AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

Globe, Volume V, Issue 520, 17 February 1876, Page 3

AUSTRALIAN NEWS.

A scene of intense excitement and disorder occurred in the House on Tuesday, during the debate on the motion, tabled by the Government, proposing that the Assembly should sit on Friday. Mr Woods was addressing the House on the subject, and referred to the conduct of the ActingGovernor. Mr Langton indignantly protested against any reference being made to his Excellency, contending that the conduct of that gentleman was not before the House. Mr Woods attempted to show that he only desired to refer to the refusal of a dissolution to show that the present crisis was due to that refusal. Mr Langton again interrupted, in an overbearing manner, attempting, with other members, to drown Mr Wood’s voice by vociferously shouting Chair, Chair. Mr M'Kean rose in his place, under pressure of excitement, and said—“ This is the price paid for the Agent-Generalship.” Sir James M‘Culloch called on the Speaker to direct the hon member to withdraw the words he had used and apologise. The Speaker did so, and Mr M‘Kean was about to explain and retract, and because he thought fit to preface his intended retraction with some explanation, instead of at once expressing penitence for what he had said of Mr Langton, he was fairly howled at by the Government and its following, and sat down without explaining his conduct or apologising. The Speaker acrain, in a persuasive manner, advised Mr M'Kean to retract his words, and the hon member once more essayed the task, but was again howled at by the Government and its supporters. He then said to the Speaker, , ‘ You are so much under the thumb of the Ministry that you cannot insist on fair play.” Sir James M‘Culloch moved that these words be taken down, and they were taken down accordingly. Mr Langton was in favour of no compromise, and while provoking the temper of Mr M'Kean by his bearing on the one hand, would have deliberately pushed matters to extremes on the other. But Mr Berry, Mr Bent, and Mr Purves interposed in a good-tempered spirit, and by their advice Mr M‘Kean at once retracted what he had said, and the words written down were withdrawn by the consent of the House.

A correspondent of the Gippsland Times writes :—tin Thursday last a man named Maidenhall, ! who resides at Traralgon, went to look for an axe which he had left iu the bush hidden behind a log, and, reaching his hand down carelessly at the back of the log to recover his property, he felt a sharp sting or bite, and found immediately that a large brown snake, about five feet in length, had fastened on to one of his fingers, into which its venomous fangs were inserted. Having got rid of this unwelcome associate, Naidenhall got a horse and stated for Rosedale, covering the intervening sixteen miles within an hour, it being a veritable ride for life. Arrived there, Dr Simmons at once made several injections of ammonia into Maidenhall’s veins—with some apparent success. Not satisfied, however, with the progress his patient was making, the doctor resolved to treat him with chromic acid, and did so with such good effect that the patient was soon out of danger. Another correspondent states that Maidenhall chopped his finger off before beginning his “race for life,” thus preventing the poison from getting into his system. A good-looking girl named Catherine Cameron, aged 17, attempted to commit suicide at the Barjarg Station, near Mansfield, on tbe 271 h January. The Mansfield Guardian states that about 8 o’clock iu the morning, Isabella Cameron went into the kitchen and saw her sister drink something out of a bottle marked “ poison.” She aske i her what she was doing, but the girl made no reply, excepting “There now,” and then put the bottle down. A strong emetic was given her by the owner of the station, and it caused her to vomit a great deal. She refused to say what she had taken until threatened with the police. She afterwards confessed that she had taken half a bottle of “ iodine” an hour before, and had followed that up by a large dose of spirits of salts. Her reason, she said, was that she had quarrelled with her sister the day before. She was sent to the hospital for seven days as her mind seemed to be affected.