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News From Overseas.

A Rest Home for convalescent soldiers has been opened at Tweed Heads by the Church of England Soldiers' Help Society, Queensland, the ceremony being performed by Lady Morgan, widow of the late Lieut. Governor of the State. Brigadier-General Irving, District Commandant, whose wife is a president of the Society, was present, and he eulogised the work of Canon Garland to whose energy and foresight the establishment of the Home was due. This makes the third club for returned soldiers established by the Society in Queen-land. The new Home, which is commodious and well, furnished, is situated within 100 yards of the surf. It is an ideal place, and many delightful excursions can be made in the neighbourhood.

Senator G.F. Pearce, Minister for Defence, recently made a statement concerning the registration and care of soldiers graves. The Commonwealth Government is represented on the Imperial War Graves Commission by Mr. A. Fisher, the High Commissioner, who, in a cable to Senator Pearce, said that he had attended its first meeting. Equality of treatment, it was decided, should apply to the memorials and graves of soldiers and sailors, no distinction being made between officers and men. The most probable memorial for officers and men of the same unit buried in foreign soil would be regimental headstones, but relatives or associations would be given every encouragement to erect at home individual personal memorials. Mr. Fisher also stated, that Egypt provided gratis, land for cemeteries for soldiers of the British Empire, and maintained the graves in perpetuity.

It is reported by the Housing Commission, which has been collecting evidence in Melbourne, that there is great overcrowding. At Fitzroy a family of five was found living in one room. Three families were living in a three-roomed house at South Melbourne.

In the twelve months ended June 30th., 1917, Western Australia imported foodstuffs (exclusive of sugar) to the value of £1,316,536.

Sir Joseph Ward anticipates, he remarked in a recent speech, that aeroplanes will be greatly used in New Zealand after the war, for the carriage of mails, while small settlements will be connected with railways by means of motor lorries.

New Zealand's war bill from the beginning of hostilities to September 30th., 1917, amounted to £26,846,000. The chief item was pay and allowances,£ll,308,962. Rations Cost £1,116,347.

At a Conference held in Melbourne to deal with the question of repatriation of returned soldiers who are unfit to do heavy work, six members of the Ministry were present. Representatives of the Returned Soldiers' Association were also there. The following motion was carried: "That this conference suggests to the State Government, that in the case of returned soldiers whose health is broken by war, and whose pension is reduced or stopped by the Commonwealth when the State settles them on the land, the Commonwealth should continue a fixed pension, or give more sustenance until a man is able to stand alone."

South Australian Alliance considers that the 6 o'clock closing laws should be more effective, and intends to ask the Government to make them so. Among other things, it suggests that bars should be closed on election days, and while transports are in port; also, that on three convictions being recorded within three years, houses and licensees should be delicensed.

At Palmerston North, N.Z., the Anzac Club for soldiers has been erected at a cost of £6,500. It is a two-storied building.

In New South Wales since July 22nd. last, 77 applications have been received from Returned Soldiers for 52,850 acres. An area of 22,957 acres has been made available to provide 352 holdings.

The Melbourne University Council, acting on the suggestion of Mr. Theodore Fink (a member of the Council), will consider the advisibility of opening to returned soldiers free University courses.

There is discontent in New Zealand in connection with the proposed decoration, the "Gallipoli Star". Discussing the matter, "The New Zealander" states: "As was to be expected, the conditions caused lively discussion amongst returned soldiers. The Dunedin R.S.A. at once urged the Government to award the decoration to all who served on Gallipoli. The Wellington correspondent of the 'Press' says: 'There is very little enthusiasm among returned soldiers about the proposal. The conditions, they say, are unfair, and it would be impossible to make conditions which would not be unfair unless the Star were to be given to everybody who ever bore arms on Gallipoli.' It is pointed out that the conditions reserve the decoration for the Main Body and the first and second reinforcements, excluding some who landed on April 25th, and very many who served for months on Gallipoli, and also excluding those who went to Samoa and then on to Gallipoli without going out of uniform. This may be quite defensible as a means of rewarding prompt volunteers. The trouble is, that the decoration is popularity called The Gallipoli Star, and that, from the beginning, it was foreshadowed as a distinctive mark for service in Gallipoli."

As from March 1st last, counter lunches were to be "cut out" in Victorian hotels, in accordance with the decision of the Brewers' Association and hotel keepers. Is is estimated that £50,000 a year will be saved thus.

The coming Victorian wheat harvest, Mr F. Haghehhorn, retiring Minister for Agriculture, estimates, will be at least 37,000,000 bushels, and it may be 40,000,000 bushels.

It is estimated by the Victorian Country Roads Board, that it will cost £150,000 to make the proposed Soldiers' Memorial Road, from the Barwon Heads to Warrnambool. After a conference, Councillors of surrounding Municipalities suggested that only returned soldiers be engaged on the work.

The map of South Australia is to be cleansed from German names. For example, Kaiserstahl is to be renamed Patpoori Hill, and Blumberg will become Perromba.

"Rollingstone", in "The British Austral-isian", says that, for the hundredth time the question, ''Who gives the I/- a day deferred pay to the Australian soldiers?" is put by a correspondent. Of course, the answer is, that it is paid by the Commonwealth Government-. "There is a superstition, apparently very hard to kill, that the shilling a day is paid by the British Government, and not by our own. What its origin may be I do not know. Perhaps it is a relic of the Boer war, when some Australian soldiers were in receipt of English money. Perhaps it is because the generous sum of a shilling a day has become so fixed in the popular mind as the British Government's estimate of a soldier's worth, that any payment of that sum for any purpose, to any soldier, under any circumstances, is assumed necessarily to be made by the British Government and by no other."

Of a proposed sum of £25,000 to be expended for returned Maori soldiers and dependants, the Maoris have collected £14,000.

Queensland Government statistican's report on the live stock in that State for 1916 gives interesting figures. Horses numbered 697,517, increase over the total for 1915 being 10,646. The number of cattle was 4765,657, a decrease of 15,236. Sheep, with a total of 15,524,293, fall short of the number for the previous year by 425,861.

A profit of £18,000 on telephone business is shown in the Federal Postmaster-General's report for the year ended Dec. 31st. last. There was a loss of £270.000 in the previous 12 months, and telephones in the Commonwealth now show a profit for the first time.

Many new military postal schemes have been put into operation in England and France, and some of them are to be tried in Egypt. Mails at the Australian Army Base Post Office, Kantara, are being run against records, so that all letters go to the latest address location of the addressee. To enable this to be carried out properly, it is necessary that soldiers should always advise the A.B.P.O., Kantara, of any change in their address. It is hoped shortly to have a complete card index for the whole of the A.L.F. in Egypt and Palestine. Whenever any man's address is changed, or he is transferred to another unit, the fact will be recorded on his card, and there will be no trouble in re-directing his mail.