AUSTRALIAN NEWS

Hokitika Guardian, 8 July 1926, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN NEWS

[Australian & N.Z. Cable Association.] victortanTpolitics. MELBOURNE, July 7. In the Victorian Assembly a want of confidence motion in the Government based on general charges of maladministration was moved by Mr Hogan (leader of the Opposition). TUGELA ON REEF. BRISBANE, July 8. A radio message lias heen received stating that the steamer Tugela which left' Auckland on the'llth of May for European ports via Papua is stranded on Helen Reef of the northern extremity of Papua. ’The weather is fine and the vessel is not in danger. PRICE OF COAL. MELBOURNE, July 8. The effects of the Workmen’s Compensation Act in New South Wales will be felt for the first time directly in Victoria to-morrow, when the wholesale price of Newcastle coal will he increased by Is Gel per ton. It is estimated that the operation of the Act will increase pithead costs by one shilling per ton and the extra sixpence will be added on account of increased wharfage rates.

BABBIT SKINS. SYDNEY, Juno 2-L If rabbits are a pest, they are at least a source of much profit to tl.e trappers, who probably have something of a withering contempt lor the man in the city who, in the stuffy atmosphere'of some office, earns less in a week than they obtain in a day out in the fresh air and sunshine. 'I rappers in various districts in New South Wales are reaping a rick harvest, in consequence of the high prices ruling for rabbit skins. In tho Braidwood district, on the road to the once famous Araluen goldfield, olio man received recently £29 for his fortnight’s catch. Earnings of £lO a wfcek are common. Trappers arc so well off that they are leaving, to browse undisturbed, rabbits in paddocks, the trapping of which wouid yield only £5 a week. RADIO ON TRAINS. SYDNEY, June 24. Tho railway chiefs are trying to invent the long train journey between Melbourne and Sydney, with something of the spirit of dolce far nientc, and to substitute for the monotony of the trip something of the comfort of perfect idleness, by making a radio outlit one of the appointments of the express. Experiments with broadcasting receivers on long train journeys, have already proved successful, and it will be onlv a few weeks before the passenger' son the Syclney-Melbourne express will be able to listen-in, if they wish to do so, while thundering along at GO miles an hour. This will appeal especially to \ 'ctorians, for listening-in appears to he far more popular among them than among the public of,/New South Wales, where wireless is suffering something of.a slump. Wireless shops in Sydney to-day are as few .as they were numerous in the days when one stood a chance of being socially ostracised in ins suburb if he did not have a wireless set. The fact that the gramophone has not lost its vogue in Sydney, is evidenced by the countless shops within the city itself which do nothing but sell machines and records.