The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-01-31 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

The Wesleyan College at Woodhouse Grove, between
Bradford and Leeds, has narrowly escaped destruction
by fire.
A mill, belonging to Mr. Birkitt, of Balderton, near
Newark, has been destroyed by fire.
Information has been received at Gloucester from
Perth, Australia, stating that the manager and
accountant of the Union Bank of Australia's branch at
Roebourne, West Australia, had been found toma-
hawked on the bank premises. The accountant was a
young man named Henry Thomas Burrup, whose
father is a highly respectable resident in Gloucester.
On Saturday morntng Mr. Burrup received a message
from the general manager of the bank at London,
stating that his son was one of the unfortunate victims
who had met with his death at the hands of assassins.
Mr. Barrup was a young man of 23 years.
There were many persons upon the ponds at Highgate,
London, on Sunday, when skating and sliding were
freely indulged in. On the first pond a boy was im-
mersed, and was with difficulty rescued, whilst on the
second the ice gave way, and two men lost their
lives.
It is reported from Hong-Kong that the French
attacked the Chinese positions near Kelung, but, after
severe fighting, were repulsed with the loss of seventy-
five men. The French version of the matter represents
it as much less serious. _

..
A meeting at the Chapter House, St. Paul's Cathe-
dral. has resolved to erect by public subscription, a re-
cumbent effigy of the late Bishop of London.
William Hind, a tradesman was charged at the
Woolwich Police•court on Saturday with carrying a'
loaded revolver in the public streets to the common
danger. An inspector stated that the prisoner, while
very drunk, carried a revolver which was loaded in all
the six chambers, and that he had alarmed several
persons. The magistrate bound him in his own recog-
nisances to keep the peace for three months.
It is intended to appoint a Bishop of Fiji, and a
wealthy colonist—Mr. John Campbell by name—has
promised to contribute a sum of i'.10,000 towards the
endowment of the new see.

The land claims in Fiji are no longer confined to Ger-
many, the American Government having made claims
on behalf of some of their subjects who settled in those
islands before they were ceded to Great Britain.
Four fishermen were drowned near Stonehaven, Kin-
cardineshire, on Saturday afternoon. They were re-
turning to the harbour from the fishing-ground when
their boat was swamped. There were six men on
board, and two of these, by clinging to an oar, kept
themselves afloat until another boat of the Stonehaven
fleet arrived to rescue them. .

At five o'clock on Saturday morning, while the
steamer Mary Awning, of Cardiff, was lyng at anchor
off Greenock, she was struck amidships by the coasting
steamer Argus, outward bound, and cut below water
mark. Such was the force of the shock that the Mary
Awning heeled over and sank within ten minutes cf the
collision. The crew managed to scramble on board the
Argus, and were landed at Greenock in the course of
the morning.
Part of a newly-erected block of buildings at
Clarence-street, Sheffield, collapsed on Saturday night,
owing to the foundations being undermined in sinking
the drains. No personal injury was sustained, the
hcrises being unoccupied.
Thomas Barley, 40, collier, was charged before Mr.
Justice Denman on Saturday, at the Leicester Assizes,
with killing his daughter, aged eleven, at Whitwick, on
the sth December. The girl's mother was dead, and
the girl was the eldest in the family, having to look
after her little brothers and sisters. Th 3 prisoner
earned over 30s. per week. but the bulk of his earnings
was spent in drink. The girl had had no bed for
months, it having been sold by the father for drink.
She also suffered greatly from want of food, and ulti-
mately died from heart disease and dropqy, her death
being greatly hastened by want and neglect. At the
post-mortem examination not a trace of food was
found ia her stomach. The Jury faund the prisoner
Guilty, and he was sentenced to twelve months' hard
labour.
An attempt was made on Saturday to wind up the
Limerick Fishery Company, which was formed about
three years since to work the mackerel fisheries of the
West Coast of Ireland, between the estuary of the
Shannon and Smerwick Bay, in Kerry. The undertaking
proved a complete failure.
Mr. Parnell, Nvo was accompanied by Mr. Deasy,
M.P., arrived in Limerick on Saturday on his way to
Miltown Malbay. At Charleville he was presented with
an address from the National League in reply to which he
said that great events had happened in Ireland during
the last few years, but the greatest was perhaps the
recent admission of the people to the franchise. Im-
portant as had been the progress of the country for
some time, it was as nothing to the enormous strides
the Irish nation would make during the next few
years.
Speaking at Liverpool on Saturday, at the opening of
a training college for female students wishing tobecome
teachers in elementary schools, Mr. Trevelyan said the
work in which they were engaged was a decisive
answer to those who assured them that the greatness of
England was passing away. Many people supposed
that the spread of education would diminish the supply
of labour; but he believed that it would „improve its
civility. The time would come when they would have
a perfect array of trained workers with their hearts in
their labour, with the principles of it always before
them, and with the practice at their fingers' ends.
They would have men who would be equal to the artist
and mechanies of ancient Italy, and who would live
under much more stable, healthy, and honourable forms
of society than prevailed in mediteval Italy. If such
a hope was to be realised, it must be on the solid basis
cf elementary education.
The death is announced of Miss Annie Gladstone,
daughter of Sir Thomas Gladstone, and niece of the
Premier. The marriage of the Rev. Stephen E. Glad-
stone, rector of Haw arden, is consequently postponed
for a few days.
Mr. W. E. Forster, M.P., has recovered from his recent
accident.

