AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8403, 18 April 1907, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

CRICK-WILLIS CASE,

Received April 17, 11.42 p.m. SYDNEY, April 17. The Crick-Willis trial is slowly progressing 1 . The defendants exhaustively cross-examined the witnesses, A BOGUS CONFESSION. Received April 17, 11,42 p.m. SYDNEY, April 17. A sailor, named Newsome, was sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment for obtaining goods by false pretences on the strength of an imaginary legacy. While awaiting his trial he created a sensation by handing the police a document implicating himself in the shooting of the captain and mate of the ship Leicester Castle on a voyage from San Francisco to Queestown in 1902. In the confession he stated that he shot the captain and second mate and then with two shipmates, who assisted him in the plot, escaped on a raft to Pitcairn Island. He afterwards made his way to England, where he found the captain had survived, and the mate died. Newsome, to-day, declared that the confession was a bogus one, and had been made i was suffering from delirium. He learned the facts while a seaman aboard the Leicester Castle on the voyage after that whereon the shootactually occurred. THE COAL CARRIERS STRIKE. Received April 18, 1.2 a.m. SYDNEY, April 17. Ab the outcome of the trouble with the coaling of mail boats, a meeting of colliery owners and coal stevedores decided to open a labour bureau on their own account to engage coal lumpers on the terms of the Arbitration Court award. It is expected that work under the new conditions will commence on Friday. Meantime the vessels affected by the strike continue coaling with casual hands. PASSED IN. | Received April 17, 11.40 p.m. * SYDNEY, April 17. The wreck of the Annasona, lying on Middleton reef, was offered at auction, to-day. There was a solitary bid of £5 and the vessel was passed in. i A CAPTAIN EXONERATED. - ' Received April 17,11.40 p.m. SYDNEY, April 17. The Marine Court exonerated the captain of the steamer Tsinan in connection with the recent stranding of the vessel o - :, the Queensland coast. The evidence showed that the mishap was the result of the beacon being blown from the reef where the vessel stranded. ANOTHER STRIKE. Received April 17, 9.1 a.m. SYDNEY, April Disregarding the Arbitration Court award, about 80 employees of Lysaght's wire works have struck, demanding a fixed rate of pay. QUEENSLAND ELECTIONS. Received April 17, 8.17 a.m. BRISBANE, April 16. The Labour Party's manifesto, | issued in view of the approaching elections, lays down that the ultimate aim of the party is to secure the full result of their industry to the wealthproducers. The only radical cure for the unemployed question is the abolition of the system of production for profit. The party advocates State settlements, where work could be obtained as a right. It is opposed to State-aided immigration until the surplus labour of Australia is absorbed. The followii.g measures are advocated : —A progressive land-tax with an exemption of £300; old-age pensions; nationalisation of mines; a State bank; protection of trade union funds. The Labour Party's manifesto states that the Labour Party is determined to remain a distinct factor in politics. It desires to reach its goal by a gradual and natural sequence of legislative acts. It is alleged in the manifesto that no scarcity of labour for the sugar industry has been proved.