AUSTRALIA TO-DAY NOTES ON CURRENT EVENTS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 11, 12 July 1912, Page 10

AUSTRALIA TO-DAY NOTES ON CURRENT EVENTS

[jrjtOM Otn OWN COEEESPONDINT.J ' SYDNEY, 6th July. THE STRIKE SPIRIT. Two remarkable manifestations of the spirit of strike have to be chronicled. Both have taken place in Victoria. At a conference of farmers, held at Kerang, there was brought forward a proposal that all farmers should ceaeo work for twelve months, only growing enough, to feed themeelyes and their families. The motive underlying this proposal, which, was of the nature of ,v.cry advanced imitation of unionist methods, was to give an emphatic combined reply to the in» creasing demands by organised rural workers for higher wagee, and at tho same- time mark disapproval of the ways of the Judge of' the Federal Arbitration Court. Ther» was just enough djscua sion on the scheme to secure very strong expressions as to tho desirableness of farmers banding themselves together. However, the thing was regarded as sufficiently serious by several big newspapers to call for articles pointing out that to try to bring about a general stoppage of production would be a inoet mischievous business. A Flinders-lane warehouse in Melbourne advertised for a youth to be employed, in the packing room. In response a crowd of some fifty young fellow* ae. sembled around the door of the warehouse by the appointed time. Somebody suggested that an agreement should be come to concerning- the minimum wage at which the position would be accepted. Notwithstanding the number of applicants, the minimum wage proposition, suddenly launched found »;eady acceptance with a large number. The manager of the warehouse came out and invited six of the most likely looking of the applicants to come into his office. It happened that all' the six had agreed to the proposal that they should ask for not less than 35s a. week. But one of them told the manager, that he would accept £1. He got the position. When he came outside again he was set upon and struck about the face and head, amid, abusive cries: The £1 a week man was having a very bad time when the cry of "Police" was heard. It was a false alarm, but it saved him. MOVING FORWARD. Australia's new fighting force came) into being' oil Monday, when, under the compulsory training scheme, 'started a year, ago, all the senior cadets who are eighteen years old were transferred into .the fighting line. The transition stage j has been reached, and from now ' onwards on Ist July of each year the boyß, as they reach fourteen, will pass from the junior to the senior cadet ranks, with the distinction and responsibility of wearing a uniform and carrying;, a rifle, while those eighteen years old pass forward into the fighting line. Tho number of those who have just moved into the fighting force is 20,000. It will be eight years before they are discharged.' When that time arrives, and not till then, will Australia's defenders reach the limit of 120,000 set by Lord Kitchener. Although all the youths who became citizen soldiers on Monday did so under the compulsory training system, they have not been allowed to pass into the ranks indiscriminately. " A searching medical examination (in which only 17 per cent, failed) has been gone through, aud the boys have also been rejected who- did not comply with certain physical standards. Cadets have as far -as possible been allowed to name the arm -of- the force in which they desired to serve, but only picked trainees have been allotted to the artillery and engineers, who will be required to exercise twenty-five jlays per annum instead of sixteen day»7 which is prescribed for the infantry. IRON AND STEEL. Strong envy, local as well as interstate, has been provoked by reports which indicate that Newcastle, the> great coal-mining centre in this State.' will be made the scene of the great operations which the Broken Hill Proprietary Company intends to carry on, with the establishment of the biggest iron and steel works in Australia. It is because \ it has almost come to the end of its tether as far as mining operations at Broken Hill are .concerned (its own rain© is about exhausted, and there is not much to be made out of treating ore for other people), that the biggest of the Barrier concerns has resolved to apply its abundance of capital and scientific skill lo supplying Australia with the . steel and iron, whicli is in great and rapidly increasing demand. It is said that 'when the plans already formed are carried into effect the company will employ about 10,000 men ab its iron and steel work*. Naturally, there is competition amongst various places to secure selection as the site of m> big a. section of a ' very im • portant industry. The brainy men who manage the affairs of the company may bo credited with at least approval of this competition, because it strengthens their hands when it comes to getting from local authorities undertakings that if the works are established in their territory certain transport and other facilities will be forthcoming. At first South Australia was encouraged to believe that a big deposit oj iron are in that State

