AUSTRALIA TO-DAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15513, 21 January 1914, Page 11

AUSTRALIA TO-DAY.

THE FLYING CORPS.

METEOROLOGICAL WARNINGS.

[from oxra own

Stdnt,t, January 10. " Is the air" continues to be the condition of affairs in connection with the Australian flying Corps. We were to show remarkable enterprise in the matter of aeroplanes and airships for defence purposes* Details were not to be divulged, and other countries were to receive a great surprise. All the inventive genius and daring of young Australians in connection with aviaation were to be encouraged by the Defence authorities. Net results to. date two Bristol biplanes imported, allowed partially to decay, and now understood to be in process of repair preparatory to a first venture thereon in the air. The two biplanes were landed in Sydney many months ago with the greatest secrecy. Officials denied knowledge of their arrival. The machines were put into an unsuitable store and kept there until all the canvas and other parts of the structures rotted. Two aviation instructors were imported from England, and a site was chosen for an aviation school in connection with the Defence Department. The latest news is that the two machines may be given trials in February. There is added to this official announcement the intimation, that a hospital is to be built on the site of the trials. Private enterprise in aviation demonstrations is limited to flights by Mr. A. W. Jones, an Australian, who narrowly escaped serious disaster the other day in South Australia. On a flight near Adelaide the petrol in his machine gave out. Mr. Jones volplaned 600 ft, and would probably have alighted all right, but when , 80ft from the ground a gust of wind caught his biplane, which went crashing to earth. Mr. Jones escaped with bruises and cuts. Warnings by Post. Useful work is done by the Commonwealth Meteorological Department, which, although it has to face handicaps of lack of reports from a large portion of the scantily-populated Australian Continent, is able to provide much reliable and useful information regarding impending changes in weather conditions. It is announced that earnest consideration is being given by the Department of the PostmasterGeneral to suggestions made during last session of the Federal Parliament for the extension of postal services in country uistricts, so that farmers and settlers may be supplied with timely information regarding weather forecasts. It is pointed , out that many men on the land are out of immediate touch with the daily press which gives the official weather reports, and that before weather forecasts can reach many men on the land, who have much at | stake, unwelcome changes in the weather are upon them. In the United States of America the Postal Department distributes every year about 20,000.000 circulars from the Meteorological Department notifying people throughout the country of approaching weather changes. As a result of these warnings millions of pounds' worth of property has been saved. For the time being, at any rate, matters will have to be done . here on a much more modest scale, and there is not, moreover, as much need as in America for warnings of las-aster-carrying changes or development in . weather conditions. Nevertheless, room remains for great benefits to farmers and settlers through timely advice about weather matters. A definite official announcement on the matter is expected at , an early date. Baseball or Cricket. Considerable discussion is taking place i regarding the possible displacement of cricket by baseball as a popular field sport in the summer season. This is in connec- . tion with the present visit to Australia , of two "all-star" baseball teams from ; America— Chicago White Sox and the New York Giants. These teams have given brilliant expositions of how the American national game ought to be played, and have at the same time given a most favourable impression concerning the stamp of athlete who holds top rank "in baseball. The American baseballers' run through Australia is very hurried, and their exhibition games are strictly limited in number—so restricted, in fact, that fair opportunity has hardly been given the public to get into sympathetic touch with the visitors and their game. But as it is, the demonstrations of approbation and pleasure given by the attendances of thousands at tl*e games played have seriously raised the question whether baseball could not be made to take over much of the hold which cricket has on the sport-loving community—a hold , which has become decidedly weak during , the past few years. Some cricket enthusiasts deride the suggestion that the fine old British game of cricket can be ousted by i baseball. But it is nevertheless a fact . that during recent years even the most important cricket matches have substantially ceased to attract the multitude. On the ' other hand, the attendances at football are • bigger than ever. Thus there may be a gTeat deal in the assertion that properly played baseball will, if given a chance, prove a much stronger attraction to spectators than cricket. It is said that some of our enterprising sports promoters see prospects of much profit in the staging of baseball matches played in exciting fashion by teams which the public will soon learn ■ to know familiarly, and that they are already shaping plans for the introduction of big baseball here next summer, using as trainers first-grade players imported from. America into each of the larger States of the Commonwealth.