AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Hokitika Guardian, 20 December 1927, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

(Australian & N.Z. Cable Association.) STEAMER AGROUND. MELBOURNE, Dec. 18. The steamer Ironmaster ran aground near Melbourne Heads, in a fog, at 1 a.m. to-day. A tug reached the vessel about G a.m. CONSTABLE SHOOTS WOMAN. SYDNEY, Dec. 19. Following a quarrel in a lane off one of the main thoroughfares at Leichhard shortly before midday, Police Constable Arthur Ford fatally shot with a revolver, Mrs Florence Laws, four bullets taking effect. He then fatally shot himself. Crowds of people a few yards away, rushing to the scene, found evidences of a violent struggle. Mrs Laws was dead, and Ford was unconscious. The hitter, who died eroute to the hospital, was on sick leave, and suffering from mental depression.

DARING THEFT. MELBOURNE, Dee. 20. A man threw the wheel jack of a motor-ear through the window of li. Bright, jeweller, at Carlton, and snatched a tray of diamond rings valued at over a thousand sterling. He then escaped in a stolen motor-ear, which an accomplice was driving. NEW GUINEA REPORT. CANBERRA, Dec. 20. A Parliamentary Paper dealing with the mandated territory in New Guinea •shows exports for the year ended June 192(5 exceeded all previous returns, with a total of C 1.105.000 of which over £1,000,000 was of copra, £BB,OOO of gold and £17.000 shell. Copra exports have steadily increased from 20,000 tons in 1921 to -10,000 in 1925-20. Imports have grown in the same period from £409,000 to £508.000. At Edie Creek Goldfields there is a white population of about a hundred, nearly all returned soldiers.

The output of gold for the coining year is expected to show a considerable increase. Revenue for the year amounted to £259,000 and expenditure £213,000 out of revenue, hut it does not include expenditure out of loan fund and other funds. A native taxpayer contributes a tax of 10s por bead, returning in 1925-20 nearly £20,000.