VARIOUS CABLED ITEMS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8003, 14 December 1905, Page 3

VARIOUS CABLED ITEMS.

X.S.W. FINANCE. SYDNEY, Dec. 13. The sum of £226,000 was tendered for 100.000 Savings Bank credit foncier 3} per cent, debentures. The minimum was £97, and the average realised £9? lis 9d. WESTRALIA. PERTH, Dec. 13. The Treasureif <leKvered his Dudget speech, which showed that the year clostd with a debit balance of £l2O 000. The -estraated revenue for the fr.sent year is £3,633,000, and expenditure £3,721,000, leaving a deficit of £86,000. In 1900 the indebtedness was £63 10s per ■head; it is now £6l 19s, Though five millions had since been borrowed, t'ha existing loan authorisation was exhausted, and further authorisation was necessary for works which had hitherto Ixcn Vundcrtaken from revenut. They could not doubt the perrrainancc of the goldlields. but as only a little auriferous area had been scratched over, the prospector must be granted reasonable assistance. The agricultural industry was prospering. The railways returned a net profit for the year of £13,000. VICTORIA.

MELBOURNE, Dec. 12. The (iovernor has proroguotl tho State Parliament. SUPERSTITION. LONDON, Dec. 12. News from Uganda states that two chiefs have been sentenced to death. They hired a native to Hill Mr Gait, that two deaths from smallpox (one a British official, under the belief of the vict ms was British) were duo to witchcraft. iAftcr Mr Gait's death they killed the hireling with a. view to silencing him. PLAGUE. LONDON". Dec. 12. Five cases of plague, two of which were fatal, are reported from Madeira. SUPPOSED MURDER. SYDNEY, Dec. 13. Recently the body, lof a Chinaman was found in the harbour, with a rope round the nock. It was identified as a stowaway who arrived by the steamer Airlie. It was supposed at the time to' be a case of suicide, but subsequently the police received information which raised suspicions of fcul play amongst the Chinese crew of the AtrHe. QUEENSLAND POLITICS. BRISBANE, Doc. 13. The Council, *>y 20 votes to 7, rejected the second reading ol th« Land Monopoly Tax Bill.