AUSTRALIAN NEWS

Hokitika Guardian, 19 February 1924, Page 1

AUSTRALIAN NEWS

AUSTRALIAN AND N.Z. CABLE ASSOCIATION, cable delays. (Received this day at 8 a.m.) SYDNEY. February JS. There are -no cricket results from Adelaide owing to lino interruption. Tile cables are also delayed. FOUND NOT GUILTY. (Received this day at 8 a.m.) MELBOURNE, February 18. John James Richards was found not guilty and discharged, on a charge of murdering Laiinehelot Johnson, cabled on yth. February. The defence, which the jury accepted, was a plea of .self defence? GERMAN CREW STRIKE. SYDNEY, February 18. Trouble over the crews of the German steamers, Hannover and Itauri striking have been overcome. The Hannover has .secured sufficient men to make up a crew and sailed. Twelve Germans who refused to rejoin the vessel will be deported to Germany. The Kauri tilled the vacancies and sails in a few days. A VKRDICT SET ASIDE. SYDNEY. February 18. 'The Full Court lias set. aside the verdict, for £19,480 awarded the Limerick Steamship Company on Setembci 12, against the Commonwealth Government, and the Scott Fell Company in connection with the requisitioning of the steamers Emerald Wings and White Wings iluring twar time. The Court has entered verdicts for tli.‘ defendants.

Tito Court lias agreed to hear :m ;>l>plication from the phii ll lill's. I'm leave to appeal to the i’riv-y Council. BATSON’S 01UKVANCK. SYDNEY, Kelt. IS According to a statement made to the police, Batson was suffering front chagrin at not being invited to the fatal picnic, and lie revenged himself. A movement is afoot at Alburv to raise funds for the defence of Batson. There is a good deal of local sympathy for hint, under a belief that he became morbid because he thought' himself unpopular and resented being regarded as somewhat intellectually dull. PROTECTED BIRDS. •SYDNEY, Kelt. 18. The New Guinea Magistrate arrested on February -I, Oliver John Thompson, was to-day charged with removing out of \Yw Guinea the plumes of protected birds of paradise. The defending counsel stated that Thompson was the Magistrate at Etiape. where the plumage was a recognised trade. llis inferior officer at Bn haul, who signed the warrant, was not an officer with jurisdiction. He complained that most libcllious statement' ol hi' ciont’s alleged offence had been published by the Press. The Police Magistrate decided that the official who signed the warrant had not jurisdiction over I'.tiupe, and discharged T huuipsoii, on the grounds that the issue of tin; process was informal. A TRAIN ACCIDENT. BRISBANE, Feb. 18. Mrs Atkins, aged 77, succumbed to injuries at Mount- Perry, through a train accident. Later details show t hat hut for the coupling of the first carriage holding, the whole of live carriages crowded with excursionists, would have been involved in a smash, and the result would have been much more disastrous. After leaving the line, some carriages scraped the sides of a rocky cutting, badly damaging them, and increasing the terror.of the imprisoned passengers. Luckily they were pui ck!y brought to a .standstill. AUSTRALIAN BUTTER. SYDNEY. February 18. ruder Federal Government regulations, from August 1 next, all butter produced in Australia will be standardised, and stamped with a uniform Kangaroo brand. Lite ditto is fixed ■ael 1 ahead to enable rill tlie companies to get their pasteurising plants in order The object is that buyers can always rely on the saute. It is claimed tl at Australian'butter is equal to any produced in the world, and yet- the pi ices generally quoted lor it ate 8s to 10s per hundred-weight lower than ter New Zealand, and there is even a bigger margin compared with Danish bitter. It is fully anticipated that tlie new system will remove this disparity.