AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Hokitika Guardian, 27 May 1927, Page 1

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

[Australian & N.Z. Cable Association.]

ATTEAIPT FR UITLESS. SYDNEY, May 20

An attempt to settle a dispute between Newcastle coal trimmers and Port Arthur Stevedoring Coy terminated in a deadlock. Twenty-one collieries in the northern fields have ceased working and ten thousand miners are idle. Should the strike continue, the crews of a number of vessels will he paid off.

ILL TREATM EXT CHARGE. SYDNEY, May 26. Andrina Thompson (cabled on 23th January) was found guilty on a charge of ill-treating her nephew and remanded for sentence. Since January the boy’s weight has increased from Gst 3lhs to !)st 121bs.

MILITARY C'AAll’ FIRE. BRISBANE, May 26. A disastrous fire occurred at Enogert military camp resulting in the destruction of three blocks of buildings containing camp material. The damage is estimated at thirty thousand sterling.

N.S.W. LOAN. SYDNEY, May 26. The State Government is shortly floating a 1J million conversion loan, carrying live and a half per cent, interest.

SOCCER. SYDNEY, A lay 20. The Czecho-Slovakian soccer team defeated Wagga by 9 goals to nil.

SOUVENIR ISSUES. SYDNEY. May L’l. The officials in charge of Australia’s stamp issues and coinage displayed acumen when they realised that the weakness of the people of this country for souvenirs could he turned to profit for the public coffers. They decided that to commemorate the' establishment offhe Australian Federal Government at Canberra a special issue of LV stamps and florins would be made banking on the fact that scores of thousands of people would buy stamps and exchange an ordinary florin for one of the special issue to place these away in cotton wool and moth halls as a kind of an heirloom. They were not far wrong. About 2.000,000 florins were struck, and at the headquaters of the Commonwealth Bank in Sydney on Alondny last, the day of the ceremony, over 50.000 were paid out. The rush was similarly heavy at all other hanks in this city, Melbourne, and the other State capitals, ft is safe to say that fully 50 per cent, of those acquired will go right out of circulation. The design is simple. A facsimile of Fedora I Parliament House surmounts a serool covering crossed maces. The scrool announces the year—lo27—and flic words “Parliament House, Australia. One Florin—Two Siblings” replace the inscription “Olio Florin— Two Shillings” appearing in the ordinary two-shilling piece of the Australian coinage. The obverse side hears, as usual, the head of the King.

RACIAL RIVALRY. BRISBANE, May 26. There has been a racial trouble developing for some time in the South Johnstone cane distinct. It has culminated in a strike of British workers at the South Johnstone sugar mill. The men on strike demanded that those who were employed last season should be given a prior right to employment tliis season.

These men state they arc determined to enforce their demands. The strike, which has caused a suspension of all cane cutting operations in the area served by this mill, appears to he part of a move to wrest from foreigners the position they have secured in the sugar industry, both in the mill and in the field. Tram traffic is held up. The strike is expected to extend.

NAURU CHIEF. MELBOURNE, Alay 26. W. A Newman, chief clerk of the Defence Department lias been chosen to act as Administrator of Nauru in place of General Griffiths, who has retired. Newman leaves Sydney on June loth to take up the new duties.