CONDENSED CABLE NEWS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10191, 17 March 1911, Page 7

CONDENSED CABLE NEWS.

United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Press Association.

There is no confirmation of the reports regarding Mr Staniforth Smith's party. The impression is growing tliwt it will never retur.n.

The President of the Federal Arbitration Court has called a compulsory conference of both sides with a view to settling the Implement trade dispute. . •

The census returns show Colombo to have a population of .211,184. (Colombo is the capital of the island of Ceylon, and at the last census the population was 152,580).

The Associated Chambers of Commerce, London, have resolved that the Commonwealth Navigation Bill ought to be amended in conformity with the recommendations of the Colonial Shipping Conference, 1907.

The Agent-General for New South Wales, at London, reports that more immigrants are .offering themselves than fie can find ste&mer accommodation for. Four vessels have been specially engaged to take out men wanted for railway 'construction.

Mr H. Less Smith, Liberal member for Northampton, has given notice of motion that the Right Hon. R. McKenna, First Lord of the Admiralty, had been guilty of a breach of the confidence of the House of Commons in having had four contingent Dreadnoughts laid down.

Among,the passengers by the Araway just arrived at Melbourne, Mr Samuel Turner, F.E.G.S., who is en route to New Zealand to indulge in mountaineering, during the voyage out put up a world's skipping record, whilst exercising to keep himself ic good climbing trim.

A scheme is afoot among the Sydney hairdressers to raise the price of a shave to fourponce and of haircutting to ninepence, with a corresponding increase of journeymen's wages. The! Brisbane price of Haircutting is to be raised from sixpence to a shilling after "May Ist' 1 next."'' '■■'.■'■''

Mr Deakin, speaking at Maryborough, New South Wales, predicted that unification would take place within three years if the referenda proposals were carried. He added that in the meantime the State Parliaments would be reduced to the level of a kind of glorified shire council.

With a view to compelling the dissolution of the shipping ring, the new Post Office Bill provides for the exclusion from mail contracts of any company maintaining the rebate system. A special clause empowers the Governor-General to differentiate both at ports and on the Union railways against cargo consigned by such a company's vessel. , •

General Pole Cavew, the Unionist member for Bodmin, attacked General lan Hamilton's book on compulsory military service. He said that he had 'had considerable experience of Sir lan Hamilton and that the book was like him. being flighty and unreliable. -The book had been written chiefly to sell and for advertisement, and incidentally for the satisfaction of the Minister of War. Mr Haldano indignantly protested, saying that the book had not ■'• been written to order, and ho added that the chivalry of Sir lan Hamilton' was above anything of the sort suggested.