AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Grey River Argus, Volume 21, Issue 2936, 11 January 1878, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

A sad accident, resulting from the incautious handling of firearms, on the 21st ult. AMr John English, a horse dealer, was in the shop of Mr Allan, pawnbroker, of Little Collins, street, conversing with Mr Allen's son, a; lad about 15 years of age, when the latter took a revolver from the window, and was handling it, when the weapon suddenly went off, and the ball struck Mr English on the cheek, and penetrated to the depth of several iuches. Dr Blair was at once sent for, and on his arrival he found that the. ball .had passed through the cheek and lodged in the neck below the jaw bone. He at once performed an operation, and was successful in extracting the ball without much difficulty. No one connected with the establishment had the remotest idea that the revolver was loaded. ■ It had been on the premises for several mouths in exactly the same condition in which' it was received, the only person to blame appearing to be the man who was so criminally neglectfully as to pledge the weapon without first ..withdrawing_the_eharge. Mr English is rapidly recovering, and it is expected will in a very short time regain his usual health. The lad who was the cause of the unfortunate occurrence was not in any way acquainted with the use of firearms. The lamentable state of the country in New South Wales through the want of rain is thus described by a correspondent of the Newcastle Morning Herald, writing from Narren Point od the^ Barwon :— - Hundreds of 'miles round scarcely a blade of grass is to be seen, and cattle, horaes, and sheep are dying in all directions, Between a place called the Lake and the Barwon, the bodies of two men were recently found, having died, it is supposed from exhaustion. About Murrurundi, Quirindi, and other places, the, same disss trous state of things prevails ; and unless we soon have rain God only knows what will become of the country." Atticus in the Leader thus' comments upon the payment of members question, _ J-axiA — wa_jnjght_*u_td_tbat some. of the members of the Legislative Council of .New : Zealand . have either . declined to " lif t " their cheques or purchased cheap popularity by presenting their honorarium's to some local institution. "It is stated that the members of the Legislative. Council will not draw any pay men i for their services subsequent to the date of the rejection of the Appropriation Bill, and I am. furfcher told that some members of the Assembly have .served notices on Sir C. G. Duffy, warning him not to allow cheques for L 25 per month to be paid into their accounts, "until the measure for payment of members becomes legalised." Ifc is unfortunate^ for the purity of honorable members of both branches of the legislature that there Is no way by which they can at once openly was their hands of any participation in the unclean thing. . Though, they refuse it now, it will be" open to them to, take their pay - ; and 'arrears in two or tiu.ee months' tf me, and there are, perhaps, not a few of the strongest opponents of payments of members who will take this course. For those who are really troubled int heir mind I have a suggestion to make. Let them draw their pay with the regularity of yore, and return it to the Treasurer as " conscience money." No one could then say that they were merely letting their money lie idle for a month or two.