AUSTRALIA.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 October 1916, Page 5

AUSTRALIA.

[ THE CONSCftIPTION ISSUE. EIBOR'S PROTEST. Received October 5, 12.30 a.m. Melbourne, October 4. In the Senate, an attempt to hold up the Senate .mtil the Government further explained its military policy collapsed, Senator Mullans' amendment for a further adjournment until Tuesday being defeated by 18 to 8. Mr. Pearce declared that the Government would take full responsibility for the proclamation accompanying the regulations. He justified the thumb print requirement being applied, owing to the numbers that went to the front on certificates issued to others being returned as unfit. I Sydney, October 4. I The anti-conscriptiomsts refused to face the weather in regard to the proposed stop-work demonstration in the Donutin, which fizzled out. Later, a meeting was held in the Town Hall, where an audience of five thousand unanimously demanded the withdrawal of the proclamation. Melbourne, October a. Forty thousand Unionists assembled on the Yarra Bank and passed a motion against conscription. MR. HUGHES' APPEALS* Brisbane, Oct. 3. ■Mr. Hughes, referring to the stop-work meetings to be 'held to-day, said their red reMon wa3 to foment a general strike to prevent the takir.ii of the referendum. He appealed to unionists who wanted Germany defeated not to play the treacherous game of the extremists, who were secret enemies of Britain. • A proclamation orders all hotels and wine bars in Brisbane to be closed today. Sydney, Oct. 3. Mr. Hughes has iseised a manifesto to the women qf Australia, appealing to them to vote "yes" in the referendum, stating that the destiny of the country is in their hand*.. The State .referendum campaign has been successfully launched, BRITISH AND AUSTRALIAN TRADE. Sydney, October 4. The Inter-State Commission has commenced an inquiry into the question of British and Australian trade with the South Pacific Islands. The chief of the commissioners explained that the inquiry was the result of a'Government request to investigate the copra trade with Australia and report whether it was desirable thst special action shoilM be taken with the" view of increasing Australian and British control of such trade. . The commissionei read a cablegram from the Secretary of State for the Colonies, informing the Commonwealth Government that the New Zealand Government had made representations to the Home Government as to the probable difficulties of successful competition after the war with the leading Gorman firms, Deutsche Handels and Plantagen Gesellschaft, doing business in the South Pacific. The policy of the Commonwealth was to increase the control of Australian and British copra and other trades in the South Paoific which previously were in German hands. This could equally have been achieved whether the trade came to the Commonwealth or to any other part of the Empire, New Zealand had initiated certain inquiries as to the copra* trade in the Tongan group, and it had been arranged "oetween the Governments concerned that the Com--monwealth should enjoy the co-opera-tion, of Both the New Zealand Government and the High Commissioner of the Western Pacific. • After rpviewins the administration, of various islands, he said, the commission was not concerned with any question of the adjustment of administration which could only be undertaken by the Imperial Government in the settlement of the terms of peace. It would be best for the commission to consider all the British Island territory involved in relation to the whole question of British and German trade. An important portion of the inquiry would be connected with shipping, banking, postal and telegraphic communication,' and possibly to a limited extent interchange of labor between the islands. Mr. Meek, managing director for Lever Bros., gave evidence that the advantages the German shipping companies had in the way of copra freights prior to the war were largely due to the Government subsidy. The shipping of copra to Sydney from Tonga via Auckland had increased the freight 15s per ton, but he thought the Sydney to Tonga line would be re-es-tablished after the war. There was great scope for the development of other island products beside copra, but the trouble was to get sufficient labor. The natives only worked to keep themselves. Indian labor had been mentioned and the Fijian Government was negotiating with the Home Government for establishing continuous Indian immigration. Speak-. ing generally of the islands witness thought that great development was not sossible without introducing labor.