AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Mataura Ensign, 16 June 1914, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

—v THE NAVAL DOCK. BT ELECTEIG TELEGEAPH COPYEIQHT, pee United peess association . Received June 16, 9.5 a.m. SYDNEY, June 16.. Discussing the defects in the equipment and organisation of the Cockatoo Island dock Hon. J. Cook (Prime Minister) said, "Whatever is required will be provided. It would have been far better to have allowed' the building of the fleet unit to be completed in England while the dock could have been overhauled and made ready to build the subsidiary vessels which are quite due now. We should .have had our fleet in being complete and: £400,000 of good money saved which; would have purchased another cruiser." : A CAPTAIN'S COMPLAINT. Received June ldt 9.50 a.m. MELBOURNE, June 16. Captain Olsen. of the wrecked whaler Campbell, complains of the treatment meted out by an officer at Gate Fort to five sailors while trying to make their way to the lighthouse. He states that when the. men reached the fort, all wet, shivering, and. almost physically exhausted, the officer, finding that he was unable to understand them, made a curt remark and closed it-he door in their faces. INCREASED FREIGHT RATES. Received June 16, 9.50 a.m. SYDNEY, June 16. The increased freight rates, in some cases as ""high as 10s, are causing comment and are. raising doubts as to the correctness of •easting the blapie on the wharf workers' wages. LABORER FALLS 100 FT. SYDNEY, June 15. A youthful laborer named Wright fell from a building a height of 100 ft into a mass of telegraph wires, breaking several. He climbed down the post, remounted the building and resumed his work, little the Tvor.se for his escapade. DARLING HARBOR FIRE. SYDNEY, June 15. The insurances on the buildings and machinery owned by the Harbor Trust on. the burned wharf total £41,300. including the New Zealand Insurance Co., £10,938. A TYPISfE'S CLAIM. SYDNEY, June 15. A case is progressing which is arousing much interest. Gwendoline Browne, 18 years of age, ex-typiste in the firm of John Bridge and Company, claims £2OOO compensation from Lionel Bridge (managing director of the company) for alleged libel and assault. The claim rests on a letter written by defendant to the head of Miss Browne's department, ordering him to dispense with her services for alleged acts of impropriety on the company's premises and a contemptuous disregard of instructions. Plaintiff denies the charges and alleges that defendant used unnecessary fol*ce in removing her from the premises. SMALLPOX IN~SYDNEY. SYDNEY, June 15. Three eases of smallpox were reported in the city, four from the Clifton district and one from Coopernook today.