Cable Jottings

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 539, 17 December 1928, Page 9

Cable Jottings

WOOL-WORKS FIRE. —Tlie wool scouring works of Messrs. Hayes Brothers, at Bourke, have been destroyed by fire. The damage is estimated at £7,000. The origin of the fire is not known. VAST DEFALCATIONS. —The South African Reserve Bank announces defalcations at its Johannesburg branch, amounting to £75,000. A clerk has been arrested and a proportion of the loss,,recovered from scrip in his possession.—A. and N.Z.-P.A. SOVIETS BUDGET. Messages from Moscow report that the Central Executive has approved the Budget which balanced with 7,731,000,000 million roubles. It passed measures for the Soviet elections, and for increasing the crops by 35 per cent, dur- j ing the next five years.—A.P.A.-U.S. j SYDNEY RAIL MISHAP.—The derailment of a carriage of an electric train at Milson's Point terminus on Saturday blocked three lines, which were torn up badly. The rolling stock was considerably damaged. The remaining lines, however, are able to handle the traffic, which is one of the heaviest of Sydney’s suburban services. No one was injured. CAR FATALLY AFIRE.—Two men, Horace Pike and William Hughes, were hurled from a car near Junee, 287 miles south of Sydney. The car was burned. Mr. Hughes’s clothes caught fire as he lay wounded on the road. He died later in hospital. . Mr. Pike is not expected to recover. A woman companion, Miss Pauline Case, was less seriously injured CORRUPT POLICE. —Giving evidence before the Simon Commission at Patna, Mr. Swain. Inspector-General of Police for Bihar and Orissa, said that 99 per cent, of the constables, 75 per cent, of the head constables, and 50 per cent, of the sub-inspectors at Bihar were corrupt, the 4ow moral standing being attributable to the miserable pay of the force, which was less than that of unskilled labourers.—U.S. DILATORY PRINCE.—Owing to Prince Louis’s dilatoriness in returning home, troubles between the authorities and citizens at Nice, in France, are reaching a climax. Police are parading the town, and the authorities refuse to allow citizens or visitors to enter the parks in order to prevent public meetings. Motors are being stopped and occupants questioned to ascertain whether thev are agitators.—A.P.A.U.S. SUPPORT FOR TROTSKY. —During the Moscow Trades Union Congress, M. Grol, ex-President of the Food Workers’ Union, and a member of the Central Council, began reading a resolution attributing the unfavourable conditions of the workers to the present policy and urging the recall of Trotsky and his followers from exile. Krol was shouted down, and the closure was applied- He was deprived of hi? mandate and expelled.—A.P.A.U.S.