The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-07-03 00:00:00

SIR BARTLE FRERE' S SALARY.

In the Civil Service Revised Estimates which have
just been printed, under the head cif Grants in aid of
Expenditure in Certain Colonies, the salaries of Sir
Bartle Frere, Sir Garnet Wolseley, and Sir G.
Pomeroy Colley are set forth. Sir Bartle Frere re-
ceives £6,000 a year from Colonial funds, and as High
Commissioner he was paid £2,500 last year and £5OO
this year from Imperial funds. He is also in receipt
from Indian revenues of an annuity of £l,OOO, granted
in 1862, on his retirement from the Bombay Civil
Service, and a pension of £5OO a year as a retired
inembia of the Council of India. Thus Sir Bartle
Freres total income from all sources last year was
£lO,OOO, and this year is £B,OOO.
Sir Garnet Wolseley received a salary of £6,000 and
a Staff allowance of £2,000 a year from Imperial funds
as Governor of Natal and the Transvaal, High Corn-
misssioner for South-East Africa, and General Com-
manding Her Majesty's Forces in South Africa, in
addition to unattached pay of £1 ss. a day as a general
officer and £2 a day as field allowance, both from Army
funds.
Sir G. P. Colley has £2,500 from Imperial funds and
a like sum from Colonial funds. Ile receives no
military pay from Army funds.

THE EARL OF DERBY ON WATER
DRINKING.
In London, on Tuesday, the twenty-first annual
meeting of the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and
Cattle Trough Association was held at the Mansion
House. The Lord Mayor presided, and he was sup-
poyted by the Earl of Derby, the Duke of West-
minster, Sir W. Stirling, Sir Chas. Trevelyan, Mr.
Alderman Nottage and Mr. S. Gurney.
The Committee stated in their Report that the work
of the Association had been prosperous beyond the
most sanguine anticipations. The total number of
fountains and troughs now open in the metropolis is
437 fountains and 438 troughs. On the lowest com-
putation at least 200,000 horses, besides oxen, sheep,
and dogs, drink at the troughs every day; whilst the
number of men, women, and children who drink at
the fountains cannot be less than 400,000 a day, giving
the enormous total of more than 219,000,000 drinkers
a year. The annual subscriptions had risen from
£1,631 to £1,723. The donations during the year
amounted to £2,180, showing a falling off of £1,035
as compared with the donations of the preceding year.
The total expenditure had been p 5,305, being £221
more than the expenditure of the preceding year, and
the Committee were left with liabilities amounting to
nearly £BOO.
The Duke of Westminster, President of the Asso-
ciation, moved the adoption of the Report, which he
considered spDke very well for itself. The water
supply of London was now one of the leading ques-
tions of the day. He hoped that the result would be
an improved and a constant supply. He knew of no
greater blessing—not only to the poor, but to the rich
—than a good supply of fresh water.
The Earl of Derby, who was warmly -greeted,
seconded the motion. In the course of his speech he
said: You will observe that the 735 fountains and
drinking places under the society's care cost £l2 a
day, or about £4,500 a year, merely to keep them in
good order and proper repair, and if the money is not
supplied some of those drinking places must be dis-
used. Your own observation will tell you that the
number of these fountains might be almost inde-
finitely increased, and that large districts of London are
still without them. You will not require to ask if
they are taken advantage of, for nobody who walks
through London can fail to see on a summer's day how
continually they are in request. A cup of cold water
may not seem to be much to offer in a climate like
that of England, but it is a good deal to those who
live in the courts and alleys, and the crowded spaces
of a great city like ours, breathing smoke and
dust, and who suffer in the close heat of a summer
day perhaps quite as much as they have to suffer
in the cold of winter. I need not remind you, too,
that these fountains, like the coffee taverns, play
an important part in one of the social movements of
the day, of which we just now hear a great deal. It
is hard to blame a man who works in hot and foul air
for muddling himself with public-house beer if he has
not easy access to good fresh water. He may prefer
the beer after all, very likely he will, but that is his
affair, and if he have the fresh water he would have
at least had his choice. All we say is, they ought to
have their choice. Let them have personal option
instead of that local option of which we hear so much.
Before we try the experiment of driving people out of
public-houses, let us try the experiment of giving
them the choice, and 'provide for them a place where
they can quench their thirst without being compelled
to drink for the good of the house.
A vote of thanks to the Lord Mayor concluded the
proceedings.