The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-01-05 00:00:00

THE NEW YEAR.

The Times (in a leader, on Tuesday) remarks that
many a mind will seek relief from the monotonous
strain of the last few months' anxiety in a kind of un-
conscious hope that the year 1878 will bring some
light into the gloomy prospect around us, and disperse
in some way the dark clouds which hang over the
East and over Europe. But the first principle of a
sound statesmanship is to have a settled conviction
that there are no such thing as New Years in national
and political affairs; that there is a settled course of
development and movement in progress, and that the
wisest man is he who discerns it the soonest and accom-
modates himself to it the most unreservedly. It does
not, for instance, lie at this moment either with the
Emperor of Russia or the Sultan of Turkey or Great
Britain, or even Prince Bismarck, to decide what, on
the whole, shall be the solution of the Eastern Ques-
tion. That solution is being worked out by complex
iforces—sympathies, capacities, creeds, characters—
which for centuries have been slowly elaborating the
destined result. A statesman in determining his
course will consequently be far more occupied with old
years than with new. He will endeavour to discover
what is the dominant and settled tendency of political
affairs on a large scale, and what are the established
forces to which he has to adjust himself. If he sees
that certain races and nationalities have persistently
for centuries, amid whatever disadvantages or dis-
qualifications, been, so to speak, growing upon
their neighbours and acquiring emancipation from a,
former thraldom, he will make up his mind that an in-
fluence is at work for this end against which it is of no
avail obstinately to struggle. The feeling of England,
as of any generous nation, at this moment must be one
of hope that the terrible lessons of' this year may be
learned by Turkey in time to save a brave people from
something like annihilation. But it will be of no
avail for them to think that something will happen in
the New Year which has not, in substance, happened
in the old.

There were 43 British and foreign wrecks reported
during the past week, representing a gross tonnage of
about 11,300 tons, approximately valued at £293,000, for
vessels and cargoes, including British property £192,500.
This brings up the total for the year to 1,852 wrecks, being
an inlrease of 45 as compared with the corresponding week
of 1876. About one-half were laden with coals and timber;
12 were hi,st on the coasts of the British Isles, and no less
than 12 were lost off the coasts of Jutland and Norway
(chiefly Norwegian, eight alone being wrecked at Lemvig and
Thisted), four by collision, three lost off North America, two
in the West Indies, two abandoned at sea, two lost off the
French and Dutch coasts, one off Greece, one at the Cape,
one at Madeira, one in the China seas, one foundered at sea,
and one burnt in the East Indies. About 27 lives were lost.

THE DISTRESS IN SOUTH WALES.
The Times of Wednesday publiblicd the following, from
their Correspondent at Cardiff :
"During the strike and lock-out of 1874 an appeal
was made to the country to aid in relieving the distress
which was then prevailing The destitution of the
colliers now is greater and more widespread. Then,
prior to the strike, coal had been realizing a high
price, wages were good, and some of the more
thrifty had laid by a small sum of money,
and they were thus able to keep off the destitution
for a time. Since the beginning of 1875 coal has been
gradually, but continuously falling in price, and the
wages of the collier began, when the award was con-
cluded, at the minimum to which by that award they
could fall. This rate of wages continued up to the close
of 1877. After some months, when the demand for
coal fell off, the collieries began working short time,
so that, for the last two years, the collier has been
getting gradually poorer. His whole earnings when
at work full time he required for supplying himself and
his family with food, and the clothes that ought to
have been renewed have been gradually falling away
into rags. The children's shoes are worn out and can-
not be replaced with new ones, and thus he and his
family are not only being pinched with hunger, but
they are also suffering from the cold. The ithondda
Valley is the great centre from which the South Wales
steam coal is supplied to the mat ket. The mountains
on each side contain rich seams of coal, and for eight
miles along both banks of the river every foot of ground
is covered with collieries, which when in full swing, give
support to about 30,000 people, who live in clusters
round each colliery. At Treherbert, which is at the
extremity of the valley, a soup-kitchen has been
opened, a relief committee formed, to which Lord
Aberdare has handsomely contributed, and the wants
of the most urgent cases are being met; but for the
whole distance below, from Treherbert to Pontypridd,
which is almost one continuous town, no organized
system of relief has yet been established. A short
distance below Treherbert is the populous village of
Treorchy, situated in the midst of several large
colleries Trcorchy, Abergorkey, Tylacoch-park,
Dare, and other colleries belonging to the Ocean
Company and others. None of these colleries have,
I am told, been at work more than about two days
a week for some time, and each would give employ-
ment to nearly 500 men. a:ifore the reduction which
has now been conceded by the collier, he would,
in favourable circumstances, and with these hours of
labour, earn about £2 a month. If he had to encounter
faults, or the coal was difficult to get, he would not
earn so much. He lives in a cottage which belongs to
the colliery owner, and the rent for these cottages is
usually, including rates, 13s, a month. At the end of
a fortnight he draws perhaps half his wages, and at
the end of the month the balance is paid to him, or
rather the amount that was due to him on the previous
Saturday, a week's wages being always retained by
the employer. When the balance is paid the 13s. for
the rent is deducted, the weekly contribution to the
doctor, and the value of the coal which he has taken
home from the colliery for his own use and for which he
is charged at the rate of Os. or 6s. 6d. per ton. After
these reductions are made the collier has very little
spare cash to take home to his family, and as the
monthly system of payments prevails everywhere, he is
invariably in debt to the grocer, probably also to the
publican, and hundreds of men with wives and five or
six children have had for months to live on 55., Os., or
7s. a week. The debts to the tradesmen have accu-
mulated so much that nothing, in many instances,
can be obtained unless the money is tendered for it.
In almost every colliery village the number of public-
houses is large, and when there is no fire in the grate
at home the cheerful fire in the publican's kitchen is a
sore temptation to the collier, and a small debt to the
publican may still further reduce the cash he has taken
from the colliery. Whatever business these persons
may have done in the good times they certainly do
.not seem to be doing much now. This state of things
exists more or less among the great bulk of the
populAion in the valley, and in other districts where
collieries are working shorter time the distress must
be greater."

