AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Hokitika Guardian, 22 January 1926, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

[BY TELEGRAPH —PER TRESS ASSOCIATION.] THE POLICE AND HANDCUFFS. SYDNEY, January 21. Returning from a tour of Europe and America, Police Commissioner Mitchell, recommends the abolition of handcuffs from the uniformed police ‘on the ground that they are ' an obsolete method of dealing with prisoners, long since abolished in the cities abroad. The recommendation has met with strong opposition from the police, who urged that in a city so comparatively sparsely policed as Sydney they "ere placed at the mercy of violent prisoners unless provided with handcuffs. The Chief Secretary has now revoked the order for adopting the Commissioner’s recommendation which he previously approved.

A MONT'S DOCK STRIKE. SYDNEY, January 21

Twelve hundred employees of M.ort’s Docks, belonging to the Ship Painters’ and Dockers’ Union, struck over a dispute concerning permanent and casual lnbou r. VICTORIAN BUSH FIRES. MELBOURNE. Jan. 21. Bush fires are still raging on the Mount Buffalo slopes. Many fire light- j ei's have narrowly escaped with their : lives, the flames cutting off several parlies. LORD ALLhNtiY SYDNEY. Jan. 21. Lord and Lady Alicnb.v returned to Sydney from a tour of the western part of the State. They sail for Auckland in the Ulimnroa to-day. SEARCH FOR OIL SUCCESSFUL. SYDNEY. Jauuury 22. The geological survey expedition which ."flient nine months searching tor oil in New Guinea has returned to Sydney. The leader states they explored an area of one thousand square miles in the Aitape district, eighteen miles front the Dutch border, a good deal of which has never been previously penetrated by whites, but tlio natives were friendly. The indications of oil surpassed their expectations and

conclusive],v proved the j>resenee of petroleum. Another expedition will Ik* sent to begin boring operations, which the geological survey lots justified. SEAMEN'S FUNDS. (Received this day at 11.2-3 a.mA SYDNEY, Jan. 21. At a special meeting of the Seamen's Union it was stated the audit- of the funds of the Melbourne Branch disclosed a shortage of nearly two thousand sterling, principally in oonse(|uenee of the hraneh having guaranteed cost of covering lor the striking British seamen. BURNT TO DEATH BERTH. Jan. 21. During the progress of a hush fire near Marylands, two old people were httnied to death. It is believed t-liev sought shelter from the heat and smoke in a house which was destroyed. A NEW BRINCKSS. STIR IN SOCIETY CIRC RES'. HOBART. .law. 22. Miss I’auline Curran, prominent in Hobart Society, lias budded into a princess, by marriage i'ji the local cathedral to Brinee Maximilian Mclikoff. a Russian aristocrat of the old Tsarist regime, who was deprived of his estate by the Bolsheviks. The ■•vent caused a stir in society circles.