AUSTRALIA.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXX, Issue XI, 14 March 1903, Page 718

AUSTRALIA.

The typhoid epidemic at Coonamble is abating. Mr O’Connel, Queensland Minister for Lands, has died suddenly of lung complications. s

The Federal Government does not intend to submit any loan bill during the forthcoming session.

Four new syndicates are being formed in London to push digging in the vicinity of Aritanga, the recently-dis-covered goldfields in South Australia.

In consequence of the rise in the price of lead there is a probability of the Broken Hill Junction mine re-starting work.

McLeogan, Bert Leighton, and Harry Jones have been committed for trial at Perth in connection with the recent bank note robberies.

Consequent on the rise in the price of lead, there is increased activity in the Barrier Mines, N.S.W., and operations are resuming on a large scale, including the British, which has been practically idle for a long period.

Queensland’s gold yield last year, excluding smelting works returns, was 640,163 ounces, valued at £2,720,000, an increase of £179,000 compared with the previous year.

A constable guarding the New South Wales Premier’s house surprised a burglar attempting an entry. Shots were exchanged without either being harmed, and the man escaped. Though there is a lull in the plague outbreak, Perth authorities have issued a pamphlet stating that the disease is more virulent than at any previous time, and earnestly entreating people to observe their recommendations as to cleanliness. In the Victorian Assembly a discussion was initiated on the question of abolishing the office of State Governor, Mr Loutcher moving that an address be presented to the King praying that at the end of the present Governor’s term the appointment of future Governors be taken into consideration. The Melbourne Chamber of merce has resolved that it is inadvisable for the Federal Government to commit the Commonwealth to any agreement with the Eastern Extension or any other cable oempany for so long a period as ten years without power of purchase by the Governments concerned. VICTORIAN RAILWAYS. In the Victorian Assembly the Premier announced that the Government had selected Mr Thomas Tait, Manager' of Transportation of the Canadian-Pacific Railway, as Commissioner of Victorian Railways, at a salary of £3500. The Canadian newspapers congratulate Victoria on securing Mr Tait as an energetic chairman of State railways. COLONIAL UNIONS AND THE TAFF VALE DECISIONS.

A deputation of the Amalgamated Miners’ Association, including Tasmanian representatives, interviewed the Federal Attorney-General to . ascertain the position of trades unions in view of the Taff Vale decision. It was explained that the association wanted the right to use every peaceable means to induce men to become members, but they read the Taff Vale decision to mean that if there was a dispute on they could not attempt to induce men to join the union, otherwise thev would fall under the ban of the law. The association had been formed for a noble purpose —to band men together—but evidently their purpose was nullified hv the judgment of the English Courts. They asked for an inquiry to ascertain the legal rights of unions, and urged that the law should be made to apply equally to employer and employee. The unions only wanted the right to use moral suasion.

Mr Deakin endorsed the argument of the Taff Vale decision, which, he said, applied not only to the officers, but to everv single member of a union. He pointed out that the Federal Government’s power at present was limited to disputes which overflowed from one State to another. A bill was being drafted which would allow of the Arbitration and Conciliation Court to exercise the full powers conferred by the Constitution. If passed it would render impossible such a result in cases within the jurisdiction of the Comomnwealth as that of the Taff Vale case. The power of the Federal Government would be. as far as possible, directed to make picketing a matter of no interest in disputes..