The Daily News of Wednesday publishes a letter from
Merthyr Tydvil, written by their Special Correspondent
In describing the existing distress in South Wales, he says
that the stoppage of one after another of the great iron-
works means simply and literally starvation. "It is not,"
he tells us, "a new sensation for the people, for there are
thousands of families who have not had a full week's tood
since the miners went out in January, 1873. Any money
they might have put by in the times Of prosperity began to
melt then, and its existence is now a mere tradition, and
for fully three years men and women have been existing
rather than living, piciiing up just enough to keep body and
soul together."— The following is an extract from the Corre-
spondent's letter : -

I saw something of home life in Merthyr in the
course of a stroll this afternoon through the quarters
of the town where the colliers chiefly congregate.
For the most part they live in houses containing
two rooms, and in nine cases out of ten seem tube
grossly overcrowded. The number of children in a
court or street is simply appalling when one reflects
that there is nothing for them to eat. They swarm on
the pavements, stand in groups in the entrances of the
courts, and dart out from all the streets which con-
verge on the principal thoroughfares; and yet if one
looks in at any of the open doors he is sure to find
from two to eight miserable little things crouching
round the miserable fire or sitting silent and smileless
on the bare floor. There is plenty of house-room for
most of the cottages are furnished almost exclusively
with children, a small three-legged table, and a broken
chair making up the complement. l'hey are the
quietest street children I ever saw, and the saddest.
To-day the weather is comparatively mild, but there
is a great deal of snow and frost due before the spring,
and few of the little girls I saw this morning have
anything more to meet them in than a thin dress and
a single underskirt. Boots and shoes of course are
long since worn out, and as there is no money to
get more with, they must needs stand about in
the mud in their bare feet. If they ever grumbled
or fretted under their lot they have got past that
stage now. To get up in the morning with the
prospect of sharing with seven or eight brothers
and sisters a piece of dry bread, barely enough for
one, and then to hang about in the cold till later on in
the day there is more bread to share, has, in course of
time, come to be regarded by them as the normal con-
dition of life. There are, it should be told, oppor-
tunities now and then of getting a bit of relish in the
shape of a handful of corn, some potatoes, or even a
bone, which has a cherished, though now remote con-
neotion with the otherwise unheard-of luxury of meat;
for clusters of ragged pallid children may after any
meal hour be seen prowling about the main street. The
kindness of heart which reigns in Merthyr is the only
bright spot on the gloomy picture. I was talking this
afternoon to a woman who had four children—four,that
is, by adopting the ordinary mode of enumeration, for
there was not flesh and blood in the family to make a
decent-sized child. Her husband had had casual work
throughout the whole of last year, and day by day she
had fought with the wolf at the door. Christmas,
which to many is a time of merriment and good cheer,
has been to Merthyr a season of increased privation
by reason of the further extension of slack time. It
has been as the proverbial last straw, and it had
nearly broken the back of this haggard woman. No
one in the house had broken their fast up to three
o'clock yesterday afternoon, when an old woman,
who lived in almost equal wretchedness four
doors off, came in and gave her sixpence.
The aged benefactor was now paying a morning
call, and stood in a corner of the room with her
arms tightly folded in her apron. She was herself
half famished, having had no breakfast, but her "old
man," who had been out of work for two years, had
gone out early, and might bring something home. In
the meantime her neighbour and the four children had
had a loaf of bread, and had even indulged in the
luxury of "a ha'p'orth of tea." How many pots a
halfpennyworth of tea suffices for I don't know, or
what registered weight the grocer uses in supplying
the order • but "a ha'p'orth of tea" is the purchase
in the neighbourhood, and is, of course, only indulged
in on special occasions

