GENERAL CABLES

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 100, 22 January 1927, Page 9

GENERAL CABLES

1 The Queensland Pastoral Inspector, after a tour of the State, reports that, with the exception of the country east and south of Charleville, the country is in a bad state owing to the drought, and from three miles north, of Charleviile to Longreach it is in a deplorable condition. It is only possible for holdings' to carry on with present feed tor five weeks. Fine seamanship saved the life of Lieutenant Burges, whom a huge wave washed off the destroyer Splendid, states a message from Gibraltar. Lieut Commander Falls manoeuvred the vessel to where Burges was floating on the crest of a wave and hauled him aboard as he was dashed against the ship’s side. The cook also went overboard, and was washed back on the deck by a succeeding wave. The miners in the Western group of New South Wales colleries are indignant at the alleged refusal of the Railway Commissioners to hear their claims for increased wages and improved conditions. They threaten a general strike if nothing definite is done before a mass meeting next week. There are 1700 miners idle in the Northern field as the result of separate disputes in five colleries. A terrific hailstorm swept Barden Grove, near Dtnigog, New South Wales. Corn crops and fruit trees were strtpped and a large number of .pigs and fowls killed. Horses and cattle also siltfeted severely. Hail stones, weighing eight ounces, fell, denting the roofs as bv hammers and cutting telephone wires. Lumps of ice were found in the centre of water melons, most of which were chopped to pieces. The Darwin Town Council has asked the North Australia Commission to cancel the coastal shipping contract and withdraw the subsidy P al “., , e company, which, they sav, should bespent on making roads. It is poii>’d out that settlers and miners along the coast are being starved out: that produce is going to waste; that thev are despairing, waiting the arrival of a snip with supplies. Pastoralists had nrocured motor-lorries and cut roads through the rough country at their own expense. The council asked the Commission to finish these roads thus making "settlers independent of shipping