AUSTRALIAN REFERENDUM

Taihape Daily Times, 5 January 1918, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN REFERENDUM

AFTER TIIII TOLL. TO F AM -A ;v; MINISTRY. MELBOURNE, January 4. After a ■ rotra; tod ,discission, the Nationalist party carried, by 63 votes against 2, a motion that the party expresses continued confidence in Mr. Hughes, and considers it in the best interests of the country that Mr. Hughes should retain the leadership of the party. Interviewed later. Mr Hughes was reticent, but said that all the meeting had done was to discuss the position, which was just where the resolution left it. Sir John Forrest was absent when the motion was taken, but it is understood that he would have voted in its favour.

Further developments are anticipat-fo-day when Mr. Hughes will formally resign and form a new Ministry. Applications have been made to the High Court by Mr. John Ryan and Mr H. Theodore that Mr. Hughes be committed to prison for contempt of Court in connection with the publication of a telegram which applicants claimed tended to interfere with the fair and impartial hearing of the criminal charges against applicants. The case was referred to the Full Court.