AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Hokitika Guardian, 16 August 1927, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

(Bv Telegraph—Per Press Association,

IMPRISONMENT FOR, LIFE. SYDNEY. Aug. 16

The deatli sentence on Cedric Ryan was conimutted to imprisonment for life.

.MORE GOLD FOR U.S.A. % SYDNEY. Aug. Hi. Tho Commonwealth Bank last week shipped to America two millions sterling worth of gold, including half a million of new gold from the New Guinea fields. The shipments v.cre. made in order to adjust hank balances owing to imports being so much above half of the exjxirls.

VICTORIAN POET DIES. MELBOURNE. Aug. 10. The death is announced of Mr George Gordon MeCrae. known as tho “Father of Victorian Poetry.” aged 91 years. MOUNT MORGAN MINE. SYDNEY, Aug. 10. An extraordinary meeting of the shareholders of the Mount Morgan Mining Company confirmed a previous resolution (placing the Company in liquidation.

X.S.AV. PUBLIC SERVICE. A FIVE-DAY WEEK. SYDNEY, July 29. This is the season, with the election coming, of political largesse. If tho Public Service of New South Wales does not vote to a man for the Lang Government it will ho gulity of base ingratitude, for it is reducing the working week in Government offices to five days. But there is no satisfying some people. Some of the Civil servants aro complaining that, as they will now have to remain at their offices for say an extra half-hour each day in order to eliminate Saturday, they will he subjected to the inconvenience of travelling home during the rush hours of traffic. One prominent Government servant openly advanced this as a reason for his opposition to the shorter week. One correspondent in the Press has cynically observed that every public servant should vote against the Lang Government' if it compels them to work five days a week, especially as it is quite practicable to make the working week of public- servants from, say, Tuesday to Thursday and to allow them thus to recover properly from the rush of work. The shorter week will meet with a good deal of opposition from the business and other sections of the community who now have dealings with Government departments on Saturdays. Some of the departments,. such as tho railways, it will be quite impossible to close on Saturday. The green-eyed envy with which such employees will witness other public servants leaving their jobs on Friday until Monday, can easily be imagined, especially if they happen to he neighbours.