AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Hokitika Guardian, 16 August 1927, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

(By Telegraph —l'er Press Association.) BEAM WIRELESS SATISFACTORY. (Received this day at 11 0 a.m.) SYDNEY, Aug. JO. Mr Fisk .Managing Director ol the Amalgamated Wireless, commenting on the cable from London concerning the operation of the beam service, said from bis experience of the operation of the system, nothing had occurred t<> justify so pessimistic a report. To date there bad been no delays in the serbico which daily was handling a great volume of traffic at high s|>cctl. On one or two occasions however, there had been an accumulation of messages which hail justified the Company in diverting a small portion of it to the cable services, hut there had lieen no interruption of a serious character. The period of fading at change over time in which tlie direction of the l Beam transmission was altered to obtain Hie benefit of darkness, was never long in duration, and the service was usually available for seventeen hours per day. and sometimes ill hours. It was always possible. Mr Fisk continued to communicate at least nine hours daily, but it was seldom the period was so short'.

SHIPPING. SYDNEY, Aug. Ui. Shipping returns for the year ended 150th. .June ia.st, show 8,71;J vessels, representing !),608,851 nett tons entered Port .Jackson, compared with 7,885 representing !>.289.781 for the previous year; 8.858 vessels left, compared with 7.87!) of 9,722,818 and !),- 890,805 tons respect Fvcl.v.

MUSICIAN DEAD. SYDNEY. Ann. if,. (hiituary Dr Thomas llaigh, Anglican Cathedral Organise a well known musician and composer. NEWSPAPER CRITICISM RESENTED. (Received this dav at 10.15 a.m.) SYDNEY. Aug. 16. The Government- is appointing a Royal Commission fo inquire into the statements contained in an article of a correspondent published in the Sydney Morning Herald, and a leading article thereon by the Herald, in which the correspondent, dealing with industrial awards, .says; ‘‘The Government by hook or by crook managed to maintain ils hare majority, and it is to this Government, that the Industrial Commissioner owes his appointment, and acknowledges his duly. If (his is true, it follows that the Administration of our industrial system is dictated, not by justice as is the promised aim of other tribunals, hut by political influence.” The “Herald” leader says, inter alia; “Rural workers arc not blind. They know the stern reality behind the farmers’ protest against the award. If the Industrial Commissioner, who has said himself that he is not so lunch as the voice of a Parliamentary majority and that his procedure in. fixing the rural basic wage was to make an award first and hear evidence after.” The Government considers these comments an attack on the jitcliciarv.

CONQUERING THE TASMAN SEA. BRISBANE, Aug. 16. A flight from Hobart to the Bluff is being planned b.v .Mr T\. Morton Erewen. who intends to make the flight alone. Erewen leaves for Sydney on Monday to have certain structural alterations made to his machine which is a Bristol fighter of 275 b.p.. and having a cruising speed of ninetyfive miles per hour, and a. range of fifteen hundred miles. The flight is being financed by a Queensland business man. RAT CATCHING. SYDNEY. Aug. 16. For the year 1920 the Rat Catching Department of the City Council cost £4.720. It constantly employed nine expert catchers who set forty-seven thousand traps, and caught 8,800 rats at a cost to the Council of It’s 6d per bead. A POSSIBLE CLUE. BRISBANE, Aug. 16. The police have detained a man m connection with the explosion at the Criminal Investigation Department. -