The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-04-30 00:00:00

glisatiantrats `4ntelligaut.

HOME, FOREIGN, AND COLONIAL.

FRUIT FROM QUEENSLAND.-A few experiments are
being made to introduce fruit as well as wheat and
meat from Australia. Some fine Adelaide grapes
stood the test of a long sea voyage. Australian apples,
so admired for their delicious flavour, would be wel-
comed here. Australian oranges would arrive here
when the market was destitute of that favourite fruit.
The Queens!ander, in an issue of last February, has a
vision of Covent-garden supplied from the port of
Brisbane. "The time will, it is hoped," says that
paper, "soon arrive when Covent-garden will be able
to show Queensland peaches, pineapples, oranges, and
perhaps grapes, of a size and flavour superior to the
best of the forced hot-house productions of England,
and equal to anything that Southern Europe or the
West Indies can produce." With the railway border
lined with fruit trees—for Queensland platepayers in
some places are being regaled with peaches grown on
trees raised from stones planted by the workmen—
that colony illustrates the fruit-bearing qualities of
Australia.

PROGRESS OF BRIGHTON. —The progress of Brighton
has been astonishingly rapid (says Land). A hundred
years ago it contained 700 houses, inhabited by some
3,000 persons, many of whom were engaged in fishing.
The property in the village was then assessed at
£2,300 a year. To-day Brighton contains 16,0)0
houses, 100,000 souls, and is assessed at considerbly in
excess of half a million. We do not know of any sea-
side resort which has developed so enormously in the
course of a century.
A DEAF AND DUMB MARRIAGE.—The Citizen states
that on Easter Day, at St. Bartholomew-the-Great,
West Smithfield, London, a marriage was solemnized
between two residents of the parish, both of them deaf
and dumb. The young bride and bridegroom came
provided with prayer-books, and followed the service
intelligently throughout. Whenever the response of
the parties was required, each one spelt it with the
hands, thus certifying their understanding the ques-
tion put to them by the clergyman. They signified
the betrothal and engagements entered into in the
same manner. The best man was able to act as in-
terpreter. After the service the parties signed the
register in the usual way. The couple had received
their education formerly at the Deaf and Dumb
School, Old Kent-road, London. They were each
about twenty-three years old.
SHAKESPEARE'S BIRTHDAY. Saturday was the
double anniversary of the birth and death of William
Sbakspeare, the "Bard of Avon," who was born at
Stratford-upon-Avon on April 23, 1564, and died on
April 23, 1616, just 265 years ago. Another poet of a
more recent epoch was also commemorated on that
day—William 'Wordsworth, the Poet Laureate, having
died on April 23, 1850, at the age of 80 years, his birth
having taken place on April 7, 1770.

PROFITABLE BEE-KEEPING.----The American cham-
pion bee-keeper, Mr. Jones, of Beeton, Cal., states
that in 1879, from 300 colonies of bees, he obtained
75,0001 b. of honey; and in 1880, from 400 colonies,
20,0001 b., worth 2,000 dollars. The latter was a bad
honey year. During the latter year he secured 600
new colonies from the 400, and commenced 1881 with
1,000 colonies of bees, valued at 7,000 dollars, inde-
pendent of the cost of the hives. Mr. Jones expects
to clear 10,000 dollars this year, unless something un-
foreseen occurs.

AVERAGE PRICES OF BRITISH CORN.—The following
are the average prices of British corn for the week
ending April 23, as received from the inspectors and
officers of Excise :—Wheat, 445. 9d. ; barley, 31s. 11d. ;
oats, 225. 7d. per imperial quarter. Corresponding
week last year :—Wheat, 48s. lci. ; barley, 325. Bd.;
oats, 245. 11d.
HOPS IN MANITOBA.—A correspondent of the
American Register states that very soon Manitoba
expects to rank hops anapngst its chief exports, for
they grow wild there, undisturbed y insects. Along
the wooded shores of the Pembina there are thousands
of acres covered with hop vines, and sonjetimes for
miles together the small trees are so interlaced with
them that it is almost impossible for the traveller to
proceed through the woods.

ANTISEPTIC USE ON CAMPHOR..—The virtues of
camphor as a specific against infection are so generally
recognised that the intimation of a probable scarcity
of the article will excite general concern (says Land
and Water), Its use as an antiseptic has increased
considerably of late years, and with this growing
demand prices during the last four years have gone up
from 655. to 85s. per 100 lb. in this country; while at
Kobe, in Japan, which is one of the principal places
from which camphor is exported, the increase has
been from 14 dols. to 21 dols. The additional demand
and the larger profits realised, have led to excessive
cultivation, with the result that the camphor districts
are now threatened with a drain of their resources.
In Toga, growers are already reduced to the expedient
of boiling the roots of the trees, the stalks and branches
having disappeared. There is, of course, the chance
that other parts of the world may offer facilities for
the cultivation of the camphor tree, but Ut is of slow
growth, and only the produce of trees of great age is
esteemed by traders. Under these circumstances
there seems too much reason to fear that the most
popular of antiseptics will neither be cheap nor plenti-
ful for some time to come.

