The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1883-06-16 00:00:00

A telegram from Setubal announoes that an explo-
sion has occurred on board a tug on the Sadoa River,
ligreby three persous.w_ere killed and 16 injured.
Three lads, while bathing at Nuneham Lock, near
Oxford,lon "SitlirditY 'evening, -were drowned. They
are supposed to have got into one of the deep holes
that abound in the neighbourhood.

The final interment of the remains of John Howard
Payne, the author of " Home, Sweet Home," has
taken place at Oakhill Cemetery, near Washington,
with imposing ceremonies. It was witnessed by a vast
throng)of all ranks- In reiety. '
.. telegram froM'Aan Francisco states that the solar
eclipse on the 6th ult. was very successfully observed
by the English, American, and Gontinental astrono•
.3ners stationed on Caroline Island, the sky being bean.
tifully clear at the time.

Last week's receipts. of cotton at all United States

ferft.2s,ooo bales; since Ist September, 5,831,000
iaies. Week's exportato Great Britain, 40,000 bales ;
to the Continent, 13,000 bales ; total since let Sep-
tember, 4,413,000 bales. Stock at all ports, 462,000

Shortly after five o'clock on Saturday, a fire broke
out in the Gaiety Theatre of Varieties, Manchester,
•twd in an almost incredibly short time the whole
structure was completely destroyed.
The Oxford Commemoration festivities commenoed
on Tuesday, when the Duke and Duchess of Albany
arrived, and his Royal Highness was installed Grand
Superintendent of Freemasons for Oxfordshire.

The London Gac.,ette of the Bth inst. contained a
notification that his Royal Highness the Prince of
Wales had been appointed to the honorary coloneloy
of the 3rd Glamorganshire Rifle Volunteers, from the
9th of June, 1883.

Mr. Givan, M.P., has accepted the office of Crown
Solicitor for the counties of Kildare and Meath, and
a vacancy is thus created in the representation of
county Monaghan, for which Mr. Givan has sat since
the last general election.

On Monday a fire broke out in Messrs. Isaac Mars-
den and Co.'s wholesale furniture warehouse, Cable.
street, Manchester, and before the firemen could sub-
due the flames the whole building was consumed. A
church adjoining the building had a narrow escape.
A telegram from Paris says that while a passenger
train was standing in the Buttes Chaumont Tunnel,
on the Ceinture Railway, on Sunday, it was rua
into by a goods train. Five persons were seriously
Injured.

The Priedburg arrived at Queenstown on Sunday
from Junin. The captain reports that on the sth of
March off Cape Horn he shipped a sea, which swept
away the boats, brilge, standard compass, bulwarks,
and washed three men overboard, who were lost,

It has been unanimously decided, at a large meeting
at Coventry, tl revive the "Lady Godiva " pageant
on the August Bank Holiday. The hat celebration
six years ago was a great success, and the forthcoming
procession promises to be conducted with still more
elaboration and energy.

A Civil List pension of 1-70 per annum has beers
conferred on Mrs. Scott Russell, the widow of the
eminent engineer and inventor, in consideration of her
late husband's services to the cadence of naval
architecture.

The members of the Royal Commission on Technical
Instruction spent last week in Dublin in pursuance of
their inquiry with especial relation to the educational
and industrial needs of Ireland.
No full particulars have yet been received regarding
the damage occasioned by the recent floods in Caohar,
India, but it is said to be much less than at one time
seemed probable. In one portion of the district twenty
persons and 2,000 cattle were drowned.
We (Standard) hear that all idea of raising the
question of Disestablishment in Scotland this Session
has now been given up.
The total number of Public! Bills introduced into
Parliament during the present Session is 178. Of these
47 were initiated by the Government and 131 are to be
credited to the enterprise of private members.

