The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-07-20 00:00:00

A SEAPORT DESTROYFID BY AN
EARTHQUAI
_ _

A correspouvleut of the lloug:Kong Pao; writes—

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The earthquake almost completely destroyed the
large seaport town of Ilaniada, the capital of
Sekishu, situated on the west coast of Japan,
in 41 degs. north latitude and 132 deg-s. east
longitude, being ISO English miles almost due west
of Kobe. This appears to have been the centre of
the earthquake. On the, first shock, which was
the most severe, the people had barely time to
get clear from their houses before they saw them
tumble to pieces. he number of people killed is es-
timated roundly at 500. As the earthquake occurred
at about the hour devoted to the evening meal, the
remains of the kitchen tires were st.ll smouldering,
and igniting the dthri4 of foreign timber it flared
up into a conflagration, thus adding to the terror
of the sufferers, and completing the awful calamity
originated by the convulsive throes of the earth.
The earthquake appears to have lasted a consider-
able time, and so Revere were the shocks that the
terror-stricken population were unable to walk, and
were obliged to crawl away upon their bends aud
knees so best they could, in search of some place of
eafety, generally making for the nearest bamboo
groves, as the Japanese considered them the safest
resorts in such emergencies, it being their opinion that
the complete net-work formed by the interlaced roots
of the bamboos underground binds the earth tog,sther,
and thus lessens its liability to open and swallow them
up. Many large fissures and crevices opened up in and
about the town, from which the sea-water gushed forth
in plentiful streams.

LORD SHAFTESBURY ON THE CAUSE
OF PAUPERISM.
The Earl of Shaftesbury presided on Saturday at the
annual meeting, in the Library of the Social Science
Association, of the Metropolitan and Provincial Poor
Law Officers' Association. At the close of the ordi-
nary business of the meeting his lordship expressed
the great pleasure with which he found that the Poor
Law officers had so becoming and excellent an organi-
zation for the maintenance of their position and
the protection of their interests. He spoke in
high terms of the value of the deliberations of
a body of men whose daily business it was to
sift out the merits of all cases of applications for poor
relief. If the poor were treated with the consideration
to which they were entitled -if they were given a fair
field and no-favour, he was not sure that even for the
struggling classes at the present time this country
was not the best on the face of the earth. Of one
thing he was very certain that in the domiciliary con-
ditions which prevailed in all large towns lay the main
source, the cause of nearly all the pauperism. If they,
going constantly among the people to inquire and report,
could do anything to mitigate those conditions, they
would accomplish more towards the solution of the
troublesome problem of pauperism than all the agencies
heretofore put into operation. He had been at work
for the last forty years trying to grapple with the evil
and eifect some improvement, and he did not think he
was very much farther forward than when he began.
Improved, however, the homes of the people must be,
or they would some day have a moral pestilence over-
taking them that would overwhelm society and bid
defiance to all their efforts. He trusted that attention
would be given to the matter, and that the mischief
would be corrected ere it was too late.