The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-09-27 00:00:00

THE MINERS' STRIKE.

SERIOUS CLIARGE OF INFIMIDATION

At the Dadloy Police Court on Monday, before
the Mayer (Alderman. Howa,t) and Alderman Wil-
kinson, Jona,than Hill (54), collier, of St. A ndrem's
Street, Netherton, was charged with intimiJaiug
David Brettle, collier, of High Street, Woodside.
M... Shakespeare appeared for the prosecution, and
Mr. Hooper for the defence; Mr. Oakes was present
on behalf of Messrs. Cochrane, and Mr. B. AVinwood
represented the men.
In opening the case Mr. Shakespeare said there
a ere three summonses taken out. The first charged
llill with intimidating, with a view to prevent men
following their employment; (2) for watching and
besetting-, and (3) with following by two or more
persons in a disorderly manner. If a conviction
followed on the first case, he (Mr. Shakespeare) was
not lkely to proceed with the other charges, his '
only object being to show the collErs that it was
illegal to interfere with men at work. There was
no doubt that men had a right to go to work at what
wages they thought fit, and they had a right to be
protected. So far as he (Mr. Shakespeare) could
judge, the complainant was honourably carrying
out the award of the arbitrator, and was going,
down the Nelson Pits, belonging to Messrs. C ch-
cane. On the morning of the 15th the complainant
was aoing to his work, and as he entered the colliery
he saw some forty or fifty men standing on the rail-
way bridge. Most.of the men had large sticks. Two
of these men, Hill and William Cooper, came up to
him, and Hill said," Are you not ashamed io go to
work." Brettle being frightened said, " I'm having
the old wages." Thea Mr. Dainty, the charter-
maAer, came up and told Hill he would make him
remember intimidating his men. Hill hurried to
complainant and said, "You want the top of your
head knocked in with this stick." Mr. Dainty told
the man he would hear of the matter again, and
Brettle went away in one direction, whilst Hill an:i
the crowd went another. The intimidation was
as he had described, the men being there before and
after showed the watching, and the after conversa-
tions with a policeman and the complainant showed
that there was following. Quoting precedents, Mr.
Shakespeare showed that violence or threats hod
been held to be intimidation. The men had been
cautioned, for Chief Superintendent Burton, who
was very anxious for the safety of the colliers, had
himself waited on the leaders of the men, and
pointed out the law to tbem. To Mr, Winwood's
credit, he had cautioned the men over and over
again, but there had been some talking to the men
by persons who knew nothing of the matter, and
the men had had their heads filled with preaching
which had led the men to suppose that they could
do as they liked.
Evidence in support of thA statement of Mr.
Shakespeare was given by complainant end P.C.

Mi..?hard Dainty, ihe chartomaster, then said
be heard the thie...ts gaia,t Eli. When he iv,s
going to Staines to compla'n f the treattn(nt (f his
man, the colli rs in the cr)wd laugh?,cl at him and
baict "You are too late."

Sergeant Speke said he lad chargi of saveral
officers, whose duty it was to ga about Woo !side
and Blackbrook to see that the men were not
molested. Hill never denied his presence or his
carrying a stick, and sai I tit t be simply advised
Brettle not to go to work.
Mr. Hooper urged that the intimidation had not
been proved. Irrettle was not clear as to whether
he was threatmed or not, and Dainty was an inter-
ested witness. The greatest thing that could be
proved was that Hill advised I3rettic to gl home and
not to work If that was intimidation, every
sp aker at the public meetiegs was an intimidator,
for the advice was regularly given, " Men, don't go
to work;" and it was old that that advice should
have been given eo long and yet tile defendant
site' led out -for prosecution,
The first witness for the defence was Charles
Freeman, who said he was with Hill when they
first met Brettls. Hill said, "I would not go to
work," add lirtttle replie h I have the price,"
Hill sid, ‘• I would not go." That was all that
passed. Hil, only cartio.l a walking stick, and wit-
ness had no stick.

By Mr Shakespeare: He wai on the bridge with
Lhe others before Brettle vv.s met, but there welt)
not forty p-esent, nor had they all sticks.
James DownE 5, eLelii.er, said Dainty did not come
right up to Hill t) he tr what was said. Hill did
not threatce str.ke the complainant.
In cross-exurnina,ion witne,ss said comulainant
was not threatet,ed either by wcrd or sVck.
The) M tor said the lif.-neh considered the ease
provA, and they hoped the conviction they were
about to record would he a warnieeg to the ir en to
be peaceede an.l qu'et, and to let the men at work
:;lone. They should inflict a fine of £5, or one
month's i'rprionment, The maximum penalty was
.t:2O, or three nr nths'.

Shake=pe re with hew the two other sum.
movs ,

A YEAW3 WOK OF DUDLEY
SCHOOL BOARD.

