Blandford Weekly News. — 1886-10-16 (Blandford, Dorset, England)

PLAGUE OF EELS. The inhabitants of the East-end of London arl now suffering from a plague of eels. Everybody (says a contemporary) knows that the monthly reports of the chemists employed by the water companies shew conclusively that the water is absolutely free from living organisms; and the explanation seems to be that the organisms are too large to get into the microscopes. The fish which the East London Company are distributing to their customers are indeed easily visible to the naked eye, for some have been found no less than lfiin. long; and the mains abound with them to such an extent that the Local Board of West Ham has complained to the Local Government Department with the view of having some remedy applied. The rels which are the subject of complaint, have a fashion of committing suicide in stop-cocks and taps. There they decompose, with the result, as illustrated lately, of causing the water to become horribly putrid, and of giving something very like typhoid fever to the um lucky consu:ners. The company have been appealed to with little result. They say that three years ago some of their filter-beds burst, and that the unfiltered water on that occasion made its way into the mains, carrying with it a number of minute eels and other fish, which have since spawned and multiplied in the pipes. The mains have been repeatedly flushed with the object of getting rid of the intruders, but withoul success, and the company's engineer is only able tc vaguely promise that the utmost endeavours shall be used to banish them. Our contemporary puts an important question on the subject. If the eels find enough animalcules in the water to enable them to live and grow to a considerable size, it is certain that the water is fit for human consumption.  FORCED TO BREAK A CONTRACT It may be remembered that while M. Jules Ferry as French Premier, M. Bavier Chauffour, hie cousin, obtained of the Anarnite Government a concession of certain mines in Tonquin. According tc that concession, M. Bavier Chain-four was bound to hand over to the Viceroy of Tonquin the sum of 100,000 piastres in coin before the 31st of August, 1886. The King of Anam has since been compelled by the French to annul the convention with M. Chauffour, but the latter is determined not to submit quietly to be thus deprived of what he regards as his right. Determined to carry out the convention he had signed, and refusing to accept the decree annulling it, he freighted a small steamer at Hong Kong, and arrived at Haiphong on the 21st of August. He had brought the money with him, and, placing it in two carts, proceeded to the Viceroy's residence. That Anainite Mandarin was, it seems, in a state of indescribable excitement at being constrained by the French authorities not to accept the money. M. Bavier Chauffour was, when the mail left, about to leave for Hthl where he Was going to renew his offer to 'the Anamite Court. Several Englishmen of Hong Kong ;ire partners with M. Bavier Chauffour in his mining cmcession, and he was accompanied to Haiphon by their representative, the Crown Solicitor at Hong Kong' two other solicitors, and an engineer. A iwrson Who is likely to be correctly informed assert that after summoning the Court of Hue to fulfil its engagements, M. Bavier Chauffeur will have recourse to every legal means to constrain it to do so.  DepreAsed at having to return to IN etley and leave behind him at Bristol a girl to whom he was much attached, a young mannamed Allen Foster, belonging to the Army Medical Corps, resolved to commit suicide. Whilst sitting at a table, in the act of writing, he fell back. His sister on looking at the note found that it was a request to bury him in a certain churchyard, as he had taken poison. He had awal lowed laudanum, but uot with fatal elleat.  Prided arid Pidibibed by Edward Darla= M hi Prisitiwy Worka, Sheep Market Dead.—Baturday .October 1601, 1886  I