AUSTRALIAN NEWS

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume XXIV, 29 June 1926, Page 6

AUSTRALIAN NEWS

Pot Preu Association—Copyright). SYDNEY, June 28. A conference of the New South Wales Executive of the Australian Labour Party and the leaders of the Communist Party, which had lately been opposing camps, decided to unite in an organised campaign against the Government’s referenda proposals. MELBOURNE, June 28. Dr. Earle Page, referring to the Australian Loan, said it would be used for the settlement of migrants from Britain and the redemption of Commonwealth securities The currency is 49 years, with the right to redeem it after 19 years. As the underwriters under the terms of the underwriting will find the money Dr. Earle Page claims that the issue was successful. SYDNEY, June 28. At the inquest on the victims of the Aberdeen railway smash, Police Sergeant Grady gave evidence that he examined the viaduct immediately after the aecideiph and found the rails had spread at a spot where the train first left the line, that the sleepers Mere decayed and the wood of the viaduct was rotten and white ant eaten. Other witnesses testified that the viaduct was white ant eaten, and had been unsafe for months. E. Butcher, railway engineer for the northern district, expressed opinion that the derailment was caused by the high -speed at which the train was travelling, which synchronised with a depression in the tracks. Continuing his evidence, Butcher said he did not think the condition of the bridge or piers contributed in any way to the accident, and even if the bridge had been of steel, the accident would possibly not have been averted. He concluded by stating that the results were . so serious because after the derailment the viaduct was in the way before the train could be brought to a standstill. He suggested that the accident was caused by excessive speed. ■ [A shocking railway accident, involving the death of four passengers and injuries to 33 other passengers, oecurre’d on June 11, when the Sydney to Brisbane express was derailed between Togan mid Aberdeen, about 180 miles north of Sydney, shortly before midnight. The early reports stat'-il that the'” accident was due to the collapse of a wooden viaduct, but this was later denied, though the reason for the tr-’in leaving the rails was not known. Officials emphasised the fpct ,’that the -accident was not caused through the viaduct collapsing. The train had passed a wooden viaduct

which is about 400 ft. from a steel bridge that spans the River Hunter, when it left the line and ploughed up the permanent way, seriously damaging the viaduct. A single line runs across the viaduct and bridge and slopes down toward the river, but the grade is slight, and the line is straight. The Minister of Works and Railways stated that apparently the derailment occurred before the viaduct was reached.]