RENTERS' SHARES IN DRURY-LANE THEATRE.—The
other day two renters' shares in Drury-lane Theatre
were submitted to competition at the Guildhall
Coffee-house, London, by Mr. George Robins. The
shares were offered in two separate lots. The par-
ticulars stated that the shares are held for a period of
seventy-five years and a quarter, from the 29th of
September, 1819, and were originally entitled to 2s. 6d.
per night of performance, but an annual dividend is
now paid upon them, together with a free admission,
admitting upon all occasions and to every performance,
transferable or saleable annually, and that the last
dividemd declared, which was paid in January last,
was £lO 2s. 6d. per share, the particulars adding
that the next dividend would in all probability
be enhanced, consequent upon the unprecedented
success under the present management. The auc-
tioneer, in introducing the property, said that there
was the best security for an increasing dividend
on the shares. The lessee's rental this year was
£5,000 for 200 performances, and £lO per night for
each additional performance, while next year the
rental would be 26,C00 for 200 performances, and £lO
per night afterwards for each performance. The two
shares were ultimately sold for £66 and £6B respec-
tively, as against £7l which similar shares realized in
October last, when the dividend was less than the pre-
sent. Two renters' nominations, admitting to all
performances until the 28th of September next were
afterwards offered, and sold for £1 10s. each. A table
showing the rates of dividends on renters' shares for
the last nine years accompanied the particulars, from
which it appeared that within that period the divi-
dends have varied from 25 to £l2 10s., the last-named
dividend being paid in 1877 and £ll 17s. in 1878.

"SORRY HE SPOKE."—Bulky Old Gent (making the
twelfth inside). "Phew! Dreadfully stuffy these
'busses ! ! Strong-minded slim Lady (severely).
"We did not remark it till you came in, sir !
Punch.
GETTING RICH AT THE RATE OF Two MILLION THREE
HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS A DAY.—Mr. T. M.
Coan, in a recent article in Harper's Magazine, refer-
ring to the total valuation of national wealth, rays:
"We stand near the head of the list—third on the
list of all the Western nations. The United Kingdom
of Great Britian and Ireland heads the list with a
capital valuation of 44,400,000,000 dols. ; then comes
France with 36,700,000,000 dols. ; the United States
with 32,000,000,000 dols. ;Germany with 22,000,000,000
dols. ; Russia with 15,000,000,000 dols., and the Low
Countries with 11,150,000,000 dols, of capital collec-
tively. These are the valuations made by those coun-
tries of their entire resources. The average annual
income per inhabitant in the United Kingdom is
165 dols. ; in the United States 165 dols. also; in the
Low Countries 130 dols. ; in France 125 dols. ; in the
British Colonies 90 dols. • in Germany, and also in
Scandinavia, 85 dols. In this reckoning Russia, with
her ninety millions of people, is out of sight as yet.
She will not be very long. The annual accumulation
of wealth in Germany is 200,000,000 dols. ; 325,000,000
dols. in the United Kingdom ; 375,000,000 dols, in
France; in the United States it is 825,000,000 dols.
Every ay that the sun rises upon the American people
it sees an addition of 2,300,000 dols. to the wealth of
the Republic.
RABBITS IN AUSTRALIA.—In Victoria complaints
about the rabbit nuisance are as numerous and as loud
as ever, judging from a letter which appears in the
Australasian. The writer says :—" In many instances
the army of famished rabbits in the north-western
district of Victoria, driven bY hunger from their
breeding places in the vast area covered by the mallee,
contest successfully against the selector for the pos-
session of his crop, and in spite of guns, traps, dogs,
and poison, have at times fairly beaten him. Where
the crop has been saved, it has been by watching the
paddocks night and day, and keeping the rabbits off
by dog and gun; and even when thevgrain has been
cut and stacked, the rabbits have crept between the
circle of sentinel dogs posted round, and committed
great damage to the stacks."
THIRTY-TWO YEARS' EVICTIONS IN IRELAND.—A
Parliamentary return has been issued of cases of
Irish evictions which have come to the knowledge
of the constabulary in each of the years from 1849
to 1880. In 1849, 90,440 persons were evicted,
of whom 18,375 were re-admitted. In 1850 the
evictions rose to 104,163, and the re-admissions
to 30,292. Since that period the numbers rapidly
fell till in 1860 they only amounted to 2,985.
They, however, again increased, and in 1864, 9,201
persons were evicted. There was again a falling off,
and in 1869 the lowest number was reached, and 1,741
persons were evicted. Since then there has been a
gradual increase, and in 1879 the figures stood at
6,239, and in 1880 at 10,457, the re-admissions being
663 and 1,024 respectively. The totals from 1849 to
1880 are—evicted, 90,107 families, 460,570 persons; re-
admitted, 21,340 families, 115,859 persons.

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