CABLE MISCELLANY.

Shannon News, 31 December 1923, Page 3

CABLE MISCELLANY.

ITEMS miOM MANY PIECES.

Swimming Bath Collapses.-—The floor of the Dalesford (Victoria) swimming bath, which was formerly used as a storage basin for the old Cornish mine, suddenly collapsed and the water drained out with a great roar. It was subsequently discovered that the mine tunnel below had collapsed. A party of men who were previously working in the tunnel had a narrow escape. They should have been inside, but stopped work owing to one man refusing to enter, because oi' tails of earth.

Queensland Rejects British Loan. — The Premier, Mr. Theodore, ha 3 refused the offer of a British loan for immediate public works on the grounds that 75 per cent, of the materials required by Queensland were obtainable in Australia, hence he was unable to satisfy the conditions of the loan by purchasing materials from British manufacturers..

Australian Defence Charges.—The Australian Minister of Defence has announced that the post of Inspec-tor-General of Forces will be discontinued and the duties combined with those of the first member of the Military Board, who is the Chief of the General Staff.

Whalers for Ross Sea. —Two additional Norwegian steam whalers, Star 4 and Star 5, and the parent ship Sir James Clarke Ross, are due to arrive at Hobart. After loading stores the whole fleet will depart for the Ross Sea to commence whaling operations. The parent ship is of 7360 tons register, and will be utilised as a floating factory for the extraction of oil and other products.

. Airmen's Leap for Life. —At San Diego, U.S. Army seaplane FSL was demolished at an altitude of 100 ft. A smoke bomb exploded prematurely, igniting, the chemicals, the crew of live jumped into the water and swam for 20 minutes till they were rescued. Only one was injured. International Athletics. —The New Amateur Athletic Union has formally accepted an invitation to compete with British athletes at a special meeting in London after the Olympic Games, the programme to be similar to the 1920 meeting. Canada's Olympic Team. —Canada is sending GO athletes to the Olympic Games.

Aged Globe Trotter. Mrs. Selfridge, aged S 7, sailed from England for the United States in the Olympic. She is visiting friends and crossing the continent to the Pacific coast. She said she hoped to make many more such journeys.

Chicago to New Orleans Canal. — The Republicans in the United States arc seeking to'catch the vote of the farmers who are at present dissatisfied by offering them a programme including a great canal system from Chicago to New Orleans. Central and Western farmers are now handicapped in delivering crops to Europe and to the Atlantic seaboard cities, and transport charges would be reduced to one-third by a waterway connecting the Mississippi River with the Great Lakes.

Asleep for a Week. —A peculiar case at Waverley Hospital, Sydney, is puzzling the doctors. A young woman, who was admitted in a deep sleep woke after an unbroken slumber of a full week. All efforts to rouse her failed, but meantime food was regularly administered and her heart and pulse beat normally. The case has been diagnosed as encephalitis lethargica.

Scottish Areas Vote Wet. —Ten additional Scottish areas, including Sanquhar, which were previously " dry,*" and Langholm, which previously voted for limitation, have voted "wet." Australian Aborigines.—The annual report of the Australian Aborigines Protection Board shows that the native population continues steadily to decrease. It is estimated that fullblooded aborigines total 1214, compared with 1236 in 1917, and halfbreds 4783, compared with 4921. Aborigines in the North Coast district are badly infected with hookworm disease.

Earl of Cavan's Tour.—The'• Right Hons. Stanley Bruce and W. F. Massey agree on the value of the visit of the Earl of Cavan, to Australasia. They think it is highly desirable that the chief of the Imperial General Staff should have an opportunity of seeing to the outposts, so as to gain firsthand information which will be useful in the matter of Imperial defence, although in accepting the invitation Lord Cavan holds no mission to import on antipodean defences.

Ngapuhi Cannibals. —Mr. Massey has received the original of an interesting letter written in 1839 by a member of a Yorkshire family who made a trading venture from Sydney to the Bay of Islands and Bay of Plenty, in which the writer, long since dead, described cannibal practices he witnessed after a fight against the Ngapuhi tribe. Wine Shop Shooting. Lancelot Johnson, who shot and killed Leonard Harding in a Melbourne wine saloon on October 24, has been committeed for trial on a charge of manslaughter. The " Reel Mackay."—A message from Los Angeles says Prohibition officers seized an express package from New York marked "Kinema films, with care," addressed to Joseph Engle, vice-president of the Metro Pictures Corporation. Engle'has been arrested. : $ -#-iSgf^| Boiler Disaster. —At Bourmont, Texas, a boiler explosion demolished a sugar refinery. Fifteen people were killed and 20 injured.