INTERCOLONIAL.

Otago Witness, Issue 2895, 8 September 1909, Page 23

INTERCOLONIAL.

MELBOURNE, September 3. At the annual conference of the Victorian Alliance the report showed that Victoria's drink bill last year was £4,096,810, which is £263,991 less than that of the previous year. September 4 The threatened strike in the printing trade has been amicably arranged, employers conceding the demand of £3 a v eek for casual compositors. Other compromises were made on both sides. SYDNEY, August 31. A tender for £378,000 has been accepted for the second section of the North Coast railway, which will open up a further large area of valuable dairying lands. September 1 .The directors of the Hospital Saturday Fund have received a letter from Lieutenant S-hackleton mentioning that as a result of his lectures in Australia and New Zealand about £2200 would be handed over to various charitable institutions there. He had decided to devote the whole of the proceeds of his lectures there to charities, in token of his gratitude for the substantial aid afforded the expedition by the Commonwealth and New I Zealand Governments. | In the Assembly Mr Wade, in tabling the correspondence xegarding the Federal

0 capital site, said that matters were so fard advanced that lie had every reason to g hope that the State Parliament would bei, consulted on the matter in the immediate1 future. I- September 4. The Herald save that Australia's wool, c clip is expected to be the best and pros bably the heaviest ever grown. The out-- <• t look generally is unusually bright. . . t September 6. - I Canon Boyce's annual review of thol liquor traffic shows that in New South. Wales the drink bill last year amounted*' to £5,365,579— an average .of £3 7s 6d , per head for the whole population, which. . ! is 7d a, head above that of the previous year. He ascribes the increase to theprosperous times. > The estimated area under wheat in New- » ' South Wales is 2,240,400 acres— an inj crease of 251,300 acres over last year's area. It is estimated that the area of cut. . ; grain will be 477,000 acres more than lost. : • ' year. . BRISBANE, September 1. ' : A diver, when working on the submerged Waipara, had a sensational en« counter with a shark which attacked him. He succeeded in ripping it open with a. dagger, when other sharks surrounded' the wounded one. The diver then ascended. The salvage party are hopeful of blocking the holes in the Waipara and floatingher to-day. September 3 The port authorities have refused to* allow the Waipara to enter the river, fearing that if the temporary repairs gave= way the vessel might sink in the fairway, the consequences of which would be. serious to shipping. September 6 News from the Bismarck Archipelagostates that an Australian labour recruiternamed Lindsay was speared to death by natives. It is also reported that his body, was eaten. Mr Ward, editor of the Sydney Daily * Telegraph, has returned. He says that, the Imperial Press Conference could not fail to liave a far-reaching and time-en-during influence for good on the oversea* dominions FREMANTLE, September 1. Mr Lovatt Fraser, leader-writer on TheTime?, who will represent that journal at the Chambers of Commerce Conference, arrived to-day. He will also visit all the States and New Zealand, and will write articles on their political conditions.

I Mr Taft weighs 2951b, aigainsfc the 2201b- ' eaoh of Presidonis Washington, Jeffereoo,. Monroe, Harrison, anid Garfield.