The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-03-15 00:00:00

SATURDAY, MARCH 15, 1879.

EPITOME OF NEWS.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

Notice has been given by the Caledonian Railway
to their servants in their various repairing shbps that on and
after Monday next the hours would be 54 per wetk instead
of 51. At the same time the wages will be raised is. per
week.

Au item of news from the West Indies shows how
industries once peculiar to this country are taking root
abroad. Ironclads have been built in China and Japan ;
and now a small steamer has been launched at Kingston,
Jamaica every part of which has been made in the Island.

The Agent-General for New South Wales has been
informed by telegram of the arrival in Sydney of the ship
*Blair Athol° which sailed from I'l}mouth with emigrants in
November lat.

Her Majesty has been graciously pleased to accept
a copy of Mrs. Richard Burton's new work A. E. I. (Arabia,
Egypt, and India).
At the conference of the National Federation of
Enginemen at Middlesbro', Parliament was asked to estab-
lish a board of examiners to see that all persons tending
engines or boilers were qualified to do so.

On Monday afternoon the Scotch Peers met in
liolyrood Howe, Edinburgh, for the election of a represen
tative in the House of Lords. Lord Dundunald was elected.
lie obtained 35 votes, while five were recorded for the Earl
of Lindsay, and one for the Marquis of Tweeddale.
On Saturday morning a notice was posted at all the
collieries in Fife and Clackrnannan, intimating that two
weeks hence a reduction in miners' wages to the extent of
14 per cent. will take place, and the wages of the other
workers in the pits will be proportionately reduced. The
notice affects 4,000 men, nuts course has been necessitated
by the continued depression in the home and export trade.
Alter this reduction takes place the average wages of the
miners throughout the two counties will be little over 33.
a day—a lower point than they have touched for many years;
but it is not expected that any serious opposition will be
offered by the men.

People in Persia are praying for snow, and unless
their petition is answered it seems very probable that a
famine will set in next summer. In order that there may be
abundant water for irrigation purposes in the spring it is
necessary that the snow should descend considerably below
tbe summer snow line.

There are upwards of 1,000 horses in the United
States able t trot a mile within two minutes and a half. A
few years ago two minutes and forty seconds was considered
the best time.

At a meeting of the Wolverhampton Town Council,
it was decided to borrow £.25,000 for the purpose of carrying
out improvemints under the Artisans' Dwellings Act.

A telegram from Washington says that it is believed
that President Hay es Message, which will be presented to
Congress on its re-assembling on the 18th inst., will be brief,
and confined to the subject of the appropriations and the in-
crease of revenue necessitated by the reduction of the
tobacco-tax.

A fine healthy young female specimen of the
manatee or mermaid has been placed in No. 18 fresh water
tank (temperature 70 degrees) in Brighton Aquarium. It is
4ft. 61n. big, weighs newt., and was caught at Trinidad.
It is fed upou lettuce and vegetable marrows.
Telegrams received at Lloyd's from Penang state
that the ship Sandhurst, on a voyage from Calcutta to
Dundee, was totally destroyed by tire at sea on February 15
in bat 40 S., long. 84. Passengers and crew all saved, having
been picked up close to Acheen-head by a Dutch gunboat on
the 6th inst. The Sandhurst was an iron ship, built at Dum-
barton in 1877, with a gross tonnage of 1,571 tons. She was
classed 100 Al, and had on board a cargo of jute approxi-
mately valued at £25,000.

A locksmith, named Adrian Alaquet, has just been
appointed officer of the French Academy. M. Magnet re-
cel ed his education in a primary school; but he is now a
member of several learned societies, and the author of a
number of historical and arcbmalogical orks.

At a recent meeting of the Birmingham School
Board, there was a warm and protracted debate on the ques-
tion of permitting the use of the Board school buildings on
Sunday evenings for the purpose of secular lectures. A
resolution that for the future the school-rooms under the
control of the Birmingham School Board be let on Sundays
for Sunday school purposes only was lost, six voting for and
nine against it.

Surgeon• Major Colvill and Dr. Joseph Frank Payne
have been appointed by the Lord President of the Council
British Medical Commissioners to Institute an investigation
in Russia connected with the recant outbreak of plague in
that country.

