BUSH FIRES IN VICTORIA.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20450, 21 January 1932, Page 7

BUSH FIRES IN VICTORIA.

RESIDENCE DESTROYED. NATURE IN VIOLENT MOOD. SYDNEY, January 20. Nature appears to have run riot in Australia. While Quensland is suffering from a cyclone and floods. New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia are in the grip of a heat wave •and bush fires. Great tires are raging in Victoria, in tho forest-covered ranges on the shores of the southern ocean, and to the north of Melbourne. A dozen gangers raced for their lives along a mile of railway track to Moe, with flames many feet high, on each side. Groups of men at Upper Beaconsfield also had narrow escapes when they were trapped by walls of flame. Many lire-lighters collapsed. Atr T. Baurke's home at Bayswater, vtlued at over £30,000, was destroyed, live children being rescued in tho nick of time. A smoke haze as thick as a dense fog hangs over the whole State, and extends several miles out to sea. The steamer Mernoo was forced to reduce her speed for safety, and arrived at Melbourne a day late. The mercury reached 111 degrees in South Australia. Adelaide experienced . another sizzling day with a maximum of 107, while many towns m Western New South Wales reported century readings. There were strange scenes at a funeral in Inisfail (Queensland) when a coffin was taken as far as possible by motor-lorry, and then transferred to a fiat-bottomed boat, which men, walking in water up to their arm-pits, pro. pe'led toward the cemetery. 'FLOODS IN NORTH QUEENSLAND.

CAIRNS ISOLATED. BRISBANE, January 20. The North Queensland floods have reached the highest level for 18 years. Miles of sugar-cane lands are submerged. Cairns is isolated, except by sea, and business is at a standstill there, and also at Townsville and Inmsfail. • , i A girl was drowned near Inmefail, and boats are plying at the latter place. The rain has now ceased, but cyclonic conditions prevail, and high winds are ravaging the whole of the northern coast, working down to New South Wales.

BRIDGES SUBMERGED. SERIOUS DAMAGE AT TOWNSVILLE. (Received January 20th, 9.50 p.m.) TOWNSVILLE, January 20. Serious damage has been caused by the floods. The railway bridge over the Elliott river has been carried downstream. There have also been disastrous wash-, aways near Bowen. Several bridges over the Burdekin river are submerged.

Eighteen inches of rain fell at Guthalungra, near Townsville, last night. trWATERSIDE RIOTS. ATTORNEY-GENERAL ISSUES ■ WARNJNG.- ■ '»- CANBERRA, January 20. Mr J. G. Latham (Federal AttorneyGeneral) in a statement covering the Port Adelaide waterside disorders, said the Government would not tolerate violence or threats of violence, and the Government would not condone crime because it may have been initiated or provoked for industrial purposes. . .. h Such methods would not succeed witn this Government. It was equally futile for the Waterside Workers' Federation to complain that the trouble arose irom the employment of foreigners. Iho fact remained that the federation had more members of foreign origin in its ranks than any other union. The Government, however, would see that no unfair discrimination was exercised bv employers in this direction.

ACTION OF STATE GOVERNMENT. CHALLENGE TO FEDERAL AUTHORITY. (Received January 20th, 8.25 p.m.; ADELAIDE, January 20. Regulations under the Public Safety Preservation Act having the effect or barring the employment of volunteer labour on the waterfront at Port Adelaide, were approved by the State Executive Council to-day, and will be gazetted this afternoon. . They restore preference to Unionists and all the other privileges enjoyed under the Scullin Government. This is directly in conflict with the recent action of the Lyons Government. Other regulations approved to-day <nve wide powers to the police with regard to seditious publications, picketing, and the possession of unlawful weapons. Commenting on the South Australian Government's action, the editor-in-chief (Mr Delamore McCay), of the "Sydney Sun/' to-day describes it as of the gravest constitutional importance, in so far as it transcends any action by a State Government in contravention of Federal authority since the formation of the Commonwealth. "While ihe South Australian coup can be challenged constitutionally, the writer says, "it is fraught with much graver potentialities, because it involves the livelihood and the lives of large numbers of people. A direct and serious defiance of Commonwealth sovereignty has been attempted. It remains to be seen whether the Federal Government will take up the challenge."

BROKEN HILL MINERS. • STRIKE ORDERED. SYDNEY, January 20. The central executive of the Miners' Federation has instructed the men employed at two Broken Hill collieries to cease work in sympathy with tho Newcastle seamen who declared the company's four steamers biaok-