The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-10-02 00:00:00

EPITOME OF NEWS,

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

A telegram received from Lancaster, Wisconsin,
reports that a co-operative colony of 2000 persons were
to emigrate from that place to Topolobambo, Mexico,
on October 1. The Mexican Government will grant
numerous concessions and 15,000 acres of land.
The White Island volcano, in the Bay of Plenty, off
the North Island coast, New Zealand, is in active erup-
tion and sending forth a vast colunv of flame and
smoke, rising to a height of 100 feet.
The King of Portugal has arrived at Lisbon on his
return from his visit to various foreign Courts. His
Majesty was received with marks of respect by the
people.
The first heavy snowfall of this season has occurred
on the high Alps of the Oberland. Three Englishmen,
a Berne correspondent reports—Messrs. Oakley, Maund,
Baumann, and Jameson, who were out chamois hunt-
ing, were snowed up in a mountain hut for four days.
The St. Petersburg Correspondent of the " Nord "
writes that the decline of the Niji Novgorod fair con-
tinues. This year there was again a falling off of
20,000,000 roubles in the transactions. The number of
traders visiting the fair has also considerably dimi-
nished, and large quantities of goods remain unsold.
The Catholic Congress on Sccial Work has been held
at Liege. The Bishop of Liege, addressing the assembly,
urged that the leading classes should interest them.
selves in public and political affairs, and he called
upon the wealthy to renounce their life of luxury
in order the better to be able to aid the prevailing
poverty.
The remains of Mr. J. L. Hatton were interred in
Kensal-green Cemetery on Saturday afternoon, in
presence of a large circle of. friends and relatives.
Several wreaths had been forwarded to be placed upon
the grave, one being from Mr. Sims Reeves.
Mrs. Parnell, mother of Mr. Parnell, M.P., was a
passenger on board the Celtic, which arrived off
Queenstown on Saturday from New York.
Captain F. C. R. Robinson, lately in command of the
Opal, has been appointed to the much-coveted post of
flag-captain to Vice-admiral Prince Leiningen, Com-
mander-in-chief at the Nore, in place of Captain
Poland, whose term has expired.
At Congleton, Cheshire, on Saturday, meat was
selling at 4d., 5d., and 6d. per pound, and the 41b. loaf
was sold at 4d. In the market potatoes were selling at
5d a peck, butter is. per lb., and beans id. per pound.
On Saturday night, at the Indian and Colonial Ex-
hibition, the first of a series of four leeturcis to be given
to the working classes was delivered by Mr. Paul F.
Tidman, of the Bi-Metallic League. The lecturer took
for his subject "Money and Labour," and his remarks
led to a protracted discussion, which resulted in the
passing of a resolution declaring that it was desirable,
in the interests of the industries of the country, to
restore the free coinage of silver.
A Birmingham correspondent reports a man-and-dog
fight near that town. A. tramp was walking acrosi
some fields, when the owner came up with a big dog.
The tramp showed fight, and backed himself to go on
his hands and knees and fight the dog. The farmer
accepted the challenge, and after a disgusting combat
the tramp had to give in. He was shockingly bitten
about the body, face, and neck.
On Friday the Duke of Edinburgh and Prince George
of Wales attended the Selamlik ceremony at Constanti-
nople, and in the evening were entertained at the
British Embassy, where a grand fête was given in their
honour, preceded by a banquet at the Yildiz Kiosk.
Their Royal Highnesses took leave of the Sultan on
Saturday.
Further shocks of earthquake have occurred at
Summerville, in the United States, and also at Con-
stantinople and Smyrna.
The Spanish Court on its return to Madrid from La
,:lranja was warmly cheered by the populace.
Communications are passing between the Australian
Colonies with reference to the proposed Imperial Insti.
tate. The Indian Government intends strongly to
support the proposed institution.
The Right Hon. Robert Bourke was introduced into
the presence of the Queen in Council at Balmoral, on
Friday, and kissed bands on his appointment as
Governor ot Madras. _