which the Broken Hill Proprietary people were examining very carefully, would mean the setting up of the big works there. But present indications point strongly to the site being at Newcastle. A HEAVY CLAIM. While obliged to look forward to competition from the Bioken Hill Proprietary Company, mentioned previously, Messrs. G. and C. Hoskins, the owners of the 'present largest iron and steel works in Australia, at Lithgow, New South Wales, have embarked upon litigation on a record gcalo so far as Australia is concerned. There has been filed on their behalf a cla.im against the New South. Wales Government for no less a sum than £150,000. Th* claim is mad© on. account of alleged breach of contract. Messrs. Hoskin? complain they were- [ wronged when home months ago the Sta-U j authorities gav»> notice of the termination of an anangenjont, or agreement, under which certain iron, steel, and othei' materials required by Government departments were- to be supplied by the plaintiffs for a period of nine years from Ist January, 1908, while contractors for Government works would be required to obtain certain iron and steel materials from the plaintiffs at- specified prices. In the formally filed answer by the Government to the claim it is set up that the Government was justified in declaring the contract cancelled because of failure by Messrs. Hoskins to observe certain material conditions. Amongst the condi. tions^ referred to aro some providing that the iron and steel' should contain, such ingredients as should comply with generally accepted standards of safety and efficiency. • It is also alleged that the plaintiffs on numerous occasions delivered material which had been rejected. It is nob likely that the case will be listed' for hearing until 1 - September next, on account of the heavy* lists^ of, Supreme Court cases, which claim priority, THE POLICEMAN'S REVOLVER. As a consequence of the armed burglar scare of a chort while ago much more' attention has been given to the arming of the police with revolvers when on duty. Many new weapons, have been issued and there has been a lot of practising at targets by constables who 'formerly had but very slight acquaintance with the revolver. That some members of the force have • acquired deadly skill has been demonEtrated in two very recent cases> in which men have been ehot down. In (this State a police sergeant proceeded to arrest a man on a warrant for apprehension bocauee of mental uneoundness. The, man confronted the fcergeant with a small rifle in' his hands and did not heed the officer's order to put the riflo down. Instead he fired, and the bullet lodged in the lower part of the body of the sergeant who discharged his revolver, and shot the man through the heart. At the Coroner's inquest a verdict 1 of "lawfolly killed' was returned. In the uecond case, which occurred at a town, on the Victoria-New South Wales border on Tuesday night a constable engaged in arresting a' man found himself fiercely attacked by a. mate of the ono he was handcuffing. First he was kicked and then rushed at with a knife. A shot fined at the wall did not act as a check on the rush of the wild friend of the policeman's captive, and the policeman, who had apparently been, rather badly hurt already, fired twice in quick succession, and brought down' the attacker with one bullet on the right side and- the other on the left. The shot man died 20 minutes later. The inquest has not yet been concluded, and there has not yet been an official or judicial pronouncement, as to whether the 'shooting was justified or not. Whatever the verdict may be in this case the fact remains that the policeman is- shot at more often than he shoots himself. FLIGHTS: A REMARKABLE STOEY. * 'He got bushed in a cloud" is a colloquial version of tho explanation by the American 1 A. B. Stone for hiß failure against W. E. Hart, Australia's, first native-born airman, in the first aviation contest held in Australia, on Saturday, near to Sydney. Hart had to start tenjninutes ahead of Stone, and safely flow over the cross-country course of fourteen and a half miles in twenty-four minutes. He found it advisable to make a big sweep round at the beginning, in order to allow for a. strong crow wind. Stone . ran into a big rain cloud. When he emerged, wet through, he had loet sight of Hart, was out of his course, and had lost his bearings. After he had been in the air for nearly half an hour, and found himself alongside of the sea instead of at a, place eighteen miles away, he gave up and descended to the earth, a damp, disappointed aviator. A lot of attention has been aroused by an extraordinary story of an aeroplane flight across half Australia — from Ballarat, in Victoria, to Fremantle, on the shore of the Indian Ocean, . in Western Australia. • The hero aad teller of the story is an Italian, Antonio Soro, twenty-five years of ag». Soro's home is at Ballarat, where relatives of his are in business. On the afternoon of 25th June Soro's overcoat and hat were found on the edge of the lake at Ballarat. On Tuesday morning last Soro, dripping wet with eea water and almost exhausted, was scratching at the door of a house not far from the beach at North Fremantle. When admitted, he gave an amazing account of having 1 , in company with a Frenchman, flov/n across from Ballarat in an aeroplane propelled by ay entirely new type of engine, invented bjr him (Soro). On account of damp getting into the

engine, tlie machine fell away, said Soro (he still Bays it), and the Frenchman, who was in charge of the machine, said, "Save yourself, Tony." They were then over the sea near to a town. He dropped over the side into the water, and, after a trying struggle, got ashoro. What wan th« fate of li:e French companion and of the aeroplane he could not cay. The story is generally regarded as tho flight of a dieordered, clever mind. But it has not yet been ascertained how Soro got from Ballarat to Fremantle. It has been worked out that if on the afternoon of 25th June he took a train for Adelaide, and thereafter lost no time, he could have got to Western Australia, by a steamer which left Port Adelaide on the afternoon of 26th June. What I makes tho story more interesting is the fact that Soro has for some time been developing an invention of his own — an engine in which tho turbine principle is applied in connection with compressed \air — and statements by other people [ are to the effect that the invention is undoubtedly capable- of astonishing results. Wnile at work over this invention Soro has suffered from insomnia, and this, of course, supports the belief that the tale of his flight must be rejected with a, pitying shake of the head.