MISCELLANEOUS.

Hokitika Guardian, 24 July 1919, Page 1

MISCELLANEOUS.

FINANCIAL.

AUSTRALIA AND BRITAIN

(By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) (AUSTRALIAN & N.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION]

(Received this day at 9.25 a.in.)

LONDON, July 23.

In reference to the statement published that British financiers are unfavourably impressed by- the Australian situation, two imxiortant bankers who are in constant touch with London’s chief financiers state they never heard a whisper to this effect. One says that the only thing that tended in any way to shake Australia’s credit was some of the recent legislation. A leading stockbroker closely conned ed with Australian affairs, says though the labour situation the "world over is causing some uneasiness, The positlm in Australia is regarded more favourably than Britain’s, the evidence for which is to be found in the price of Government securities. The moderate decline in some long dated Australian stocks, js less than the decline in Consols, and British local loans, and is entirely explainable by the changed conditions, due to the issue of the Victory Loan on attractive terms, and is in no wise attributable to report? of unrest in Australia. Even if there had been no trouble in Australia tlie price of stocks must have depreciated owing to the Victory loan.

A PROJECTED FLY. (Received this day at 9.20 a.m.) ROME, July 17. Dnnnunzio is organising a Rome to Tokio flight. There arc 5 machines participating. A LIBEL ACTION. (Received This Dav at 8.45 a.m.) LONDON, July 17. A libel action lias concluded in Edinburgh of Col. IV. E. Gordon, against the Dundee ‘“Peoples’ Journal” which published an interview asserting he ordered the Gordon Highlanders to surrender in the Mons retreat. Gordon denied the accusation, and said lie ordered the men to fix bayonets and summoned them to follow him and break through or perish, but that a subordinate officer countermanded the order. Gordon was awarded £SOO damage.

WILLOCIIRA ARRIVES. (Received this day at S.lo a.m.) LONDON, July 23. Thu Willoclira with deported Germans from New Zealand has arrived at Plymouth.

CI-lURCH COURT OF APPEAL. DUNEDIN, July 18

Tu connexion with the judgment of the Court of Appeal of the Church of the Province of New Zealand in the case of the Veil . Archdeacon C. If. Gosset v. the Rev. C. 32. Perry, the following note is appended to the judgment of the Bishops on Charge 1 of the appeal by the Primate: “Since the above-given decision of Ihe Bishops, upon Charge .1 of the appeal (the Bishop of Auckland dissenting), the recommendation of a very important Committee of the Lambeth Conference upon the point involved has been discovered by the Primate, who here recites the case as being in support of the decision bv the three Bishops, that the Bishop of the diocese is the Lawful Authority referred to in Clause 2, Canon 11., Title- D, of the General Synod. The Lambeth pronouncement is as follows: “That after considering certain difficulties brought before them in regard to the administraton of the Holy Communion to the sick, the committee recommends that these difficulties should he left to he dealt with by the Bishop of each diocese.” This committee consisted of 29 Bishops from all parts of the world, including the Archbishops of Canterbury, York, Armagh, Dublin, and Sydney, and the Bishops of London, Durham and Salisbury.

SHIP-BUILDING. LONDON, July 23. Mr Archibald Hurd, writing in the

“Daily Telegraph,” says that 2.521,050 tons of shipping are now being built in Great Britain, being a gratifying increase of 209,000 tons oil tbe Mai eh f , muter. British shipowners were sliowing fine enterprise, but it was regrettable that there were coal strikes, as they were crippling attempts to recover the losses of the war. Slops were now Britain’s greatest need. America had secured the cream of Germany’s passenger liners. America now possesses four million tons more than she did in 1914. Japan also_ had increased her merchant fleet by 25 P ol ' cent. Both these countries are still building at their maximum rate of output. A British national effort was imperative, because. Britain bad lost her supremacy since 1914. America was now building 994 vessels, with a tonnage of 3,874,173; Britain 782 vessels with a tonnage of 2,524,200: the British Dominions 209 vessels with a tonnage of 346,453, and Japan 63 vessels with a tonnage of 282,060.

DOMINIONS NATIONAL. STATUS. LONDON, July 22. Mr \rtlmr Berriedale Keith, formerly‘of the Colonial Office in London, ,'i.ises the tariff question in relation to the League of Nations. He !,sks t,u ' Peace Conference, whether. Inning givon the recognition of an international status to the dominions, if will not 1,0 now required to he made clear that the favoured nation clause of the League must not, interfere with any scheme „f inter-imperial Preference. Otherwise, he declares any foreign nation m „v claim some advantage Horn the national status, that the nations have conceded the dominions.

A BLAZING BALLOON. NEW YORK, July 22,

A dirigible balloon, used for advertising purposes in Chicago, took fire and fell eight hundred feet, crashing through a bank sky-liglit. Eleven persons were killed and twenty-six injured.

CRITIC OF HOME RULE

LONDON, July 22,

Mr Licey, a jurist, comments adversely on Sir Horace Plunkett’s sceme for granting Ireland self-gov-ernment. One objection is that he expresses doubts at to whether Ireland could do without Imperial financial help, which the dominions had not received. He also expressed doubts as to whether Ireland, being in proximity to England, as against say, New Zealand’s wide separation, would not make it impossible to give Ireland the same status as New Zealand.