The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-08-28 00:00:00

EMIGRATION TO VENEZUELA.

On Monday night a public meeting wav held at the
Workmen's Hall, West Ham-lane, Stratflaid, near
London, for the purpose of considering the desirability
of adopting some system of emigration as a remedy for
the prevalent distress. The chair wee taken by Mr.
Richards. iiii, hoe. secretary of the Dock Labourers'
Association, who referred to the difficulties attendant
upon carrying out soy widely•extended and semi, e-
able plan of home colonisation, and avowed thst emi-
gration only afforded a site means lif improving the
condition of affairs. Ref ming to recognise political
ec.intinay as the guitleof luau's actions, he declared that
it was essential to have c winopolitan views. He advo-
cated the extension of State aid to the emigration of
uniikilled artisans.

Mr. Taylor. of Gray's.inn, said that unless remedial
measures were promptly taken England would before
long cease to occupy her present proud position. After
referring to the fearful condition of the abodes of the
poor in the metropolis, he advinted to the memorial
recently presented by the Guardians of the White-
chapel Union to the Poor Law Board, which he
said, contained the most startling statements.
He contended that the trade of England was
leaving her, and illustrated this by a reference
to the fact that the ironwork iif the New Meat-
maiket, the sash's and frames of St. Thiiinas'a How
pital, and the very printiog.preasea of this country
were brought respectively from Belgium, S.-den, and
Ainevica. He animadverted strongly on the large ex-
penditure by the working &nisei on alcoholic liquors
in comparie in with the amount they Lid out in food
and clothing, HMI dwelt at some length on the advan-
tages of compulsory education. He concluded by im-
preesing on all to make a careful selection of • future
home.

Mr. Patterson, the secretary of the American
Chartered Venezuelan Trading company, referred to
the opposition of the various Home Secretaries to
assisting emigration except to the colonies of England,
a course which he denounced as foolish and unjust.
After some obeervations as to the climate of Venezuela
he moved the following resolution:—
That this meeting, haying considered the emigration
question is of opinion that for the assistance of all such as
are desirons to emigrate a branch of he London Venezuelan
Mutual Emigration Society should be e.tal.h..hed at Stratford.
awl that a committee should be appointed this evenil g to
manage the same.
The resolution was seconded by Mr. 'Wilford, and
carried unanimously. A second resolution calling on
the Government to assist emigration was also carried
on the motion of Mr. Wall, seconded by Mr.
WLaurin, M.D., and a vote of thanks to the chair-
man closed the proceedings.

miles, and from Singapore to Hong Kong 1,696 miles.
Throughout this line the soundings show the ocean
bottom to be favourable to cable laying, and the only
deep, water sections will be between the extreme end
i.l Java snd Cape York, and between Penang and
Point de G.dle.
• • • -

The mute desrribed has been only selected after doe
consideration; and after another scheme for connecting
the Au.tralian colonies wiih Great Britain had bees
examined and rejected. This was by a combined land
and sea system of tel .graphs front the frouti r stati..n
at Rangoon, down the 'Malayan Peninsula to Singa-
pore, and fr .in thence through the Dutch 1005fp,,Rj.,.,,,
and by the }lois Sea to Cape York. The objections
to this were valid, arid will be readily understood.
. here was, first, the inconvenience of carrying im-
portant sections of the line through the cloninion of a
foreign power; and, secondly, the character of the
Fluids Sea bottom, which is infested with coral, and
would be fatal to cables. A coral bottom is neces-
sarily irregular, and it is found by experience that a
cable laid unit hangs in bights from one mass of rock to
the other, that the coral builds over it, and if a fault
is developed prevents its being brought to the surface
for repair. Coral seas are moreover full of live shells,
which injure core when exposed, and the cables laid
down for the Dutch Government about Java have been
already more or less damaged by their means. For
these sufficient reason.; it was resolved to run deep sea
lines, which will be, humanly speaking, cafe from in-
jory ; and the condition of makirg, and layipg. by the
Telegraph Conetluotion C. mpary. the expected traffic,
and probable tariff for communicating to and front
London and China and Australia, will probably be
laid bef.Te the public before many days.
It is curious to mark how speedily one gigantic tele-
graphic enterprise of this kind begets another, and
how el... Rely the intereate of the various lines are enter
twined. The one described is of course supplemental
to the British Indian Telegraph ; and arising out of the
latter is another cable, the work of which will be all
important in facilitating communication with India
The Falmouth, Gibraltar, and Malta Telegraph
completes the submarine communication, so that a
message may be hereafter sent from London to Born'
bay almort without a repeat. This has been done on
the French Atlantic line from Brest to Dusbury, a
distance of 3.000 miles, at the rate of from four to five
words a minute; and though, even when the Falmouth
and the British Indian are both open, there will be a
short span of land lines throu.h Egypt, it is already
thought possible to organise submarine substitutes for
these, and so to send and receive communications from
India almost as quickly as a man can write. This
would have been hopeless without the Falmouth
lire The Anglo-Mediterranean Deep Sea Tele-
graph had already united Malta to Egypt ; but
bef.ire Indian messages reached the form
firmer place
throu.

