The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-08-21 00:00:00

BRITISH AND FOREIGN.

The arrivals of emigrants at New York are de-
clining. The August total is not expected to exceed 22,000.
On Saturday it was officially stated that the number
of Public Acts passed in the present Session was only twenty-
two, and of local statutes one hundred and seventy.
A return issued recently shows that in England
3,888 persons have been fined and 87 imprisoned for non-
compliance with the Vaccination Act. In Wales 41 persons
have been fined and none imprisoned.
The French in some instances carry their love of
statistics to a ludicrous length. One of their statisticians
actually took a census of all the rats in Paris! Their number
he returns at 2,345,846. His object, he says, in making the.
return, is that certain means which he proposes for their
extirpation, should be adopted.—Court Journal.
The Sough Wales Daily News states that the Prime
Minister, in communicating to Mr. E. J. Reed, M.P. for
Cardiff, the fact that Her Majesty had conferred on him the
Knight Commandership of the Bath, stated that the distinc-
tion was indisputably and amply merited by services he had
rendered to the country, chiefly in connexion with Her
Majesty's Navy. The honour, though quite unsolicited and
unexpected, has afforded the liveliest satisfaction to Sir
Edward Reed's constituency andi the Liberals generally of
South Wales.
The colliers throughout North Staffordshire gave
fourteen des a' notice on Saturday for a rise of ten per cent.
in wages. From 15,000 to 16,000 ground workers are
affected by the notice. The improvement in trade, and the
promise of the employers at the time of the last reduction to
reconsider prices when trade improved, are assigned as rea-
sons for the steps taken by the men.
The supply of live stock and fresh meat from the
United States and Canada last week was, of live stock an in-
crease, and of fresh meat a decrease, when compared with
the preceding week. The totals were as follows: 2,465
cattle, 4,955 sheep, 363 pigs, 3,256 quarters of beef, 370 car-
cases of mutton, and 145 carcases of pigs.
There were 27 British and foreign wrecks reported
during the past week, making a total of 857 for the present
year, or a decrease of 186 as compared with the correspond-
ing period of last year. The approximate value of property
lost was £840,000, including British £750,000.
Mr. Gladstone has written to say that he will not
be able to visit Leeds this year. He adds that he has no
doubt that he ought to avoid during the coming autumn any
addition to his necessary duties which can properly be dis-
pensed with.
On Wednesday evening in last week an excursion
train in two sections was returning to Philadelphia from
Atlantic City, on the Jersey coast, when the second section
ran into the first, smashing the rear coaches. Twenty persons
were killed and fifty-three were injured.
At the London Corn Market, on Monday, trade in
wheat was dull, and prices declined is. to 2s. per qr. on the
week, owing to the favourable progress of the harvest opera-
tions and the prospect of large shipments of grain from the
United States. Some samples of new English wheat were
exhibited, but the prices were irregular.
At Civita Vecchia on Saturday was performed the
ceremony of presenting a silk flag to the Italian ironclad
Roma, whose captain, in accepting the gift from the ladies
who had worked it, promised that it should always be
valiantly defended.
The following are the average prices of British corn
for the week ending August 14, as received from the inspec-
tors and officers of Rreise :—Wheat, 445. 4d. ; barley, 2Us. 7d.:
oats, 245. 6d. per imperial qr. Corresponding week last
year :—Wheat, 495. 5d.; barley, 31s; oats, 235. 6d.
From the Sydney Mail we learn that during the past
year there has hftn an increase of about 5,000,000 of sheep in
the colony of New South Wales. The number held on the
Ist of January last is estimated at 30,000,00 U, and the actual
weight of wool, washed and greasy, forwarded for shipment
from this number, according to the experience of the past,
should not be less than 142,500,0001 b.
The half-yearly meeting of shareholders of the Mid-
land Railway Company was held on Tuesday at Derby. Mr.
M. W. Thompson, the chairman, congratulated the meeting
on the favourable nature of the accounts, and, speaking of
the Employers' Liability Bill, he said he was afraid that if
the Bill were passed as it stood it would seriously affect the
friendly relations at present subsisting between the great
body of railway employes and the governing body. He
hoped that before it became law its provisions, as affecting
railway companies, would be greatly modified. The report,
which recommended a dividend at the rate of 6 per cent, per
annum, was adopted.
