AUSTRALIAN

Hokitika Guardian, 29 December 1919, Page 3

AUSTRA LIAN

fATUSTnAI,IAN it r.z. rw.E association] MURDERS IN SYDNEY. SYDNEY, Dec. 26. Two tragedies occurred on Christmas Eve. A policeman saw two men quarrelling in a street in Surrey Hills. Before he Was able to reach them d, shot was fired and one man dropped dead. The constable chased the assailant, who turned and fired wounding the constable in the neck. The latter plucked out the bullet with: his fingers .and succeeded in arresting the man after a desperate struggle. At Bexley, a butcher battered his wife toi death with the butt of a gun, and then shot himself.

AUSTRALIAN CONTROLLER. ADELAIDE, Dec. 27. Obituary.—Sir Edwin Smith, ex-Min-ister of the Crown. PAPUA REPRESENTATION. PORT MORESBY, Dec. 27. A mass meeting of citizens adopted a motion urging Mr Hughes to grant Papua direct representation in the Federal Parliament. FEDERAL ELECTIONS. . SYDNEY, Dec. 27. Excepting Tasmania, where the counts so far as it is complete, indicates that the Nationalists won all the seats. Election returns still leave the final decision of several seats dependent on small uncounted votes and preferential allocations.

For the Senate, the figures are incomplete, hut the position fc little changed, The referendum votes are now, in the vicinitv of a million. New South Wales, South Australia and Tasmania are against and Victoria, Queensland and Westralia are in favour of both proposals, but the total vote shows a fairly solid majrity 'against, with an increasing tendency.