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

SINGULAR FRIENDLY SOCIZIT cABE.

A curious case in connection with Friendly
Societies was decided on Tuesday at the Bristol
County Court. A man and his wife, relatives of a
man who had died, brought an action to recover
money which they had paid to the Royal Liver
Society of Liverpool and the Prudential Association
of London. It appeared that the deceased lodged
with plaintiffs, and that he fell into arrears in pay-
ment for his board and lodging. In order to recoup
the plaintiffs he-agreed to insure his life in the Royal
Liver Society. This was done, and policies were
taken out in the two societies. The plaintiffs
alleged that this was done with the full knowledge
of the deceased, and that they paid the premiums.
The deceased made a will in their favour, but sub-
aequently made another in favour of his nephew, who
now disputed the claim. The judge gave a verdict in
favour of the plaintiffs. There were eight or nine
policies on which the claims were made.

A Scotch Episcopal Bishop visited a certain rector
in Buffalo, who is a strict teetotaler. Alluding to his
visit some weeks afterwards, the bishop said: "They
were all good people, and mostlind, I am sate; but
they gave me water to drink at the table and um
going to bed, as if I had been a horse."

TIIB BRITISH ASSOCIATION IN
CANADA.
On Tuesday evening, in the rooms of the Society of
Arts —General Sir J. EL Lefroy presiding—Mr.
Stephen Bourne, her Majesty's Customs, read a paper
entitled" With the British Association to the Cana-
dian North-West." In the course of his paper Mr.
Bourne said the visit of the association to Montreal
would mark an epoch in the history of the society.
It was not likely that for some years to come such
meetings would take place out of the United
Kingdom, although progress in the arts of loco-
motion might render a journey of the members of
the society to India or Australia easy and agree-
able. Reference was made to the capabilities of
the great North-West for occupation by the increas-
ing number of our home population, and their
freedom there to develop into a new nation. Start-
ing from alittle west of Winnipeg, in the 95th meridian
of longitude, onward beyond Calgary to the 115th, and
looking downwards to the 49th parallel--which joined
the United States—upwards to the 54th, they had a
wide expanse of country, 800 by 300 miles, of which
one-half or three-fourths was fitted to be the feeding
ground of as large a resident population as could be
employed in its culture and accessory occupations,
by whom there could be raised an amount of food
more than adequate for an exchange with those in the
home and other countries, who might in turn manu-
facture all those other products which the necessities
or desires of life might require. Montreal, to which
the largest ships now had access, was distant but ten
days from London. Thus within a fortnight they
could be transported from the dens of St. Giles,
where scarcely a foot of ground was untenanted, to
the plains of Regina, where there were miles wholly
uninhabited. Fifty years ago to become a colo-
nist was to be far away, and possibly for ever,
from all one held dear, with but few opportu-
nities of exchanging even lAters with those who
were left behind. But now a complete change
had been wrought in that respect. Men
might, and should, perhaps, in many cases go out for
one season first, but it was families that were wanted.
Home life could never exist without women and chil-
dren, and in the Dominion there was plenty of room
for them, with work for them as they were able:
although not to the undue extent which poverty, sick-
ness, and drink rendered needful here, but in that
wholesome measure which contributed to happiness.
and fostered growth into true manhood and woman-
hood. The paper condemned the protective policy of
Canada, by which the produce of the mother country
was shut out, as well as that of foreigners. To import
raw cbtton, for instance, from the United States,
steam engines, and mill machinery from England and
elsewhere, with skilled and therefore highly paid labour
to work and direct their operation, for the purpose of
raising up factories, and to maintain those at the cosi
of enhanced prices to the agriculturist, the fisher-
man, and the miner, was not, and could not be, a
sound policy. The corn grower and others could not
recoup themselves by extra prices for their arti.-Aes,
because they had to compete with protected produce
in the markets they sought; and aided by the present
low prices it could not be long before they saw the
folly of supporting monopolies in the benefits of which
they themselves had no participation. The true
policy would seem to be for each portion of the globe
to raise or manufacture that for which it possessed
either natural or acquired facilities, and freely to in-
terchange those products between each other. A dis-
cussion ensued, in which Mr. T. Sauniers, Mr. Cor-
nelius Walford, Mr. Colmar, Mr. Trueman Wood,
Mr. Liggins, Mr. Chadwick, Dr. Edmunds, the chair-
man, and other gentlemen took part. At the close of
the proceedings a vote of thanks was accorded to Mr.
Bourne for his valuable paper.