VARIOUS GABLED ITEMS

West Coast Times, 23 March 1910, Page 4

VARIOUS GABLED ITEMS

AUSTRALIAN.

(jPEB PRESS ASSOCIATION, —COPPRIGHT j A LIBEL ACTION. SYDNEY, March 22.—Captain John Strachan, a well-known master-mariner, has commenced an action against the proprietors of the Sydney Morning Herald, claiming £5,000 damages for libel. The alleged libel contained statements said to have been made by Dr Ironer, Consul-General for Germany, and published in the Herald on May 17th. The last article was. headed " Alleged Kidnapping,” and referred to a voyage of Strachan in the ketch Envj. charging Strachan with recruiting natives of Tobi Island, under a promise to return them to their homes, which promise, it is alleged, he failed to keep. The article also alleged that Captain Strachan had used efforts to .induce the Tobi Islanders to replace the German flag with the British. Captain Strachan’s reply is a denial of the charges. He had taken Tobi boys fOl- - in the Envy of their own free will to get a knowledge of the world, but had not kidnapped or recruited them. He also denied the flag incident.

THE SYDNEY MANSLAUGHTER CASE. SYDNEY, March 22.—The judge directed the jury to discharge the two accused (Nurse Young and Dr Fiaschi) and said that in view of the second examination of the body which discovered tb.e supposed missing organ, the Crown’s case had utterly failed. The jury added to the verdict of “not guilty” a rider “that there was no evidence that the operation, was unskilfully performed by Dr Fiaschi. CASE OF SMALLPOX. SYDNEY 7 , March 22.—The steamer Otway arrived from England with a case of smallpox aboard, the patient being a boy in the third-class. AVIATION IN AUSTRALIA. MELBOURNE, March 2.—Houdini, in another flight on a biplane, covered six miles in 7min 37secs. DEATH FROM SNAKEBITE. MELBOURNE, March 22.—Two cases of fatal snakebite occurred in the country to-day, both victims being young children. THE QUEENSLAND FLOODS. BRISBANE, March 22.—Numbers are being rescued in boats. At Charlesville three men attempted to cross the river in a boat but lost the boat and now cling to a tree top in a perilous position. A man named Nunn was drown cd at Bajooe.