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By Sydneysider

Sydney is the hub of the South Pacific, and its news is vour news. Here are some oj the things that made July headlines

Sydneysiders showed they still had hearts by contribut ing, in the space of just 48 hours, something close to £6,000 to the Help the Hurseys appeal opened by the Sydney Daily Tele graph. (The Hurseys, father and son, Hobart waterside workers, have suffered six months of victimisation since they refused to pay a compulsory levy to Labour Party political funds and were blacklisted by other mem bers of the WWF. On June 21, they declared they were down, broke and at the end of their tether; on June 22 the Telegraph opened its fund; two days later there) fwas over £5,000 in the kitty). * * * The New South Wales Gov ernment Railways Dept, excelled itself by having a record deficit of over £8 million for the year.

Commissioner McCusker blames last summer’s drought. Getting down to domestic facts, it means that every man, woman and child in the State should have spent over £2 more per head traveling by train.

How they are to be induced to do so when every five of them owns one motor vehicle, and the trains are comfortless, filthy, old fashioned, inconvenient and very, very expensive, is Mr. McCusker’s problem.

He says that no matter what, he won’t raise fares. He’d better not. Every time the fares go up, more people use bikes, cars, motor-scooters or shanks’ pony— and down goes Railways revenue. * * * Another transport revolution occurred beginning of July when, for the first time since the Harbour Bridge was opened in 1932, trams stopped running into the city from the North Shore.

The two tram tracks on the Bridge are to be converted to car lanes, at a cost of £U-£2 million and 12 months’ work.

Change-over from trams to buses has pleased motorists (be cause of freer-flowing traffic) and made suburban commuters froth at the mouth. Some have stood for an hour in bus queues, and those at intermediate stops must watch full buses sail past during peak-hours. Sydney is well on with its plan for rooting out all trams —on overseas advice.

But in spite of the experts, buses

are not as convenient, nor do they lift the crowds like old fashioned, toast-rack trams.

HIGH FINANCE: But it is not all debit. The State this year ex pects £4,700,000 from its rake-off on lotteries; £2,903,000 from rac ing and betting taxes; and £730,000 from licensed poker machines.

THE PRESS: Although the popularity of the DT Hursey Appeal (see above) and the speed with which the donations (mostly in small amounts), flooded that newspaper office were surely newsworthy, all the other daily newspapers were too busy biting their nails in chagrin to mention it. Neither did the ABC see fit to give space on its aseptic air to the fact that the Tele had done something that made every citizen, not a Commo, want to go in and pat the man agement and staff on its col lective back.

CULTURE: The Opera House Fund has reached £2lB,ooo—which means that only another £li million or so is needed before Sydney can have its Sails-on the-Harbour Opera House on Benalong Point. By the time that sum is collected it is likely that what was a revolutionary design a couple of years ago will just be old stuff.

SPORT: The Empire Games Team left by Qantas for UK and Cardiff on July 2, and returned to Sydney on the morning of July 3, having flown 1,200 miles out and then been turned back by bad weather at Nadi, Fiji.

The party—about 70 strong—got off again on the 4th, but the smiles of July 2 had turned sour as trainers and managers thought of ruined training schedules.

FASHION: Previously in structed by French, Italian, Amer can and Irish mannequins, a bevy of German models, who will show how things are done in Berlin, are currently circulating.

On arrival they were noted for three things; the shortness of their three things: the shortness of their fact that four had no inter national vaccination certificates.

After initial reluctance, they sub mitted and were re-vaccinated— on their shapely hips, should you be interested.