The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-01-02 00:00:00

jI istdlautw

*HOME, FOREIGN, AND COLONIAL

CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES.—It appears from a
Parliamentary return just issued that at the end of
1873 there were in England and Wales 790 industrial
and provident (co-operative) societies, with 340,930
members, a share capital of £3,334,104, and a loan
capital of £431,808. Their net profits during the year
amounted to £958,721, the. dividends declared due to
members to £861,964, and the dividends allowed to
non-members to £18,555." In Scotland there were 188
societies, with 46,371 members, a_ share capital of
2235,858, and a loan capital of 284,932. The net profits
were £10,302; the dividends to members, £132,643,
and to non-members, £3,147. In Ireland, five societies
*made returns, with 464 members, a share capital of
.21,445 2s. 4d., and a loan capital of £9O. The disposable
net profits were £863 Bs. sd.

DEATH OF AN INVENTOR.—According to the
;Paris Figaro the death of Cabirol is announced, the
:inventor of the apparatus used 'by divers, and so
familar to those who have been more than once to the
Polytechnic. He was for some time connected with
the pearl and coral fisheries, and it was at the ripe age
of fifty years, after having lost a modest independence,
that only many years of labour had enabled him
to lay by, that he turned his attention to the im-
provement of the means usually employed for sub-
aqueous operations.

POSTAGE STAMPS. —The Inland Revenue re-
turns for the financial year 1873-74 show that the large
number of 183,427,07 penny stamps were required in
the year for use on receipts, draughts, &c. The num-
ber averages above half a million for every day in the
year, and produces for the public purse =ore than
three-quarters of a million sterling.

- A PLAGUE OF RATS.—In a few years' time,
unless some active measures are taken, London may
expect great trouble from rats. It is a startling fact
that one pair of rats, with their progeny, will produce
In three years no less a number than 646,808. A doe
rat will have from six to eight nests of young each
year for four years together, and from 12 to 23 at a
litter; and the young does will breed at three months
old; and there are more females than males, at an
average of about ten to six. If they ran about the
streets like cats and dogs, the public would be terrified,
but, as they hide and work in the dark, men seldom
Ei ee or think of them. Brick drains are their chosen
haunts; 'skirting boards, backs of fire-places, under
the flooring, or between the rafters are their places for
breeding. The London sewermen state that brick
drains are the rats' best friends, and that nothing but
glazed pipes with heavy sink traps will stop the sewer
mats getting into houses. They will not go up pipes
for the fear of being drowned, knowing they have no
means of escape. They are seen in the sewers mi-
grating in communities to some discovered quarter for
food, and the sewer-men believe that they have a
litnguage of their own. If builders were to case
skirtixtg boards with galvanised plating, particularly
each.coiner:eit would stop the virmin considerably.
Care should also be taken to fill with concrete and
skoall stones or broken glass the space under and about
fire-places, as the doe rats choose that quarter for
bkeeding on account of the warmth.—Builder.
• RAILWAYS IN THE COLONIES.—From a general
report just made by Captain Tyler to the Board of
Trade, the total length of railways open and working
in the British Empire on Lhe 31st of December, 1873,
was 27,564 miles. On reference to the population of
the several colonies, Queensland has the greatest
number of miles in proportion to her population. She
has 236 miles, and her population is 146,000. But it
will afford additional interest to know that this colony
has 200 miles more nearly completed; and a proposal
has been made to construct a line the -entire length of
the colony, which, when completed, will be one of the
longest lines in the world.

;A. GENTLE TAX.—In the year 1867 there
were 55,603 persons in Great Britain taxed for using
armorial bearings; seven years afterwards,- in 1874,
tiale number had grown to 5,088, an increase of 2,485.
The number of those who bear their arms upon their
carriages, and, consequently, pay the higher duty, in-
creamed by 4,784, and in 1874 had become 19,861, or
more than a third of the whole number; but the num-
ber paying the lower duty for using armorial bearim:s,
hilt not upon a carriage, decreased by 2.299, and Was
thus reduced to 38,227 in 1874. There had been an
alteration in the duties; the higher duty, which was
525. 9d. in 1867, had been reduced to 425., and the
lower duty had been increased from 13s. 2d. to 21s.

GREAT RAILWAY ACCIDENTS.—Tho following
list of the principal railway casualties, wherein the
deaths have exceded 12, possesses a melancholy inte-
rest at the present moment (remarks the Standard) :
Versailles, May 8, 1842, 52; near Straffan Ireland,
Oct. 5, 1853, 13; Burlington, between New 'Yolk and
Philadelphia, August 29,1854, 21 ; Campbell, Pennsyl-
vania, Ray 17, 1856, over 10. Q ; Mons, Belgium, June,
1858, 21; Round Oak, near Birmingham, August 23,
14; Clayton Tunnel, August 25, 1861, 23; Kentish
Town, Sept. 2, 1861, 16.; Winchburg, Edin., and
Glasgow, Oct., 13, 1862, 15; Canada (St. Hilaire),
June 29, 1864, 83; Rednal peat Western), June 7,
1865, 13; Abergele (not including six subsequent
-deaths), 27; Thorpe Norwich, September, 1874, 27;
Shipton, near Woodstock, Dec. 24, 1874, 31.
TRUE SORROW !—Forty-one Georgians stood
around the death-bed of old Mr. Perkins, their rich
relative, and shed tears as the cold hand of death
was laid upon his brow. When the will was opened,
and they found that he had left all his property to
found a college, forty-one Georgians started for home,
exclaiming, " Kussim 1 "—Detroit Press.
WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.—Last week a Par-
liamentary Blue-Book was issued, containing the
eighth annual report of the Wardens of the Standards
in the proceedings and business of the Weights and
Measures Department to the Board of Trade for the
year 1873-4. During the past year an application was
made to the Standards Department.on the parsot. the
Dean and Ceaplei• Vindsor:for an authoritative
statement of the legal weight of a.chaldron of coals.
This was required for the purpose of renewing certain
leases, in which two tons of coals was to be substituted
for the old chaldron measure as a rent basis, and a
question was raised whether a chalaron of coals was
equivalent in weight to 24 or 25i cwt. The question
was satisfactorily settled by it being shown that the
equivalent in legal weight of a chaldron measure of
coals within 25 miles of the General Post Office to be
25 cwt., under the provision of a local Act passed in
1831.