The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1876-01-11 00:00:00

financial.

AV a meeting of the North Western RIOIVOLY of Monte
Video Company, Mr. John Chapman (a director and chair-
man of the Salisbury and Yeovil Railway) presiding. it
was decided to wind the company up.
Tug COLONIAL 11(NK announced at their half-yearly
meeting on Thursday that, after making allowance for
income-tax and bad and doubtful debts, to the amount of
about 404,000, they declared an ordinary dividend of S
per cent, and an extraordinary of 11 per rent, for the half-
year. The reserve fund is .C 52,000 and a balance of about
.Cl,llOO is carried on to the next half-year. The assets are
about four millions and a half.

DRSTRUOTIVE RAILWAY COLLISION.
The Went Cornwall Railway wan blocked all day Thum.
day, as the result of a remarkable and serioun collixion in
the morning. While shunting was in progress at Cam-
borne station, a portion of a goods train excaned from
control. the brakes failing to act, and dialled down a
nteep incline at Immense and ever increaning speed. It
had crossed Penpond's Viaduct, only twenty yardx, when
it came into point-blank ooliision with the engine of a
goods train corning in an opposite direction. The shock
was terrific. The line for • long ,lintanee %VOA covered
with fragments of broken trurks ant an infinite variety of
merchandise. The driver and stoker Keyed themselves by
lumping off in time, but Squire. the guard, wax less
fortunate, and wax removed home neriminly hurt, his
escape from instant death having been marvellous.

KILLED BY A MOUSR—EXTRA—ORDINARY
OCCURRENCE.
An extraordinary occurrence has been brought to light
at an inquest held on the body of a man in 8 nith London.
It appears that in a work-mom where many young girls
were at work a mouse suddenly male its appearance on
a table, causing, of mum, considerable commotion and a
general stampede. The intruder was seised, however, by
a young man who happened to Ire present, hut the mouse
slipped out of his hand, and running up his sleeve
came out between his waistcoat and shirt at the neck.
The unfortunate man ha,' his mouth open, and the
mouse, on the look out for some convenient place of
concealment, entered the man's mouth. and he, in his
fright and surprise, swallowed it. That a mouse can exist
for a considerable time without much air has long been
a popular belief and was unfortonately proved to he a
fact in the present instance, for the iimuse began to tear
and bite inside the man's throat and chest, and the result
was that the unfortunate fellow died after a little time in
horrible agony. Several witnesses having corroborated
the above facts, and medical testimony as to the cause of
death having been given, a verdict of accidental death was
returned.

SHORTIIOII6I S %LES.
Shorthorn sales are becoming almost as " senqttional
an those of thoroughbred yearlings were a short time
since, and it is no uncommon thing for an animal of the
Bates or !Wolk blood, each of which strains had its respec-
tive admirers and even champions, to be soil for a price
equal to that which a Derby winner would have realised
a few years ago, Fmtn, coniparative tables iif reaalta
of these sales during the put year in Great Britain and
America, which are published in the almanack of the
Agricultural Gazette, it appears that the total amounts
realised at these sales were almost the same for both
countries. The returns refer only to the sale of "pedigree
shorthorns "—that is to say, of animals inscribed in the
Herd-book, which is for cattle what the Stud-book is for
the turf: and from them we learn that, while the 95 sales
held in Great Britain yielded a total of .C 229.11001 10s. nil.,
the 57 sales in Atnerice amounted to .C 201,790 Us. 10d.
Each of the American sales amounted, upon an average, to
c 3,313, as against £3.509 for each of the English sales;
but the advantage does not in reality remain with Ameri-
can breeders, for though right fewer sales were hell there,
the number of animalsilisposed of was within ten of those
sold at home. The 2,599 shorthorns sold in A merica
averaged £79 each, and the 2,lti sold in Great Britian £97
each' The largest total realised at any one sale was
' £42,919 Ills, for which Si animals belonging to the late
Mr. Ton, a Lincolnshire farmer, were disposed of in
September. The highest price given at this sale was
2,1119 guineas, and the average for the whole lot was
£SIO 195. Still more remarkable war a sale held in Scot-
land a week previously, when animals, the property of
Lord I/unmore, fetehed £29,221 15s. This gives an average
of £672 Re. for each animal, one of which went for 4,500
guineas. At a third sale, :11 animals fetched more than
I £lO,OOO, and there were several others at which the total
was over £7,000, and the average over £2OO. The most
successful sale held in Anierica was that at which 63
short-horns fetched SIR,MI 154. 5iL, with an average of
£402 194. 94. for the whole number, one of them reaching
£3,225. At two other sales in America totals of rather
more than £lO,OOO were obtained for 35 and tor 33 lots, the
average in the two cases being slightla over And under
Linn These figures may ha left to speak for themselves ;
but it is impossible to avoid the suspicion that purchasers
in the long run get the best of the bargain,