N.G.’S White Prisoners

THE Federal Parliament has passed a Bill called “Removal of Prisoners Bill,” which has special application to New Guinea.

It appears that when Europeans are sentenced to terms of imprisonment in New Guinea they may be sent to serve their sentences in the prisons of New South Wales or Queensland. At the ex piration of their sentences they are en titled to claim transport back to New Guinea. But in many cases the crime for which they are punished is one which brings about their formal deportation from the territory; and it has happened in a number of cases that men, having been formally transported to New Guinea, have with equal formality been deported from that territory. The purpose of the new law is 'to provide that, when there is an order of deportation against a discharged prisoner, such discharged prisoner may not claim transportation to New Guinea.

The development of gold mining in Fiji, said the chairman of Colonial Sugar Refining Co. (Mr. E. R. Knox) recently, had not disturbed the normal conditions in the colony, but there was a risk of serious dislocation of labour supply if this new and somewhat uncertain industry was not controlled properly.