BEYOND THE DOMINION.

King Country Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 140, 18 March 1909, Page 5

BEYOND THE DOMINION.

I —---■ ♦ A Clergyman's Oath The Rev. P. J. Murdoch, clerk of the Melbourne Sooth Prtsbytory, has been committed to prison for contempt for refusnig to produce a copy of a letter sent by the Presbytery to the defendant in the action the Rev. Ronald v. Robert Harper, a member of the Federal House of Representatives. Murdoch insisted that he had sworn to keep all document * of the Presbyetry, and could not give them up without the Presbytery's authority. A meeting of the Presbytery subsequently commended the Rev. Murdoch's action, and authorised him to produce the letter. British Emigration Board The Central Emigration Board has formed a Settlers" Information League under the presidency of Sir ThomaSutherland, chairman of the P. and O. Shipping Company, to encourage British emigrants to proceed to British colonies instead of foreign colonics. Colonial members of the league undertake to befriend emigrants upoi their arrival. Victorian Wheat Yield The Government Statist's second estimate of the wheat yield is 23.315,64P bushels, an average of 13.2 per acre. The exportable surplusis 1,100, •wo bushels. Athletics | Dorando. the Italian distance runnrr. defeated J. J. Hayes, winner of the Marathon, by half a mile in a 25 miles contest at Madison Square Gardens. Roosevelt in Italy The Italian politv are in a state of trepidation owing to the intention of ex-President Roosevelt and his wife and three children to visit Messina, in Sicily, which is the stronghold of the Malta secret society.