The reports of the potato crop, published in the
Gardeners Chronicle are to the effect that disease has made
its appearance very generally all over the country, some
localities remaining free from it, as Is usual in every season.
Advices received from Chicago state the wheat
crop of the United States for the current yeax will exceed
the enormous yield of 1879. Kansas and Nebraska have
produced less than last year, but the increase of acreage and
large yield per acre elsewhere swell the total production.
The surplus available for export this year is estimated at
nearly, if not quite, 200,000,000 bushels.
Sunday, the 15th, being the anniversary of the day
on which the national fete was held in France during the
reign of Napoleon 111., a number of Bonapartists attended
mass at Notre Dame. On leaving the church after the per-
formance of high mass, they raised cries of" %lye Cassagnac,"
but were met with counter cries from the crowd which had
assembled.
On Tuesday, soon after the meeting of the House of
Commons, Sir Charles Dilke, Under-Secretary of State for
Foreign Affairs, was obliged by illness to leave the House and
return home. Sir Charles some time ago suffered from an
attack of rheumatic gout, but persisted against advice in
attending to his duties in the House and at the Foreign Office,
when the attack assumed a more acute form, and Sir Charles
found himself unable to remain at his post. On reaching
home medical assistance was called. No dangerous
symptoms were, however, manifest, and it is anticipated that
with a few days' rest and care the Under-Secretary will be
enabled to resume his official duties.
The death is announced of Thomas Smith, of
Revesby, a Waterloo veteran. He served also through the
Peninsular War. At the time of his death he was 91 years
of age.
A series of dreadful thunderstorms have visited the
various districts in the counties of Cork and Kerry in the
past few days. Three men have been killed, two houses
belonging to labourers at Doneraile have been destroyed,
and in the park of Lord Doneraile three splendid horses
have been struck dead.
The cuirass, which is now only retained in the
armies of four European countries, viz. France, Germany,
Russia, and England, seems likely to disappear altogether.
In France the cuirass has recently been laid aside in six out
of the twelve regiments which formerly wore it, and it is
believed that before long it will be abolished altogether in
the ilerman army.
on Saturday morning three brothers, sons of Mr.
W. H. Gibson, wherry agent, South Shields, were bathing
in the sea on the Durham coast near to that town, when, in
consequence of a strong off-set of the tide, the eldest
brother,-William, who was swimming, was carried out of
his depth. His youngest brother, Leonard, sixteen years of
age, who swam out to his rescue, was drowned. William
saved himself by clinging to a rock.—On the previous morn-
ing Mr. W. T. Napier, of Sunderland, was bathing at Roker,
at the mouth of the Wear, when he got into an off-set current
and was drowned.
Flames were discovered the other afternoon in the
centre of a drawing-room in Cliftonville, Brighton, and an
investigation of the cause revealed the fact that a table had
been set on fire, in consequence of the cover becoming
Ignited by the sun's rays, which had been concentrated
through the medium of a decanter of water. Fortunately,
the ,discovery was made before the fire had communicated
Itself to any other article of furniture in the room.
No less than two hundred high officials of the
Crown—Ministers, diplomats, judges, delegations of both
Houses of the Cortes, and of the Madrid Town Council, pre-
lates, priests, and every member of the Royal family will be
present at the accouchment of the Queen of Spain. They
will not only have to be present, but must be in Madrid and
within easy summons, from the 28th inst.
The Geneva Correspondent of the Standard tele-
graphs :—The road between Chamouni and Geneva is at
present blocked up, near Sallanches, by an avalanche of
rocks, carried down by torrents from the neighbouring
mountains. Travellers are obliged to change diligence at
this point. No accident is reported.
Pigeon flyers will hear with some little astonishment
that the Hudson County pigeon race was won last month by
a bird that accomplished the distance (500 miles) in four
hours and three-quarters.
The Citizen states that at the Auction Mart the
other day an offer at the rate of £104,000 per acre, was refused
for certain freehold land in Princes-place, Coleman-street,
London, upon which stand three cottages and a washhouse.
Great activity prevails at the Meudon aeronautical
school, where the French Government has established exten-
sive works for the construction of a large number of war
balloons. Each of these, 10 metres in diameter, will be made
of silk, varnished by a process invented in 1794. Not less
than 40 of them will be sent to the several French armies for
the purpose of making captive or free ascents when required.
