TIMARU.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1305, 12 June 1880, Page 2

TIMARU.

(from our own correspondent. ) ' ! ■ June 3.

Here, as elsewhere throughout the Golony, guns and gun accidents form a frequent topic in the conversation of the people. While almost daily reading ( in the newspapers of serious accidents so outsiders, our community were startled a week or two ago by hearing that a widelyknown local solicitor had been accidentally shot by one of his brother professionals while on a shooting expedition q,t Seadown.- Mr. Arthur Perry had set put with a few friejids for the abovenamed estate, anticipating, no doubt, some glorious sport. They proceeded to a spot where pukaiii are known to abound, and so as to make sure of their game it was arranged that they should surround a swamp and all fire together, thinking by this means success would be certain. But their hopes were soon blighted, and "the expedition brought to an abrupt end ? when, having surrounded the swamp, started the game, and fired one shot, it was discovered that Mr. Perry had fallen, having received a foodly nupiber of pellets in his right side, 'he injury was pronounped not dangerous, but report says that had the gun been a better one, the unfortunate victim would have been numbered with those who have gone before. From one end of the Colony to the other accidents from firearms have to be recorded far too numerously. Cer-

tainly in the instance related the person handling the piece that did the damage cannot be said to have fired without caution, he and his friends having been concealed from Mr. Perry's view and Mr. from theirs by the reeds growing round the swamp This is, of course, one of those unavoidable accidents that will happen, how cautious soever the sportsmam may be—and one of"shoso which cannot reflect the shadow of blamo on anyone. But there is another class of gun accidents, and tfo cannot advance anything to explode the hypothesis that they arise from gross carelessness. on the part of would-be good shots, whose moral right to carry a gun certainly cannot be sustained, and whose legal right even is open to dispute. If incompetent persons will persist in making too free use of deadly weapons, the Press must necessarily team with the records of mishaps. It must traverse the length and breadth of -' ■the land, conveying to an erstwhile happy home the sad intelligence of the snddoik demise of its bread-winner, and the loss of a husband and father. And seeing; that so many valuable lives are lost, and useful limbs shattered by lack of dua precaution on the part of adults, it may not be considered inopportune to drop a passing word of counsel to parents, if per chance such may prove the means of lessening the risk of accidents to youngsters barely arrived at puberty. Day by day, too, unwary travellers' lives are placed in jeopardy by their having to encounter on the highways groups of juvenile sportsmen, just commencing their teens, armed with blunderbusses. Theso are, of course, bent upon the destruction of welcas and other lower members of tho animal kingdom, but too often they find themselves unwittingly speeding to despatch an unlucky wayfarer who ' may come within their reach. Again, is it right that our young citizen soldiers should be permitted to take their arms to their respective homes and wherever else they please 1 Most certainly not; for when a boy gets a gun within his grasp, he speedily finds ammunition, and probably ignorant of the way of loading, blows his own hand off, and shoots somebody else besides. Experience should by this time have taught parents that it is not only injudicious, but positively dangerous, to allow young striplings to possess and carry firearms on their own account. Doubtless all the manly sports of the aooomplishment of which our nation has just cause to be proud should be fostered and encouraged to a legitimate ex-tent; but while it would prove highly beneficial not only to themselves, but also to society at large, to j instruct boys in the noble art of shooting, ! surely parents should be able to draw a line somewhere, so .as to mark a distinction between teaching their offspring under their own eye and immediate super* vision (if they be themselves oompeteni teachers), and actually, by giving assent, sending forth their sons alone, armed to the teeth with, in many instanoes, the weapons of their own destruction, * One of the most important features in the speech made by the Governor at the opening of Parliament was that touching upon the development of our natural resources. The unemployed too, whoso name is legion, are at their wits end for something to preserve an intimacy between soul and body. In South Canterbury, as elsewhere, we have coal in abundance, and yet we are once mcxre driven to distraction by the action of the Railway Department in reducing the charge for carrying Newcastle coal from Lyttelton, This savors very strongly of another " job " on the part of the powers that be. That such a step is manifestly unfair no one can gainsay. With a treasury so poor as ours is at the present time it is incumbent upon us to hasten with all possible speed towards the development of suoh resources as a bountiful Providence has given us. Coal exists j.n our own land in inexhaustible quantity. "Neither is it far behind in quality for all ordinary purposes, and yet with all these incom* parable advantages at our very door-, Worldly-Wisemen daily manifest their desire to keep our own mines closed to favor the competition of a foreign market, and we in South Canterbury—and elsewhere, I suppose —must bow in meek submission to the will of a suooession of incompetent and selfish rulers, and continue to import this most necessary commodity from another country, and this, too, with wealth lying buried beneath our feet,

