AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8409, 25 April 1907, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

MARINE CASUALTIES. Received April 24, 10 a.m. SYDNEY, April 24. Advices have been received that the steamer Fortunatus, which s,went ashore at Flores Isiand (Malay Archipelago) and was refloated, is only slightly damaged. The steamer Australian, which some time ago was stranded at Port Darwin, had been sold for £6OO. JAPANESE IMMIGRANTS. Received April 24, 10.42 a.m. BRISBANE, April 24. According to advices received from the Commercial Agent in the East, the Chilian and the Mexican Governments and the Republics of Columbia (South America) are offering great inducements to Japanese to emigrate to £those countries, promising land grants and money bonuses. TRANS-CONTINENTAL CYCLING. Received April t 24, 10 a.m. MELBOURNE, April 24. The cyclists Lennie and Warren have arrived from Adelaide. they have covered 2,749 miles from that town. NEW SOUTH WALES RAILWAYS. Received Anril 24, 8,5. a t rri, SYDNEY, Aprii 24. The railwa" revenue for nine months of the last financial year increased by £342,000. DEATH OF A CENTENARIAN. Received April 24, 8.5 a.m. ADELAIDE, April 24. A resident of. Zenindie, Mrs Stead, has died at the age of 103 years.

AN AUSTRALIAN WARNING. Received April 24,10.8 a.m.. MELBOURNE, April 24. Captain Cresswell, Director of the .Naval Forces of the Commonwealth, speaking at a dinner, said the nations of the East were only just awakening to a sense of their own power. It was the duty of every Australian to prepare himself and his country to meet the inevitable developments of the future.

GUNBOATS FOR CHINA. Received April 24, 10.42 a.m. BRISBANE, April 24. The Commercial Agent in the East reports that five out of six new.gunboats, ordered by China from Japan, have been launched.

COAL LUMPERS' STRIKE,

Received April 24, 10 a.m. SYDNEY, April 24,

The Mount Keira Colliery has been rendered idle as a result of sympathy with the coal lumpers' strike. Received April 24, 10.37 p.m. SYDNEY, April 24. In the case against the two Chinese belonging to the Tsinan, who were charged with landing in Australia in contravention of the Immigration Act, counsel for the defence contended that a contract immigrant meant an immigrant under contract to perform manual labour in Australia. Accused were neither immigrants nor contract immigrants. The action had been taken by some of the strikers to serve their private ends. Counsel for the prosecution claimed that the Act applied to men working on the vessel, which was a foreign vessel so far as Australian waters were concerned. He submitted that accused had landed in Australia because they were working on an Australian boat. The Magistrate considered the charge not made out, and dismissed the case. The prosecution intimated that the case would probably go further. A large number of strikers watched the proceedings. Received April 25, 1.34 a.m. SYDNEY, April 24. The situation in connection with the strike is practically unchanged as far as Sydney is concerned. Picketing is being systematically carried out. Large numbers of police are in the vicinity of the Employers' Bureau and the ships are coaling with free labour. Everything is orderly. The strikers express themselves very confident of an important development. At Newcastle the ([delegates from the Sydney Union addressed a meeting of the local trimmers, and asja result the trimmers decided' not to trim any vessels at Newcastle which usually coal at Sydney. Another effect of the strike has been the stoppage of work at several southern collieries.

VANCOUVER SERVICE. NEGOTIATIONS PROCEEDING. Received April 24, 10.8 a.m. MELBOURNE, April 24. It is understood here that it is the intention of the present company to carry on the Vancouver mail service at the expiration of the existing contract in July. It is stated that the company has undertaken to bring the service to the standard required by the Postal Department so far as accelerated speed is concerned. The company suggested nine months' extension of the existing contract to allow time to put on three new steamers or vessels of a standard specified, at the rate of one a year or three in two years. Ministers are now considering this proposal.

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