biglam/hmd_newspapers huggingface dataset:
The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-10-24

BOARD OF GUARDIANS.

The usual meeting of this Board was held
yesterday; Mr. Grainger, in the chair. There
w. re also present :—Messrs. I. Rollinson, Wood,
Giles, finest, Baker, NV. Rollinson, H. Billing-
ham, J. Billinghaw, Horner, Thompson, Hall,
Hindus, Fiddiau and Homes. The minutes of
the last meeting wereread and confirmed. Ad-
mitted into the louse during the week, 9 ;
discl:arged, 6; dead, 2; born, U; remaining, 312.
Corresponding week last year, 311.—Out door
relief Kingswinford district .k 2.3 us 10.1; Stour-
bridge district, £.17 Os lid ; Halesowen district,
4:16 16s 101 ; non-resident paupers, Ils fhl ;
total £5B Is 01; against £59 16s 714 last year.

TECHNICAL EDIXATION.—With the view of
promoting technical education examinations in
the technology of various manufactures are now
held annually, at nunierons centres throughout
the kingdom, by the Society for the Encourage-
ment of Arts, Manufactures. aud Commerce.
These examinations are specially intended for
artlsans, and the subjects selected for 1875 are :
—Cotton, Paper, steel, Silk,Carriages,
Pottery and Pore.hie, Ws Manufacture, Glass
! Making, Cloth Manufacture, Agriculture, Silk
Dyeinsr, Wool Dyeing, Calico Bleaching, Dyeing,
and Printing, and Alkali Manufacture. A cer-
tAiti amount of knowledge of general science is
required from each canditate, and this is tested
by the Examinations of the Government Depart-
ment of Science and Art. Certificates of three
grades are awarded, and prizes and scholarship.
are offered for competiou. Full particulars
are given in the programme, which may be had
yratis, on application to Secretary of the Society
of Arts, Adelphi, London.
Tee Lan nUKOLARY. —At tb Worcestershire
Michanlmas Sessions, before Mr. G. W. Hastings,
on Wednesday last, Herbert Partridge (14), titter,
sac indicted for breaking into the house of Elias
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-10-24

THE PRICE OF COAL.

A correspondent, " L,"_writes to The Tintee

Sir,—Having recently returned from a visit to the
collieries in the North, I beg, very briefly, to lay
before you the result of my inquiries and observations
relative to a matter now occupying so much of public
attention, and which, as the year grows older, will
doubtless occupy more of it—namely, the price of coal;
for, as the miners have refused to accept the reduc-
tion of 20 per cent, required by the coalowners in self-
defence, it is but right that the public should be in a
position to judge for itself on that which is of such
importance to it.
As regards the relations between capital and labour,
and the effect they may have upon the price of coal,
the case stands somewhat thus :
During the years 1871-72-73 the wages of men and
boys in the Northumbrian collieries were increased 50
per cent. In the spring of the present years reduction
of 10 per cent, was made, leaving the increase stilt at
the handsome figure of 40 per cent., the wages earned
daily averaging in steam coal collieries 9s. 94. a day
for hewers and 4s. 80. for putters—boys from 15 to 18
years of age--the working days being from nine to ten
each fortnight. In addition to this liberal rate a pay,
comfortable roomy cottages, with gardens and abund-
ance of fuel, were and are supplied at the owners' ex-
pense; while the best medical advice is always obtain-
able, likewise at the owners' charges.

Now, in the years enumerated above, the highest
price obtained for steam round coal was 208. 7d. per
ton delivered on board, and for small Os. 61., and
these prices only lasted for a short time in 1873. At
the present time the price of steam coal has fallen to
15s. 6d. and for others 3s. 6d., the small coal being
almost unsaleable at any price, remaining at the pit's
mouth in huge accumulations until, as frequently
happens, they are slowly destroyed by generated com-
bustion.
When, AA in 1873, the price of coals ranged high and
the trade flourished, the miners liberally participated
in the profits of the collieries. Now, when there is
great depression in the market and such a falling off in
the trade generally, it is surely not unreasonable on
the part of the owners to ask to be relieved of some
portion of the pressure put upon them, more especially
when, just now, many of the colliery preprietors can
scarcely cover their actual working expenses.
In prosperous years they did not refuse or hesitate
to admit the miners to a liberal share in their pros-
perity. They now only require a like consideration
towards themselves. The small reduction demanded
does not at all keep pace with the great fall in prices,
and it is to be hoped that the good sense of all parties
will yet smooth away every difficulty, for the question
has much to do with the British public (in whose in-
terests alene I trouble you with this letter), as upon
its solution depends, in the ensuing winter, the import-
ant and much agitated subject to which I have referred
in the heading of my letter.

Ictober 16.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-10-24

POCKET POSTAL WEIGHTS.

Those who are in the habit of writing letters to any
extent, whether in respect of home or foreign corre-
spondence, must sometimes feel at a loss as to the
number and value of the stamps to be put upon them.
Weighing balances exist in most offices and studies, no
doubt, but weights get mislaid or lost, and then the
writer is in a difficulty. Now, most correspondents
have some money in their pockets, and this may be
made a substitute for weights if people only know how
to use them for the purpose. Let it be our task to tell
them. As the commonest pocket weights, bronze
coins may be mentioned; they are generally at
hand. At the Mint one pound weight of bronze
is cut into forty-eight pence. Sixteen ounces
go to a pound, and, therefore, three penny
pieces go to an ounce, and for home letters three
pennies in weight equal one penny stamp. One pound
of bronze, again, is cut into eighty halfpence, there-
fore five halfpence weigh one ounce exactly, and in
the scale would show that a penny stamp was needed
to carry a letter of that weight or less. Ten farthings
(a coin now seldom seen) are just as good. Standard
silver coins are all made at the rate of sixty-six
shillings to the pound troy. Thus five shillings weigh
just below the ounce, if in good condition. Ten
sixpences do the same, and the hall-crown weighs a
trifle less than half an ounce. Here, again, are ready-
made weights for postal duty. Sovereigns are
within a shade of a quarter ounce each in weight
—for foreign correspondence, then, a sovereign is
just the thing. Two half.sovereigns weigh also very
nearly the quarter ounce, and they meet the require-
ments of foreign letters too. If these facts be borne in
mind no one need be long in trouble about the weight
and proper number of stamps to be put upon letters.
To sum up briefly the foregoing, we give the following
table : Three pennies, 1 ounce, equal to one penny
postage stamp; live halfpennies weigh 1 ounce, one
penny postage stamp; ten farthings, 1 ounce, one
Penny postage stamp; five shillings, 1 ounce, one penny
postage stamp; one half-crown, ji ounce, one extra
half-penny stamp; ten sixpences, 1 ounce, one penny
stamp ; one sovereign, ounce, one foreign stamp;
two half-sovereigns, ounce, one foreign stamp.
—London Iron Exchange.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-10-24

POrATOIi9.

The arrivals of potatoes have increased, and a fair busi-
ness is doing, at the following prices Regents, 70s. to 005
rocks, toe, to 705.; and kidneys, 100 a to 120 s. per ton
Foreign potatoes The imports of potatoes into London last
eak amounted to 4,140 bags from Antwerp, 10 baskets from
Rotterdam, Is hamburg, 100 Brusstls, and 577 bags from
Tcrneuten.