AUSTRALIAN NEWS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21996, 4 July 1933, Page 9

AUSTRALIAN NEWS

THE MISSING COLLIER. SOUTHERN CROSS TO SEARCH. SYDNEY, July 1. Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, with Mr John Stannage as wireless operator, in the Southern Cross will leave Mascot this .morning to search for the missing collier. An extra petrol tank has been fitted, and the monoplane will carry | sufficient petrol for 13 hours’ cruising. SEARCHERS RETURN. SYDNEY, July 2. Saturday’s searches for the Christina Fraser, including that of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith in the Southern Cross, were fruitless. Captain Sundercombe, chief surveyor of the Navigation Department, says that, assuming that the vessel’s engines were disabled when she was seen by the Koranui oil Gabo Island on June 24, the ship may have drifted towards New Zealand, owing to sea currents, at the rate of 15 miles a day. The Air Force flying boat has returned. THE SEARCH ABANDONED. SYDNEY, July 2. The owners of the Christina Fraser have decided to abandon the search for the vessel. Sir Charles Kingsford Smith made another fruitless flight to-day. Two steamers have just reported having sighted wreckage off Kame Head, on the Victorian coast, and this will be investigated. An aged couple near Eden saw a rocket and heard a ship’s siren on the night of June 26, but they did not know that the Christina Fraser was missing until they visited Eden during the weekend. AN OMINOUS REPORT. > SYDNEY, July 3. (Received July 3, at 8.30 p.m.) The log of the steamer Koranui, which was submitted to the Navigation Department to-day, states that she sighted the Christina Fraser at 1.50 a.m. on June 24 seven,-and a-half miles south of Gabo Island in a howling gale. The two vessels were a mile apart and both hove-to. The Koranui’s master saw, a huge sea suddenly blot out the Christina Fraser’s lights, after which there was no sign of the latter. WRECKAGE INVESTIGATED. SYDNEY, July 3. The reports of the wreckage found near Rame Head have been investigated. The wreckage has been definitely identified as not belonging to the Christina Fraser. SEARCHING PLANE CRASHES. . OCCUPANTS ESCAPE INJURY. . ■ I MELBOURNE, July 3. (Received July 3, at 8.30 p.m.) A monoplane piloted by Alexander Barlow, and two passengers, began, a flight at dawn to-day from Sale Aerodrome to make a final search for the overdue Christina Fraser. The machine, while travelling at 100 miles an hour, struck a tree during a sudden fog. Portions of the monoplane fell to earth, but the remainder travelled 100 yards further, where it crashed. The three occupants, suffering only from shock and abrasions, crawled out of the ageTERRIBLE TRAGEDY AT ENFIELD. MURDER AND SUICIDE. SYDNEY, July 2. Herbert Francis Perkins, aged 43, a letter carrier at Enfield, battered his wife, his daughter (aged 12), and baby j with a trenching tool, and all are dead, j A small boy was taken to the hospital in a critical condition. Perkins com- , mitted suicide, almost severing his head l from his body. Neighbours state that j he was worrying over a departmental in- j quiry. i THE NEW SOUTH WALES BUDGET, j DEFICIT FOR THE YEAR. SYDNEY, July 3. j (Received July 4, at 1 a.m.) j The deficit for the financial year just dosed was £4,127,748, compared with a I deficit at the end of 1931-1932 of £14,227.844. Since the Stevens Ministry took office there has been a heavy remission of taxation and a large reduction of freights and fares. The budgetary position is now more than £10,000,000 better than when Mr Lang left office.