The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-03-22 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

The total number of pictures now contained in the
public rooms of the National Gallery is 1,008
A Parliamentary Return shows that on the 4th
January last there were' dividends due and not demanded"
at the Bank of England to the amount of not less than
£861,901.

The Manatee, which haa now been at the Royal
Aquarium, Pr estminster, tor neatly nine months, died last
Saturday morning.

The heir-apparent to the Persian throne has set out
for St. Petersburg.

Her Majesty's ship Osborne, which has been placed
at the dbmosal of the Duke and Duchess of Connaught by the
Prince of Wales for strip to the Mediterranean, will, accord-
ing to present arrangemebts, leave with the Duke and
Duchess on the 24th inst. She is expected to be away nine
weeks. -

More than 2,000 file•eutters and forgers met at
Sheffield on Monday evening and resolved to resist a pro-
posed reduction of wages, the meeting pledging its members
to abstain from seeking employment for one month. This
amounts practically to a strike in the file trade. The
met ting was the largest held since the gathering prior to the
great strike of 1860.
The population of Berlin is given at 1,052,900, and
the return for the week ended on February 22 ahows 140
marriages, 472 deaths, and 844 births, of which 12 per cent.
were illegitimate; also an immigration of 1,616 against an
emigration of 1,052.

On Monday Lord George Hamilton distributed the
prizes which had been won by the students of the South
Kensington Schools of Art in tne local and national competi-
tion of 1878. The ceremony took place in the theatre of the
South Kensington Museum. The noble lord congratulated
the pupils upon the success which had been achieved during
the past year, and stated that the British exhibits at the late
Paris Exhibition contradicted the belief which prevailed
abroad, and to some extent at home, that we were a dull,
unimaginutive race.
At a meeting of George Heriot's Hospital, Edin-
burgh, a provisional order whereby the hospital funds are
opened up for the secondary education of the poorer classes
of Edinburgh was approved, and it was decided to petition
the Home Secretary to sanction it. The George Heriot's
Hospital Trust is the wealthiest institution of the kind in
Scotland, and at present provides primary education for
over 5,000 children resident in.r.ainuurga.

In a letter on the subject of "Steel for War Pur-
poses," Mr. Henry Bessemer remarks "that prior to my in-
vention„a east-steel bar of the weight of an ordtpary rail
could not be pur chased in Sheffield for less price than £45
per ton. But by the Bessemer process several thousand
tons of cast-steel rails are at the present moment in course
of manufacture in Sheffield at prices below 45 per ton, and
I believe the lowest quotation has reached £4125.7
Sir Richard Wallace (Galignani says) has given ten
new fountains to the city of Paris, which are to be erected
against the walls in different parts of the capital. They are
of cast-iron, and on the same pattern throughout, like those
now seen in the streets. A constant supply of filtered water
will thus be at the command of the poorer inhabitants in
the vicinity °reach.

Experiments with an electric light apparatus fitted
on board the turret ship Dreadnought took place at Ports-
mouth on Monday night. The system employed was Mr.
Wilde's, and the machinery for generating the electricity
was driven by a 40-horse power engine, which was fitted in
the hold. The light was so contrived as to be capable of
concentration upon objects at a short distance, or of diffu-
sion over a large area. The experiments were considered
very satisfactory.

Overtime in the Chatham Dockyard, except in
epecial cues Is now to be discontinued.

Yokohama, Japan, now boasts a cricket club, a
racing club, and a boating club, a splendid athletic club,
with a fine track of 144 yards; also a football club, and
American base ball club, a Swiss rifle club, and a ladies'
lawn tennis club.

A petroleum spring, one boring of which has yielded
2,000 ki:oe. in 21 hours, has been discovered at Pohar, in
Austrian Poland. • _ _ _ _

The six days' contest for the Long.distance Pedes-
trian Championship of the World was finished at ten
o'clock on Saturday evening in last week, at Gilmore's Gar-
dens, New York, Iu the presenc4 of an ita mouse assemblage.
Charles Rowell, of Cambridge, Eng!, na, proved victorious,
having travelled 500 miles; John 1.4 is, of Chicago, was
second, having covered 475 miles; and Charles A. Harriman,
of Boston third, having placed 450 miles to his credit
Daniel O'Leary, the late champion, retired on Wednesday
afternoon, having travelled 2151 miles.

