AUSTRALIA TO-DAY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3215, 27 October 1915, Page 32

AUSTRALIA TO-DAY.

(Fnou Oub Own Correspondent.)

SYDNEY, October 7,

A notable event of the past week has been the launching, at Sydney’, of the cruiser Brisbane, the latest addition to the Royal Australian navy, and. the largestwar vessel yet built in any British colony. Of course the war, and the part taken therein by our Australian fighting ships, lent especial interest to the event, and there were the inevitable references to the exploits of the cruiser Sydney, the elder sister of the Brisbane, it was made the occasion of special celebrations. The spectators at the festively-decorated scene of the launching at the naval dockyard at Cockatoo Island numbered some 9000, while about 600 persons were the guests of the Commonwealth Government at the official luncheon. Federal and State Ministers and members of Parlmment attended in strong force, but, strange to say, the Premier of this State was absent. This naturally caused considerable comment. Mr Holman remained in Melbourne, whither ho had gone to consult with the Pemiers of the other States and the Prime Minister about finances. The Prime Minister and others who participated in the conference came to New South Wales to the launching, but the Premier of the parent State in which the event took place remained away. It seems that the Federal Labour Ministers and the Labour Premier of New South Wales have not been getting on well together of late. There has been bickering over the non-success of the recruiting campaign inaugurated in New South Wales by Mr Holman, who has not hesitated to reproach the Federal Government for not having backed him up, while Federal Ministers assert that Mr Holman was at fault in talking and acting too much on his own account without attempting to co-operate properly with the Federal authorities, who are after all responsible to the country’ for the management of military affaris. Then it is known, too, that Mr Holman is much disappointed over the failure of efforts to get more loan money through commonwealth channels.

The launching was successfully accomplished, though it is admitted that the dockyard officials were rather anxious lest something should go wrong. Largely on account of delay experienced in getting certain construction material, and the necessity for going ahead with what work could be done, the Brisbane was fitted internally to an extent that made her vastly heavier than ships of her size usually are at the time of launching. Further, it had been necessary to make exceptional provisions for the getting of the ship into the water owing to grave defects in the natural situation and surroundings of the spot where the vessel was built. These defects seemed to have been unknown or overlooked when the keel was laid down well up on a hillside terminating at the water’s edge in a shelf of rock that would break the back of any ship launched there. A costly coffer dam had to be built and a special slipway constructed of concrete to allow of the safe slipping of the very ’ eavy ship into the water. A good push with hvdraulic jacks at the critical moment of launching helped to make sure of the vessel moving at a safe pace down the skids. Indeed, so well did the Brisbane move that she ran too far and her stern got fast into the mud at an island a considerable distance away from the slip. She could have been stopped sooner by the letting go of her anchors, but some recklessly eager souvenir hunters got their motor launch under the bows of the Brisbane with the intent of snatching the ribbons that had been tied to the bottle of wine used for the christening of the cruiser by the wife of the Prime Minister. If the anchors had been dropped then they would have smashed the launch and probably have killed someone. Happily the Brisbane suffered only the loss of some paint on her stern. Another cruiser of the same class is to be laid down at the place at Cockatoo Island just vacated by the Brisbane. She will be called after the city of Adelaide. THE MONEY PROBLEM. After two conferences, with an interval of much hard thinking and calculating, the Premiers of our States do not appear to have arrived at a solution of the problem of how they can get a lot more loan money to enable them to carry out their pro-S-ammes of started and proposed works, etween them they want at least 20 millions, but they cannot see where the money is to come from. The prospect of stopping works and putting off thousands of employees is exceedingly disagreeable. Fecleral'Ministers, despite all pressure, will hold out no hopes of the commonwealth getting more loan money to be spent by States unless the States transfer practically the vyhole of their borrowing business, with control of the State debts, to the commonwealth. But the States place great value on having all possible financial independence. As units the States seem to have only a poor chance of getting substantial loans at present in either Great Britain or America, and for its part the Imperial Government has said significantly that it is very desirable that the dominions should at this stage look after their financial responsibilities for themselves. At latest we learn that the States, finding that the commonwealth is not disposed to help them get loan money in quantities to suit themselves and to be spent as they like, are trying to devise some scheme of a cooperative nature for obtaining money without the help of the commonwealth Parliament. The New South Wales Premier (Mr Holman), who has, with the Premier of Victoria (Sir Alexander Peacock), been asked to draw up the scheme, says that it really does not matter whether the States can come to some arrangement with the commonwealth or not, and that the prospects' of the States being able to get along without the help of the Federal Government are quite good. But it may be taken for gra ited that the St? Ministers are seriously worried, and wish that the out-.

look were really as hopeful as Mr Holman savs it is. SILK STOCKINGS. Would it not strike you as peculiar that a wharf labourer working amongst bales, cases, and bags should be wearing silk stockings? And wearing three pairs at a time ! It certainly interested some Customs officials at Melbourne when they learned that a wharf worker toiling at a ship’s side was thus' luxuriously attired. They found that, apart from the man with three pal s of silk stockings, other men working in connection with the same ship had about them large quantities of choice ladies’ silk underwear (no details given), and that one of them had padded out his trousers with no fewer than 17 pairs of highly-fashionable stockings packed in to prevent his legs from being chafed by the edges of cases, so he said ! As the result, six wharf labourers have been arrested on the charge of having been _in possession of un-Customed goods, being part of the cargo of the P. and 0. liner Khyber.