AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 284, 25 November 1908, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

. CHEMICAL BOND DESTROYED. Received 25, 1.7 a.m. Sydney, Last Night. A large fire started this evening and Is still burning in the Elliot chemical bond, Balmain. An explosion of chem- j icals blew , the roof off the building, ' which wa3'completely destroyed. The ■ damage is estimated at £15,000. SPLENDID RAINS. Sydney, November 24. Good monsoonial rains, ranging up to three inches, have fallen over tV.e greater part of the State. They na<? greatly benefited the crops. .GERMANY AND NEW CALEDONIA. Sydney, November 24. The German Consul-General characiteries the suggestion that Germany might be glad to annex New Caledonia as a senseless aiiti-Germa-.i utterance. Germany has all the territory she Tvafrrtfj (In the South Seas. She has no more notion of attempting to acquire New Caledonia than France has of making her a present of it.

, TROUBLE IX THE CAROLINES. Sydney, November 24. . There is much unr*nt. amongst Hie natives of the island of Pannpc, in tieCaroline group, owing to the Germans levying a head 'tax. The natives threaten'to wipe out ail the whites. BOLD IRRIGATION SCHEME. i Brisbane, November 24. The Premier, Mr W. H. Kidston, has submitted proposal? for a bold scheme of ■water conservation and irrigation, probably involving an outlay of several millions of -pounds. , A METEORITE FOUND. j Adelaide, November 24. A meteorite weighing forty pounds has been found at Arltuga, at a depth of five feet in the soil. , NEW GUINEA. , Melbourne, November 22. Judge Murray has been appointed Lieutenant-Governor and Mr. Stamfortb. Smith Administrator of Papua. INSURANCE METHODS. Melbourne, November 24. ' Mr. Justice Hood has been appointed a Royal Commissioner to inquire into the methods of insurance companies. MINISTER'S NARROW ESCAPE. Perth, November 24. Mr. Gregory, Minister of Mines, defeated Bruzza'cott, the Labor candidal . ill the election for Menzies by 52 votes.