AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8448, 25 May 1907, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

IMPRESSIONS OF NEW ZEALAND. Received May 24, 9.3 a.m. SYDNEY, May 24. Mr J. Reed, of Adelaide, president of the Federal Chamber of Manufacturers, addressing a meeting of members, gave his impressions of a recent visit to New Zealand. Mr Reed said New Zealand was a colony for the New Zealanders —that was to say, they wished to be independent of Australia. New Zealand was protectionist, and in the present revision of the tariff Australian products would px-actically be excluded. The Labour element appeared to be dominant. The colony appeared to be in a prosperous state but Australian workmen were returning to the Commonwealth. Although they were earning higher wages in New Zealand other conditions existing made living dearer. When all was summed up, Australian workmen were better off in Australia than in New Zealand. In reply to a question with reference to coal mines, Mr Reed said that the mines under the control of the Government had the effect of keeping down the price of coal. CONFERENCE OF PREMIERS. Received May 24, 9 a.m. MELBOURNE, May 24. Among the principal questions to be discussed at the Premiers' Conference, which will begin at Brisbane next week, will be the "Braddon blot" and the appointment of State Governors.

SCULLING

Received May 24, 9 a.m. SYDNEY, May 24

George Towns declines to visit England this year because he desires to supervise the training of his brother Charles for the race with Webb. (George Towns has received a challenge from Home, through Mr Tom Sullivan, from the sculler Barry.) FRUIT FLY. Received May 24, 9 a.m. ADELAIDE, May 24. A shipment of New South Wales oranges infected with fruit fly, has been destroyed. The Act for the prohibition of the importation of fruits likely to introduce a pest has been put in force.

FEDERAL MAIL CONTRACT. Received May 24, 10.27 a.m. MELBOURNE, May 24. There is considerable anxiety regarding the Federal mail contract, especially as the present contract ends in January. It is considered unlikely that the Federal Government will move further in the matter The subject will probably be dealt with at the Premiers' Conference, which will open at Brisbane next week. The renewal of the proposal of Mr Bent, Premier of Victoria, that the State Government should guarantee the Australian section of the debenture holders £125,000 annually for ten years, is likely to meet with considerable opposition. Mr Carruthers, Premier of New South Wales, declines to say anything. Mr Kidston, Premier of Queensland, is declared to be against Mr Bent's proposal. The South Australian, West Australian, and Tasmanian Premiers are believed to be more sympathetic.

COEAR COPPER MINES. MODUS VIVENDI. Received May 24, 9.47 a.m. SYDNEY, May 24. A conference has been practically arranged between the mine owners and the strikers at Cobar, the strikers undertaking to provide men to keep the mines dry in the mean - time. (This apparently means the manning of the pumping plant, without which great damage by flooding was threatened.) MELBOURNE STEAM SERVICE TO SINGAPORE. Received May 24, 10.25 a.m. ADELAIDE, May 24. Local exporters strongly resent the action of Victoria in subsidising a steam line to Singapore, and threaten reprisals. (The Victorian State Government recently arranged with Arch. Currie and Co. —Australian and Indian line —for a/ive-weekly service from Melbourne to Singapore. The subsidy to be paid is £2,000.)

NEWCASTLE SHIPPING. Received May 24, 10.25 a.m. SYDNEY, May 24. The coal and shipping facilities at Newcastle are being improved by the erection of four dumping machines, at a cost of £70,000. (Through lack of appliances there has been a great congestion of shipping at Newcastle lately.) NOT PLAGUE. Received May[24, 11.21 p.m. MELBOURNE, May 24. The case at Collingwood is not plague. ASSISTED IMMIGRANTS. Received May 24, 11.21 p.m. SYDNEY, May 24. One hundred and fifty assisted immigrants arrived by the steamer Essex.

CABLE NEWS.

United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph Copyright.

NEW CARGO SERVICE. Received May 25, 1.9 a.m. SYDNEY, May 24. Howard Smith and Company, who will be the Australian agents, have received news confirming the intention of Andrew Weir and Sons, to run a new San Francisco cargo service. The first steamer will leave Seatle, which will be the starting point of the new line, on August 10th, proceeding thence to San Francisco, and probably calling at Auckland en route to Sydney. It has not, however, been definitely settled yet whether the steamers will call at New Zealand. QUEENSLAND ELECTIONS. MINISTER REJECTED. Received May 24, 10.25 a.m. BRISBANE, May 24. The latest figures make Mr Airey's defeat for Flindexs certain. (Mr P. Airey, Mr Kidston's Hdme Secretary, is the only Minister whose seat was in danger, after the first returns had come in. He has been much identified with labour and democracy, but, being a Kidstonite, was opposed by the Labour Party. The relations between that party and Mr Airey may be inferred from the following comment in the Worker: — "Peter Airey's friends up in the Flinders having denied that he signed the Labour platform, five hundred photographic reproductions of that interesting document, bearing his pledge and autograph in facsimile, were promptly printed. ... It bears the words, written in the poet of freedom's scrawling hand: —'I hereby agree to advocate and support the principles contained in the above platform.—P. Airey.' Not only in 1902 did he sign it, but again' in 1904, when he was Home Secretary." The "poet of freedom" is a reference to Mr Airey's verse in the Bulletin, over the nora de plu'me of "P. Luftig.")