Mr. Swetenham, M.P., addressed a meeting at
Mcstyn, "on the subject of tithes, and announced, "on
the highest authority," that Lord Salisbury would next
session introduce a bill into the House of Lords dealing
with the question.
William Beach, of Australia, again vindicated his
claim to the title of champion scalier of the world on
Saturday, when, rowing over the Thames course, he
easily beat Wallace Ross, of New Brunswick.
Serious rioting took place at Belfast early on Sunday
morning, the police being stoned by the mob and
several of them injured, and a young man being shot
through the body by the police.
Au interesting rifle match took place at Peters
borough on Saturday between teams of the North
London Rifle Club and the Eastern Counties Rifle Club,
the former being successful.

The- four inimbera of the Salvation Army, "Staff'
Captain " M'Kenzie, " Captain " Helen Walls, " Lieu-
tenant" Emma Bennett, and Watts Seymour, who
were convicted of obstructing the highway at Luton,
were released on Saturday after undergoing three
weeks' imprisonment, and, on their arrival at Luton
Railway Station in the evening, a great demonstration
was made. Several thousands of people had assemble&
Headed by a band, a procession paraded through the
principal streets, the members who had just como from
prison being upon a waggonette. At the barracks an
enthusiastic meeting was afterwards held, Councillor
Willis in the chair, and speeches were made expresQing
great sympathy with the Army, and condemning the
action of the.police and of the magistrates.
The officials at the Houses of Parliament have re-
ceived instructions to have everything in readiness in
case it should be necessary for Parliament to meet
about the middle of November.

It is stated that the War Office authorities have pur-
chased Quintin-hill Farm, Waltham Abbey, for the
purpose of removing there the Gun Cotton Work,
which at present form part of the Royal Factory in the
town.
Mr. Justice Higinbotbam has been sworn in as Chief
Justice of Victoria, in succession to Sir William Foster
Stawell, who resigned his post on account of 111.
health.

The Local Goveinnient Board has sanctioned the
application of the Richmond Vestry for power to
borrow £15,000 to enable them to purchase the estate
of the Duke of Ruccleuch on Richmond-hill, so as to
convert it intopleasure grounds and preserve the view.
Tney have also authorised the Vestry to borrow the
money for 50 years, instead of 30.
The Executive Committee of the Birmingham Liberal
Association on Tuesday passed a resolution expressing
regret at the removal of Mr. Schnadhorst to London,
and their loss of his services as president. The
Management Committee was instructed to consider
the most suitable means of marking the o:casion of
Mr. Schnadhorst's departure.
The riving of St. Andrew's, Nottingham, which was
rendered vacant by the preferment of Canon Tebbutt
to Doncaster, has been presented to the Rev. Frank
Woods, of Trinity College, Cambridge, vicar of All
Saints, Hereford, and son of Mr. Edward Woods, CI.E.,
of Westminster, President of the Institution of Civil
Engineers.
The Bishop of Peterborough, who is suffering from
an attack of inflammation ot the throat, has been for-
bidden by his medical attendant to speak or preach in
public for some weeks to come; his visitation, which
was to have been held in October and November this
year, is therefore postponed to next year.
The Fishery Board of Scotland have ordered her
Majesty's ship Jackal and the cutter Daisy to cruise in
Kilbrannan Bound, off the coast of Arran, to stop,
fishing for herring on Sunday, which it is alleged has
been carried on for some time in violation of the Act
of Parliament passed in the reign of George 111.
The Crown Agents for the Colonies have received a
telegram from Western Australia announcing the safe
arrival of the sailing vessel Helena Mena, which left
Plymouth with emigrants for that colony on the 7th
July last.
The Russian and Turkish Ambassadors and the
Austrian Chargé d'Affairs had interviews with Lord
Iddesleigh at the Foreign Office on Tuesday. The
Spanish and Portuguese Ministers also visited the
Foreign Office.
A sheriff's officer, accompanied by the manager of
the Skibo Estate, has been " deforced " in an attempt
to evict a number of crofters, but no violence was
offered on either side.

