The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-06-21 00:00:00

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SATURDAY. JUNE SI, MS.

CURRENT TOPICS.

A rather peculiar case of affiliation was tried
before Mr. Kynnersley, the Stipendiary Magistrate
at Birmingham, on Monday last. The parties are
a Miss Mary Whitehouse, of Birmingham, and Mr.
Henry Bissiker, schoolmaster, of Corngreaves
School, Cradley Heath. From the evidence of
complainant herself it appeared that when the
alleged improper intimacy took place she was not
alarmed but" surprised " at defendant's behaviour,
and that she made no noise, upon defendant's
solicitation, not to do so lest her father, who was
sleeping in the next bedroom, should her. The
defendant, though strongly denying that any im-
proper intimacy had ever taken plaee between
them admitted kissing complainant, but alleged
that it was by no means unusual for persons of the
religious persuasion to which he belonged
(Wesleyan Methodist) to kiss when they met.
After the admissions of the complainant, coupled
with the fact that the alleged gay " Lothario " is
only 19 whilst the complainant is 30, we were not
surprised to find that the presiding magistrate de-
clined to make an order.

We have had numerons complaints of late re-
specting the nuisance caused in High-street, on
Sunday evenings by crowds of youths and girls,
who in knots of as many as 20 or 30 at a time
obstruct the throughfare, and' jostle " and "elbow"
respectablefemales who are returning from Church.
The language, too, used by these male and female
g' rowdies "—for we regret to say that the girls and
young women are many of them as bad as the
males—is at times peculiarly offensive and dis-
gusting, a few weeks age, we believe that three
youths who were brought up before one of the
London Magistrates charged with a similar offence
to the above were sentenced to three weeks' im-
prisonment without the option of a fine. The
nuisance has become a great and growing evil in
our town; and we should welcome with pleasure,
on behalf of the respectable portion of the com-
munity, any strong repressive measures that
would sure to abate it. What does Mr. Superin-
tendent Freeman say to this?

The nomination of candidates for the Sehoo.
Board was completed on Tuesday last, and the
following 16 gentlemen, are the persons nominated :
.—George William Prescott, Thomas Wall, James
Walker. Charles Cochrane, JP., Edwin Stringer,
James McEwen, Alfred Jones, Henry Billingham,
Henry Hughes, Edwin Stanley, Labau Hughes
Packwood, Richard Kelly, Joseph Hill, John
Branford, John Charles Addyes Scott, and John
Hughes. Mr. John Lowe, of Pepper Hill was also
nominated; but, unfortunately, it was discovered
when too late to remedy the error, that one of tho
nominators resided just outside of the township,
and consequently, the nomination was invalid.

Committee meetings have been held daily by the
respective Nonconformists and Church Committees
and canvassing is being carried on with vigour
with a view to enable them to return the whole of
their nominees. Mr. Scott, and vaaions other
gentlemen, who are not the nominees of any sect
or party have also issued addresses, and the con-
test for seats at the Board promises to be a very
exciting one. At present there seems to be a
wide-spread feeling amongst the ratepayers against
the six nominees—not generated, we believe, by
any personal dislike to the nominees themselves,
or want of faith in their capacity for the position
they are aiming to occupy, but from a dislike to
what is considered the dictatorial and surreptitious
manner in which it has been attempted to foist
them on the public. The fact they have been
selected at " packed " meetings, where persons
have only been admitted by circular, and that the
town has not been at all consulted respecting their
fitness, or otherwise, has set the majority of the
ratepayers against them, and we believe they will
try to prevent the whole of the" six" from going
on the Board. Whether this feeling will be
strong enongh to defeat the efforts of the combined
self-elected committees time will show.

At the annual Commissioners' meeting which
was held on Wednesday last, Mr. DlcEwin, one of
the six gentlemen put forward by the Noncon-
formist and Church Committees as candidates for
the School Board, was elected Chairman of the
Board of Commissioners' for the ensuing year.
Curiously enough, the gentleman who vacated the
chair in his favour is also a candidate for the School
Board; but, unlike Mr. McEwen, he is not one
of the selected six, but is an independent candidate
who was spontaneously proposed at the meeting
held on Friday night last, in the Corn Exchange.

With reference to the candidature for the posi-
tion of members of the School Bonn!; several
gentlemen have issued their addresses, most of
which will be seen in the advertising columns of
our paper. Amongst them are those of Messrs.
J. C. A. Scott, J. Hughes, and J. Hill; the two
latter gentlemen going in for decided scriptural
instruction in the schools. Mr. Scott states in his
address that he should not object to the reading of
Scripture in the school; but that he deemed it in-
expedient to allow any comment or explanation
which could ii_areely be safe-guarded against a,
nomination:ll bias. Ho reminded those who
might consider themselves fettered by an alleged
conpromise between Churchmen and Noncon-
formists that owing to the failure of that arrange-
ment to prevent a contest, they had now re-entered
into perfect possession of their electoral freedom.
He reminded the Nonconformists that they had
been placed in a clear minority, by an arrange-
ment that admitted three Churchmen and one
Roman Catholic upon the Board ; and called at-
tention to the fact that the coalition which took
the lead in desiring and dictating a peaceful
compromise," did not even send a delegate to the
public meeting. Such is a brief summary of Mr.
Scott's address, and as he has conic before the
public in a perfectly open and straightforward
manner, we wish him every success in his candida-
ture.—Since the foregoing paragraph was in type
Messrs. John Hughes and Edwin Stanley, hare
resigned.

