MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS

Hokitika Guardian, 28 May 1928, Page 1

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS

.United Press Association.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) CAPE POLITICS. Capetown, May 25. A bitter two days’ debate in the Assembly arose out of the Auditor-Gen-eral surcharging the Minister of Posts with £231 for use of a motor ear for private purposes, which the Premier subsequently condoned. General Smuts to-day said ho regarded the allegation against the Auditor as most grave, and demanded a judicial enquiry. The Premier offered a committee of Parliament to enquire, which the opposition accepted.

U.S. .MAIL SERVICES. (Received this day at 9 a.m.) WASHINGTON, -May 20. Action under the provisions of the new doncs-Whitc .Merchant Marine Act was taken by the Postmaster General, who sent a communication to the Shipping Board certifying seven ocean mail routes which should he established or operated for carrying mails as contemplated by the act. 'These routes are already under contract. hut he now desires that they lie included under the provisions of the new measure. One of the routes is San Francisco to Sydney, with monthly sailings, an annual mail poundage of 2,217.8-59 and estimated five year volume isniiulage of 12,198,221. ft is unknown whether the pot office contemplates any change of the Lino carrying Australian mail, when the present contract ends.

GAOL ESCAPEE RECAPTURED LONDON, May 27

Eddie Guerin who escaped from Devil Island, was arrested in a London hotel, and is appearing at the Police Court on .MomUiv.

CONDITIONS IN INDIA. Australian Press Assn.—United Service .Received this day at 8.30 a.m.) LONDON, May 20. The. urgency of taking a mighty step to link up British-Indian Trade Union movements is stressed in the report oi Labourites Purcell and Hallsworth, who recently returned from a tour of India on behalf of the Trade U nion Congress. They paint a melancholy picture of had housing conditions. A vast majority of the workers do not receive more than a shilling per day, are half starved, badly clothed, and horribly housed. The report estimates the’ total strength of trade unions is 200.009 compared with 25,000,000 capable of organisation. It describes the tea plantations in Assam as virtually slave plantations, where the human trinity of husband, wife and child brings in no more than fifteen ponce per day. tt expresses the opinion that it is consistent with the presence of tremendous forces which sooner 01 Inter will be applied, that there will he a great expansion of manufacturing activity.

WEEK-END ACCIDENTS. SYDNEY, May 28. ISix persons (four adults and two children.) wero killed during the weekend bv motor vehicles within the metropolitan area, apart from at least fifteen injured one way or another. COLLIER LAID UP. SYDNEY, May 2S. Tine collier Kooyang is now held up

at Sydney. The ow’ners applied to tho Union for three cooks, intending to select one therefrom, hut: the Union sent only one and the owners, in pursuance of their avowed intention to select whom they liked, rejected the cooks nominee and the vessel, which should have sailed for Newcastle on Friday is still idle. NEGOTIATIONS FOR SETTLEMENT MELBOURNE. May 28. Informal negotiations have begun between representatives of the watersiders federation and the shipowners under which the cooks will agree to return to the idle vessels nuclei .the terms of the old award. Tho onU\ condition they ask is to be allowed to retain the roster system, provided under their rules. The cooks Union would concede to the shipowners the right of free selection of labour as desired by them. The mediators aslt that the cooks should be permitted to seek reinstatement of tlieir award also to ask whatever variations they desire, leaving the Court to decide the issues. The question of an extra man for the Ulimaroa’s galley, they suggest, should be left to the Board of Reference or Arbitration Court. BRISBANE, May 28. Howard Smith’s vessel Time has been held up on her way from Rockhampton . A cook left and the company’ is unable to obtain a substitute.