The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-12-12 00:00:00

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BOARD OF GUARDIANS.

The usual meeting of this Board was held
yesterday; Mr. Granger, in the chair. There
were also present :—Messrs. I. Rollinson, H.
Billinghani, Haskcw, Hall, Baker, Giles, Guest,
Thompson, Wood, and B. Homes. Admitted
8; discharged 8 ; died 1; remaining, 231 ;
corresponding week last year, 354. Out door
relief: Kingswinford district, 1:22 19a 01 ;
Stourbridge district, £l7 Is 53; Halesowen
district, £l6 8s ; non-resident Ils 8 ; total
£57 Os 41 ; against £6O 13s 8; last year.

NEGLECT OF WORK.-.At the Petty Sessions held
yesterday, before Colonel Fletcher and Mr. B.
Cochrane, John Powell, John Campbell, Charles
Campbell, and John Burton, wore charged by Charles
Firmstone, their employer, with neglecting their work
on the HUI just, and claimed 20s for each, as compen-
sation. Defendants pleaded guilty. Mr. Clulee
proved the damage sustained. Mr. Firmstone said he
brought up the defendants on principle, as the work-
men were continually leaving for a day together, and
it naturally affected his contracts. Defendants wore
ordered to pay lOs each asicompensation, and costs,
17s tid.

ANOTHER CASE.—Willitun Kendrick was charged
with neglecting the work of Thomas Hill, on the sth
inst. Complainant, who has works at the Lye, proved
that the defendant left work without notice. The
defence was that defendant had not got proper tools.
This was denied by the manager. Fined is and costs,
and ordered to return to his work, which the defend-
ant agreed to do,

DRUNK AND ltzpicsiNCi To QUlT—George Kirton
Was charged with being drunk on the 30th, and refus-
ing to quit the Coach and Horses Inn, at Cradley.
Police-constable Roe proved that he was sent for by
Mr. Hiugley, the landlord. Defendant was drunk.
and had to be put out of the house. Several previ-
one convictions were proved against defendant. He
Was hued 5s and costs.i
CHARGE OF FRAUDULENTLY REMOVING GOODS.
—Charles Harris was charged by Henry Yates, agent
to Samuel Wilkes, with fraudulently removing a
quantity of goods, with intent to defraud him of 1
12s id, rent due. Defendant's answer to the charge
was that he was a lodger. After hearing further evi-
dence, the Bench did not consider the case proved to
their satisfaction, and dismissed the summons.
Gitoss CONDUCT—At the Polico Court. On Mon-
day afternoon, before Mr. C. E. Swindell, William
Pearson, a deaf and dumb shoemaker, was charged
with indecent exposure.—On the 15th ult, the
prisoner dogged a married woman named Eliza
Hill from her home at Pedmore, and when she
was in a lonely lane grossly insulted her, and, she
stated, prevented her passing on for half an hour.
On Sunday, Mrs. Hill saw the man pass her house,
and she at once followed him, and, having met
with her husband, he captured the prisoner, who
got away, and was recaptured after a long chase.
—The prisoner pleaded guilty, and was committed
for three months.

SAD EFFECTS OF DRINK.—An inquest was held
at the Duke William, Coventry-street, on Monday
evening last, before Mr. R. Docker, coroner, on
the body of John Partridge, aged 67, green-grocer
and general dealer, who met with his death some
few weeks previously. From the evidence it ap-
peared that deceased, who had formerly been a
marine, had, on the day of his death received his
pension. He afterwards drank pretty freely, and
at ten o'clock at night was s. en sitting by his own
fireside, with a glass of ale on the table near him.
He was intoxicated. Shortly afterwards, a boy
who lived next door informed his father that de-
ceased's house was full of smoke. He went and
looked through the window, and finding it to be
as his SOLI had stated, he attempted to open the
front door. Failing in this, the deceased called to
him to go round to the back He did so, and on
opening the door the smoke was so dense that he
could net at first enter; but direAly afterwards
he did so, and Etsw deceased lying at full length
upon the floor, with his clothing on fire. He at-
tempted to tear them off him, but could in t, aud
eventually a boy threw sonic water over deeetsed,
and extinguished the fire.—Mr. Dirt, surg !on,
attended deceased, and did all that WAS possible
for him, but he succumbed from the effect., a few
days after. The jury returned a verdict of Acci-
dental Death,

LECTURE ON "COAL AND COAL MINING.'
A lecture on the above subject was delivered at
tlri Union Hall, on Monday evening last, by Mr.
W. IL Collis, under the auspices of the Cher.l of
England Association. There was it very poor
tit tendanco.

Mr. collis profaced his lecture by saying that
coal of itself afforded so lunch scope, and was one
about which such a diversity of opinions were en-
tertained, that it would be impossible for him to do
anything like justice to it in the time he had at
his disposal that evening. He, therefore, proposed
to confine himself principally to the latter portion
of his subject, viz., coal mining. The question,
" What is coal ?" was one that was more easily
asked than answered. At a meeting of the Royal
Geographical Society which had been convened for
the purpose of determining what coal was, so
many diverse theories were broached, that eventu-
ally the meeting terminated without a precise de-
cision having been arrived u,t. It was, however,
now generally accepted that coal was of vegetable
origin of successive growths, extending over
lengthened periods of time, daring which they had
fallen upon the ground in tropical luxuriance; this
being the period described in Holy Writ as the
" Third Day." It had been estimated by geologists
that it would require at least one thousand years
to produce a seam of coal one foot thick, and, of
course, double that time to produce one two feet
in thickness. It would require four tons of wood
to yield the charcoal found in one ton of coal ; so
that 144100 tons of coal were equal to the whole of
the wood produced in Great Britain in a year. He
then described the formation of coal beds, which
were composed of successive deposits of leaves and
other decaying vegetable matter, in ages when
this country was under the influence of tropical
heat. He described the organic changes which
had taken place, and said that some geologists
thought each layer of coal was the product of one
revolution of the earth around the sun; and it was
thought that in the coal area the seasons may
have been snore tropical. He described the coal-
fields of various countries, and said the coal pro-
duced in England annually, was half that got by
the whole world together, The existence of coal
had been known in very early times to the Assy-
rians, and there was also mention made of coal in
the Old Testament; but he did not know whether
the latter referred to coal, as we now knew it, or to
charcoal, which was commonly used in Jewish
ceremonies. The Romans had worked coal in early
days, and the Chinese had used it many centuries
before it was known in Europe; but notwithstand-
ing this they had been very slow in turning it to
advantage. Not a stove or fire-pace was to be
found in that country so late as ten years ago. It
was not known in England until a considerable
time after the Norman conquest, In 1213 a char.
ter was granted to the men of Newcastle, to dig
co2l, and shortly afterwards it was sent to Lou-
don. In the year 1300 it was used by the brewers
in London. In 1307 a tax of 2d pm tolwas
spell it. It was a long time after this Tiefore emit