COMMONWEALTH.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XL, Issue 18, 29 April 1908, Page 9

COMMONWEALTH.

’’The House of Representatives agreed to the Senate’s recommendation in respect of a duty of 1/ per cwt on ehaff and hay. The recruiting schooner Fawn has been wrecked at New Hebrides. The crew were all saved.

Queensland won the inter-State cricket match against New South Wales by 170 runs. New South Wales’ second innings totalled 234, the chief jseorerjs being Waddy (86) and Bardsley (30).

As an effect of the Chinese boycott of Japan the Japanese mail steamer Yawata Marti left Sydney for the East on April 23 without a single package of Chinese merchandise or a Chinese passenger.

The Trades Union Congress at Sydney after a lengthy, debate,, negatived the Labour Council’s direction to unions to ignore the Industrial Disputes Bill, and rely on strikes.

A sensation occurred at a buckjumper’s show at Sydney on April 20th, when a staging carrying several hundred people collapsed. Eleven persons were injured, but none seriously.

The Danish steamer Cambodia, coal laden, from Newcastle to the East, put into Townsville with her bunkers on fire. She was beached and her bunkers were then flooded, the fire being thus extinguished.

The annual conference of the United Commercial Travellers’ Association of Australasia was held at Brisbane during the Easter holidays. Messrs. McPherson and Owen represented New Zealand.

Several railway officials have been suspended in connection with the collision at Murrundi, New South Wales. Robbers were busy after the accident, and numbers of passengers lost valuables and personal effects. A fight occurred on board the steamer Ocean Monarch in .Sydney Harbour between a member of the crew named Eaphiridis and another named Stender. While the fight was proceeding the former drew a revolver and shot Stender dead.

Mrs. Elsl'ey, her daughter, and a girl named Carlstone, who was living with them in a lonely house at Mount Compass, South Australia, have been burned to death. It is supposed when the building took fire they were suffocated by the smoke while asleep. A dreadful tragedy occurred at Murrumbeena, Victoria. Captain W. H. See, who until lately was a patrol officer in the Papua police, fatally shot his wife in the street. He then turned the weapon on himself and! blew out his brains. Captain See had been recently invalided from Papua to Victoria, owing to illhealth, and at the time of the tragedy was suffering from the effects of fever and from depression due to want of employment. Adelaide Express in Collision. The Adelaide express was being divided at Murray Bridge, Victoria, on Tuesday night when the two portions came into collision. Two persons were slightly injured and several carriages were thrown off the rails. Pursued by New Guinea Cannibals. Two venturesome settlers of Papua, Messrs. Buchanan and Carpenter, had a thrilling escape from cannibals recently. They had penetrated into a fertile Valley which was little known except that it was peopled by savages. The men received a hostile reception and fled down the river in their launch. They were pursued by a horde of frenzied Papuans and, to their dismay, found six war eanoes coming up stream. These, however, turned out to be friendly natives, attracted by the war cries of the wild tribe, and they rescued the fugitives. Railway Disaster in Victoria. The most appalling disaster in the history of the Victorian railways occurred late on Easter Monday night at Braybrook Junction, a few miles out of Melbourne. when a heavily-laden passenger train from Bendigo crashed with terrific force into a tain that had just arrived from Ballarat. Forty-four persons were killed outright, and! over 100 injured, some so seriously that they are likely to succumb. The Ballarat train was running a little

late, and Was just going out of the station when the Bendigo train, which was drawn by two powerful engines, crashed into the rear of the moving Ballarat train, which was going so slowly that the force of the impact was not lessened to any considerable extent. The guards’ van of the Ballarat train was splintered to pieces, the next car, a second-class, was also smashed to atoms, and the next, which was a first-class, was telescoped. The three cars, which were crowded with passengers—some people having to stand, the compartments being so full—took fire, and a horrible scene was witnessed. The dtead and dying were imprisoned within the burning debris, and the dying were practically roasted to death before they could be extricated.

In the third of the shattered carriages was a party of nine. When the crash came the carriage shot on top of one car, with another ear piled up on top of it. The top and bottom ears caught fire, and the party in the third had a thrilling experience. Flames were licking through the floor- of their prison, when, with Herculean efforts, four of the occupants managed to burst the door of the compartment and escaped. What became of the remaining five is unknown. The fire brigade of the. Sunshine Harvester Works at Braybrook turned out promptly and extinguished the flames. The work of rescuing the injured passengers at once proceeded, and a relief train with medical men and appliances arrived shortly after midnight. Most of the killed and injured were frightfully mutilated —heads and limbs being torn off, while other bodies were disembowelled-

A passenger states that a battlefield scene could not have been worse than the frightful scene of carnage in the big room of the Sunshine Harvester Works (opposite the Braybrook Junction station, which, large as it is, would not hold all those who urgently needed attention. “1 saw,” he says, “ a very large of people horribly mutilated. Indeed, it was the exception to come across anyone who had not been injured in some form.

The names of those killed and identified are as follows:—Alfred Illingson, Amy Laflin, Elizabeth Williams, George McCall, John Blight, J. Hawkins, F. Sawyer, F. Williamson, Mrs. J. Thomas, A. Clarke, R. Gates, Victor Pascoe, J. Brown, Mrs. Hughes. Agnes Wright, Maria Da nnoth, Alice Laflin, H. I’eale (commercial traveller), D. Doran, Mrs. L. F- McKean. May Rushbrook, J. Dannock, Rose Acreman, Wm. H. Dent, S. Bunyardl, W. Thomas, May Clarke. William Nankervis, Ernest Dernier, Mrs. Tucker, Dolly Green, Francis Bailing, Alex McKay, Fred O’Connor, Thomas Huntingdon, Miss Jones, Jos. Davies, C. Williams, Thomas Atkinson, Rupert Watson, Leonard Gates, G. Hughes, Annie Tucker, Millie Giles.

These seriously injured are:—Jessie Williams, Annie Laffin, P. Oxlade, Percy Yalsh, Wilfrid Reynolds. Alexander Oliver, Harold Peters, George Needham, W. Young, J. Varty. There are about 130 others less seriously injured.

Six officials have been relieved from duty pending the inquiry. It is now officially stated that no one of the name of C. S. Williams was killed, as previously reported. This reduces the death roll to 43.

Milburn, the driver of the Bendigo train, had been on duty eleven hours and 35 minutes, while the driver and fireman of the second engine commenced work at 4.45 in the morning, and were on duty 18 hours later. A sensational statement is made that the brake was cut out on one of the carriages of the Bendigo train while the brake on another ear showed slow instead of quick action. Latest. The names of 317 persons are now recorded as having suffered injury in the accident at Braybrook. Driver Milburn's condition causes anxiety, and, owing to his absence, the coroner postponed certain brake tests to be made at Braybrook.