The African Steamship Company's steamer Nubia,
which sailed from the Mersey on Saturday for the West
Coast of Africa, had amongst her passengers Sir Samuel
Rowe, K.C.M.G. His Excellency is going out to ad-
min ster the Government of the British Sierra Leone
settlement. This is the second time Sir Samuel kas
been appointed Governor of the Sierra Leone district.
The laying of the cable to Lloyd's Signal Station on
the Fastnet Rock has been successfully completed, and
vessels signalling that station can now be telegraphed
to their owners direct from the Fastnet.

A Varna Correspondent says the information he
receives of the state of Macedonia, while it leads him to
disbelieve in organized atrocities, shows that anarchy
prevails, and that no confidence can be placed in state-
ments, petitions, and declarations presented either to
the authorities or to Major Trotter.
On Sunday the Senatorial Elections took place in
France. In Paris M. Spuller, an Opportunist, on whose
behalf the Government strained every nerve, was disas-
trously defeated.
On Saturday the agent of the American vessel Santa
Clara stated that a writ had been served upon the
master of the vessel on behalf of the London and North
Western Railway Company, as owners of the steamer
Admiral Moorsom, for the loss of the latter vessel after
collision with the Santa Clara. The writ was served
late on Friday, and since then an interview has taken
place between the parties. It has been arranged that
if the Santa Clara is ready to proceed to sea before the
question of liability is settled, a bond will be given on
behalf of the owners, so that the vessel's sailing may
not be delayed. The amount set down as damages by
the railway company is £21,000.
Mr. H. C. Drinkwater, described as a company pro-.
moter and dealer in railway plant, of Westminster,
was on Saturday charged on remand at Manchester
with appropriating valuable securities belonging to
Captain Harkness, with forging a cheque for £317, and
obtaining £2500 by false pretences from Captain Hark-
ness and Sir Edmund Waller. He was committed for
trial at the assizes.

Further steps were taken on Saturday to devise
means for raising funds to relieve the condition of the
distressed people in Wolverhampton. A committee,
composed of the Mayor and other influential townsmen,
met in the Town Hall, and, after due deliberation,
decided to organise local relief committees in the most
distressed portions of the borough, and to entrust to
them and the clergymen and ministers of all denomina-
tions the distribution of tickets for food, kc. The
police were also empowered to obtain the names and
addresses of all the men who apply for relief, and hand
them to the committee. During the day about fifty
men, chiefly ironworkers, assembled in front of the Town
Hall, but upon learning that nothing could then be done
for them they quietly dispersed. The Conservative
Club has decided to open the soup kitchen which was
found so serviceable in 1878-9.

It is stated that, as compared with last year's gait,
an additional £15,000 is to be spent on labour in Ports-
mouth Dockyard during the next financial year. This
will enable the Imperieuse, barbette ship, 7390 tons,
and the Edinburgh, stebl armour turret ship, 9150 tons,
to be completed by December next, which is six mouths
.earlier than was originally intended. The programme
for the next financial year will also include the laying
down of a belted cruiser, to be an improvement on the
Thames, Severn, and Mersey, now constructing. Orders
have also been received for the armour-platcd turret
ship Cyclops, 3480 tons, to be immediately eornplet, d
for service, and it is estimated that the work cau he
effected in a few wedrs.

The Prince of Wales, M.W. Grand Master of the
United Grand Lodge of Freemasons, has appointed
80. T. W. Tew, Prov. Grand Master of West York-
shire, in place of Bro. Sir Henry Edwards, Bart., wbo
recently resigned; and Bro. Sir Hedworth Williamson,
Bart., Prov. G. Master for Durham, in succession to the
late Marquis of Londonderry.—" The Freemason."
The anniversary of the birthday of the poet Burns
was celebrated at Oxford on Monday night by a dinner
in the Council-chamber, at which Mr. O. A. Lyffe, the
Liberal candidate for the representation of the city,
presided. There was a large and representative com-
pany of Scotehmen of the university, city, and county.
Appropriate toasts were proposed, and a piper of the
79th Highlanders played several national airs. Con-
sequent upon recent events the whole company, at the
request of the chairman, sang the National Anthem. _ . _ _ _ _ _ _

,
information reached Sheffield on Monday night of
an attempt to wreck a market train on the Midland
Railway between Chesterfield and Staveley. An iron
railway chain was found fastened upon the outside rail.
It was observed by a man named Montgomery, who
raised an alarm in time to have the market train
stopped, otherwise it would probably have been pre-
cipitated over an embankment.
John MuHoney was brought up on remand on Mon-
day at the London Mansion House, and committed for
trial on the charge of having forged and uttered a re-
quest for a blank cheque-book from the Greenwich
branch of the London and County Bank. He had filled
up some of these and sent his children to change them
at public-houses.
On Monday Mr. Justice Mathew gave judgment in
the case of "Burrs v. Ricardo," in which Mr. Burra
and others claimed from Messrs. Ricardo and Co. bonds
of the value of about £lO,OOO, which defendants stated
had been pledged to them as security by Thomas and
Sons, who had since suspended, their partner Blackley
having absconded. The judge decided that the defen-
dants had acted within their rights, and found for them,
but staved execution to allow of an appeal.