The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-01-19 00:00:00

THE COMMERCIAL CRISIS IN THE
STATES.

The New York correspondent of the Stand,ard,
writing on Sunday night, says :

The dealings in wheat here yesterday amounted to
a total of ten million bushels, at a decline of two
cents.

Owing to the financial disturbance margins to meet
contingencies amounting to nearly a million dollars
have been deposited at one bank alone within the last
two days. A similar flurry has occurred at Chicago.
The entire American speculation in grain is based
upon the belief that it is irapoasible for other
producers to sell at a profit against the States;
but foreign noels are persistently large, and
American exports small, despite the cheap rate
of tonnage; hence there is a growing doubt as
to the correctness of American information regarding
the foreign sources of the supply of grain. Freights
are so considerable an item in the valuation of many
railways that the matter possesses an important bear.
ing on stocks. The situation is still unsettled and die.
couraging. Managers are quarrelling; the rates from
east to west are frequently changed offisially; and
the tariff fixed by agreement is departed from almost
bof-C.tingly. Hitherto the earnings have continued
lan;e, despite the progressive decline in rates; now the
earnings are reported to be smaller.

The failures during the past week were three bun.
dred and forty•five, which are one hundred and forty.
two over the number in the corresponding week of
1882, and more than the corresponding week in any of
the last five years. Meanwhile Congress gives no
certain sign, although it was never looked to with
greater anxiety. Rarely have more topics, or topics
of greater importance, demanded the wisest and
quickest action; yet politioal strategy and its bearings
on the impending Presidential canvass appear to con.
trol the Fituatin. A growing belief prevails that the
tariff legislation is likely to take the form of a law
redteing all customs equally, say from fifteen to
twenty per cent,

The public printing office at Washington cost last
year 2,861,274 dols.
A NEW ELEMENT IN TH2 PAPER MANUFACTURE.—
Consul Gede, of Christiana, has submitted to the
United States Government a report relative to a new
industry, or, rather, the use of a raw material for the
manufacture of paper which will soon be in use in
Norway and Sweden. Among the raw materials
already employed in the manufacture of paper are
rags, esparto, straw, and wool, but all these are ex-
pensive, and this new ant cheaper one, which emeriti
of white moss, will now be added to the list. The
moss is found In immense quantities in Norway and
Sweden, but it is not the living plant as it grows in
the fields which is used for making paper, but the
renWns of this kind of moss, which has gradually
accumulated in the woods. The mouldering which
the moss has gradually undergone constitutes a pre-
paration for the paper manufacture made by nature
herself. A factory is now building for the n2anufae-
tura in Sweden, and examination has shown that near
this place many millions of pounds of this raw
material are to be found; in fact, a quantity sufficient
to support a large manufacture for many years.
Paper of different thicknesses and pasteboard made of
the white mese have already been shown, the latter
even in sheets three quarters of an inch thick. It is
as hard as wood, and can easily be paint( , and
polished. This manufacture is said to be very well
suited for taking the place of wood for many pur-
poses. It has all the good qualities but none of the
defects of wood, as it neither crack nor warps. The
pasteboard can consequently be used for door and
window frames, and for architectural ornaments of all
kinds of furniture.
THE AUSTRALIAN Anortronles.--According to the
Australian census returns the number of Aborigines
still existing in the Australian colonies—exclusive of
New Zealand—is 31,700 only. These are divided into
17,235 males and 14,4135 females. In Victoria at the
recent censue the number returned was 780 as against
1,330 at the former one. It is admitted that the returns
are not qeite exact ; but it is stated by the Commis-
sioners that the number in Victoria ifs now certainly
under I,oeo.