The Sun.
London, England, 1844-10-15 00:00:00

SIDCUP PETTY SESSIONS.

Yesterday Mr. George Warrener, the proprietor of
the Pier hotel, Erith, attended before Messrs. Chap-
man and Borens, the presiding magistrates, to answer
an information laid against him by the metropolitan
police, by which he was charged with opening his
house before one o'clock on Sunday, the 29th Sep-
tember, and for. which offence he had incurred a
penalty of 51.
The defendant, on being called upon to plead to'the
information, said he must admit that the house was
open, and that persons were taking refreshment, but
he was anxious to explain the circumstances under
which the alleged offence tookrplace.
The BENCH said it would be better to hear th 4
evidence of the- police before any explanation was
given, and he would then he at liberty to,make any
statement he might think material • . . ,
A police-constable of" the R division , was then
sworn, and 'he proved that on Sunday morning, the
29th of September, about eleven o'clock, he went into
the defendant's house, and saw several persons taking
refreshment in the bar.
Mr. Warrener, in answer to the complaint, said that
the kouse in question was near the steam-boat pier at
Erith, and it was established principally for the ac-
commodation of the steam-boat passengers. A great
number of persons came down by the boats, and par-
ticularly on Sundays, and it frequently happened
that the boats were not very punctual, and parties had
to wait sometimes two or three hours for a boat, and
his house was the only place at which they could be
accommodated. On the day in question some persons
hail missed the first boat to London, and having to
wait two hours before there would be another, they
came to his house to have breakfast, and they were
the parties seen by the policeman.
The constable; in answer to questions from the
Bench, said that some of the persons he saw in the
house were inhabitants of Erith.
Mr. Warrener said that when travellers from the
steam-boats were admitted, it happened sometimes
that other persons forced their way in.
The MAGISTRATES said that the defendant had no
right to open his house before one o'clock, but under
the circumstances they should only inflict a mitigated
penalty of 10s. and costs.

IMMENSE DRAUGHT OF
HERRINGS.

About the middle of the fishery of this year the
shoal, which had remained stationary for several days,
opposite the Frith of Dornoch, suddenly disappeared.
The fishermen were uncertain whether it had turned
up or gone down the Moray Frith, and the boats from
all the various villages of the coast, which had for-
merly fished together in one huge fleet, were scat-
tered in quest of it in every direction, above and
below, here, on the southern shore, there, on the
north. The boat in which we sailed had shot her
nets in the middle of the Frith, near the bank
which the herrings had so lately quitted; no fish were
caught, and, in the morning, the crew proposed
that they should sail for Burghead, to ascertain whether
any of the other boats had been more successful, and
to learn the opinion entertained by the more sagacious
fishermen regarding the state and prospects of the
fishing generally. But their progress was so impeded
by adverse currents and a dead calm, that the even--
ing was beginning to darken ere they arrived abreast
of their. port, and they agreed that, instead of landing,
they should turn up the Frith, and shoot their drift a
little below Guilliam. The day had been dull and
hazy. When the night set in there came on a thick, un-
pleasant drizzle, accompanied by a low breeze from the
west; and, before they arrived at the proposed
ground, the rain had become very weighty, and the
breeze had increased to a gale. They shot their drift,'
however, and. spread their sail over the beams ; but
so saturated was the canvas with water, that it
a f orded them
nil d
nsicgahrtc,e
bann shelter.
ty
tnegale
hTande
risenrai n
fund the sea around them presented to
shthoueronrivcaiafent‘ev:, the appearance of a field of snow
agitated by a whirlwind. On a sudden the waves
began to roll by in silence, and without breaking.
One of the crew, starting up, exclaimed, "We are
in the middle of the largest shoal I ever saw in
the Moray Frith, and shall lose our whole drift ;" and
the others, shaking themselves from the sail, rose but
in time to see, in the dim light of a stormy August
morning, their buoys sinking, one after one, as the. fish
struck the nets and dragged them to the bottom. They
immediately commenced hauling, but the terrific
heave of the sea compelled them to desist, and they sat
in the stern, shuddering with cold, for their clothes
were soaked through, waiting till the gale would
" take off." It continued, in unabated strength, until
late in the morning, when it began to lower, and
the fishermen to haul ; but the appearance of the first
net showed them that they could scarce expect to .
hear to the shore, such weather, the one-fourth of
their draught. Signals were made to a stranger boat
in the distance, to come and load. The stranger, how-
ever, was in no circumstance to benefit by the invitation:
she had carried away her mast at the commencement of
the gale, and the crew, nearly exhausted by the fatigues
of the preceding night, were tugging at the oar.
And so the fishermen found that, in order to save
their nets, they would require to give up the greater
part of the valuable charge which they contained again
to the sea. After hauling and shaking the first few
they again attached the drift to the stem and threw
overboard several barrels of fish. Another net was
then hauled, and snore of the fish thrown out; and,
in this manner, taking in and throwing out alter-
nately, they continued to labour until two o'clock
in the afternoon, when the whole drift was hauled.
They then made sail for port, carrying with them
twenty-fiye barrels of fish, all they could venture 00
bearing through so rough and broken a sea, but little
more Man the fourth part of their original draught,
the rough and perilous sea had made them fain to
accept, in lieu of the fifty pound prize which they had
drawn in this lottery, a composition of little more than
twelve.-North British Review.

NAMING AND NUMBERING OF

_
STREETS.
The new Metropolitan Building Act, which comes
into operation on the Ist of January, creates a new
Board, consisting of two official referees and a registrar,
for the general superintendence of buildings in London.
The new Board would render the public an important
service, if they would undertake such a registration of
houses that every house in a street should have a dis-
tinct number, and that no two streets should be called
by the same name. Great inconvenience is now occa-
sioned by the neglect of this very simple matter of muni-
cipal arrangement,' The last Act for the registration of
voters directs that in every claim to vote, the number of
the house shall be inserted for which the vote is claimed,
but in some streets many of the houses are without num-
bers ; and the instances are numerous, of two or more
houses in a street having the same number. In Regent-
street, St. John's, Westminster, there are fire No. thir-
teens, and six No. fourteens.
Equal or greater confusion arises from the multiplica-
tion of the tame street names. We find in a London
Directory twenty-eight King-streets, twenty Queen-
streets, twenty-six Charles-streets, twenty-five Church-
streets, twenty-three John-streets, four Water-lanes,
two Water-streets, &c.
A serious loss, as well as inconvenience, arises to the
public from this source. The expenses attending the
delivery of letters are increased some thousands of
pounds by the puzzling uncertainty of addresses. A
letter from the country directed
..king-street, London,
is, perhaps, first delivered in King-street, Cheap..s.ide,
whence it may be returned with the words " try hang-
street, Holborn;" and perhaps twenty district postmen
may each have to walk a mile before the right King-
street and the right person be discovered. Nor does the
fault rest altogether with careless directions. A stranger
to London cannot be blamed for ignorance of the extent
to which the amplification of an address is necessary.
Thinking to be both precise and explicit, he may direct
a letter to " John Smith, Water-lane, City, London,"
and his letter may be sent to three different Water-lanes,
all in the City, and all within a stone's throw of each
other:—Water-lane, Blackfriars; Water-Lne, Thames-
street; Water-lane, Fleet-street; and, perhaps, in each
Water-lane there may be a John Smith.
The evil is one which we believe the Corporation of
London, and the Commissioners of Paving generally,
have power to remedy, and we may hope it will be con-
sidered as part of the duty of the new Registrar to call
thoir attention to the subject.