The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1875-07-06 00:00:00

Borriet Cottutti express.

TUINDAY. JULY 6. W 5.

NOTES OF THE WEEK.
Her Majesty, with Prince Leopold, and
Princess Beatrice and suite, will, according to
the present arrangements, on the 9th inst. leave
Windsor Castle for the late of Wight, where they
will reside until the middle of August, and then
leave for Scotland. The Court will remain at
Bahnoml until November, when it will return to
Windsor Castle.
__

The advocates of temperance are in a state of
exaltation et having received the support of the
two most powerful influences in England, if nut
in the world. The Queen and tho Times have
said a word in behalf of the movement. The
Queen 's message of approbation was sent to the
Rev. Basil Wilberforce, of Southampton, who
had forwarded to Her Majesty a number of
publications bearing on the subject. Sir Thomas
Biddulph replied :—" I am desired to thank you
for placing in her Majesty's hands works on a
subject of the deepest importance to her, and
to every one in this country. It is impossible for
the Queen not to be grateful to those who
endeavour to mitigate an evil of such magnitude
as the widely-spread intemperance which unfor-
tunately prevails."
The first quarter of the financial year being
over, people are looking at the returns to see, if
possible whether the twelve months will be
nationally profitable or not. The main fact of
the returns, however, is that the revenue is
inelastic. There is no falling off iu the national
income, but neither is there any increase. For
the quaxter just ended there was an apparant
overplus beyond the receipts of the seine quarter
of last year, but this disappears upon examina-
tion. The quarter between April and July in
1874 contained Passion Week and Easter Week,
while the same quarter this year began in the
middle of Easter Week, just after the holidays
of the season were over. In comparing the
revenue of 1875 with that of 1874, we must
make allowance for the difference of two or three
days of business ; and when this is taken into
amount, we see that the average daily income is
nearly the same ; indeed it may be called exactly
the same, when we remember that it is through
an irregularity that the miscellaneous receipts
show a surplus of £314,141 over what they
realised in April to July, 1874. What the total
revenue of the year will be it is too early to
estimate, seeing that this depends upon the
character of the harvest and the unknown
chances of political life. At present all that
can be said is that the revenue, if not station-
ary, shows an increase that is almost imper-
ceptible.
That Mr. Plimsoll haadonee.n immense amount
of good is proved by the Board of Trade return
giving the results of the working of the Act of
1873 which enabled the department to stop un-
seaworthy vessels from going to sea. We find
that 497 vessels were stopped, of which only 15
were afterwards found seaworthy, and the large
number of 464 unseaworthy. In addition, 48
more were stopped for alleged overloading, and
the return states that in no instance in which
the Act has been put in force has the allegation
of overloading or improper loading been found
gr dless. No doubt hundreds of lives have
thus been saved.
There is no potato disease after all. The
rumours and alarms that have lately prevailed
have been happily disposed of by a careful and
systematic inquiry into the state of the potato
crop made by Mr. Shirley 'libber,' and two
other practical horticulturists, who find that the
shrivelling of the plants, and the consequent
blanks in the rows, are, in a majority of
instances, attributable to wireworm. This
insect (the larva of the click beetle) has an
abominable fancy for potatoes, and attacks them
in various ways. In some eases the sets are
bored through and through and the worms dwell
content therein, and the rising plant ill scarcely
injured. In other cases the young tubers are
attacked and their growth arrested, the result
being a worthless crop the size of marbles. But
usually the worm takes a fancy to the tender
bark of the underground stein, and when it has
freely feasted thereon the plant is paralysed,
and the leaves and stems above ground perish.
There is, strictly speaking, no remedy ; but
cultivation keeps down the wireworin by con-
tinually exposing the little nest to the keen eyes
of the small hints. Those who are digging and
destroying the plants that have shrunk are
probably doing wrong, for the wirewornts that
are left in the ground will seek fresh woods and
pastures now, and plants hitherto untouched
will consequently suffer.
Petty pilfering by boys is again continue in
