AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8346, 31 January 1907, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

THE FEDERAL PROGRAMME. Received January 30, 9.51 a.m. MELBOURNE, Jan. 30. Mr Deakin, the Federal Premier, states that the Government is unlikely to submit a list of : measures when Parliament meets. Defence and immigration proposals will be submitted in connection with the Budget Statement. VICTORIAN INSURANCE COMPANY. Received January 30, 9.51 a.m. MELBOURNE, Jan. 30. At the half-yearly meeting of the Victorian Insurance Company, the report showed a profit of £22,900, and declared an interim dividend of 2s per share, the sum of £13,921 being carried forward. The chairman said the losses were heavier than usual during the halfyear. This was principally owing to matters in New Zealand, where the insurance business had not been profitable. HEAVY SHOCK OF EARTHQUAKE. Received January 30, 11.10 p.m. SYDNEY, January 30. A heavy shock of earthquake was experienced at Lithgow at 7 o'clock to-night. A resident, who has had experience of earthquakes in New Zealand, said it was the heaviest shock he had ever fellt. TROUBLE ON THE SONOMA. Received January 30, 11.10 p.m. ' SYDNEY, January 30. Trouble arose amongst the crew of the steamer Sonoma preventing her departure to-day. The agent's story is that the firemen wished that four natives, who had been shipped at Honolulu to fill the berths of deserters, should be ousted to make room for men originally belonging to the Ventura. The men themselves state that they are quite willing to work with the natives, but that a vacancy which occurred in the stokehold was filled by a Sydney man who was not. a member of their union when it could have been filled by a man from the Ventura. Therefore they walked ashore when the vessel was on the point of sailing. The crew sided with the firemen, and forty-nine have been arrested for disobedience of orders. LABOUR CONFERENCE. Received January 31, 1.20 a.m. • SYDNEY, January 30. The Labour Conference are discussing the land policy on suggestions drafted by the committee. The principal points are the immediate cessation of Crown lands sales; in the allotment of Crown lands no person shall be entitled to acquire more than a living area; every Australian citizen not already holding land to the value of £SOO to have a preferential right to acquire land to that value; preference to be given, first, to persons "holding no land, and, secondly, to small holders requiring additional holdings; holders to be entitled to remission of the first five years' rent, conditional on effecting improvements to that amount; re-appraisement bases once every 20 years; graduated land tax for estates over the value of £5,000 on unimproved basis, increasing a half-penny for each £5,000 over that exemption; compulsory resumption of private lands for closer setttlement plus 10 per cent, on the land'tax valuation, with the value of improvements at the time of resumption; advances for improvements to holdings up to two-thirds of the value of improvements; provision for working men's blocks in the centres of population.