The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1870-07-02 00:00:00

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STOMIBRIDGE OI3SERVER.

MILTON AND WIFE V. TIIF SOUTII-EASTERN RAILWAY
COMPANY.

This wail an action to recover compenaation in damages for
personal injuries received through the alleged negligence of
the defendants' sery mita

The plaintiff, Mr.lton, was a member of the
Chancery far. On the evening of the 29th September
I+l4 re. Itilton proceed to Gravesend by the defend-
ants' railway, accompanied by two children, to join her
husband. The plaintiff's case was that the train
stopped short of the platform, and that in stepping
out Mre. Biltem fell forward on her face and seriously
injured heraelf. She was cnceinte at the time, and a
few days after he was obliged to call in a medical
man and suffered very severely. The defence was
contributory negligence arising from extreme im-
patience and an eagerness to alight before the train
had been brou.ffit up to the platform, as subsequently
was done, and upon which most of the passengers
alighted. One of the defendants' witneeses swore
positively that he told Mrs. Idilton to keep her scat, as
the carriage would he drawn up to the platform.
The traiu consisted of 18 carriage., and the platform
was not sufficiently long to take toe whole of them in.
It was dark at the time of the accident. Mrs. Eilton,
however, alighted before that part of the train could be
drawn up to the platform.
Eventually the jury returned a verdict for the de-
fendants.

WALDEN (INFANTS) V. THE•GREAT NORTHERN RAILWAY

COMPANY.

This was an action brought to recover damages sus-
tained by the infant children of William and Jane
Walden, wit., were killed at the Welwyn Junction on
the Great Northern Railway in October last. The
father was • farm bailiff. The facts have been before
the public frequently, and on Monday Colonel Rich,
the Government inspector, gave his account of the
acaident, the cause of which seemed involved in some
mystery. It was clear that the train was thrown off
the line—some carria.ies on to one line, Home on to
another, anti some were actually upset and ran against
the wall and ground deep into the ballast. Bat the
signal and point apparatus for moving the switches
was of the most improved and per feet nature. The
only cause to which Colonel Rich could attribute the
throwing of the carriages off the rail was that the points
had been moved while the train was passing over them.
It was very difficult, even with the help of the no,
merous models, to understand the different features of
the case. The carriages had, as Colonel Rich said,
played very extraordinary freaks, and much, indeed
almost all, depended on conjecture.
The jury returned the verdict for the plaintiffs for
EGO, apportioning it thus—Gel to the elder son, £7O
to the younger son, and £5O to the daughter.

the Rivers Pollution Commissioners will appaat in the
course of a few days, and this report will give a more
decided preference to sewage irrigation than the one
preceding
The opponents of sewage irrigation are making the
most of Dr. Cobbold's views as to the transmiabion of
parasites into the human system by the use of liquid
sewage as a fertiliser for the land. One SCiPlltiiC wit-
ness professed to be so afraid of sewage contamination
that he utterly forbade the use of water cresscs in his
household. In some cases landowners and others ob-
jectd to sewage irrigat in their neighbourhood
through fear of malaria. Mr. Rawbillion, the govern.
ment engineer, in giving evidence on this point, argued
that the objection to a sewage farm was very much in
the nature of a "sentimental grievance," and would
give way before the test of sober experience.

[Since the above was in type, the two bills for
utilizing the sewage of Blackburn and lb-ailing, have
been passed by committees of the House of Lords. The
bills empower the Corporations to purchase large tracts
of land on which to u ilize the sewate by irrigation,
anil were keenly opposed in the Commons as well as
in the Lords. A very long string of witnesses appeared
against them, but the evidence in favour of the di*
pensl of sewage in the manner proposed was deemed
conclusive.]

though telling when presented under canvas, they soon weary
by their formal outlines when so grown for private use.
Stone. —Admit more air, or shift into an intermediate
house, all the occupants of this structure that are intended
In tigers in the summer display in the conservatory, when
the pelargoniums are cleared out, which will be necessary
shortly. With,, little hardening most of the stove-plants
can be shithd into the conservatory for a time without
injury. •