATING ON UNIMPROVED VALUES. The City Council' rejected the proposal to adopt the unimproved oapital value for rating. RECIPROCITY. A deputation of associated Chambers of Commerce presented the Hon. F. Tudor with the resolutions ndopted at the Hobart conference in favour of reopening negotiations with Canada and .Vew Zealand with a view to a reciprocal arrangement. Early Cabinet consideration was promised. RETRENCH MTCXT. Perth. This Day Ministers' salaries are included in uie Civil Service retrenchment scheme.