NEWS FROM AUSTRALIA.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 13572, 28 December 1914, Page 3

NEWS FROM AUSTRALIA.

SYDNEY, Dec. 25. The Commonwealth statistician estimates that'Australia has 1,131,360 males fit to fight. The Mayor cabled to the Cocos Island staff* a grateful remembrance .of their tact and bravery on November TO. The Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and citizen's have been sent Christmas greetings by the manager of the Cocos Island cable station, who supplies a vivid story elaborating the details of "the-'Em-den's visit to the island and the subsequent fight. This shows that up to the moment that the landing party took possession of the icable the staff continued to despatch -calls. When the Emden ran on the reef to avoid sinking, witb only one gun left in action, she .refused to haul down her flag, and the Sydney was compelled regretfully to continue firing.* After the third salvo the men aloft struck the colors. SYDNEY, Dec. 26The employees at the Savill dockyards, Cockatoo Island, refused to work during Christmastide • unless paid treble wages. Two hundred men are out. This means that two-thirds of the employees will be idle next week. When the Emden sank the . steamer Clan Grant, she.-robbed the world of a unique collection belonging to Professor Patrick Geddes, the protagonist of town planning. The : collection was en route to India, where Professor Geddes was assisting in laying out the new capital j of Delhi. (Received Dec. 28, 9.5 a.m.) / SYDNEY, Dec. 28: The employees of the Electrolytic and Refining .Company, Port Kembla, have been, notified of a strike if the services of three Germans' are retained.,Advices have been received that Sir George Reid and Mr Thos.. Mackenzie bave arrived at Egypt. •"-:,-'■ MELBOURNE,'Dec. 26. Mr Justice Powers, in the Arbitration Court, refused Feltham employers' application to grant a reduction of wages owing to the depression of trade caused by the war and the drought! He exEressed tbe opinion that the application ad, been made to enable the employers to continue to employ the men below a living wage for an indefinite period. He indicated that applicants had shown a disposition to shirk their share of the burden of the present crisis. He hoped employers would not require all the patriotism to be shown by the men.