The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-08-24 00:00:00

HOME, FOREIGN, AND COLONIAL.

ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY.-Sir Erskine May—Sir
Erskine must get better. Neither the House of Com-
mons nor the Country can afford to lose him.—Punch.

INFANT MORTALITY IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA.—A paper
upon the excessive mortality amongst infants in South
Australia, prepared by the Victorian Government
statist, Mr. Hayter, and read recently before the
Philosophical Society of South Australia, shows that
the mortality among infants in South Australia is pro-
portionately far greater than that of any other country
and that the average annual death•rate amounts to
175 to every 1,000 births. The causes are stated to be
defective drainage, drunkenness, high temperature,
contagious diseases, premature births, early marriages,
improper feeding, and the intemperance of parents.—
Sanitary Record.
A MIRACLE IN INDIA.—A. correspondent sends to
the Jaffna Catholic Guardian (Ceylon) the following
account of a " miracle " which occurred there on the
4th inst., on the occasion of the Feast of St. Sebastian,
which is deserving of mention :—" A deaf mute, born
of non• Catholic parents at Manippay, a close relative
of the Kachcherri shroff, and about 12 years of age,
after having been allowed to remain for a couple of
how% tied to the cross erected in front of the celebrated
shrine, was able to hear and to repeat the word father,
mother, &c., for the first time in her life. The parents
of the girl, overjoyed at the circumstance, begged the
Rev. Fr. Ghilini to administer to her the sacrament of
baptism, which was performed in a most imposing
manner. I relate the fact as I saw it. Let sceptics
and scoffers say what they like. There is no denying
a fact attested by hundreds of eyes and ears."—Times
of India.

A HINT ABOUT THE POTATO DIBEASE.—Mr. Walter
Maynard has given the following as a practical test to
check disease in potatoes :—As soon as the disease
struck the leaves of the potatoes' the crop was tested
in three different ways, thus, the first bunch of stalks
were left to sicken and die—the second cut off close to
the earth, and the third pulled up by putting the stalk
between the feet and leaving the potatoes in the
ground. The effect produced was, that those un-
touched were quite three-quarters diseased; those cut,
about one-third diseased; and those with the stalks
pulled were quite sound. But of course no further
growth takes place after the lungs are removed. I
And
potatoes, than large and diseased.

NEW ACT TO IMPROVE AND PROTECT COMMONS.—
On Tuesday was issued an Act of Parliament to amend
the law respecting the expense of regulating cornmous,
of some public importance. The Inclosure Commis-
sioners may insert in a provisional order for the regu-
lation of a common a proviso to raise money by the
sale of a portion of the common. The Commissioners
are further empowered to raise money by such sale for
the improvement and protection of the common. A.
provision may be inserted in the order for the invest-
ment of the proceeds towards the improvement or pro-
tection of the commons. The Commissioners may, if
they think fit, specify in any provisional order for the
regulation of a common as one of the terms and condi-
tions of the regulation, the appropriation of an allot-
ment for the labouring poor, and the provisions of the
Inclosure Acts, 1845 to 1876, with respect to such allot-
ments made upon the inclosure of a common, shall
apply to any such allotment made on the regulations
of a common.
WONDERFUL SAGACITY OF A DOG.—The other day
a curious little incident occurred on the North British
Railway, giving a striking instance of the sagacity
sometimes displayed by dogs. Shortly before the
arrival of the half-past four train leaving Edinburgh
for Queensferry, a wise-looking black-and-tan collie
dog came on to the platform at the Haymarket, where
it stood for some time, during which a west-going
train stopped and took in passengers, until the Queens.
ferry train came up, when, watching its opportunity,
it slipped in at the open door of a third-class carriage,
in which were seated some ladies and gentlemen, who,
seeing that the dog had no owner endeavoured to turn
it out, but without success, the dog retreating into a
corner under a seat, and resisting every attempt. At
the other stations on the line these attempts were re-
peated, but the dog stuck to its post until Kirliston was
passed, when it approached one of the doors of the
carriage, and sat waiting until the door was opened at
Dalmeny Station; then with a bound it cleared the
carriage, and made off at full speed. It had evidently
travelled by the same route before, and having lost its
master in Edinburgh had taken this method of getting
home.

BOSNIANS AND TlMM—Begs and Beggars.—Punch.

THE BISHOP OF HEREFORD ON SUNDAY SCHOOLS.—
At a meeting of the Herefordshire Church of England
Sunday School Teachers' Association at Hereford, the
Bishop of Hereford said that if ever there was a time
when Sunday schools were a great blessing or greatly
needed it was now. He was only representing a feeling
that was largely shared in by the laity as well as the
clergy, that however excellent board schools might be
In their way they were not the schools they liked to
see. In many instances they did impart most excellent
secular instruction, and he was thankful that in many
cases teachers of Board schools were anxious about the
religious instruction of their scholars. But that was
not so in all, and they, as members of the Church of
England, were by law prohibited from teaching dia.
tinctive dectrines in Board schools. Therefore the
Sunday school, where they had the opportunity of
impressing their children with the deep blessings that
they themselves appreciated so highly must be taken
advantage of, and they must use their opportunity to
make the most of it from week to week.
THE EXPORT OF TRUFFLES FROM FRANCE.—The
cultivation and export of truffles from France, accord.
big to some recently published agricultural statistics
has assumed almost colossal dimensions within the

last few years, and at the present daie forms a very
important source of the country's revenue. According
to the Prager Agricultural Gazette, the export of
truffles, after a steady increase since the year 1872,
amounted to already 7,138,000 francs in the year
1875, and rose to the enormous sum of 13,567,000
francs in 1877. The same year's export to England
amounted to 128,000; to Belgium, 27,156; Germany,
50,000; to divers other countries, 27,421 kilogrammes.
The total production of the past year is estimated at a
value of twenty millions of francs. The best truffles,
the renowned perigord, are produced in the Dordogne
Department.—" Irene," in Land and Water.
PRACTICAL ARITHMETIC. —When is a nursemaid

with twins like a scli-O;k:OY at his sums ?—When she
"sets down" one and carries one !—Judy.
SNAKES ON THE INCREASE.—Is this summer an un-
I usually favourable one to these reptiles? for I have
seen more snakes since my return to Hampshire, a
fortnight ago, than I ever before met with in any
place during the course of a whole summer. Five
were killed yesterday morning in the public road ad-
joining this house, and one came to an untimely end
at my son's hands this morning. The garden, lam
assured, is full of "the horrid.things." There is a
very large one in a strawberry bed, so that the maids
are " nervous " about picking fruit; but I have asked
that this beautiful creature's life may be spared, as it
eats the slugs which would otherwise take all the
strawberries. . . . A lady staying here came upon a
(to her) novel sight, a number of snakes twisting and
wriggling about all in a sort of knot on a sunny bank
by the road-side. Could they have been a family
party—a mamma snake and her young—or is there
any truth in the Welsh belief that snakes meet in
large numbers. The country people say that they
form by hissing the famed qleinau Ncideveth. The
clever author of "Our Reptiles," says that vipers
often hybernate in companies, several individuals
together intertwined; but the party seen by Miss—
were snakes, and it was on a very warm summer's day.
She was frightened, and hurried home immediately,
and I went out when she told me what she had seen to
look for them; but they were gone, and there was
not the slightest trace of even a " snake's-stone " to be
found, How curious the superstitions respecting these
stones are! Ido not, of course, believe in any of the
legends respecting them, or the way in which they are
produced; but I feel certain Miss and others of
my friends have seen a gathering of snakes, for they
are exceedingly truthful persons, and not all given to
romance in any form.—" H.." in Land and Water.

minutes.