The Correspondent, after describing some of the scenes of
misery he had witnessed, proceeds :

I spent some hours to-day in this quarter of the
town, and have printed on my memory for ever,
I think, a score of pictures of infinite sadness.
There is one little child standing by a chair, with
her bare feet among the cinders and ashes of
the fenderless grate. I suppose she is about two
years of age, but she might be anything, as far
as expression of the face would assist one to guess.
She is not dead, for she stands by herself, and her
fingers slowly move about a bit of turnip which
they enclose, but her face is ghastly white and her
eyes, which are wide open and staring with A far-
away look through the open door upon the muddy
street, take no note of anything that passes immedi-
ately before them. I suppose she has been well cared
for at some time, for from amongst her scanty rags
peeps forth p‘rt of her bodice of light blue, which looks
almost pretty in contrast with her pallid face and
beautiful light hair. The furniture of the room con-
sists of the chair against which she stands and a three-
legged table. There is a portion of a loaf on the table,
also a broken marmalade jar full of some dark
liquid, in which a crust is soaking, the bowl of a
brass spoon, and a large dish of yellow ware with
about a tablespoonful of sugar at the bottom of
it. On the small window-ledge are a half eaten
turnip and a woman's shawl. A flight of steps leads
to an upper room, the space under the steps being
used as a coal cellar when there is any coal. To-day
there is none worth speaking of, and I had plenty of
time to note all this before the mother of the child
came in. She was quite a young thine., not more than
twenty. She and the child lived with her father, who
was working at Dowlais, and earning is. 9d. per
day, when he was fortunate enough to get three
hours' work. He left at half-past four in the morn-
ing, and she lay awake half the night to call him,
for fear he should miss a turn. Re walked out to
his work a distance of three miles, taking with him for
sole sustenance a slice of bread, and sometimes a piece
of turnip. When he came home he had more bread,
and sometimes, on pay days, he has a halfpenny
bloater. This is what he does and how he lives from
day to day; and as he has partial work, he and his
household are rather favourable specimens of the
collier whom New Year's-day finds in these parts of
the world.

, Attention is drawn by the Registrar-General to the
fact that the deaths from small-pox in London which had
been 31 in each of the two previous weeks, were 29 last week
of which 13 occurred in the Metropolitan Asylum Hospitals,
2 in the Highgate Hospital, one in the London Hospital, and
13 in private dwelling-houses.

Among the circles of Royalty there have died since
the close of 1876 the following exalted personages :—The
ex-Queens Dowager Maria and Amelia of Saxony; the
Princess Marie, wife of Prince Charles Frederick of Prussia;
the Queen of the Netherlands: the Grand Duke Louis of
Hesse, and also Prince Charles of Hesse, father of Prince
Louis of Hesse; the infant Grand Duke Alexander, giand-
son of the Emperor of Russia; Queen Pornare, of Tahiti;
the Prince of Hawaii; the Prince Gustave Wasa, of Holstein;
the Princess Marie, Duchesse d'Aosta ; the Queen Sophie,
of WUrtemberg ; the Due Eugene, of Wtirtemburg ;
and the Prince Sergius, Due de Leuchtenburg.--The list
of peers deceased runs as follows :—Viscount Gage, the
Earl of Bandon, Lord Clifford, the Earl of St. Germans,
Viscount Canterbury, Lord Boston, Lord Erskine, the Earl of
Shrewsbury, the Marquis of Northampton, the Earl of
Lindsey, Lord Grantley, Viscount Guillamore, Lord Headley,
Lord Ongley, Lord Middleton, the Earl of Orkney, and Lord
Sudeley. Of the above-mentioned peerages, one only—
namely, that of Lord Oirgley, has become extmct.— The Times
Obituary for 1877,