The French Government have decided to establish
a night asylum for persons of the female sex, who, being
without domicile or means of support, will thus be amply
provided for. This measure was very necessary, for some
recent statistics go to show that there are at the present
time in Paris over 113,300 persons without the necessary
means of existence. Never before have such a number of
indigents been in the capital, and, to remedy this, it is said
that a law will shortly be passed interdicting the sojourn in
Paris of all persons in a destitute condition.

During last year the scientific world was presented
almost every month with some new practical and surprising
invention having its origin in the application of the electric
current by means of the telephone. The latest acquisition
in this branch of science is the sphygmophon, an apparatus
connected with the telephone, by the help of which it is
possible to render quite audible the beating of the pulse
and the movements of the heart, in all its various shades of
intensity, in closest proximity as well as at long distances.
The new apparatus is described as so effective, and at the
same time may be so imperceptibly adjusted to the human
body, that in a company the beating of the heart of any in-
dividual person may be made to sound almost ghostlike, so
loud in the room as to enable everybody present to hear it at
the same time.—Court Journal.

A number of the most valuable pictures in the
French Museums are to be copied in water-colours, and a
catalogues of the paintings is accordingly being made, the
chPfs d'ceuvres of private collections being also added to the
lat.

During the recent intense frost in the United States
a trotting carnival was held on Lakes Champlain and George.
Toe horses entered were two and three-year-olds.

The London gas companies are showing praise-
worthy energy in introducing improved lamps for street
illumination.

Adviceg were received in Liverpool on Monday
from Mr. Donald Mackenzie, who sailed from Bristol re-
cently in the steamer Corsair for Cape Juby, on the North-
west Coast of Africa, to establish a station there, and open
up direct trade with Soudan. Mr. Mackenzie was at
Lanzarote, Canary Islands, on the 23rd ult., and was to sail
next day for Cape Juby. He says that a statement had ap-
peared in a Gibraltar paper to the effect that the Americans
were about to send a vessel to Cape Jutay, for the purpose of
taking formal possession of it, but that be, of course, would
reach there before them.

Lord Granville's residence in Carlton House terrace,
London was much damaged, on Sunday evening, by a fire
which broke out on the top floor, and was not subdued till
the roof was burnt off and the lower storeys deluged with
water. The Crown Prince of Germany and many persons
well known in high social circles witnessed the scene.

Quite a heavy business is done in California in
shipping to Chins the shells of the shrimp, which are caught
in such numbers on the coast, and there is almost as much
profit from the sale of the shells as from the shrimps them-
selves. The use they are put tomn China is as a manure, and
as a poison to the warm which works such destruction to the
tea plant of that country, The Chinamen state that this is
the only remedy at present known for the tea pest.

- -
Republican simplicity in dress is largely practised
by the wife of the American President, Mrs. Hayes, who
scandalises the fashionable circles of New York by appearing
in the same costume at successive official entertainments.
the Transatlantic belles, however, ate not likely to follow
her example; they are much more disposed to copy the
Japanese Ladies, who when visiting the theatre change their
dress between each act.

At a late sitting of the Chamber of Deputies at
Lisbon Senor Vilhena, a supporter of the Government, re-
ferring to the relations between England and Portugal with
regard to South Africa, advised the Chamber not to suspect
the good intentions of England respecting the colonies of
Portugal, but to co-operate with her in extending the work
of civilisation.

A telegram from Melbourne says :—The English
team, under the captaincy of Lord Harris, have played a
three days' match against the Eleven of Victoria, which was
won by the visitors, with six wickets to spare.

Aberdeenshire was again visited by a severe snow-
storm on Tuesday night.

Sir J. Palk, Bart, M.P., presided over a crowded
meeting at the Town Hall, Torquay, on Tuesday in support
of the fund to relieve toe destitute Devonshire shareholders
of the West of England and South Wales District Bank.
The Lord Bishop of Exeter and the Mayor of Exeter also
addressed the meeting.

A Sydney photographer has succeeded in accom-
plishing a very difficult feat by producing some large
panoramic views of the cities of Sydney and Melbourne. At
a recent meeting of the Berlin Photographic Society, Herr
Holtermann of Sydney exhibited photographs nearly 100 feet
in length, made up of pieces which harmonised perfectly in
tone and depth. One of the pictures, from a single negative,
livid the extraordinary dimensions of about five feet by three
feet.