A knighthood has been offered to Alderman W. B.
Forwood, in commemoration of the opening of the
North Dock system at Liverpool by his Royal High-
ness the Prince of Wales during Mr. Forwood's
mayoralty, and the honour has been acoepted,

A Renter's telegram, dated Shanghai, June 7,
states : "The following steamships have left
Wooaung with new season's teas.—The Massalia with
1,910,00t)lb , and Loudoun Coale with 2,680,0001 b."
In a communication to the Irkutsk branch of the
Russian Geographical Society it is stated that in 1880
and 1881 no fewer than nine tigers were killed on the
small space of 35 miles long, on the western coast of
the Bey of Amur; and at the head of this bay five
tigers were perceived at one time.

A telegram from Santini says that several stnbbprnly
contested engagements have occurred in the Castrati
bills between the mountaineers and the Turkish
troops sent against them. The losses on both sides were
considerable.

Telegrams from Batavia states that Mount Karang,
in the Straits of Sunda, is in full eruption, The
shocks are heard several hundred miles away. It is
200 years since the t eruption of this volcano. The
mountain is situated on the island of Krakatoa, near
Anjer, in the Straits of Sunda.

"Last Saturday grass mowing at Dulwich and in other
districts in Surrey was oommenced. The crops, though
late, cut out a heavy swath of grass, full of foliage, and
with tine weather for the operation the hay harvest
pm'. hes favourably. The clover crops are good.

On Saturday evening an inquest was held at Tor.
worth, near Retford, on the body of a farmer named
Newcome. It was shown that the deceased in his
garden was stung on the forehead by a bee, and that
he died almost immediately from the effects of the
injury.

_
The total weight of dynamite required for the work
of the proposed Isthmus of Corinth Canal will, it is
calculated, amount to 2,500,0001 b. The undertaking
is expeted to ;ast four years, and to cost about
£1,100,000. The canal will be 6,300 metres in length,
twenty-two in breadth, and eight in depth,

An Odessa telegram states that the plague of locust.
around Aleschki, in the Government of Taurida,
assuming alarming proportions. The young crops
are entirely disappearing before the frightful ravages
of these vermin. Two battalions of infantry have
jest been despatched from Cherson to assist in their
destruction.

The other day a grain elevator at Mil maukee, Wie-
consin, burst under the pressure of the stored wheat
within, a large quantity of which slid into the water.
Seven men dozing in the shadow of the building were
buried under the ruins.

Lord Tollemache, in order to test the value of
ensilage as a cattle food, particularly for Cheshire
milking stock during winter, has oenstructed three
capacious silos at Peckforton. The crops to be utilized
will first be chopped small, and then tipped into the
silo with heavy snperincumbent weights to ezelude
air.

The stores for the Greeley Arctic Relief Expedition
are now being loaded at New York, for shipment to
St. John's, whence the steamer 'rotes will take them
to Lady Franklin Bay. Stores suffieient for one year
are to be sent, with a oompleW outfit of arms, am-
munition, sledges, and tents, and also a house foe
winter quarters,
On Monday, while a squad of workmen were en-
gaged asphalting the footpath alongside the rails on
the bridge crossing the Clyde near the St. Enoch's
Station, Glasgow, a train dashed up. The engine
-
driver whistled repeatedly, and three of the asphalters
at once left the line, but two others who failed to
escape in time were knocked down and run over. One
of them was killed on the spot, and the other had his
skull fractured and one of his legs broken.
The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardena,
Regent's•park, London, during last week included two
pig-tailed monkeys, from Sarawak, presented by his
Highness the Rajah of Sarawak; an Egyptian oat
from India, presented by Mr. W. R. Glyn Griffiths ;
three common kingfighers, British, presented by Mr.
Frederic Elooghton ; a Barbary ape, from North
Afriea, four Elliot's pheasante, from China, eve
Ceylon terrapins, from Ceylon, four Bringoma River
turtle, from India, four Lacertine snakes, a horsesho•
snake, a pleurodele newt, south European, a red-
legged partridge, European, deposited; a buffon's
tonracou, from West Africa; two bronze-winged
parrots, from South Amerioa, two varied hemipodes
from Australia, two American sicking, from North
America, two black larks, from Siberia, and a Gerestea
vier, from Egypt, purchased.