AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 May 1918, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

PRICE OF BUTTER. Melbourne, May 22. Negotiations arc proceeding for selling next year's exportable surplus of butter to the Imperial Government at 151s per ;:wt, f.o.b. New prices order advances in the wholesale and retail prices of butter Jd per pound, making the retail price Is I'M. this being but a prelude to the iuerease in the event of production falling off. A RESERVED JUDGMENT. Wellington, May 22. Mr. O'Regan has received cabled advice from Melbourne that Mr Justice Cassen's reserved judgment has been delivered in favour of plaintiffs in the action of five Auckland waterside workers against the Wiseher Proprietary Limited. The jury recently awarded plaintiffs £OBSO damages. This was subject to a non-suit point by defendants, that they owed no duty to observe care towards anyone except the firm from whom they received the order, namely, Rosenhain and Company. Mr Justice Cassen's reserved decision gave judgment for the full amount, with scale costs, witnesses' expenses, and disbursements, including the cost of taking the evidence of twenty-five witnesses at Auckland. Justice Cassen held that defendants owed a duty of care in the filling and securing of the cylinders to every person coming lawfully into proximity thereto.

LABOR REORGANISATION, Sydney, May 23. A meeting of the secretaries, presidents, and other official?) of 20 unions affiliated to the Labor Council endorsed the resolutions carried at tlie GovernorGeneral's Recruiting Conference, and submitted a request to the unions for a conference of delegates with a view to the organisation of an industrial body pledged to act in consonance with the resolutions and adopt them as the policy of the trade union movement. The meeting also expresssed strong disapproval of the proceedings at the last meeting of the Trades Council ii.nd the urgent need for its reorganisation, eliminating the extreme revolutionary element —Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assoc. POSITION OF DE-REGISTERED UNIONS. Sydney, May 23. Cabinet on Monday will decide the quest-ion of the re-registration of unions. It is pointed out that the Government's promise to register was conditional upon the Trades and Lalbor Council resolving to do cvrything possible to stimulate recruiting. Such a resolution has not yet been carried.— Aus.-N.55. Cable Assoc.