AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 March 1922, Page 7

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

N.S.W. RAILWAYS. By Telexr&pb.—Press Assn.—Copyright. Sydney, March 1. Mr. Fraser, Chief Railway Commissioner, claims that £3,196,000 has been saved by greater co-operation and efficiency in the railways and tramways in 1921. THE ECONOMIC CONFERENCE. Sydney, Feb. 28. 'The Economic Conference was continued without reaching a decision, and it adjourned. DECLINE OF ISLAND TRADE. .Sydney, March i. Comprehensive measures are contemplated in an endeavor to restore the Pacific Island trade to Sydney. The decline has reached a critical stage and the entire loss of the copra trade is threatened and shipping communication imperilled. it js proposed that growers, shippers, agents and traders should combine to secure reduced freights; also the repeal of the Harbor Trust regulations, which add to the cost of transhipment. BIG SETTLEMENT SCHEME. Sydney, March 1. Mr. Loughlin, Minister of Lands, proposes to raise ten millions during the next three years to facilitate settlement, the construction of railways and irrigation works. The Government will cut up large estates allowing the owners to retain land valued at £20,000 exclusive of buildings. MT. LYELL MINE CTJDSING. Melbourne, March 1. Owing to the recent decline in the price of copper and the failure of the company to obtain material relief in the scale of wages and working conditions through the Federal. Arbitration Court, the Mount Lyell board has decided to close down the mine and confine blast furnace operations to smelting concentrates alone.