A new feature has been introduced into the
election of members from the School Board, by
the nomination of Mr. John Branford, hair-dresser,
of Market-street, who comes forward as the
"Working Man's Candidate." Several enthusiastic
meetings have been held by his friends, and they
are very sanguine of returning him as a member
of the Board.

Tits plot thickens. There are now no less
than 16 candidates for seats at the School
Board, twelve of whom, at least, we believe
will go to the poll. What do the Church'
and Nonconformist Committees think of
this fact? This, we think, must clearly de-
monstrate to the most obtuse amongst them
that the people of Stourbridge are not to be
dictated to with impunity; that they have
minds of their own, and will not tamely sub-
mit to be deprived of their right to chok 8 '
candidates for themselves by any body of
men, no matter what specious sophistry may
be employed to induce them to do so. It is
all very well for them to say that they came
to this arrangement amongst themselves to
save the town the expense of an election;
but what is the expense of an election to the
expense that the Board will be able to put
the town to in themattcr of providing further
school accommodation; paying the salaries
of a Clerk to the Board, the School Inspec-
tor, and many other items that are usually
disbursed by School Boards. And the ex-
pense that they can put the town to is not
the most serious item to the working man.
The Compulsory Clauses of the Act will enable
them to compel parents to send all children
to school not above 13 years of age, whether
the former can afford to do so or not. Of
course, they promise in all cases where the
parents are too poor to pay the school fess
for the children ; but by doing so they will
be reducing the parents to almost the level
of paupers. There are many instances, too,
where the payment of the school fees of the
children, would be but a very inadequate re-
compense to the parents for the loss they
would sustain by the withdrawal of the
children's services. There are many poor
families where the father has been incapaci-
tated from work through illness, accident,
or other causes, —or is here, indeed, one of
the parents have died—in which case it
would be positive ruin to compel them to
send ono or two of the eldest children to

school. They may be either helping by their
labour to "win the bread" for the younger
members of the family—or in the case of a
girl who has but a widowed mother for her
parent—she may be taking care of her
younger brothers and sisters whilst her
mother is out at work, trying to replace the
parent they have lost by earning for them
their daily sustenance. In such a dilemma as
' this one of two issues stares the advocates
if "compulsory education " in the face.
They must either compensate the parents for
the loss of the children's services, in which
ease they would enormously add to local
; taxation ; or they must compel the parents
to send the children to school at their own
risk, the result of which would be that ninny
of the families would be immediately thrown
on the parish for support; thus increasing
the burden of poor rates which already
presses so heavily on ratepayers. Our
readers will see at a glance what we mean
by stating that this is eminently a working
man's question. No doubt the advocates of
compulsory education will say that in such
eases as the above the compulsory clansesof
the:Act would not be enforced ; but it will not
do for the working man to trust to this.
Once place them in a position where they
will be for three years irresponsible to any
one, and the probabilities are that they will
strain every nerve to carry out their pet pro-
ject. They will the more readily do this as
they themselves occupy such a position as
to place them above the working of the Act.
No School Board Inspector will call at their
houses to learn why they have not sent their
children to school, in ease they keep them
at home for a day or two ; or to hold a threat
of prosecution fine and imprisonment over
their heads if they refuse to send them at
once. It is a fact that wherever School
Boards are established this has been the re-
sult; and if the working people of Stour-
bridge wish to avoid as far as possible such
contingencies they must watch with care
whom they send to represent them at the
School Board. As Mr. Vernon Harcourt
says, enactment after enactment has followed
sorapidly year after year in each other's foot-
steps that fine and imprisonment stare the
working man in the face, let him turn which
way he will ; and with this consideration it
behoves the working men to steadily set
their faces against those who will, by intro-
ducing compulsory education, attempt to
circumscoibe.the already narrow liberties they
enjoy. The whole of the six gentlemen
nominatedby the Nonconformist and Church
Committees are pledged to support com-
pulsory education ; and, in fact, Mr. Magill-
nis, who is the presiding genius of the party,
when he attempted to introduce a School
Board in the town some twelve months ago.
gave, as one of his reasons h w doing so, that
it would enable them to put in force the
compulsory clauses of the Act. This being
so, if the working men disregard our warn-
ing and return them as members of the
Board, they will have only themselves to
thank for their folly.