AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Hokitika Guardian, 31 August 1925, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

j I IUeiUAJ.JAN AND N.Z. OAIU.I ASSOCIATION A AY AB XING. BRISBANE, August 20. Janies Allen, the retiring president oi the Brisbane Chamber of Cemmcrce in an address, said the present general tendency was to throttle industry and lessen production by shorter hours and increased costs. M’ork was looked upon as an unnecessary evil and higher wages demanded for less output, to he spent on amusement or unproductive idleness. One of the greatest safeguards against disaster would he the holding of bonds in small slims by the people generally and discouragement of the acquirement of large amounts hv a privileged few. All the things said about a basic wage and child endowment, were beautiful ideas, hut they could not he materialized except by hard labour or increased production, lirought about by close cooperation of unskilled labour under competent leadership and capital. It seemed clear that fresh burdens could not be carried without disaster to the wage earner and ruin to many industries. The community could not go on living on 'onus to enable it to pay high wages for lessened production. A MELBOURNE SENSATION. MELBOURNE, August 31. A sensation was caused in South Melbourne when the bodies of a man and a woman were discovered in a house. The woman who was in an advanced stage of decomposition, had apparently been ilead about a fortnight. The man was seated on a chair behind the front door with an awful wound in his throat, the gash, being inflicted with a razor, which was lying nearby. The floor was soaked with blood. The man was Thomas Oakleigh, aged (il), and the woman, Mary Anderson, aged 35, an invalid pensioner. The discovery was made by a neighbour who came to ascertain the condition of Anderson. Looking through a window he saw the woman lying in a lied clad only iu a singlet, the body being badly mutilated l>v rats. The police theory is that the woman died from natural causes ami Oakleigh became, distressed and slept beside the dead woman several days before committing suicide. The couple were greatly attached to each other. M'EEK-ENI) ACCIDENTS. SYDNEY, August 31. An unusually large number of accidents in the week-end resulted in 7 persons being hospitalled and lour deaths. Of the latter a hoy was run over by a train while attempting to cross the lines. A voting woman was knocked down by a motor-car. the driver whereof being arrested and charged with manslaughter. A hoy (jumped oil' a tramcar in front of a motor-car, which knocked him down, and a child was accidentally shot by the- lather who was repairing a revolver. F'ivc persons were run down hv motor cars, two as a result of collisions with motors.