You have, I dare say, been astounded by an electric shock bearing the intelli' gence of the deposition of Mr, John Thompson in favor of Mr, G, F. Cluleo aa assessor of property in the levels diatriot, Mr. Thompson, on receiving his appoint* ment, proceeded to the sanctum sanctorum of the Deputy-Commissioner to be sworn in, but, to his profound surprise, he was informed that his appointment had beefl cancelled. As is usual io the case of on?) not near the top step qf the Government ladder, no reason was assigned further than that public opinion was against him. As a matter of fact, however, public opinion had no place in the matter, Uftlesq the word public can properly bp to a few highly-favored of thq higher ('?) stamp. M\\ Thompson rflakiugj a guess at the \Vhy and wherefore, quietly collected material, and placed his case in the hands of Messrs. Stout and Hamersly, who will no doubt sift it thoroughly, and, •jet to the bottom of it;. Last evening a number of cltiaens did honor to the now celebrated Colonial Marine Engineer. They assembled at tlio corner of Church-street and Main Road, and, hoisting Mr. Blackett in efligjr hifify above their heads, marched procession the breakwater, qn \vhiofy they committed their burden tq the flames.' Qw>\ty,rft meniit.

The heapts of the poople of Ti'maru have evidently a very warm side towards Sir George Grey, and I apprehend rightly so. This veteran politician and champion of the poor men's rights addressed an immense crowd in the Queen's Hall on the evening of his arrival from the South. The hall was full, and the audience vociferously cheered the speaker through' out. His remarks upon the fas op \?pol were exceedingly apiqsing, inasmuch a$ that they exposed the property t»3v in ita most ridiculous light. The speech was, in the main, a repetition of remarks at other places, yet it came from Sir George's own lips much more clearly than in print. Yery few question? wprp put to him, and those few were to, the entire satisfaction of alt Our staff of railway employes ig tq bg reduced, in order tfyat thp flepwtnteut may not succqmb to the threatened pressure of th§ winter months. As a matter of oourße, though, only the small fry are to bo dispensed with, the upper ten thousand continuing their iniquitous system of indirect robbery. This will produce some of the effects so eagerly sought for by Government, e.g., it will add somewhat to the already lengthy list of unemployed, which means pauperism and starvation ; and it will do a gQOtl towards tl}e jncQiyvenjenoe of passenger, r J It appears altogether unaccountable that while the department can at any cor.* veniont season curtail the wages or t'heir drivers and stokers, shunters, and others, and even dispense with several of these, we never hear of the abolition of any of the higher offices, that is, tlje mtiohinery at Wellingtpn ? Christcliurch, and othet centres. Not evpn are their respective rt screwy" reduced to suit the time? and help to replenish an impoverish* $ treasury. Without workmei} the railways cannot be utilised, neither can aooidenta be obviated and order maintained at tho various stations, unless an adequate staff be told off" for the purpose. By the our* tailment of the uumber of the sioners, general managers, and traffio however, besides a legion ij

"talented" engineers, &c., everything «,nldgo on smoothly and to the public Let ns, then, dispense with the services of a few of these, and curtail the b"? srlaries of the indispensable, adding what would be thereby saved to the maintenance of the absolutely neces„rv workmen, and then the department get out of the difficulties, under which it has always labored, and in which jt must remain while a host of useless functionaries are maintained at headquarters, living on the fat of the land atl the expense of the Colony.