A meeting of this body was hell on Monday even-
Mr. H. M. Wainwright presided, and the °thee
members present were Messrs. W. E. Walker, H.
13reVell, W. Smith, NV. P. Glee tway, John Finch
D. Howat (mayor), the Revs. Dr. Co-ens, S. J.
Marriott, an U MeMic art
On the motion of the Mayor, Mts. Reynolds., c.f
Liverpool, was appointed head mistress of the L.
fa,nt school in lial,sowen-road ; Miss Duff, head
roistre es, and Mr. Mason, head master, of Hart's
Hill schools. For these p-sts there were 233 to de
-nd 37 female applkiants.
The Chairman s ii he Inspector's report for the
past year was very satisfactory. When he ventured
last y.eir t )take exception to the state of education
in the district az represented by the report for the
year 2833, and expressed an opinion that what was
done in the neighbouring town of Birmingham
might be dons Dudley, he was met with th obj.c.
tion that it was not fair to expect the children of
poor colliers and mailers to tle so we:i as the children
of intelligent artisans in Lm i-ite:ham ; but the re-
port just received that the v., e: expie-s4ed '.vas
not only fair but reasonable it ;11!S si i!ed the new
code was harder than the pl.! nt iii spite of
that and other drawbacks the. ratepayers I ad ob-
tained a substantial increase i tire Government
grant of £446 93 41—(hear, ) Accorting to
the Blue Book for 1883, tie tivitra 0 :eirnine-zii th
2 000 School B iards thronalioet tie kingdom Wine
16321 per head per idzild. Teear.ii7igs of the
Dudley School Board for that v•iar 13.1 141 FT
child per. head; this year they s'vor.. 16s I('W pPit
head, being an increase of 3s r liea )
I That, he thought, was very -gratifying The
I number of scholars on the boek4 wae 3,555, with an
average attendance, calculated 'la to August list,
of 4,020. The largest grant. earned hat been
by the excellent b y's se;hool at Netherto condueted
by Mr. Goulden, and amounted to 20s 71 per head
—(cheers). The grants at the other Echools had
ranged 16s 10111 to that amount.
The Rev. S. J, Marriott observed that with re-
spect to Netherton school he would like to say it
was worked without any expense to the ratepayers,
and was perhaps the only school in the kingdom of
which the same could be said—(he tr, hear),
The Chairman remarked thnaetssusacil.iy,retshueltsclwaeirre.
highly creditable to Mr. Goulden, After eulogising
the conduct of the teachers, which renlered little or
i,oinentooofbtsheeriv.rewthorakt necessary,
of
their
succe,s
Chair-
man suanwpeenrvt
was due to the indefatigable exertions c.f the clerk
Mr. Hall—(cheers). With reference to the coui:
plaint made iasome quarters V. h iegard to over
pressur,e he said ho had no reason to believe that
anything of the sort had taken place in their
schools. He thought over-pressure arose from
previous neglect. Where a school yr .s worked fairly
and regularly there was no necesp.y.f..r putting on
pressure as the time of the examination weeiv ne
When the time came for the members c:f the Boa d
to render an account of their stew-ardslup, he h.iped
it would lie with credit to th les Ives ani with
satisfaction to the public—(hear,b ac).
In answer to a question the Chnerman stud. the
total gr ant car.-.ed this year vies .22t451 12s
against ..t2,0J8 3s 31 in 1863. and £l,O :tr lls 1.1 in
1882.
Dr. Cosens expressed an opinion that they could
hardly draw a comparison between the present ye. r
Purposes Committee repoiecl that
The General r
wa nedr eloB;3e2n' ebdecoantTye
atltaethWe ocllvoesrha
eofur. ut;setlit:ere.,t schools
the Education Department had appreved the pl ins
for their election.
aonf
dt Itsellerotipoonseedd
tnheewu socrhr
oo
wolisnignotfli
reh
oil:ill ems oowic nx-3ro.
9aodo,
On the motion of the Chairman, it wasdee.del
apply to the Loan Commissioners for the aniounr,
and also for a furthqr sum for the enlargement of
the Netherton and Wolverhamptou-street-sehools.
The new schools will provide accommodation for
522 scholars-322 grown children and 200 infants:-

ITS WEIGHT IN GoLD.—The aggregite proluctim of
gold, in the United States of A bones, u? to June, IEB3
we have just been toll on the authority of the Times
wa3 78,965,572 troy ounces. When we saw this particu
lar weight of gold given as the accumulation of al, pt.—
' ceding years, WO were at ones ~titick w•th the rin k
able approximation of the weigiA given to what had jut
come to o r knowledge w.. 18 t, ovput of Cocoa la dila
Country by one firm Ijos Epps and Co.) for one year
only, the last twelve-month, it being 86,403,333 troy
ounces, or 2,645 avoirdupois tons, and, on the moment
we could not withstand recalling to mind the old adage,—
Worth its Weight in Gold."