Dorchester, and the confectioner's shop kept by
Mr. Harrington (late Woolston's) is, as f old,
the frequent scene of small thefts. From a case
which came before the Bench on Monday it
would seem that the lads carry on their depreda-
tions with uncommon artfulness, going into the
shop and stealing tarts if there is nobody about,
but having a penny to pay for 011.0 should the
shopkeeper come out on thent too quickly. No
doubt that idleness, under the guise of • going
out to play," largely contributes to this pilfering ;
and we have constant evidence of the truth of Dr.
Watts' quatrain as to the mischief to which idle
hands are inclined. To some extent, therefore,
parents are to blame. Let them provide their
children with useful occupation, amid they will
be taking the best means of saving them from
temptati and wrong-doing. How rightly to
deal with juvenile offenders for these petty thefts
it is difficult to deter ttt itt e. If the magistrates
impose a fine, the parents are punished ; and
perlutia to souse extent they ought to be, yet
not them alone ; while sending a boy, who is
but a child to prison, is so serious a penalty
when we consider the taint of the gaol whicht
hereafter attaches to him, that it should scarcely
be done except as a last resort. Corporal
punishment alone remains, and that seems to us
the best corrective for these boyish peccadilloes.
Nominal imprisonment, with the application of
the birch rod, by one of the gaol warders, affords
in most of these eases punishment suitable to the
ai„ni of the lads and the character of their offence.
They are thus made to suffer ty an official hand,
clislassionately and' inexorably, sad its effects
are more likely to be productive of good alien
either fining the parents or sending a child
to gaol. !..it the former case they probably
angrily give a beating to the boy which may be
injurious to his body Let have no moral effect;
and in the latter it is simply ec, many days con-
finement in prison, for, of course, a sentence id
"lined labour" in the case of a little boy of 12,
is only "hard" and only " labour " in name.
We have no desire to see indiscrit tt ill ate whip-
ping, but in petty thefts of this kind we believe
the birch rod is the best corrective.
Several serious aceideuts have lately occurred
in the county, two br'"usg. swift death to men
in the full enjoyment lite. At Portland a
quarrynum, going to his work, felt .411'4.4° feetupon seine spalls ; and was so much
' nieces,' that he died in a couple of hours. On
the &nue 'day a porter at a grocer's in Dorchester
employe with a lad lowering tierces ot sugar
into a cellar, by means of a crab, was killed by
a breakage of the machinery. They were hurry-
ing on with the work, when the man below called'
to them to lower steadier, on which they seem
t., have suddenly checked the tierce units descent,
tho strain was WO much for the cnib, one handle
broke off and the other was whirled round with
great velocity. In its progress the man was
struck on the forehead, and his head shattered
beyond recovery. At the inquest " expert "
evidence was given by Mr. Fenner, engineer,
and tlui Borough Surveyor, but it all came to
this, that lowering heavy weights with the ordi-
nary winches should be done slowly and steadily'
or there is danger. In the present case they
had frequently moved much heavier casks, and
past immunity rendered them less careful than
they should have been, with the sad result of
killing the head of a family, and leaving a widow
and seven children to face the world alone. The
ease has excited a good deal of sympathy.
Subscription lists have been opened, and we hope
that very many will tmutribute something to
, alleviate the distress into which poor Frost's
i family have been so suddenly plunged.
The advantages that Weymouth offers as a
site for the Proposed College for Naval Cadets,
were rugixl with great ability in the House of
Commons on Friday night, by the excellent
member for Weymouth, Mr. Henry Edwards ;
and although his motion for further considera-
tion on the subject was defeated by the narrow
majority of twelve, the hon. member will have
rendered the borough good service by directing
general attention to ‘Vereouth's attractions.
Our esteemed county member, Mr. Floyer,
cordially supported Mr. Edwards, while the
neighbourhood of Poole was advocated by Mr.
E. Ashley and Sir H. D. Wolff, and in easo
Poole should be found unsuitable Mr. Ashley
place was Weymouth.
thought the next Lott
A spice uf drollery was given to the debate by
the different neeta,bers advocating the claims of
the phlox. they represeoscd. Mr. Ward Hunt,
in replying, did not cam any oyer-weening
prejudicto in favour of mobtli; indeed, at