MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

Hokitika Guardian, 24 December 1923, Page 1

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

AUSTRALIAN AND N.Z. CABLE ASSOCI i '.TON. REPARATIONS CO> I MISSION. BRITAIN’S REPRESENTATIVES. LONDON, Dee. 24. Sir Montague Norman, Governor of the Dank of England and Sir Josiah Stamp, Secretary of the Nol>ol Industries have been appointed as the British representatives on the Reparations Committee io inquire into the German finances. Hon Reginald McKenna will serve on the committee to inquire into the question of German capital which has been transferred abroad. CONFIDENCE IN POINCARE. PARIS. Dec. 23. The Chamber by 392 votes to 109 curried a vote of confidence in AT. Poincare on the programme to combat the high cost of living. BRITAIN'S BIG PROBLEM. LONDON. December 21. The Cheshire farmers, meeting at Crewe, told pitiful stories regarding the loot and mouth ravages. They condemn the wholesale .slaughter as a failure and have, urged the isolation and research treatment instead. Sir Francis Flood, representing the Ministry of Agriculture, appealed to the farmers not to throw up the sponge, allowing the disease a mastery. A farmer retorted, amid applause: "The cures are worse than the disease.” A Welsh expert suggests that the disease, which is the most severe among the dairy herds, is posibly due to the lows' weakened vitality, as the result of the advanced methods of obtaining g:< ater milk production. There has been a craze to produce cows giving •h't'Mt gallons yearly.

LOCOMOTIVE MEN. LONDON, Dec. 22. The Railwaymen’s Conference decided, after heated argument, by it large majority, to accept the findings of the Wages" Board, which will involve -light variations in wages. The delegates to the Conference of the Society f l.oi oijiotive Engineers and Firemen have decided to take a ballot ol its members, on the Wages’ Board award. In the event of the rejection of the findings, the Executive will call a national strike. The Locomotive men’s attitude is due, it is explained, to the rejection of their counter claims, including pay for Sunday nights; twelve days’ holiday. with pay, and an eight hours a day roster, instead of nine daily. The “Daily Herald” says; “The worsening of the general conditions, in the face of these claims has tended to intensify the criticism ot the award.

DIVEJIGEXT CAPE VIEWS. CAPETOWN', Doc. 21. That an influential section, and a respoiisilde section of South African opinion does not share General Smuts views regarding the Imperial Conference decisions, is voiced by the Capo Times” which, while declaring that General Smuts' opinion is based explicitly on the position of the Imperial Conference, which, it declared, seems to he a correct view, urges that Mr Baldwin’s proposals should lie submitted to the House of Commons l>v the next British Government as being made by its predecessors to the Impel - ini Conference, and the decision should rest with the members as individuals, irrespective of party ties. A vitally important thing is that the precedent which is sot should not he dictated by any parochial or party feeling, hut by a wise determination to take the course best calculated to further the present and future welfare oi the British Commonwealth. CAPE MILITIA. CAPETOWN" December 20. s-peaking at Wapeiischoum. in the I,suie. Colonel Meiitz, Minister of Defence, said the Doieneo Department’s defence scheme contemplated a Coast Garrison, and nil active citizen force of 32,(G0. Allowing for wastage the elfective service force, would he tIOO men, in addition to Defence j’illc Associations, numbering 00.000. fish FAMINE. I.ONDOX, December 20. Fishermen on the South Coast com- ] lain of a fish famine, which they believe is due to the dumping of munitions, and the subsequent release of poison gas. Oysters are plentiful, hut traces of arsenic have been found therein. The fishermen demand a Government inquiry. TRAIN GO Lid SK'N. LONDON. Dew 20. A f)ellii-l!awalpindi passenger train collided with a goods train at Tarki. The two front bogies were destroyed killing three, and injuring 2?.