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a d
The Czar and the Empress of Russia will leave St.
Petersburg for the Crimea in the middle of April. The
Empress's state of health, it is announced, renders the
change desirable. These arrangements (a telegram says) are
regarded in diplomatic circles here as indicating the com-
posure with which the political situation is.regarded in
be Duke ot Cambridge to be
Court circles, as contrasted with the rumours lately cur-
of bei
rent.
On Saturday the Viceroy of India received a deputa-
tion from the British Indian Association, who objected to
any further reduction of the import duties on cotton goods.
The Viceroy reminled the Assoecsirniea:tmionliokfetlhyetdoecbiesion
pcoefutlahtre
House of Commons, that the cotton import duties, being
protective and contrary to sound policy, ought to be re-
pealed when it was financially possible to do so. He stated
his firm determination to give the earliest and widest
being caileCl
pwraeteiipracticalttTto,hiw:h atteoehdtnuer,e eeliv
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thulehucenent i
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rrtemhssoi.
oldest regiment
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seine
on to wear scarlet.
The King of the Belgians has purchased
a handsome
ailteau in the suburbs of Bros
Ch.alotte will be i sels, Where thenstalled. The Tervueren P Empress
be rebuilt. Palace will not
- - -

General IgnaProperty
in therejoinyto
taerni Paris
I vo e n
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family
at Nice
Govern-
ment his
; of Hied lie eff
owns left ,
and he has come to France to study the
systems of sugar refinery and the extraction of the produce
from beetroot, which s grown largely on his estates.
The gloomy prospects of agriculture are beginning
seriously to anent the value of land. The annual letting of
the Pawlett Hams, near Bridgewater, consisting of 1,000
acres, and used chiefly for grazing purposes, was attended
by nearly 600 practical agriculturists from the three western
counties, but in many instances the pieces of land did net
fetch so much by 30s. per acre as in former years, the total
decrease, as compared with last year, being £1,334.
Leo XIII. has been cited to appear before 1. Court
of Canton Soleure (says the Geneva correspondent of The
Times) A fervent Catholic of the canton who died a short
time ago left by his will certain bequests to the Emperors of
Austria and Brazil, and appointed the Pope his residuary
legatee. This will is contested by the heirs-at-law on the
ground that when he made it the testator was not in his
right mind. The two Emperors who were made parties to
the suit have renounced their claims under the implicated
instrument, but the Pope, not having returned any answer
to inquiries which have been addressed to him in tne matter
has been summoned to appear befcre the cantonal tribunal
and show cause why the decree prayed for by the heirs-at-law
should not be granted.
A fire broke cut on Monday night on board the
screw corvette Thetis, lying in Keystiam•basin, Devonport
Dockyard, and which was being got ready to relieve the
Tenedos on the African coast. The fire broke out in the
storer om below the forward lower deck. Despite enormous
quantities of water thrown into the vessel by six land and
floating steam fire-engines, brioging her ecuttle-holes down
to the water's edge, the fire continued to barn, the hollow
iron masts acting as ventilating shafts and chimneys. The
water poured upon the lower deck seemed to psas oil with-
out penetrating the storeroom or the hold. Admirals
Foquhar and hope therefore ordered divers to go below and
direct the hose right down upon the burnt. g masses. This
was done about one o'clock, and the danger was over within.
two hours. The divers encountered great difficulty. "
nt
-
e
quently came up for air. Altogether damage to the extent
delayed by six weeks.
of £6,000 was caused. The departure of the vessel will e

At a meeting held in London at the Speaker's resi.
&nee, at which the Right lion. W. H. Brand, 3LP., pre-
sided, a number of gentlemen interested in university edu-
cation met to consider how best to make known the
advantages possessed by Cavendish College, Cambridge. Mr.
Morley, M.P.. said that for an annual charge of £34 students
could be boarded, and that the entire cost for all charges
would be under £250 per annum. It was decided to call a
meeting to lay before the public the advantages afforded by
t h is institution to all persons interested in uuivertity educa.
Con.

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