AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13745, 9 May 1908, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

By Telegraph.—l'r«- Association Copyright* FEDERALIZING THE DEBTS. • • - » • (Received May 0, 1.18 a.m.) Melbourne, May ■Q.'V'- ■ » The Premiers spent to-day hi further di*cussing the financial proposals,' but arrived at no decision, the discussion being ad- — journed till to-morrow. ' "" T THE BEGA DISASTER. •>' • ; SiDNKY, May 8. : At the -Marine .Court inquiry into th* foundering of "the steamer Bega Mr. Me-*/' Cubbin, the chief engineer, stated that he did not think the increase in the vessel's list was due to water, but to cargo., The Bega was a "tender" ship. . ' (Received May 3. 10.50 p"nL). .' . '. Syi»"l-.T, May 8,, At the Bega inquiry, the .chief officer, ' who liad charge of the slowing of the cargo, slid he knew it did not (shift because it would'have been a mora! impossibility for it « to do so. He did not consider that tlx Bega was a "tender" ship, and could advance no theory as to how the .disaster £<-, curred. He had given up trying to solve the mystery. ''• DEATH FROM PLAGUE. , - '.Svdhw, May. 8. " " ; A child, three years of age, died 1 from plague at Waterloo, a suburb of Sydney,' yesterday. ' SWEATING OF CLERKS... - . Sydney,. May 8.« A. member of the Clerks' Union states -:i ■ that 90 per cent, of the warehouses inSyd--ney sweated tneir clerks and. evaded "the ; provisions of the early closing law. ' TRAIN'RUNS INTO A COACH.V" , Sydney, May 8. • A coal train ran into a coach at Bel* lambi, a town on the South Coast. The coach was smashed to atoms, and the: driver, Bennett, killed, while two passengers, were seriously injured, and 11 v slightly. \ THE RAILWAY DISASTER. Melbourne, May 8. ; Professor Kernot's ' report on' the. brakes , of'lite Bendigo train states thai they, were 1 feeble and most unsatisfactory. I . Driver Milburn's report, now published; states that he applied the / brakes, .but'. they failed. He then reversed the engine, • but j the train rushed past the homo signal and crashed into the Ballarat train. ' AN UNGODLY CITY. ■ , >' Sydney, May 8. A delegate who visited Broken Hill gave the Presbyterian Assembly a lurid picture of the irreligious condition of Broken Hill., The forces there, he says, ari? organised against Christianity as in' no other city., |in the Commonwealth. They had an ag-" 1 gressive and almost triumphant Socialism., . • that made a scorn of sacred things. Children were gathered into schools and taught to be beware of Church and minis- '• ters, while meetings of the labour unions were held on Sundays. . ~ ,i ;