COMMONWEALTH CABLES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVII, Issue 71, 23 July 1915, Page 7

COMMONWEALTH CABLES.

MISCELLANEOUS. ' United Press Association. Brisbane, July 22. The Government has increased the wages of the railway construction workers'by Is a day, involving £60,000. ! Melbourne, July 22.

The National Defence Committee is completed. Mr Irvine, Sir John Forrest. and Messrs Watt, Glynn, McWilliams and Senator Milieu have been selected as the Liberal representative's, and Messrs Fisher and Cook will act as ex-officio members. The Hon. A. Fisher has issued a writ against James Spencer, drill foieman, claiming damages for alleged slander, contained in a statement imputing that plaintiff committed a criminal offence, calculated to imperil his holding the Premiership. Sydney, July 22. The Hon. I). L. Hall, defending the Commodities Commission against Mr Wade’s charges, claimed that the Commodities/ Commission, in fixing the prices of wheat, butter, gas and other commodities, had, instead of increasing the cost of living, saved the people of the State £1,401,000, besides subsidiary savings. Sir George Reid’s annual report for 1014 states that the loss of revenue Ly the Pacific cable was between forty and fifty thousand pounds, due to damage to the Fanning Island station by a German cruiser, the damage alone amounting to £IO,OOO. The decrease in immigration to Australia was 42.0 per centum, New Zealand 44.7, Canada 48.0, as compared with 1913.