The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-04-01 00:00:00

EPITOME .OF NEWS.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

It is salel that the revenue will exceed the estimate
made of it last, year by about a million and a half sterling.

At a temperance meeting in Warrington on Monday
night, the Rev. J. W. Bardsley stated, "on good authority,'
that grocers' Menges were about to be withdrawn.

What section do dogs and rabbits object to be placed
in ?—Vivisection. --Fun.

Advices from Berlin announce that the proposed
Interview between the Emperor William and her Majesty
Queen Victoria is expected to take place at Baden-Baden on
the 7th of April.

Artists of all nations who may be desirous of under-
taking the execution of the proposed statue of Lord Byron
are invited to send sketches of their designs with full
descriptive particulars to the hon. secretary of the Byron
Memorial Committee.

The amotuit of barley imported into this country
last year was, according to a parliamentary return issued on
Wednesday, equivaLent to 3,093,853 quarters Duty was paid
on 63,139,629 bushels to the amount of £7,884,378.

It appears from a return issued on Wednesday that
the grobs total of expenditure upon judicial work in Ensdand in
the year 1872.3 was £1,067,621, and the net total £167,477, as
compared with £203,677 gross, and £133,695 net total, in Ire-
land.

On Friday the carcass of a whale stranded on the
beach at Granton several days ago was sold by auction by
the Receiver of Wrecks The carcass was purchased for the
Museum of Science and Art, Edinburgh, for £9 10s.
The Controller and Auditor-General, reporting to the
House of Commons the audit of the post-office telegraphs
capital account for the year ending the 31st of March, 1875,
states that the expenditure of capital as allowed down to the
close of that year amounted to £9,065,629.
A meeting of manufacturers held in the rooms of the
Society of Art, London, on Tuesday night, adopted a resolu-
tion to the effect that all plant and machinery should be
exempted from parochial assessment by the new Valuation
Rill, except in such cases where they form part of and pass
with the freehold.
The Chester Courant states that the former seat of
the late "Maids of Llangollen," Plasnewydd, is about to be
sold by auction. The mansion, richly embellished with old
oak carvings and curiously stained glass windows, has always
been one of the chief objects of interest for the visitors to
Llangollen.
There is a complaint about the scarcity of milk in
London. It is, in fact, easily explained The demand of
course continually increases with the increase of population,
but then there is less "milk" than formerly because it is
now so very rarely adulterated. When milk used to be
diluted with water to the extent of 25 per sent., we had 25
per cent. mere "milk.
The death of Captain John Oliver at the age of 102
years is reported by the secretary of the Liverpool Mercantile
Marine Service Association, the deceased having been a pen-
sioner on the Aged Seamen's Fund in connection with that
body. Ile fought at Trafalgar under Nelson, and had been
seventy years at sea.

A. Times' telegram says that the Nova Scotian brig
Asa Porter was wrecked near Portsmouth, New Hampshire,
on Sunday, the first mate being the only survivor of the crew
of nine men. The bark Magdala, of Liverpool, for Pasca-
goula, was wrecked on March 18, the place not being stated.
The mate and three seamen were drowned.

The floods caused by the recent rains in America
have stopped mills at Lawrence, Massachusetts, and 6,000
operatives are consequently idle The floods caused damage
to the extent of 350,000 dols. at Clifton, Massachusetts. Five
men were drowned at Taftsville, Connecticut, while attemp-
ting to repair a milldam

The Bishop of Manchester consecrated on Saturday
a church at Haughton Green, near Denton. In the course
of an address to the congregation, his lordship spoke of the
extent and nature of the work in which he had been engaged
since he was appointed to the diocese. In tsix years he bad
conrecrated fifty new churches.
Extensive floods have been caused in Massachusetts,
C nnecticut, and Rhode Island, by the heavy rain which fell
last week, and great damage has been done to the mills and
bridges, as well as to various portions of the railway lines.
Professor Mackie, at the dinner of the Glasgow
Celtid ih.,ctety, said that the true Highlander was not the
fellow whose name began with Mae, nor the fellow who re-
joiced in a kilt, nor the fellow with a Highland demis or
Highland legs, but the man whose soul was iuspired with
Ilighlaad memories and association
A telegram from New York says that on Sunday
afternoon the steamer Great Western, from the Mediter-
ranean, came into collision with a barque off Long Island,
and bee une a comptete wreck. The crew were saved, and
therewe sae!
eggdd ti h
n,op, a,ee .g rse r
of n.
ittrade. t board,
ea.
She
s the vessel during
:otons,
the
and
wtie
r w
the vessel and cargo were valued at 300,C00 dollars.
While Edward Watts, gamekeeper at S'rcquhan,
Dunscore, Dumfriesshire, was out on Wednesday shooting
rabbits In a plantation, accompanied by George Hodgson, an
engineer, who had been working at a sawmill engine in the
neighbourhood, the latter carried Watts' gun, and his foot
catching its the brushwood, he fell, and the piece, which was
loaded, went off, it contents entering the body of the game-
keeper, who was in front. Watts bas since died from the
injuries.—Seeternan.
A conference of poor-law guardians has been held
at the instance of the Leeds board, for the 'purpose of con-
sidering the Education Act' of 1873 and its effect upon
pauperism. Resolutions were adopted expressing an opinion
that hardship was inflicted upon parents by the provision
of the act which made the continuance of out-relief dependent
upon the cducatt.n of their children between the ages of five
and thirteen; and that the enforcing of attendance of such
children at school t-hould be vested in school boards.
' Considerable delay in the traffi3 on the Midland
Railway at S'•( ftlAd was caused on Monday night by a train
getting cif the tails in a tunnel just outside the station. The
train was an empty ~11e, aid had gone into the tunnel for
the purpose of snuntshg. On its way back the hind carriage
struck the point, and left the rails. Other carriages did the
tame, and both Pins were blocked for considerably over an
hour.
"An inhavitant of Symphorien, near La Haye-du-
Pnit, in the Department of the Manche, has dug out of his
garden a long pitcher of an antique pattern, containitnt
several thousand itomau coins. These pieces are mostly of
Copper or brass, but there are some of a white tint, which
ev,dently contain a quantity of silver. They rt,e in a good
state of preservation, and exidnit the busts of several of the
Ifirst Ronaan Consul& The discovery seems to countenance
the belief that there was a Roman station at this point—pro-
bably an outpost of the famous camp of Moncastre."—Paris
Correspondent of the Daily Telegraph..