AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Hokitika Guardian, 4 January 1928, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

(Australian & N.Z. Cable Association.) AUSTRALI.vN FI NANCE. SYDNEY, Jau. 1. Revenue returns in New South Wales for six months ended 31st December; show revenue £18,716,000 and expenditure Revenue showed a retrogression of £2,18(5,000 compared with the same period of the previous year. -MELBOURNE, Jan. 4. The Customs revenue for the half year amounted to £22,25(5,000, compared to £2,215,000 for the corresponding half of the previous year. SHIPPING TROUBLE. SYDNEY, Jan. 4. Steamers are now idle in Sydney as a result of the seamen’s dispute, the steamer Goulburn being unable to find three men to complete her crew. Calls were again made for the Saros and the MacKarra without result. At Adelaide, the crew of the steamer Nnlpa have been given notice as no unionists are offering to [ill the vacancies in her complement.

MOTOR VEHICLES. SYDNEY, Jan. 4. During 1927 new motor vehicles were registered in New Smith Wales at the rate of over 735 weekly making the total 38,236. The report of the Commissioner of Police shows there were 157,510 motor vehicles registered in the State.

ARRESTED BY PLANE. BRISBANE, Jan. 1

For several weeks thefts have been frequent in me Camooweal District, ending in the stealing of a valuable motor car in which the thieves beaded for the Northern Territory. The police, realising it was impossible to overtake them in another car, hired a plane which flew from Cbuieurrv and picked uj) the police at Camooweal. They continued the pursuit and located the four fugitives camped over the border. They wero arrested at the point of the revolver, hut claimed that a,s they were in the Northern Territory, the Queensland police had no jurisdiction. Knowing that the men would have to return next morning to the Queensland border for water, the police released them, hut re-arrested them when they reentered Queensland. This is the first occasion in Australia that a plane has been used to reach criminals.