AUSTRALIAN ITEMS.

Feilding Star, Volume IV, Issue 1143, 26 March 1910, Page 4

AUSTRALIAN ITEMS.

BY ELECTMC TELECIIAPII —COPYRIGHT. VEV. TEESS ASSOCIATION. DEFENCE OF AUSTRALIANS. Sydney, lUaicli 25. Mi - Foster Fraser, in an artiels in the Standard, accused young Australians of slackness and naccidity, (iue to the langorous climate. (Mr T. A. Coghlaii, N.S.Vv. AgentGenwiad, 'replying, points to their proficiency in athletics, and denies that the energy and enterprise of Australian workmen is inferior to. that of Englishmen. He instances " linotype compositors, coopers, and bricklayers, all of whom are quicker workers than tile English. PANIC IN A CIRCUS. Adelaide, March 25. WMle a circus was showing the electric light short-circuited. The lanitern 'apparatus was destroyed. The audience of 800 people was seized with panic and rushed the exits.

Fortunately none were injured, but many ladies and children suffered from the fright.

£1000 DAMAGES FOR LIBEL. Sydney, March 25. In the -case hi which Captain Straoh.au claimed £5000 from the Sydney Morning-Herald i'or .alleged libel, the jury awarded Captain Straohan £1000 damages. The Chief Justice,- in summing up, said it did not matter how fair a .newspaper was in opening its columns to two disputants, or in the publication of their versions side by side, that fairness did not shield a newspaper from an action at law should a defamatory statement bo contained in what was published. The court of law was the only tribunal given privilege in making statements of a serious nature for and against.