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By Sydneysider

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

Commonwealth Ministers, meet ing in early July to cook up the 1959 Budget, have found £50 million in the kitty that they didn’t know about. This, say the optimistic experts, points the way to a tax slash. (Any department will do). * * * Railway officials sitting in their Counting House figuring out how much the 1958-59 loss will be, say a lot of lost patronage is due to slow, uncomfortable and grimy conditions of train travel “a few years ago”. To which most Syd neysiders reply, whadda you mean —a few years ago? Increased use of private vehicles and air travel is also blamed for the rail way not being the popular way —although the Public Service Board of NSW is doing its best for the railways by banning public servants from air travel where a train can get them to the same place. * * *

Take Your Map: Two New

lanes on the Sydney Harbour Bridge (they used to be tram lines) are expected to ease traffic congestion for two years by which time additional vehicles will have got us back where we started from. Out of town drivers are advised to approach the Bridge between midnight and 6 a.m.— it’s now no game for the novice or uninstructed. During the month, newspapers have boosted circulation by printing diagrams and maps on How to Do It; and Transport Department is issuing pamphlets to the same purpose. * * *

Chinese Puzzle: It Was A

feather in the caps of NSW police when they cleared up, within two days, what looked like being an insoluble Oriental mystery of how two Chinese bodies got to be floating in Sydney harbour done up in calico shrouds.

They were the casualties of a party of five Chinese smuggled from Hongkong by crew members of the liner Taiyuan.

The three who got ashore are still abroad as illegal migrants.

The two whose Chinese luck ran out apparently smothered in a cupboard during a Customs search for contraband, and their bodies were thrown overboard by panicky sailors.

Happy Anniversary: July

1 was the 50th anniversary of the introduction of Australian old age pensions. Beginning at 10/- per week in 1909, the rate has risen to the present £4/7/6.

The pensioner today is slightly better off, getting something like one-third the basic wage. In 1909 he got about one-fifth the un skilled male wage rate. Other benefits go with the age pension today; and over 500,000 Aus tralians are taking it—a far higher proportion than in 1909, when there was some sort of social stigma attached. * * *

Big Divvies From Little

Investments Grow: Record

for the month, any department, goes to General Motors Holden’s for a £15.3 million profit—the biggest an Australian company has ever made in one year. Over £7 million of it goes to ordinary shareholders in the United States —giving them 425 per cent, on their investment. Australian preference shareholders get £33,696. The rest goes to reserves.

GM-H has given its American parent the best investment it ever had; the Australian public the most popular car it ever had; and in addition it contributes mag nificently to consolidated revenue —£11,000,000 in income tax in the year under review. * * *

Distinguished Guest:

Danny Kaye, here in Sydney for a four weeks’ season at a fabulous fee. He’s delighting the fans on and off the stage. * * *

Local Boy Returning:

Prime Minister Menzies, on July 8, after 10 weeks abroad, back with the happy news that the world is now more likely to talk it out than fight it out. * * *

Out Damned Spot: After

some interesting wrangling going back over weeks, the Municipal Council of the high-toned Wool lahra area (it takes in Double Bay, Rose Bay, Edgecliff, etc.), decided on July 13 to order the demolition of two, almost completed, luxury blocks of flats (value £1 million), at Darling Point—because they are too near the water. The bet is it won’t happen, but it has been one of Sydney’s more entertaining stinks.