SPARTAN AUSTRALIANS.

Hokitika Guardian, 9 March 1920, Page 4

SPARTAN AUSTRALIANS.

DRASTIC REMEDIES FOR SNAKEBITE. SYDNEY, February 19. The country Australian is very differen from tile ‘Aussie” of the cities. The latter is often a weak and degenerate type; but the countryman is a grim and resourceful individual, with a remarkable capacity for achievement and for fighting his way out of tight corners. Two little incidents of the ipast week emphasise his Spartan qualities. A farmer arid his small son, in a country district of New South Wales, were out shooting rabbits. The parent was stalking rabbits and the small boy was following him. The small boy managed to disturb a snake, and the reptile bit him on the toe. The father turned, saw, and killed the snake, and attacked the problem of saving the boy’s life. He tried to cut the boy’s toe off with a penknife, but the knife was blunt arid he could only saw at 't ineffectually. The' boy shrieked with the pain—but did not try to stop the prolcess. The .father was desperate; the toe had to come off quickly or it would be too late. So he made the boy lie down, with his foot up; and his toe projecting over the barrel of the shotgun. Then he discharged the gun, blowing the hoy’s toe off. He bound up the foot roughly and carried the boy quickly to the nearest house. The boy is making a good recovery. The other case occurred last Tuesday night in Marsh Rake district, lasmania. A lad of 19 awoke with a stinging pain in his toe, which had been protruding frorii under the bedclothes. He thought he had been attacked by a rat, and tried to go-to sleep again. But he felt sick, and a. close examination of his toe showed he had been liitbv a .snake. He tied several ligatures round his leg, went to the wood heap, and tried to chop his toe- off with the rige. The axe was blunt, and h© only partially succeeded, so he completed the operation. Then he bound up his foo, put on a. boot, went into a paddock, caught a horse, and reached his nearest neighbour at 3 a.m., whence lie was driven to the hospital wlierc ho arrived at 11 a.m. His toe wa.s then properly amputated, and he is now none the worse for his experience.