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By Sydneysider

Sydney is the huh of the South Pacific, and its news is your news. Here are some of the things that made Oct.-Nov. headlines.

MOST of Sydney’s two million people who have “too many baths, and water too many gardens” were hopping mad when, after the first hot day—at 96 deg., the hottest in October for 10 years—the Water Board clamped down water restrictions over a wide area. Reason for the anger was that, although garden water ing was banned through last summer, water rates in July went up 100 per cent, for most. To sweeten the blow, the Board then assured consumers there was water in the dams for a quarter century of drought years. Now it seems water in the dams is not enough. It has also to be in the reservoirs and pipes. And right now it isn’t. * * ♦ Injunctions were talked about, telegrams sent to the Prime Min ister, and North Sydney aldermen called it the Rape of Kirribilli when Commonwealth Govern ment bulldozers started to rip out a harbourside site for an office to house the Security Service.

No one can understand why the cloak and dagger boys want a home on the waterfront, anyhow —unless, as one local politician put it, they need it to approach in a boat with muffled oars, in an atmosphere of Stygian dark ness. * * * Equal pay for women, promised by the State Government “before the end of the year,” appears to be going to be boiled down to a £1 a week all round for ladies on State Awards. The whole hog would have cost too much; the modest quid is going to cost an unmodest total of £8 million per annum, as it is. * * * An enthusiastic amateur photo grapher who works on the Snowy Mountains hydro-electricity pro ject, accidently stumbled on the remains of an old plane late Oc *bef, and solved the mystery of the disappearance of the Southern Cloud, missing these :J4v/v ars - E i gbt people perished with her up there in the then in accessible mountains, and the r!Jf < ?^ Som l yearsbefore the young photographer was born—dealt the

coup de grace to this Ulm- Kingsford Smith venture into pioneer interstate air transport ation. The company—the original Australian National Airways and no relation to the present com pany—folded up soon after the Southern Cloud disaster. She had been on a flight between Sydney and Melbourne. Most popular theory was that she had flown into the sea off the Victorian coast. * * * PROGRESS; Skyscrapers are springing up as frequently as suburban bungalows. Latest is a 23 storey flat block near McMahon’s Point, on north side of the Bridge, and a 22 storey office block for the Common wealth Government to fr on t Elizabeth Street extension and face the new 150 feet high, curved-front Qantas building, opened last year. But the daddy of them all will be the 370 fert high, 25 storey, double-crescent ba c k-to-b ac k, AMP building planned for the site of an old wool store at the Quay.

DEATH: Well beloved, Anglican Primate of Australia and Arch bishop of Sydney, Dr. H. W. K.

Mowll, on October 24.

Knighthood: For Mr.

Justice W. J. V. Windeyer, mem ber of one of the oldest legal families in the country and re cently appointed to the High Court.

WILD LIFE: Right on State’s busiest highway where it passes through city’s salubrious suburb of Killara, a motorist ran over a 6-ft goanna, said goanna having a bantam-hen in its mouth.

After The Party The

PAY-OFF: Following a wedding reception in a Sydney suburb in March, mother of the bride com plained that the beer was hot, pink champagne in short supply, turkey and lobster patties totally missing. Mother now has done more than complain. She has sued the caterer for £2lO, and the court case has been of absorbing interest to newspaper readers.

CONTRIBUTION: Estate of late Sir Charles Lloyd Jones (of David Jones Ltd.) has been valued for probate at £235,000.

After tax gatherer has taken his share, most of the rest goes to his family.