The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-11-01 00:00:00

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HOME, FOREIGN, AND COLONIAL.

Two CHILDREN SUFFOCATED. —At Runcorn two
children, aged five and two respectively, have been
suffocated by chlorine gas. They were on board a barge
which was moored in the canal near the bleaching
powder department of the Runcorn Soap and Alkali
Company's works, when an escape of gas took place,
which filled the cabin where the deceased and their
parents were asleep, causing the almost instant
death of the children. The mother is in a hopeless
condition.
Thu CoLusroN o TnE CLYDR.—The steamer Rose.
vile, which collided with and sunk the steamer Europa
on the Clyde, and which had to be run ashore to prevent
her sinking, was floated on Saturday evening, but as she
was making water and a heavy gale was coming on she
had again to be run ashore. She new lies in a critical
position. Her bow is high out of the water, but her
stern and up to midships is submerged, and the sea is
washing over her. Her temporary repairs have been
washed away, and should the gale continue she may
become a total wreck.

Loss OF A Burma STRAMER.—LIoyd's agent at
Dardanelles telegraphed on Sunday morning that the
steamer Danubian, of Leith, from Alexandria, in
ballast, struck on the rocks at Nakaria Island on the
previous night and was wrecked. The crew, twenty-
two is Lumber, was picked up by the British steamer
Mount's Bay, and landed at Dardanelles on Sunday
morning. The Danubian was an iron screw steamer of
1439 gross tons, built at Dumbarton in 1883, and was
owned by Messrs. Blaik and Co., Leith.
THE ATLANTIC PASSAGE.—The Orient line steamer
Austral, running under the Anchor line flag from New
York, arrived at Plymouth on Sunday, having made the
fastest passage on reoord from New York to Plymouth.
Her actual time of steaming was seven days seventeen
hours. The Austral brought 136 passerwers, and having
landed fifteen passengers proceeded for London.
THE DISTRESS IN SLINDERLAND. The Mayor of
Sunderland has received the following letter from Col.
Gourley, M.P., with reference to the proposed Mansion
House Fund in aid of the existing distress: "Oct. 24,
1884. My dear Mr. Mayor,—After writing you I saw
the Lord Mayor, who is of opinion that if a fund is
opened it should be for the Tyne and other parts
affected by the existing depression in the shipping
industry and that inasmuch as his term of office
expires in a fortnight it should be left in the hands of
Alderman Nottage, his successor, to deal with. The
sympathy on the part of the members of the House is
very keen, so that I make no doubt, if outside assist-
ance should be needed, that the employes of our ship-
building ports will meet with liberal pecuniary help.—
Very truly yours, E. T. GOITRI.EY."

/I.IEETI;G- OF THE JUDGES OF THE COUNTY COURTS.-
A meeting of the judges of the county-courts in Eng-
land and Wales was held on Saturday at the Birming-
ham County-court for the purpose of discussing matters
relating to their jurisdiction and the administration of
their office. The meeting was presided over by Sir
Richard Elarington, Bart., judge of Northamptonshire,
Oxfordshire, and Warwickshire district, and the follow-
ing judges were present—Sir Rupert Kettle, judge of
the Herefordshire and Worcestershire districts; Judge
Caillard, Gloucestershire, Somersetshire and Wilts;
Judge Stoner, Brompton and Marylebone ; Judge
Sumner, Gloucestershire and Wilts; Judge Abdy,
Essex, Herts, and Suffolk; Judges Thomson and Collier,
Liverpool; Judge Bedwell, Yorkshire, North and East
Riding; Judge Horatio Lloyd, North Wales; Judge
Wynne-Ffoulkes, Lancashire and Cheshire; Judge
Bacon, Bloomsbury and Whitechapel ; Judge Bagshawe,
Cambridgeshire and Beds; Judge Seth), Kent; Judge
Snagge, Yorkshire, West Riding; Judge Hooper,
Leicestershire, Lincolnshire and Rutland; Judge J. J.
Powell, Leeds and Bradford; and Judge Chalmers,
Birmingham. The judges remained in deliberation for
several hours.

DYNAMITE 017 TR AGIL—A Coleraine correspondent
states: Eszly on Saturday morning an attempt was
made to blow up with dynamite one of the gates of the
Navigation Locks on the River Barn, at the cuts near
Coleraine, but comparatively little damage was done.
The police are actively endeavouring to track the
offenders, and have great hopes of capturing them.
This is the second outrage of the kind within a period
of twelve months. Considerable excitement has been
caused by the outrage, which is supposed to be the
work of some person who is opposed to the periodical
flooding of the river, through what is contended to be
the maintenance of obsolete navigation works, which
prevents the free flow of the water when the river is
in flood. The smallness of the damage is attributed to
the substantial character of the beam of the gate,
which was only put in about nine months ago, when
the old one was nearly sawn asunder by some mischie-
vous person. About a year ago an attempt was made
to destroy Moranagher Locks, near Kilrea by the same
means. No arrests have as yet been madil

FATAL ACCIDENT TO AN ACROBAT. A shocking
accident occurred at Gateshead on Saturday night, by
which a oung acrobat named John Weightman, 24
years of age, of Birmingham, lost his life. Deceased
was one of a troupe of acrobats appearing at the Hall of
Varieties, Gateshead, and while taking a somersault
backwards from the shoulders of one of the others he
missed his mark and fell with great force upon his
head. He was carried insensible from the hall and
taken to the Newcastle Infirmary, where he died shortly
afterwards.
ounious Dispunii.—A dispute is now going on be-
tween the executors of the late rector of Dunstable and
Canon Macaulay, the present rector, with regard to the
disappearance from the town of an ancient relic known
as the "Payrey Pall"—an article of great intrinsic
value. The pall in question was the gift of Henry
Fayrey and Alice, his wife, to a house of Friars of the
Brotherhood of St. John the Baptist, which existed
at Dunstable during the sixteenth century, and, in an
account of it at the British Museum, is described as
"being made of the richest crimson and gold bro-
cade, and so exquisitely and curiously wrought that
it puzzles the greatest artists of weaving to so much
as guess at the manner of its performance." The
late rector carried out certain improvements at the
Old Prior* Church, relying upon promises of support
that were never realised. On this ground chiefly the
family look upon the pall as the deceased gentleman's
own property, whereas the parish people allege that,
inasmuch as the article has been used for public pur-
poses so many years, whoever appropriates it as his
own is guilty of sacrilege. It is not unlikely that the
matter will form the subject of legal proceedings.
DR. °RICHTON BROWNE AND TRH BOARD SCHOOL
TEACHERS.—The following letter has been received
from Dr. Crichton Browne, in response to the resolution
of the Metropolitan Board Teachers' Association:
"7, Cumberland-terrace, Regent's-park, N.W. Dear
Sir,— Pray tell the Metropolitan Board Teachers'
Association on the earliest opportunity that I am very
grateful to them for their approval of my report on
overpressure in elementary schools, which they have
expressed in such kind terms. It is reassurring to me,
amidst the storm of abuse and misrepresentation with
which I have been assailed, to find myself in substantial
accord with a body so thoroughly competent to express
an opinion on the questions at issue. The Association
will at least recognise in me a disinterested witness,
faithfully striving to the best of my ability to speak
the truth on a matter of great national importance.
—I am, dear air, yours very faithfully, J. CiICIITON
BROWNE."