Melbourne, Aug. 16. ing, when the awoke to the fact that, during the night and the previous day, the taxation officials, acting in eonjunetio with the police, and under direct orders from the Attorney-General Jef the Commonwealth, Mr, Latiam, had raided numerous' business and private houses, confiscating the books and all papers bearing upon incomes, or the purpose of discover. ing whether fraudulent entries hal tecon" made. Thenty-nine were raided in all, with the promico for other places being treated in a like fashion later on. The raids; were carried out by warrant issued} inder Section'10 of the Crimes Act 1914-26." At one place, the Small Arms Ca, 221" Elisabeth Street, the officials were compelled to use jexy-acetylene plant. to. force an fairy into the double security safe. this company's po sto the value of £500,000 were discovered. All these documents were taken by the tax ion officials. The offices of Dr.
Jones, the solicitor dearing!
the affairs of this particular Company and of "the Palais De Danse and Palais Pictures Com ies, situated at St. Hilda, al years. The deceased gentleman was om at Leith, Scotland, on May 29, 1883. Besides being the "father" lof Victorian poetry, he may well be credited with being one of the oldest of Australian colonists who resided in this State before the days of self-government. It ix a pity that hho has not left a record of his me-moits in book form, but doubtless some of his literary' friends or reives will accomplish this for hin His mother was a descendant of the Huntly Gordor Mr, MeCrae's pom! entitled "The Man in the Iron Mask." He was a contemporary of all the Australian writers who have left mark upon the literary history of this country, included amongst them being Adam Lindsay Gordon, Marcus Clarke, Kendal, and others. In the carly days of this city he and his associates, formed n club which used to meet in the eastern section of Bourke Street, but, unlike the places fre-quanted by' Samuel Johnson and Goldsmith, this Met had time to is only too willing to abolish such landmarks and allow more modern buildings to take their place. Mr. McCrae wor also a founder of the York Club and a member of the Civil Service for over 40 years. ied.
Police Headquarters Attacked The companies raided were:—Small Arms Ca,, Inter-State Invest ment Ca,, Levy Brothers Sveressor Mia Mia' Pastoral Company, Transport Investment, Opera Howe favestment, and Luna Park (ALra hams Holdings).'The art net included the Land, Mortgage and Pal Danse Partnership! Finance Ca,, Palais Pictures and
Sydney Interest "Partnership, ani! Flsternwick Syndicate, besides num erous partnership embracing. men-bers of the Abrahams and Hyams families, Amongst. the individuals were practically all the partners of the Abrahams" (ten in all) and those of the Hyams (eleven in all who are business partners with the Abrahams).
Even in some of the private re sidence. it was necessary forth fauthoritis to. secure. the servir Jot expert safe-makers—or in his ins tance breakers—owing to. the re fora of the women-folk "to hail over the Keys so that they coul obtain the necessary papers. The earch was "conducted with a tho-Toughness that calls for admiration, though the drastic nature of the tsk undertaken by the Government resembles somewhat that of the famous Arcos raid in London.
Latham, la the course of a spec 1d acme 18 months yo, stated that it was useless having laws upon the Statute Book unless they were enforced. Since. taking command of the department which can enforce the law, Mr. Latham is not to be swerved from the path he considers as the true reading of the Act. This the first raid, though it is unlikely that it will be the last. Po-warful counsel have been retained by the Government, pending such Tegal action as almost certain will ensue. They are Sir Edward Mit-[chell, K.c, Mr, Owen Dixon, x.©. Mr, Dixon Hearder, Mr, D. Claude Robertson, and Mr. E. German. It] will be some weeks before the full result of the taxation inquiry known, ax the numbers of papers: to be dealt with is considerable.
"Pather of Victorian Poetry."
The death is reported of Mr. George MeCrue, at the age of 94 jacent of the days when the police were considered fair game for that powerful and terrorizing gang. of criminals, was a recent affair lin Brisbane. In the case of the Kellys, they merely attacked small country outposts, but Bris-jane has had' a taste attack being made at the heart of their police organization, Luckily, the C. D. offices were empty except for one detective, who escaped with shock and concussion caused through an explosion. A bomb was thrown into the building at midnight last Saturday, partially wreek-Ing the building. 'That it was the work of n desperate gang of erly minals, who endeavoured by this moans' to destroy some of the evid-fence accumulated by the police respecting a long series of daring robberies, is the opinion of the experts who have been detailed to arrest the bomb-throwe Queensland appears to have become the hunting-ground of criminals and the police have been on the look-out for marked men for some consle derable time. Hanging foy murder dees not operate in that State and the Labour government in power by now must have become heartily sick of the restrictions which han per the full sentence of the law being carried out. Regarding the reject murder of n cane-cutter Toniefail, contradictory evidence was produced at the inquest and a more deplorable state of affairs would hard to realize. The. farmers felaim they do not get "sufficient police protection and the government find themselves hampered one minute by the unions and the next appealed to by the unions for sistance. Although in the present instance there were quantities of explosives which had been captured by. the police during various raids, is considered impossible that this could have caused the damage done, although, it may materially have assisted the original cause of the disturbances. The fire brigade soon were at the scene and a large 1:08 of police were essential to kiexp the erowde buck and to direct the traffic, discovering that a man now is as strong as his glands. No Uranch of medicine is so fascinating, nor likely to lead were surely ito man's emancipation.from disease, Jas endocrinology, s0 that, by—the time the baby born to-day reaches the age of the oldest person reading these lines, it may be that he will have at his command—knowledge! which will make the longest life of ithe older generations seem literally but a span. Every man who has grassed the middle life mark will Jagree that, looking back, life is [woefully short. As soon' as we gather some real knowledge based on experience, which is the only knowledge worth anything, we find that are "old." All the older folk concur in the belief that, if only what se call old age could be warded lot, and we could maintain our inhysical and mictal vigour for a few Jdcendes longer, most of us would be fable to accomplish something of value in the world; whereas, as it is, old: age is upon us before we know it, and the race is run before jwe have truly got into our stride.
Come, Sept. 12—The Internation. Jai Congress of Physics opened thi morning in the presence of Signor Martelli, representing the Italian
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.