The Royal Commission upon the Depression in
Trade and Industry, of which Lord Iddesleigh is Presi-
dent, has been summoned to meet on October 10 next
to draw up its final report.
Mrs. Parnell left Liverpool on Tuesday for Dublin,
accompanied by Mr. P. O'Brien, MY,, en route to
Avondale, county Wicklow, the seat of Mr. Parnell.
The native workmen employed at the Indian and
Colonial Exhibition leave this country for India on
Monday.
Notices have been posted up at the Blelingriffith Iron
and Tinplate Works, Glamorganshire, intimating that
all contracts will cease on Saturday, the 23rd of
October.

A fire, due to friction in a self-actor mule, originated
on Tuesday in the top storey of the Roach Mills Spin-
ning and Manufacturing Company's Mill, Heywood.
The mill is fireproof throughout, and owing to its
peculiar situation in the valley of the Roach the firemen
could not well get at the room in which the fire began.
They directed their attention to saving the warehouse
which contained yarn and cotton valued at i:6000, but
the fire got a firm hold and almost wholly destroyed
that building, burning the contents. The fire burned
itself out in the room in which it commenced, after
burning 15,000 mule spindles. The damage is esti..
mated at £15,000. The mill and machinery are fully
insured, and the stock is partially covered. In con-
sequence of the fire some 250 hands are thrown out of
employment.
The Staffordshire brass cabinet lock manufacturers
have for some time experienced severe German com-
petition in common goods in the London market. By
the adoption of steam power and otherwise cheapened
production, however, several Wolverhampton firms are
now winning back the trade. On Tuesday it was
announced that they are meeting with increased suc-
cess. It was some time before the workmen could be
induced to make on the German lines, but now the
imported goods are being imitated in design and finish,
and offered at lower prices. Makers express every
confidence ia further recovering lost ground.
The outbreak of swine fever in East Kent continues
to spread with alarming rapidity. On Tuesday the
Cattle Inspector for the Home (Canterbury) district
was called to a farm at Adisham, where he found a
herd or oti pigs suffering from the diseaeo, and upon
his report an order was subsequently signed for the
immeoiate slaughter of the whole herd. A similar
order was also made in respect to 12 pigs on another
farm at Garrington, in the same petty sessional divi-
sion. The ravages of the disease during the last
fortnight have been very great.
As the result of the rapid spread of swine fever in
Lincolnshire, the local committees of North and South
Holland on Tuesday published an order of the Privy
Council, closing the markets of Boston, Spalding, Hol-
beach, Long Sutton, and Donington until further
notice. Reports of fresh outbreaks have been coming
in daily, and further infected places were declared at
the meeting of the South Holland Local Authority at
Spalding on Tuesday. An order was on Tuesday
received from the Privy Council, giving the authority
control in cases of splenic apopiny.
An alarming explosion occurred on Tuesday evening
at the shop of Mr. Thomas Graves, a Sheffield iron-
monger, who manufactures small quantities of fire.
works. He went with his little boy of years in his
arms into the room where the fireworks were made, and
an explosion suddenly occurred. They were enveloped
in the flames. The baby is se seriously burned that his
life is despaired of, and Mr. Graves is so injured as to
be unable to explain how the explosion occurred. The
contents of the room were completely destroyed; but
the fire was speedily extinguished.
At Tuesday's meeting of the Carnarvonshire Calvin-.
istic Methodists a resolution was passed urging upon
the Government the necessity for introducing legisla-
tion dealing with intermediate education in Wales, and
calling for greater activity and unanimity amongst the
Welsh members upon a detail so important to the
Principality. The apathy of the Welsh Liberal mem•
bers during the period the Liberal Government was in
power was adversely commented upon by several of the
speakers. • •
The Mayo, of Nottingham, Mr. Alderman Lambert,
attended by the members of the corporation and lead.
lug men of the town, formally opened on Tuesday toe
new Cattle Market, erected at a cost of £60,000, and
covering a space of over twelve acres, having special
sidings from the Midland, Great Northern, and North-
Western Railways. The new market will command
supplies direct from all parts of the United Kingdom.
A public luncheon after eards took place.
The Board of Trade inquiry into the stranding of the
steamer Woodlands, of Swansea, at Gibraltar, on the
22nd August, concluded at North Shields on Tuesday.
The court suspended for six months the certificates of
Captain Harvey and the second officer, on the ground
that they had not navigated their vessel with proper
and seamanlike care.

