AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8361, 18 February 1907, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

BABY FARMING. SHOCKING DISCLOSURES. PERTH, February 16. Some shocking disclosures have been made with regard to the boarding out of infants. Baby-farming is apparently rampant. In one house thirty died within three years. Another has thirteen deaths on its book A woman named Mitchell has been arrested on a charge of unlawfully killing an infant.

. BIG GRASS FIRE. BRISBANE, February 16. A fire at Galway Downs, Longreach, destroyed 50,000 acres of grass. VALUABLE DISCOVERY. ADELAIDE, February"l 6. What promises to be a valuable discovery of thorium has been made at Kangaroo Island. Thorium is valued at £1,700 per ton. The precise percentage of thorium present is not definitely known, but experts say it is high. One states that the crystals found are the largest in the world. (Thorium is a rare metal resembling aluminium. It was discovered in 1829 by Berzelius. Kangaroo Island is at the mouth of Gulf St. Vincent, south of Adelaide.) A ROUGH PASSAGE. HOBART, February 16. The Maheno had a rough voyage. A seaman, named Watters, died of heart disease before Reaving Milford Sound, and was buried at sea. A big sea came aboard on Thursday and inflicted injuries to a seaman named Henderson.

SUCCESS OF A NEW ZEALAND SCULLER.

Received February 16, 8.44 p.m. SYDNEY, February 16. The All-comers' Scullers' Handicap resultedArnst (New Zealand), 31sec, 1; S. Kemp, 30sec, 2; Day, 33sec, 3. The New Zealander led throughout, and won by two lengths in 12min 6sec. YACHTING. Received February 16, 8.44 p.m. SYDNEY, February 16. , The Gascoigne Cup resulted:— Awanui 1, Rawhiti 2, Heather 3. Won by 6min 25sec, with 16sec between second and third. VICTORIAN POLITICS. Received This Morning, 1.10 o'clock. MELBOURNE, February 17. The Hon. T. Bent delivered a policy speech, in which he stated that Parliament* would be dissolved about February 21st, and the elections held on March 15th. Rarely had it been the good fortune of a Premier to tell such a golden story as he had to tell. He announced that a surplus of over half-a-million was assured for the current financial year. Thp position of the railways had changed from a deficit of £365,000 per year to a surplus of £199,000 in three years. The Government proposed an amendment to the Land Tax Act by classifying land according to its production abilities; old-age pensions would be increased to ten shillings weekly. Bills would be introduced providing for a referendum on the question of Bible-teach-ing in State schools and to secure preferential voting so as to cure the evil of minority representation; also for the utilisation of prison labour in road construction and other reproductive work. Woman's suffrage would be left an open question for the Cabinet. Personally he was against it.

CABLE NEWS.

By Telegraph—Press Association-Copyright.