CUT DOWN BY A MOTOR.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume II, Issue 456, 27 July 1915, Page 6

CUT DOWN BY A MOTOR.

MAN WHO CAME 30ik) MILES TO ENLIST, GRIM EXAMPLE OF FATE'S IRONY. tells the story of Richard O'Halloran, Australian, thus in , the Sydney "Bulletin'.'*—

It is the plain tale of a strong man smitten in the pride of his strength by a stronger destiny. He lies helpless and hopeless, whose help might have been so great and whose hop'es so gloriously burned, on a bed in the Melbourne Hospital. The body that was the habitation of a dauntless soul is crushed to galling uselessness. He was run down in a city street by a motor-car whose driver escaped while passers-by picked up .1. the broken victim.

With a purpose that never weakened he had come 3000 miles from the dry heart of Queensland to join < those other Australians whose manhood was being proved by war as his has been proved in peace. His sure intent was to be one of those ' who have made the shambles of Gallipoli an altar where, above its human sacrifice, burns the flame of an undying glory. Like them, he was an Australian. For many that is explanation enough. There are no recruiting posters along the Hergott, where drought has swept a track to the iron horizon. Yet it was here he saw his duty. There are no brass bands in the far backblocks of Queensland. Yet there O'Halloran heard a clearer call than the challenge of the trumpets. No sooner had he hews of the fight at Gallipoli than he left the mob he was travelling with in search of grass and headed straight for the colours, of which he would have been so steadfast a standardbearer. At Birdsville he saddled a fresh horse for the long ride of 350 miles to enlist. The drought said "Halt—you can't get through." So he sold his horse and booted it to Jundah—every mile over sun-smitten sands. ; His food was flour and water, and on that fare he pushed through, searching for the water as he went. Longreach" at- last—and he stood up, sun-tanned, travel-stained, and taciturn, for the medical test! "Right," said the doctor, and then by coach and train O'Halloran went south to Melbourne to accompany the Light Horse to the Front. A little sight-seeing in crowded streets after the lonely journeys—and then Fate, which had held him harmless and given him safe conduct for hundreds and hundreds of miles, struck a lightning blow. He will never reach the' fighting. line. But let those remember, for whom the effort is too great to take a tram to the recruiting depot—let those remember how indomitably O'Halloran tried.