The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-02-21 00:00:00

NEW POST-OFFICE ORDERS.

It Is proposed to grant additional facilities for trans-
mitting small sums of money through the. PoA.oftic_e.
With this view a Bill has been introduced by Sir Lir
Selivio•lbbetetaa empowering the Postmaster General,
with the consent of the Treasury, to prescribe regula-
tions as to the issue of orders in a form different from
that now in use, and as to the manner and conditions
of payment. These orders will, however, be subject
to the following provisions
In no case is ttpi slim to exceed 20a.
The poundage taken by the Government is to be
prescribed by the PostmaAer-G-eneral, but is never to
exceed 2d.
No order is to be fumed until it has been paid for.
A period not exceeding thirteen months from the
a
issue is to be prescribed, after which payment cannot
be demanded, though the power to pay ic res:rved to
the Yostmaster-General.
And no interest is to be payable on any order.
Any of the regulations authorized by the Bill are to
be laid before Parliament within fourteen days after
being made by the Postmaster. General.
And whatever may bathe name given to the orders
their issue is not to be in any way hindered by the is.cte
for prohibiting promissory notes under a limited aura
and for regulating the issue of bank•notes.
Nor is an order or a receipt thereon to be liable to
stamp duty.

ITALIAN EMlGRATlON.—Conaldering that emigration
from Italy has assumed the extraordinary proportion
of an annual average of 130,000 persons, the Govern.
runt has issued a special circular to the prefects re-
commending stronger measures against emigration
than they have hitherto had recourse to.

A CURIOUS BEQUEST.

A well-known citizen of Brooklyn, U.S., alike
enowned for his wealth and eccentricity, died a few
weeks ago, and his last will and testament was found
by his sorrowing relatives, with whom he had been at
odds during his life, to contain the following curious
bequest (says the Daily Telegraph):—" I own seventy-
one pairs of trousers. It is my desire that they be
sold by public auction after my death, and that
the products of their sale be distributed among
the deserving poor of my parish. They must, how-
ever, be disposed of severally to different bidders, no
single individual being permitted to purchase more
than one pair." These directions were duly carried
out by the heirs at law. The seventy-one pairs
of trousers were successfully knocked down to
seventy-one purchasers, and their price was
handed over to the parochial authorities. A few
days after the sale one of the buyers took it
into his head to make a careful examination of his
newly-acquired property, and found a small canvas
bag neatly sewn up in the waistband. Upon opening
this bag an agreeable surprise met his gaze, in the
shape of ten one hundred dollar notes. The tidings
of this amazing discovery spread like wildfire through-
oator o
Brooklyn
a oklyn and New York, and each fortunate pos-
s pair of these precious pantaloons was rejoiced
to find his investigations rewarded by the acquisition
of a gum equivalent to two hundred pounds sterling.
It appears that the eccentric testator's heirs have
instituted proceedings to recover the amounts secreted
by him in the linings of his trousers from the Present
proprietors of those garments, on the ground that he
was obviously out of his mind when he made such an
Insensate will.