The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-06-05 00:00:00

Over three million five hundred thousand pounds
worth of diamonds were exported from the Cape last year.
Later accounts of the damage done by the recent
storms in Texas state that the town of Savoy has been almost
entirely destroyed. Nine persons were killed and sixty
others injured, some of them.fatally.
The Empress Eugenie arrived on the 28th of May,
at Itoyozi, near the spot where the late Prince Imperial met
his death.
" Phonogram " is the word coined by American
ingenuity to describe a message sent by telephone.
A telegram from Bombay announces that the
Marquis of Ripon, the new Viceroy of India, arrived there
on Monday, and that he would proceed to Simla on the 3rd
inst.
Fourteen cases and twelve deaths of sunstroke
occurred in New York last week.
Floral stomachers are the latest. fashion in Brussels,
real blossoms being used. The mode, however, is said to be
far from becoming to stout figures.
A platelayer named James Lie, belonging to the
Cheshire lines (committee's lines) of railway from Manchester
to Liverpool, was on Monday knocked down by a train his
head being severely injured. He was removed to the
Manchester Infirmary, where he died soon afterwards.
Christopher Barnes, a Waterloo veteran, has just
died at Church Accrington, at the age of eighty-six, and by
his death the last of the Waterloo artillerymen has passed
away. He was wounded in the battle.
At the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, the duration
of registered bright sunshine in the week was 50.1 hours
(against 46'4 hours at Glynde-place, Lewes), the sun being
above the horizon during 112•2 hours; the recorded duration
of sunshine was, therefore, equal to 47 per cent. of its pos-
sible duration.
The Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria arrived at
Prague at seven O'clock on Tuesday morning, and was re-
ceived at the railway station by the civil and minters- autho-
rities and the Town Corporation. The streets wee thronged
with people, who cheered his Majesty most enthusiastically
as he drove to the Hofburg, where he was met by the
clerical dignitaries, the leading members of the nobility; the
municipal authorities, and numerous deputations.
The annual rate of mortality, according to the
most recent weekly reutnis, in Calcutta, 22 ;.Bombay, 39;
Geneva, 28 ; Brussels, 31; Amsterdam, 28; Roterdam, 27;
The Hague, 22; Copenhagen, 26; Stockholm, 36; Christiana,.
18; St. Petersburg, 59; Berlin, 27; Hamburg, 24; Dresden,
SO; Breslau, 29; Munich, 43 ; Vienna, 30 ; Rome, 30; Naples,
31; Turin, 28; Alexandria, 42; New York, 27; Brooklyn,
20; Philadelphia, 19; and Baltimore, 17.
The Great Council of Geneva have adopted a project
of law, the essential principle of which is that, after a given
time, the State and the Communes will grant no subsidies
for religious purposes. This resolution involves the dis-
establishment and disendowment of the Protestant as well
as of the Catholic Church of this canton.
A Daily News telegram states that Queex Mar-
gherita ascended Vesuvius on Monday, and was received by
Professor Palmieri at the Observatory. Everywhere the
Queen and the Prince of Naples are enthusiastically Ivel-
coined.
On Monday evening the Anchor Line steamship
Assyria reached Barrow-in-Furness from New York with 100
head of cattle, 414 hogs, and a general cargo. The success
of the new line from Barrow to New York, and vice versa,
has been much greater than was anticipated.
The Government Savings Banks Bill provides that,
instead of £3O, a depositor may, after November 1, pay in
£lOO yearly; and the total sum allowed to be deposited is
Increased to £250. It is further enacted that whenever the
sum standing in the depositor's name amounts, principal
and interest included, to £3OO, no interest shall be paid so.
long as it continues to amount to £3OO. Formerly the
amount was £2OO.
Unable to compete with the German import tariff,
some of the woollen manufacturers in the Dewsbury district
have started factories in Germany, and a large number of
their best operatives have recently left for the Continent.
They are to be followed by others as the machinery at work
is increased.
The South • Wales and Monmouthshire Associated
Coalowners have held a special meeting with reference to the
projected Act for extending and regulating the liability of
employers. The provisions entitling the men or their rela-
tions to claim compensation in the County Court of sums not
exceeding £2OO were deemed unfair towards owners of
mining property, and after discussion it was resolved to
petition Parliament against the Bill.