would have had t"0 traverse 2,000 miles of ;wires
....nigh France and Italy, and would be thus liable to
the interruptions and delays which are inseparable
from telegraphing through foreign countries when re-
petitions have to be ma-le. To obviate this a cable
will rill first from Fa'mouth to Gibraltar. a distance
14 1,431 nautical miles, and then from Gibraltar to
Malta, a diatance of 1.035 miles. Thus the British
Indian cable rune fro o Su z to Bombay, the Anglo.
Mediterranean from Malta to Egypt, and the Fal-
mouth and Gibraltar from England to Malta. All
three companies are din ioct, but have entered into
arrangements for mutual help and protection—arrange-
ments which will be participated in by the cable to
Australia. But these enterprise@ are thrown into the
shade— so far as length of cable is concerned—by one
which is now engaging the attention of a committee
sitting in New York. which aims at layine * tele-
graphic line from San Francisco to Japan, a distance
of 8,000 miles. We have, say our couaine, the longeet
railway in the world, and we mean to have the longest
telegraphic cable as well ; and to calculations have
been made and estimates sent. and if the Committee
report favourably a ortamectns will shortly appear.
Another importaut proj,ct which has been recently
brought before the public aims at laying cables be-
tween Cuba and Porto Rico, and from Havana to
Porto Rico, Mexico, and Panama. AS well as between
the West Indies and South America generally ; while
the International Mid-Channel Telegraph, to which
Sir Samuel Canning and C aptain Knapp Barrow have
been giving notch attention latterly, is at last in hand,
and will be working between Penzance and a tele-
graph ship stationed by the Admiralty between Scilly
and Usliant, fifty-five miles distant. in a few menthe
frcne this time. This last line will enable ships to
have messages to and from every part of the world
which has electric communication with England. As
the Government statistic show that n 3.1118 vessels
entered and cleared with cargoes at pets in the
Milted K;ngtiona in the year ltlbt, it is argued that
the telegranta to and from miderwriters, owners, and
consizneea will he considerable, as well as the tele-
graphic tr ffic with dietant porta.
Alt op, rub,,. trine teleer Thy seem, destined to
work m,u,y more 14 the charges whi -h were scoffed at
as vieionary only three short years since. To talk with
Hong Koug and Melboerne as easily as with Pati. or
York, to have America and Ta.maria spsaking V, each
other throtigh the I.o'BB, and in have PMl's announcing
their arrival or aski,,g f..r final instructions while miles
d miles sway from abore is all very wonderful.
But the demand for telezraphic ommun;cation Errt airs
by what, it fesds on. Those ar the helm of the great
companies alnadv a. work apoear to lend their power-
ful aid to all .Werperaes having a f4r promise of
encores, and no to a certain po'nt. which is far f
twin.: reached ye. it seems cer t o,i that. the more cables
there are the better for these now These last
dovetail into each other, and promMe their common
int, rest in a very striking way. Ty deed tanoperatjon
is a leading festal, in modern tel-grat hic enrerprise,
and as we have allosm, n tr.t M the selkeeres ing de-
veloped now are aeseeiattd ones, a.d so seem to have
inferentially a guarantee of success.

some cases convenient and very acceptable to the
labourers thenorAves.

Dr. Farr spoke on the marriage signature test in
reference to education.

Mr. A Isni. M. P., who Bahl he was a pupil of the
late Philip Putley, reminded the meeting of the
niodeoty of the plain yeomanry of this country, whose
opiniono on the points in question were very import.
ant. hot in consequence of the said modesty were
...Mom expressed. He ohould much like the benefit of
'heir experience. Mr. Actand could see nothing to be
,I,,ne without increasing the capital of the land. One
way to elevate the labourer was, he thought, to remove
every discouragement from the employer, who should
have plenty of capital, and sufficient confidence to
uqe it. _ . .

