AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Hokitika Guardian, 31 March 1928, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

(By Telegraph—Per Press Association

FEDERAL POLITICS. CANBERRA. .March 80. The House passed the appropriation of .1:100,000 for the purchase of radium. Neville Howse explained the decision to purchase, was due to the alarming increase and prevalence of cancer. The House agreed to the appropriation of .150,000 for search for mineral oils in Papua, New Guinea. The Government arranged with the An-glo-Persian Oil Coy. to conduct a geological survey for prospecting purposes. BUSES v. TRAMS. COMPETITION IN SYDNEY. SYDNEY, March 23. It ha.s been estimated by one of Sydney’s leading local government authorities that it costs Sydney tho best part of £IOO a head for transport. The rams, for example, represent an investment of £11,000.000 or nearly £ll a head, and the underground and suburban railways probably twice as much more. The harlvour bridge means an outlay of £6,000.000 and the roads of j Sydney an expenditure of probably £30.0110.000. Then, in addition, there is the cost of ferries, of buses, and of privately owned vehicles. ’Calking of the buses which have been a tremendous blow to tho trains, the Government is now trying desperately to meet the competition more effectively on the northern side of the harbour by extending the tram sections and thus giving the public a longer ride for their money. The buses have played great havoc with the train revenue. A USTRALIAN ABORIGINES. SYDNEY. March 23.

The question of what to do with the blacks is almost as engrossing as n national problem, as the family problem of what to do with one’s children when they grow up. The Geographical Society of New South “Wales has been discussing the future of the blacks, but- it seems to have got no further than any of tho other bodies which have tackled the problem. When Captain Cook landed in Australia there were probably half a million aborigines. To-dn.v- there arc not more than 60.090 hanging on to civilisation. It is suggested in one quarter that something will have to he done to- help the blacks to die decently. Well, that is one way of meeting tho problem. The only aborigines seen anywhere near Sydnv to-day are those who have made their homo at La Perouso, a few miles out by tram. An effort is now being made to have them removed, although to week-enders, who visit that spot, they seem harmless enough.

OBSCENE PAPER FINED, SYDNEY, March 30

The proprietors of the newspaper, Beckett’s Budget, were fined the maximum penalty of £2O for selling an obscene publication. The defence pleaded that the articles concerned in tho charges were a mere exposition of vice, and that no restriction should he placed on the press in exposing wrongdoers.