A curious fact is noticed by the Rev. Mr. Ayerst in
a paper in the last Indian Antiquary on the Garo Hill tribes,
which is that they have included Queen Victoria, "the
mother of the Feringhis," amongst their godesses, and wor-
ship her as they do Mahadeva.
The Lord Mayor of London has received a letter
from the President of St. Kitts thanking his lordship for the
means he had taken to enlist the sympathy of the public on
behalf of the sufferers by the late disastrous floods, when
231 persons perished. It appears that 91 houses have been
rebuilt and 279 repaired.
Last week's arrivals at Liverpool of live stock and
fresh meat from the United States and Canada show an in-
crease in comparison with the previous weeks—the totals
being 2,370 cattle, 2,877 sheep, 199 pigs, 6,913 quarters of
beef, 1,455 carcases, of mutton, and 200 carcases of pigs.
The following' is 'a return for the month of May
from the Metropolitan Hospital of the number of cases re-
ceived for treatment owing to accidents caused by vehicles
In the streets of London :—Total killed, 17; injured, 219.
This year the oak has leaved before the ash. The
belief that this promises a iry summer, while rain is
threatened by the precedence of the ash, is something more
1 than a mere superstition
The report of the Committee of Council on Educa-
tion in Scotland, just issued, states that in the year ending
August 31, 1879, the inspector visited 3,003 day-szhools to
which annual grants were made, containing 3,313 depart-
ments under separate teachers, and furnishing accommodation
for 585,629 scholars. The annual Government grants to
elementary day schools rose in the year from £314,506 to
£325,754, or from 16s. Bd. to 16s. lld, per scholar in average
attendance.
German ironmasters are getting into a state of great
trepidation. They liked Protection for Germany, and they
powerfully assisted Prince Bismarck in carrying out that
policy. But at that time Russian duties on imported iron
were comparatively low, and Germany did a good trade with
the Muscovite in that commodity. But Russia now contem-
plates following the example of Germany, and increasing
the iron duties to a practically prohibitive figure ; •hence the
alarm and tribulation of the German ironmasters. They
wanted Germany to themselves, and they have got it; but
they wanted a hold on Russia also, and they are likely to
lose it.—Echo.
Prince Leopold started from Ottawa on May 28th
for Niagara Falls, whence he was to proceed to Chicago, ac-
companied by Princess Louise.
An account just issued shows that the interest
accrued on securities standing to the credit of the Post Office
Savings Bank Fund for the year 1879 was £1,067,858, of which
£743,636 was paid and credited as interest to depositors. The
expenses incurred in the year were £192,280, and after set-
ting aside 5 per cent. on the profits of the year to provide
against depreciation in the value of the securities, there re-
mained excess of interest accrued £125,345.
The Corriere Mercantile, of Genoa, writes :—" Ac-
counts from the Riviera announce that the harvest of orange
blossoms is exceptionally abundant. At Nice a large
quantity has already been distilled. Roses realise SO cen-
times a kilo. If the fine weather which we have now con-
tinues buyers will not know where to store their merchan-
dise."

The Act of Charles 11. for the better observance of
the Sabbath has been enforced at Sittingbourne by the
closing of tobacconists and confectioners shops which have
hitherto opened on Sundays.
At the meeting of the Dublin Mansion House
Relief Committee on Saturdays it was reported that the
amount received since last meeting was £2lO, and that the
balance now on band was £18,882. A letter was read from
the Bank of New South Wales, advising the receipt of a
telegram directing them to forward £l,OOO. The Archbishop
of Dublin wrote from London enclosing £lOO, which he had
received from some American friends. His Grace also for-
warded .£lOO as a personal gift from the Bishop of Lahore.
Mr. A. T. B. Hannay, of GlasFow, read a paper
before the Royal Society the other night, which was com-
municated by Professor Stokes, on the artificial formation
of diamonds, giving in detail the process so successfully
adopted by the inventor for the production of carbon crys-
tals. 11r. Hannay says the discovery of making diamonds
profitably in a commercial sense may be .hit upon any day,
or may take a hundred years ; but he believes he is on the
road to the discovery; and when it is made, the result will
be a revolution of mechanical arts, and a vast aid to many
scientific pursuits.