Professor Leone Levi having replied to the criticisms
offered.
Sir Stafford Northcote summed up the discussion.
The debate, though not an exhaustive one, had been
very suggestive, and that, he thought, was the great
merit of this kind of debate. All would agree that in
this, as in other matters, the great law of supply and
demand mist prevail. They would defeat their own
object by telling the farmer to increase his rate of
, wages unless they at the same time showed him that
' it was his own interest to do so. And the farmer
I 'tight to corsider whether he could not impreve his
own condition as well as that of his labourers by
raising their remimeration and getting more work
out of them. That WAS not to be cline in A day;
it involved the education and improvement perhaps of a
whole gsneration of labourers. There were other
!nodes f improving their education besidts teaching
them the "three r's." Skill in cookery and in needle.
work, and a little more apprehension of the common
things about him, enabled the labourer to live in com-
fort with much lower wages than he could in the ab-
sence of such aequirements. On the purchasing power
of wages Mr. Rogers nmst allow him to say that he
only scratched the surface of an important question.
When he asaerted that the purchasing power of the
laheurer's wages had decreased, and rested his assertion
on the price of butter. he built upon a foundation
that was not very safe. The evil was pretty gene-
rally admitted. With regard to the remedy, legislation
would be no doubt necessary for certain matters; but
he would say—" Don't be in too great a hurry, don't
trust too much to legislation; we have a great deal
noire work to do for ourselves, and we ought to do it
without expecting Parliament to do it for us." In
couchwinn, Sir Stafford said it was recommended that
a committee of the section should be again appointed
for the purpose of further investigating the Nets as to
the wsgea of agricultural labourers at different periods
wiV,in the last Irio years, arid their proportions to the
prices of the necessaries of life. Their duty would be
imply to collect facts and to avoid drawing inferences
from them.

VELOCIPEDE FEATS IN GERMANY.
A Berlin correspondent reports the following two feats of
velactoedism, both of them extraordinary, though in dif-
,ere• t wets, but neither of them to be recommended for
imitation—
Several members of the Berlin Velocipede Club have
lately been staving at Warmbrunn, near the foot if the
,ichneekcppe, which is the loftiest peak of the Giant
Mountains, and 4,990 feet above the level of the era,
the summit consists of a very sharp cone, about 600
feet high, and is ascended by a steep and rugged
z•gzsg. Herr Langer, who enjoys a great reputation
far his skill in riding the iron horse, sent up his
machine without the knowledge of his friends' and
then ascended the mountain in the company of three
• •ther gentlemen. As soon as he had reached the top, and
ladore his friends are able to interfere, he vaults into
the sa•ldle and rolls down the first portion of the zigzag.
At the first turning he and his machine tumble over;
but nothing daunted, he mounts again and rolls down
the second portion. coming to similar grief at the endof
it. Here his friends overtake him, and oppose his appa•
rently suicidal intentions with such gond effect, that at
I ant he promises to walk as far as the Riesenbaude, at the
foot of the cone. Here, however, he mounts again, and
rushes off at a perfectly breakneck pace. Thelittlebrake
applied to one of the wheels had haedly any effect,
and the machine flew over stones, water-channels,
and bushes, so that he pronably [Tent quite as much
time in the air as on terra•firma. He afterwards
effectually jammed the hind wheel with a piece of
wood, and then things went on better. In this man-
ner he reached Seydorf, at the foot of the Schneekoppe
in an hour and a half, a distance which requires about
six hours, or rather more, on horseback. Herr
Langer had three more falls in the course of
his expedition. atal at one or two particularly
ateep places he was obliged to dismount. His
friends, who followed in his track, never ex-
pected to Fee him alive again; but, neverthe-
less, be reached his destination without any other
damage to himself or his machine than breaking one
spoke of the hind wheeL Some other members ot the
Berlin Club went from the dosephinenhtitte to Warm-
brunn. a distance of eleven English mil. in 47 minutes.
The first six and a half, which is all down hill,
was done in 23 minutes.
And now for the second feat, which is not so much
one of velocipedism as one of raising the wind. Large
iesters announced last week that Malinatrorn, a
Awe•lish velocipedist, would drive his machine along a
tight rope ninety feet from the ground. On Sunday
afternoon, a few hundred people paid their money
for the best places to see this wonderful ta.rformance,
which was t • take pl,ce near the Alsen Brileke, and a
few thone.and others looked on from ontside. The exhibi-
tion that followed sesS certainly a bold one, not from
velocinediseic point if view, but as an attempt
to awindle the BerEn public with such an arrant piece
of humbug Attached to the velocipede was a sort of
pendulum. weighted with about five or six cwt., which
made it almost phvaicilly impossible for the machine
to diverge from its vertical positi•in. T. make the
chances of an accident still snore improbable, there
were iron lesra at each Fide iso a Fort of balustrade,
so that Under no circumstances could the machine
fall over altogether. It was then drawn along
the slightly inclined ripe at an elevation of
about thirty feet, by five or Fix men, by
means of envie, and then allowe•1 to descend
slowly with the bold velocipediat upon it. The people
were so ero aged at the imposition that had been prac-
tiPed upon them, that the exhibition was received with
gr••ans and yells, and the police had the greatest diffi-
culty in saving the principal sear from being lynched
on the spot A little rioting followed, in the c•airse of
which one unfortunate young man was mistaken f,.r
she real offender, raid experienced some very rough
treatment. Eventually, however, a small party of
soldiere was called in t•• assist the police, and cruet was
restored without any serious injury to life or bob.