Widnes Examiner. — 1881-05-07 (Widnes, Cheshire, England)

MISCELLANEOUS.  The Suez Canal is again open for traffic. The news of the wreck of the steamer Tararua off Otago, with an appalling loss of life, is telegraphed from Melbourne. It is stated that 80 persons were drowned. On Tuesday night a serious accident occurred on the North Wales Narrow Guage .Railway, whereby one man  was killed and three seriously injured.' The statue to Sir Rowland Hill at Kidderminster was  placed on the pedestal on Tuesday. The inaugural ceremony has been postponed beyond the time first proposed. At Lewe§ assizes, John Williams, charged with the murder of a fellow labourer in a fight, was convicted of manslaughter, _ .  and sentenced to 18 months' 'imprisonment. A destructive fire occurred on Tuesday at the Be.ehive Cotton Spinning Mill, Stockport, the property of Messrs. 'I. and J. Leigh. The building, a modern and substantial one, was entirely gutted. Edwin Briscoe, bittnaker, Walsall, cut the throat of his step-daughter, Mrs. Baker, and then committed suicide by cutting his own throat. Mrs. Baker was removed to the hospital, and is going on favourably. By a fire on Tuesday at the extensive confectionery works  of Messrs. Lindsay and Law, Dundee, damage to he extent of £15,000, covered by insurance, was done, and over 100 workpeople were thrown out of employment. Mr. H. Crossley, local newspaperproprietor, has consented to contest Knaresborough in the Conservative interest. Mr. T. Collins (Independent Conservative) remains in the field, and Mr. Miles Gaskell (Liberal) is actively canvassing. At the Central Criminal Court, George Harris,late cashier and manager to Mr. Graves, publisher, was found guilty of stealing three cht:ques, valued at £2OO, £lO5, and £5OO, and sentenced to seven years' penal servitude. Christina Marshall, aged 14, residing at Strathaven, has, it is alleged, entered upon the eighth week of her fast. The doctors can find no ttace of internal disease, but she is gradually growing weaker. Mr. Price, district coroner, held n niuest on Monday on the body of Edith Maud Watson, aged 13 months, who was stabbed to death by her father, Aratur Watson, on Friday, at Old Trafford. A verdict, of " Witful murder " against Arthur Watson was returned. Mr. Fawcett intends, it is stated, to make an expqriment in the General Pest Office which will h. 3 v, etched with great interest and sympathy by the public. He has decided to give employment to a number of deaf-and-dumb persons in the uepartment devoted th the sorting of newspapers. Mr. Bradlangh, affilressing a town's meeting at Northampton n Saturday, denied that his cause would have been strengthened had he refused to take the oath. Had he done so his seat might have been declared vacant. The meeting unanimously condemned the course taken in preventing Mr. Bradlaugh from taking his seat. A shocking murder was committed in Manchester on Saturday. A telegraph clerk named Watson, after a quarrel with his wife, who had left him and who reft.sed to retum to him, stabbed his infant child six times in the breast with a chisel. Some doubts are expressal as to the sanity of the prisoner, who was brought up at the police court on Saturday, and remanded. The number of immigrants landed at New York recently has been exceptionally large. There were over 60,000 in January; over 8,000 in February; over 9,000 in March; and nearly 30,000 in April; making a total for the first four months of the year of about 105,000—nearly 25,000 more than than the number received in the corresponding period  of last year. It is stated that Mr. Chamberlain has proposed to take into consideration a proposal of Mr. Macdonald, M.P., that . .  a clause should be Inserted in the Bankruptcy gill, making it applicable to the debts of working men who, through illness or other misfortune, are unable to meet their engagements. It is understood that several difficulties now stand in the way of this proposal now being incorporated in  the bill. On Monday evening a complimentary dinner was given at the Lord Nelson Hotel, Urmston, to Mr. J. D. Prior, formerly general secretary of the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners, but who has recently been appointed inspector of factories and woakshops in Birmingham and district. Mr. Prior was presented with a gold watch suitably inscribed and a cheque for 15 guineas. In a sermon which be preached at Middleton the Bishop of Manchester said he could not help but remark that the principles of true religion were not as much in the minds of the people of this country as was the case some 50 years ago. Much of the unhappy condition of Ireland might be attributed to the fact that in that country there was a want of the principle of "1)0 unto your neighbour as you would wish to be done by." A