The Sun.
London, England, 1869-07-27 00:00:00

THE WESLEYAN CONFERENCE.

The Wesleyan Conference at Hull commenced its public
business on Monday. The Education Committee met in
in the morning, the president of the Conference in the
chair. The attendance was large, most of the members
of the committee being present, and also several other
gentlemen who take an interest in Wesleyan education,
and who had been specially invited. The minutes of the
meetings of the Education Committee, and its various
sub-committees, held during the year, were read. The
Rev. J. Clulow, the visitor of Sunday schools, read his
report. The following is a summary of both day and Sun-
day schools:—

"Day Schools.—The amount of annual Government
grants in IE6B was £32,611 6s. 11(1., being an increase of
£476 7s. ld. on the amount reported last year. The
number of certificated teachers employed in Wesleyan
day schools is 591 ; of assistant teachers, 42; and of pupil
teachers, 899 ; an increase of 164 on the previous
year. Twelve entirely new schools have been erected,
and ten others commenced in existing buildings.
Twenty-eight outfit grants have been made by the
General Committee, amounting to £1,125. Of the students
who completed the year's training at the Normal Institu-
tion 107 passed the Government examination ; of these 54
were sent to schools, making a total of 971 who have been
trained at Westminster. The session of 1869 commenced
with 132 studente. The statistics from the districts in May
last slow that the year has been one of encouraging
success. The number of scholars in the day schools was
about 119,000, being an increase of 7,996,
" Sunday Schools.— The number of schools was 5,328, an
increase of 88 ; teachers, 103,441, an increase of 723;
teachers in society, 77,0t9, an increase of. 348 ; scholars,
601,801, an increase of 19,781 ; scholars in society, 36,372,
a decrease of 572 ; scholars in select classes, 18,881, an
increase of 1,205 ; young persons not Sunday scholars in
bible or catechumen classes conducted by ministers or
others, 7,619, a decrease of 1,706. The number of Sunday
school libraries is 2,050 ; of volumes in libraries, 517,619,
an increase of 16,727 volumes. Readers, 86,927."
Resolutions bearing on the question of Wesleyan edu-
cation were submitted to the meeting and passed. The
first had reference to the use of. Methodist Catechisms in
day and Sunday schools, the appointment of a minister to
inspect and report on the state of day schools, and the
establishing of Sunday-school unions in the various cir-
cuits. The second was respecting the new chapels to be
Luilt in connection with the Westniinstes Training Col-
lege. After the resolution was moved by Sir F. Lycett,
the Rev. Mr. Greaves was called upon to state the
amounts received in aid of the object. The sum from
the various circuits is at present over £9,200 towards
£16,000.

ICE.

The Da*Ty Ncten has an interesting article upon Ice,
which is especially readable at a time when the sun is
broiling one. In America our contemporary reminds us
they use ice continually—in rummer and in winter. The
Yankee likes his drinks cold—English people like their
liquors hot. But we are improving, and year by year
larger quantities are sent from Norway to us. The
method of reaping ice is a peculiar one. As the object is
to obtain the blocks with the smallest amount of superfi-
cies, so as to present as little surface to the atmosphere as
possible, it is excavated, if we may use the term, in right-
angled blocks. The surface of the spring-water frozen
lake having been first swept, ploughs are used,
to mark parallel lines of the width required,
which are afterwards deepened to six inches. These
lines are repeated at right angles, and the blocks,
such as we see them in the fishmongers' 'windows,
are then detached frcea each c.tl er by a slight tap of
the ice wedge. The blocks so obtained a few years ago,
before the trade had acquired any importance, were
shipped off at once, and tl.erefore it was only during the
spring season that tl e crop was to be procured. The im-
portance of the trade year by year becoming more evident,
stores have been erected at the shipping places in Nor-
way, and now any quantity may be obtained throughout
the year. The ice stores ail c nstructed in a very simple
manner. Long sheds of deal are constructed, the walls
and roofs having an interspace filled with sawdust.
In these stores the blocks are placed one upon
another like so much Cyclopean masonry, but instead
of mortar sawdust is placed between them. Were
it not for this means of separating them, the intense cold
of the ice-house would freeze the blocks into one solid
mass of ice, and all the trouble of cutting would have to
be gone through again. But we cannot altogether
dispense with home grown ice. During hard winters
enormous quantities are gathered at home to supplement
the Norway supply. Some of the ice merchants have
stupendous wells in which it is stored, many of
them holding more than 2,000 tons. Some of this
lake and pond ice looks quite clear, but it can-
not be used wall food, because upon liquefac-
tion it often smells. It is not true, as is generally
sur posed, that the act of freczinz eliminates from
water all impure nmtter. It generally does extrude
colouring matter, but not organic impurities ; indeed, such
matters, although prevented from cleeomposiug by the
cold, appear to decompose with redoubled energy imme-
diately the temperature is sufficient to melt the ice which
holds them. This is the reason wby ice has not been suc-
cessful in bringing flesh from Australia. 'I he meat is
taken from its congealed cabin quite fresh, but turns off
almost immediately before it can possibly be delivered.
Yet the matter deserves further attention. • The amount
of Norway ice that annually comes to London
may be roughly stated at thirty thousand tons.
Its uses are varied. Independently of its use as a cooler
of food and drinks, of late years it has been applied to a
vast number of purposes in the arts and sciences, and in
trading operations. Without ice•it would have been im-
possible to have laid the Atlantic Electric Cable. In
order to secure a calm passage, without which it would
have been impossible to have payed out the three
thousand and odd miles of cable, the summer months
were fixed upon for the operation, but the heat is so
great at this time that the cable, coiled up in vast
cisterns, would have lost its gutta percha covering
by melting. To obviate this insuperable difficulty the
coils were enclosed in surrounding tanks of ice, and in the
most sultry weather the cable went over the stern, not-
withstanding the tremendous friction, as hard as a bar of
iron. In the fishing trade ice is invaluable. Were it not
for this preservative agent, during the hot summer months
of last year not one pound of deep-sea-water fish would
have reached Billingsgate. Indeed Yarmouth mackarel
caught yesterday is riot so good as Norway mackarel that
has been caught for ten days and brought over iced; bat
then it must be eaten immediately the freezing element is
withdrawn. Ice is also used by the naturalist to preserve
his specimens. It is much valued in most hospitals.

A Cußrous WAISTCOAT.—A man lately appeared
in an Indiana town wearing a rest made out of the skins
of ten rattlesnakes, part of a nest of 106 snakes killed in