AUSTRALIAN NEWS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20952, 15 February 1930, Page 14

AUSTRALIAN NEWS

THE GOLD INDUSTRY. GOVERNMENT HELP SOUGHT. (United Press Association.) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) CANBERRA, February 14. Mr Scullin, replying to a request from Western Australia for aid for the gold industry by the grant of a bounty on metal won, a bonus on ■ development work, or a remission of the duties on machinery, said that help in any of these forms would entail a heavy financial responsibility which was impracticable at present. ' ■ __L ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS. DIRECTOR IN QUEENSLAND. BRISBANE, February 14. Professor J. B. Brigden, Economic Adviser to the Australian Overseas 1 Transport Committee, has 'been appointed director of the bureau of economics and statistics in Queensland.

STORMS IN THE TABLELANDS. heavy stock Losses. ' v'- . SYDNEY;.. Sehruary' 13. . Fierce lands .caused much dafeage in many placeW < They dislocated miles of telegraph and telephone lines. As much as five inches of rain was recoi'ded in some stations. The deluge was accompanied by hail at .times, and the streets of several email towns were soon awash. Harden and Murrumburrah suffered particularly. The ; stock losses, it is feared, are heavy in some districts. THE FINANCIAL STRINGENCY. •HUNDREDS OF MEN DISMISSED. SYDNEY, February 14. (Received Feb. 14, at 11 p.m.) Owing to the financial stringency 1500 men employed on railway construction works in various parts of the State, have been dismissed. WARRIMOO RAILWAY ACCIDENT. OFFICIALS TO STAND TRIAL. SYDNEY, February 14. (Received Feb. 14, at 10 p.m.) 1 The coroner’s inquiry into the railway accident at Warrimoo on January 27 when the driver and the fireman were killed, hasvbeen concluded. The evidence showed that the accident was due to the laxity of certain officials who left the lock off the catch points, thus causing the derailment. The coroner found that the pilotman (Robert Hindmarsh) and the flagman (Alexander Gollen) were guilty of culpable negligence, and’committed both of them for trial, hail being fixed at £SO. Thomas Berkley, tlr signalman at Blaxland, was severely censured. lindmarsh was described as a man totally unfitted to be a pilotman, as hardly one of his duties had ‘not been broken.