The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-07-18 00:00:00

31111 SN AND TONEIGN.

EPITOME OF NEWS.

In the last six months the value of printed books
Imported wu /SU 723 ; In 11173. VSS, ISO.
Count von Ntoltke has sent his sun in the Arcona, a
Germnn tuan-ef-v. ar, to Japan. _

-
A New York telegram reports a serious accident to
the MI tank, the Erie Railway through their having been
struck by lightning. The oil took fire, ~ml the damage done
s estimated at 800,000 dollars.

A new English newspaper, the Tokei Journal, has
been oarbliihed at Yedo.

A popular preacher enrichol hie sermons occasionally
with this Jewel Remember, I beseech yon, tied Sc are
soiling down the stream of time, and must Ines its* land
In the ocean of eteroity."

The Obserrrr states that it is expected that Parlia-
went will be prorugued tiering the nest week in August._

- -
The Spanish brigands who captured Mr. Inaselden
now tlemAml a ransom of £lO,OOO. Mr !fasciae...a lonely
have offered half that sum.

There is a great drought in Portugal, and ft Waxed
that the want of rote will cause great losses both of cattle aad
eropa _
- - - - - - •

The Executive Committee of the Locked-out Agri-
cultural Labourrrs. sitting at Leamington on Monday.
under the presidency of Mr. Joseph Arch, voted .C9OO for
relief, being a decrease of £l4O im last week. The 1111 l niter
on the fund- 1, 2500. i., nearly 600 less than in the preced-
ing week, the decrease being attributable to migration and
emigration.

The value of gunplwder exported in the six month
ended the 30th tilt. won £207.207.

Two specimens of that rare fish the Boafish have
been received at the Brighton Aquarium hem Cornwall.

Scientific ascents are becoming numerous in Paris.
Last Friday a balloon was lint up from La I. illette gasworks
to try an apparatus invoited by 11. Jules Godard to ascer-
tain whether the balloon is descending or aSerntliag. The
motor of the amiantus Is a large horizontal dim, which Is
pushed by air pr Inure and puts in motion an electrical
sign 41. The contrivance is rather heavy and bulky, and the
rate of motion given no idea of the numerical value of the
movement. titre.

It appears, from some statistics respecting the
weather furnished by the Registrar-General, that the mean
temperature at the Royal Observatory. Greene-Rh, last
week was 66 degrees, and 5 degrees above the average for
the corresponding period in fifty years; the mean differed
but slightly from the average on the first three, whereas a
considerable excess prevail,d on each of the last four days
of the week. On Thursday and Friday the mean was 74
degrees, and the excess 12 degrees. The thermometer in
the shade on Thursday rose to 91 degre.4l, a higher reading
than any during 1572 or 183. On Friday and Saturday 1.32
Indies of rain were mourned.

An open-air meeting, organised by the London Com-
mittee f the Agricultural Labourers Union for the purpose
of expressing sympathy with the locked out labourers in the
astern Counties, was held on BMAheath on Saturday, Dr.
W. U. Bennett in the chair. A letter from Mr. Gladstone
was read, in which the right hon, gentleman said 1 tliink
I may safely refer to the repeated declarations I have made
in public of my opinions on the principal matters to which
the meeting relates." Mr. Arch addressed the meeting et
some length, and resolutions were passed in favour of the
movement.

The rapidity with which branches oi industry are
developed in America may be gathered from the statistics of
the Jute trade. In 1860 at had scarcely say existenee, and in
1865 only 1,600 tons were imported. lint In 1871 the culti-
vation had no rapidly increased that the amount reached
26,450 tons, and in the following year 41,851. The experi-
ments in cultivating jute have so far succeeded beet in the
Southern States, where both the climate and soil are
well adapted to its growth. It is a point in favour of the
culture that jute conipetes very little with cotton in manu-
facture, and thus distinctly enlarges the area of profitable
rura industry.
The declared value of unmanufactured tobacco im-
ported In the last six 'noun. was £615,938, against 14191,171
In the corresponding period of the preceding year.
Conventions have been signed at Rome for the in-
troduction of postal cards and the extension of the money-
order sistem between Italy and Belgium. The maximum
acuount that can he remitted through the Post-office Is