The fishermen of Cherbourg have addressed a peti-
tion to the Cherbourg Ch.mber of Commerce, praying for
an increase of 5 francs per 100 kilogrammea in the present
duty upon fish, to protect the French fish markets from the
importation of English fish, the present rate of duty not
being considered sufficient. _

Signor Sciaparelli, the famous astronomer of Milan
has just published a map of Mars, which shows configura-
tions on the surface of trust planet corresponding in every
particular to those of our own world. Thus Mars has like-
wise its north and south poles, thick with ice fields as the
polcs of our own planet. It has also continents and oceans
as we have, and the map shows in what direction the greater
rivers flow—at least at their months—the points of their dis-
charge into the ocean being distinctly visible.
An English newspaper is now being published at
ALL Musjid. It would appear that the 61st Foot have a regi-
mental paper, rejoicing in the title of The Bugle; and, in
spite of being on active service, they issued a number on the
let ult. It contains the following :—" We believe that this
is the first newspaper published in English in Afghanistan.
The Bugle has a larger circulation than any other paper in
Cabul ; and when our Afghan friends have been sufficiently
educated by the Martini-Henry, it will doubtless be largely
read by our allies who live on the hill-tops, and cultivate
everything except corn and friendly relations."

The Berlin Correspondent of Tht Times says that at
his weekly Parliamentary soit* on Friday evening Prince
Bismarck varied hisiecital of ipmting anecdotes by denying
the intention attributed to hins-drdissolving the Reichstag.
About £7OO has already been subscribed in aid of
the widows and families of the men qf the 24th Regiment
who were killed itt Isandula, and Major-General E. I'Vode-
house, Major-General T. Ross, and Colonel A. Macpherson,
all late of the 24th Regiment, have formed a committee to
receive further subseriptions. When the fund was opened
it was intended to devote the proceeds entirely to the 24th,
but the committee have now under consideration to extend
It to the widows and orphans of all British soldiers who fell
at 'sandals.

Good news for the manufacturers of wire-binding
reaping machines comes from the United States, where
the millers had threatened not to buy wheat bound with
wire, or only to buy it at a reduced price. It has been
discovered that, by placing magnets in the shoots through
which the grain passes before being ground, any piece of
wire which may be present are attracted and cling to the
magnets, and are thus kept away from the millstones and
machinery.— Mark-Lane Express.
it is stated that the experiments with the electric
light recently made in the reading-room of the British
Museum have satisfied the trustees.of its applicability for the
purposes of the room as far as the amount and distribution
of light are concerned, although the full number of lamps
was not employed.

A new Protestant sect, distinguished, like the
Shakers, by their physical extravagances, has appeared in
Westphalia, the proselytes being chiefly women.
Frequent friendly interviews are reported to take
place between Prince (he schakolf and Lord Dufferin. .
Great distress is reported to exist in certain parts of
Bavaria.
The Visiting Justices of Salford Prison, Man-
chestr, have, in concert with magistrates in various parts
of the kingdom, convened a national meeting of Visiting
Justices to assemble at the Westminster Palace Hotel,
London. on April 2, at noon, for the purpose of discussing
the mode of administering prisons under the new Act, The
meeting will be invited to pronounce-its opinion as to the
tendency of the new rules, the question of centralisation,
the desirability of local management of gaols, and of the
residence of the prison commissloners and inspectors in their
respective districts, also as to the audit of accounts and the
system of prison contracts.

The Bishop of Ang;a, in Portugal, has issued a
pastoral on the lack of candidates for the priesthood, and ex-
presses a fear of a clerical famine in his diocese.]
The receipts on account of revenue from the let
April, 1878, when there was a balance of £6,243,389, to
March 15, 1879, were £78,683,549, against £75,989,660 in the
corresponding period of the preceding financial year, which
began with a balance of £5,988,650. The net expenditure
was £78,704,002, against £74,490,996 to the same date in the
previous year. The Treasury balances on March 15 amounted
to £8 502,400, and at the same date in 1878 to £8,41
On Tuesday a bronze colossal statue, by Mossman,
o Dr. Livingstone, the African traveller, was unveiled on
cleofeobrfetisro. George-square,
several thousands, west
at
scribers. Dr. Livingstone's two daughters and Dar. Stewart
magis-
trates officially received the statue in ther a
D nLimvingstona,
Glasgow citizens. The. statue represents .
This
le
the
with a Bible in one hand and a cap in the other.
Livingstone were present. The Lord Provost ned
thliteenth statue in George-aquar•
Glasgow in parneeoent cseuof
of t e