Edward Gosling, a labourer, was charged at the
Manchester Police-court on Tuesday with a terrible
assault on his wife. In the course of a quarrel he
deliberately heated a poker red hot, and then burnt his
wife in a terrible manner about the lower part of the
body. She lies in a serious condition. The prisoner
was remanded, to see whether she recovers.
Lavinia Davis, the wife of a pot hawker, residing at
Burslem, on Tuesday drowned her daughter, four years
of age, by putting her in a large earthenware vessel full
of water, The woman was brought up in the Police.
court later in the day, and was remanded. She is sup•
posed to be insane.
Sir John Lubbock, as First President of the Watford
Public Library, College of Science, ,Art, Music, and
Literature, on Tuesday evening delivered his inaugural
address to a crowded assembly at the library. The
subject of his address was "Ants and their Habits.'
It is understood that M, Tisza, in answer to the
interpellations in the Hungarian Parliament, will state
that there has been no change in the Austro-German
alliance; whereas, a Vienna correspondent telegraphs,
there is substantial evidence to the contrary. The
Austrian Government, it is said, is daily losing confi-
dence in the possibility of mgantaining peace.
Though the Austrian Cabinet may make some con-
cessions to Russia, they will, a Vienna-correspondent
states, on no pretext whatever countenance an occupa-
tion of Bulgaria, nor tolerate a Russian approach to
Constantinople by way of Asia Minor.
According to a Renter's telegram from Athens it is
regarded as certain in diplomatic circles that England
and Austria are disposed to support the Balkan Princi-
palities against Russia. The agents of the two Govern-
ments are sounding those of Bucharest, Belgrade, and
Sofia, with a view to effecting a. union.
M. de Freycinet, the French Prime Minister, visited
Toulouse, on Tuesday, and was received with much
popular enthusiasm.
A feeling of panic has been produced at Charleston
by a fresh shock of earthquake felt there on Monday
and again on Tuesday afternoon. The greatest terror
prevailed among the negroes, owing to the prediction
of a great earthquake. Shocks were also felt at
Columbia, Augusta and Savannah, and in other parts
of the Southern States.
Mr. John Dillon, M.P., presiding over Tuesday's
meeting of the Irish Nhtional League at Dublin,
declared that he, on behalf of the Irish people, would
refuse to submit their case to the new Land Commis-
sion, which he described as " a fraud and imposture."
With the customary pageant, the new Sheriffs of
London and Middlesex, Mr. Alderman Isaacs and
Lieut.-Ccl. Kirby, were installed on Tuesday. A
distinguished company assembled at the Sheriff's break-
fast.
The steamship Suffolk was wrecked off Lizard Head
on Tuesday afternoon. All the crew were saved.
From the analysis of the performances of the
Australian cricketers during their recant tour in this
country, concluded at Harrogate on Tuesday, it appears
that Giffeu heads the list, his average being the highest
both in batting and bowling. The Australians won
nine matches and lost eight, 22 being drawn.
Haulm, in pursuit of his challenge to row Beach for
the championship, attended at the place he had
appointed on Tue.sda3 ; but Beach, who remains firm
in his determination to row only on the Paramatta, did
not put in an appearance. •