Mr. M. A. Bass, M.P., speaking at the opening of a
free library at Smethwick, strongly insisted on the import-
ance, indeed the necessity of technical education, if the
British working classes were to compete successfully with
foreign workmen.
In opening a bazaar at Blackpool, Major-General
Feilden, M.P. for North Lancashire, said it was not his in-
tention to make a political speech, but he felt it was their
bounden duty to hold to the Church. Much as he valued
Nonconformity, he could tell them this, that he would, if
necessary, fight to the death for the Church of England. It
was his belief that the system of the Church was better
than any other on the earth. The parochial system had
proved invaluable, and in America and the colonies the
Church of England was looked up to perhaps even more
than in this country. Though there was no Established
Church in America, nothing would grieve the leading
citizens of that country more than the disestablishment of
the English Church. There was no doubt rough times
would come upon her, but the rougher the times the
greater must be their determination to defend their rights.
We learn from the Registrar-General's report that
scarlet fever last week showed the largest proportional
fatality in Sunderland and Bradford. Small-pox eausea
six more deaths in London, but not one in any of the nine-
teen large provincial towns. Two fatal cases of diphtheria
occurred in Plymouth, Manchester, and Salford. The deaths
referred to diarrhoea in the 20 towns, which had been 677
and 711 in the two preceding weeks, further rose to 807 last
week- they were equal to an annual rate of 5-0 per 1,000 in
London, and to an average rate of 6.3 in the 19 other towns.
The death-rate from diarrhcea ranged from 2-1 and 22 per
1,000 in Wolverhampton and Bristol, to 10.4 and 11-2 In
Leicester and Salford.
Reports received in Plymouth from agriculurista in
all parts of the three western counties concur in givirig
glowing accounts of the harvest, now fully in progress In
m parts heavy rain laid the wheat, but this has not
some
the yield, although more manual Labour is in con-
sequence required. Wheat, oats, and barley are much above
the average, and straw is abundant and strony beg.Nilnug pchehxa3e,riis.
enced one fi
still out, but heavy crops are being saved, in good condi-
tion.
cropsone are unusually Potatoes go ondr
a full crop, and
'
dist rict.
comparatively free from disease, but apples are scarce.
Grieyeinn
Miss Lillian Adelaide Neilson, who only a few days
ago returned from a successful tour in America, died in
Paris on Sunday morning. It seems that on the previous
evening, while driving in the Bois de Boulogne, she suddenly
became ill. Two friends who were with her at the time
took her to d.restaurant, but the efforts made to restore her
were of no avail. The post-mortem, examination showed
that the cause of her death was aneurism. According to a
memoir recently published, Miss Neilson was born at
Saragossa about thirty years ago. Her father was a Spanish
artist, her mother an Faaglishwoman.
An exciting incident occurred at Beach y Head on
Monday. A young man descended the grass slope, taking
for granted that the foothold was similar all the way to the
beach. After going for some distance, however, he was dis-
mayed to observe that he had come to the edge of the cliff
itself, and that the slope by which he had descended was too
steep to permit him to return. For two hours and a half
his cries were unheard, but eventually he was rescued by
four coastguard with the aid of crowbars and ropes.
The greatest excitement was caused among the numerous
visitors who witnessed the rescue.
According to a telegram received at Lloyd's the
captain, second mate, and 11 hands of the Dundee, British
barque, a vessel of 1,269 tons officially numbered 52,564, of
and from Dundee, for Bombay, with coals, arrived at Rio
Janeiro on July 24 in the first lifeboat, and reported that a
fire broke out in the cargo on the morning of July 13. All
air holes were immedietely filled up and hatches were bat-
tened down, all sails set, and the vessel put about for Rio
Janeiro. The fire, however, became so serious the next day
that preparations were made to abandon the vessel, and on
the morning of July 15, at 11 a.m., she was abandoned in
hit, 25 S., long 32 W. The captain, second mate, and 11
hands took the first lifeboat, and the first mate and eight
hands took the second lifeboat. Provided with compass,
chart, well provisioned, and instructed to make for Rio
Janeiro, the boats kept company. for two days; but the
sesond as lost sight of the following evening.

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