The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-09-05 00:00:00

COMMENTS ON CURRENT THINGS. '
THE publication of the railway companies'
traffic report to the Board of Trade on the
veiy day on which also was announced the
constitution of the Royal Commission on
Trade Depression gives ample evidence of
the serious cheek to commercial prosperity
which has in 4.,e year past been experienced. -
The net result'of the working of our great
railway systems was less satisfactory in 1884
than for several previous years, a circum-
stance which has already been felt by all
railway shareholders in the receipt of a de-
creased dividend. The gross earnings of the
company show very considerable diminution,
the falling off being entirely confined to
goods traffic, passenger receipts, indeed,
evidencing an improvement over previous
years. The heavy decline in the goods traffic
is mainly in the mineral branches. Examina-
tion demonstrates that some 700,000 tons
less pig-iron was produced in the United
Kingdom in 1884 than in 1883, while iron
ore showed a diminution of a million tons
on the year. Coal went back as much as
three milliol tons behind the aggregate of
1883, and there was also a considerably
smaller total returned under the head of
merchandise. All this, however, we may do
well to remember, is a falling off from an
exceptionally high annual maximum which
has been maintained for the past three or
four years, and does not take us behind the
average of say the last ten years. Still the
present decline stares us in the face, and
should set us, as a nation of shopkeepers,
thinking of how to pre7ent further loss of
business. At the same time we are not in-
clined to see with some in the temporary de-
pression an indication that Brltain is losino-
her place as the premier commercial of the
world. Trade always has been and always
• will be subject to ebb and flow, activity and
prostration.

Row many remedies for the ills "the dis-
tressful country" is said to suffer continu-
ously have been from time to time proposed?
Their name has surely been legion, and it is
doubtful whether Ireland has had cause for
gratitude in the application of some of the
schemes of public men and politicians for
the country's benefit. Perhaps emigration
has been the most efficacious as it has been
the most widely resorted to of measures for
the relief of the poverty-burdened Irish pea-
santry ; but the encouragement of native in-
dustry has been not the least pleasing, nor
least likely, if vigorously followed up, to ob-
tain the end in view. A new departure for
the development of the cattle pasture re-
sources of Ireland has just been made in the
commencement of a commercial company,
with three Irish peers as principal promoters,
for the shipment of dead meat in refrigera-
tor-furnished vessels from the Irish ports
for England and Scotland. Ireland is cap-
able of growing a great quantity of excel-
lent beef at a comparatively small cost for
pasturage, and given a good market for the
meat, and its delivery in prime condition,
we see no reason why an Irish supply should
not greatly lessen the necessity for import-
ing the immense cargoes of meat from Au-
stralasia and America. Irish meat, fresh at
Smithfield a few hours after slaughter,
would certainly fetch much better prices
than carcases which have had to come all
the way from New Zealand. Let Ireland
address herself to snpply any considerable
portion of the demand for butcher's meat
which exists in great centres pf England and
Scotland, and she has a profitable industry
within reach, one which will do something
at any rate in the direction of smoothing
down the hard lot of her peasantry. The
new adventure for bringing the meat to the
British market, if well worked, should be a
guneess leading to other relative successes,
and so deserves commenaution.

THE experimental introduction by an en-
terprising Newcastle firm of electric light-
ing into their colliery is an innovation which
will be watched with 'great public. interest.
If the "imprisoned lightning" can be so con-
trolled as to prove manageable as an illu-
minant in the bowels of the earth, many of
the grave difficulties and dangers which wait
upon the collier's calling will be at once re-
moved, and the terrible fatalities which from
time to time shock the world reduced to a
minimum. Disseminating no heat, engen-
dering no gas, but giving off a strong and
wholesome light, electricity possesses un-
numbered advantages over the invention of
Davy. There are a great many mechanical
difficulties in the way of the general adop-
tion of the electric light in the coal seams
"fathoms deep" underground, but the en-
gineers are confident in their ability to over-
come every hindrance in the end.

THE story which comes from the He-
brides of how the crofters' wives defended
their island belonging—or what, atany rate,
they considered to be their belonging—
against the evictors, reads more like a tale
of old romance than a matter-of-fact modern
newspaper paragraph. The crofters were
away fishing, but their sturdy wives stood
guard over the holding of Mg, armed with
stout cudgels, heavy stones, or any other
rude weapon which came ready to hand.
Several of the hardy womenfolk were in-
jured by the shots of the emissaries of the
laird, but the amazons were able to hold
their own, and drive back the invaders of
their ocean-girt home. One admires the
bravery and pluck of these worthy daughters
of Gaul, but it is a sad pity it should be so
put to the test. The crofter question has
reached such dimensions that it ought now
to have a speedy solution, fair to the laird
and just to the peasant, and it is to be hoped
that the promised bill to deal with the
mltter will have early consideration in the
new Parliament.

IT is perhaps not generally known that a
post dated cheque is nothing more nor less
than a promissory note, and should be so
stamped, otherwise it is an illegal document,
and those making use of it are liable to the
penalties of evading the stamp duty. It does
not matter if it be drawn for an amount
which would be covered by a penny im-
pressed bill or note stamp ; with the cheque
stamp it is informal, and cannot be received
in evidence. This was laid down in the
Lord Mayor of London's Court the other
day, so that the knowledge of an interesting
point in the law of bills of exchange will go
widely abroad. The addition to things
generally known will add to the disfavour
with which post-dated cheques are always
regarded by business men. Of late these
objectionable substitutes for cash have been
much to plentiful, owing to the continuously
strained condition of commerce.

nNE BOX CLARKE'OIB 41 PILLS is warranted t3curc
discharges from ths Urinary Organs, in either sex
required or constitutional, Gravel and Pains in the back
Sold in boxed, 4s each, by all Chemists and Patent
medicine Vendors ; or sent to an address for 43 Stamps by
makers Tag LINCOLN & MIDLANN COIIIIIIIIIEr DRUG.
twertnr, Lincoln, Wholesale Agents Besater & Son
and all e• wholesale houses.

,TICIIIOAT AFFECTIONS AND 110ARSENESS.—A11 sa-
fe: ing from irritation of tho throat and . hoarseness
t.:11 be agrecably Aurprised at the almost immediate
rel'A affwded by the use of "Brown's Bronchial
TrL.el.f 3." These famous "lozenges " are now sold by
i t respe.ctable chemists in this country at is. lid.
Pc!oplo troubled with a " hackit.g cough,'
• sHht cold," or bronchial affections, cannot try
1./3 soon, as similar troubles, if allowed to pro-
• ravilt fiZrioll3 Pulmonary and Asthmatic afrec•
• f'se;haf the words "Brown's Bronchial Troches"
▪ on flo Ozvernment Starap around each box.—
Lo_t-tc.aree tiz Joax I. Dnowm & SONS, Boston, U.S.
toex 644 M removed to 88, Farriugdce POI