The Blandford and Wimbourne Telegram. — 1881-03-04 (Blandford, Dorset, England)

FATAL ACCIDENT. —or, Saturday night a married Woman named Mallet wee killed at New-street station, Birmingham. Just as the train was starting she jumped out of the carriage to find her husband, whom she thouel t had been left behind, and, stumbling, tell between the platform and the train, her body being cut through and fearfully mangled. The report ef the Great Western Railway Company was issued on Friday. It Apses that the revenue of the past half-year amounted to £3.589,138, being £56,000 more than in the corresponding pen n d of 1880. The expenditure Was £1,814,1E3, or £39,247 wore. The balance, alter paying preferential charges, is £428,732, and after provieing a dividend at the rate cif 5 per cent., a balance of £25,722 will be carried forward The diminution of receipta owing to the great snowstorm is etimated at .£50,000. A powerfully argumeatative "memora.ndam" by Sir Garnet Wolseley, deprecating the retention of Candahar, appears in the Blue Book on Afghan affairs, issued on Friday. Sir Garnet terms Caudahar 'a elate elephant capable of ruining our Indian Empire by the cost which the necessity of supporting it would entail upon us." No military advantage. he adds, would be secured by retaining it; on the contrary, we should incur considerable military risks. The Doke of Cambridge has also forwarded a paper, which supports the views c f the "forward" party. A deputation of Scotchmen, headed be the Duke of Sutherland, waited on the Secretary for War on Wednesday, and presented a petition for the retention 1 the tartan dress hitherto worn 1 y the Highland regiments. Mr. Childers, in reply, said it had Lever been his intentam to abolish distinctive tartan% but when it became necessary to consider whether larger regiments should not he substituted for the linked battalion system, they had to consider how, without making unnecessary changes, they could form regiments with the same uniforms out of the existing battalions. A case of crnelty to a horse came before the county magistrates at Bradford on Thursday. A farmer and an innkeeper, occupiers of adjoining field., had a dispute about a horse, which one had contracted to buy and the other to sell, and an appeal was made to the County Court Judge to decide in whom the ownership of the animal was vested. The farmer was declared to be the owner, hut he turned the horse out of hie fnild into that of the innkeeper, the result being that it was kept without fcod for fifteen days. The casputants were both now charged with cruelty, but only the farmer was held to be guilty. He was comitted to prison for two mouths. The Rev. Benjamin Spoke, Vicar of Dowiish Wake, Somerset, committed suicide an Wednesday morning by drowning. His wife died on the previous day. Mr. Spoke MO the clergyman whose mysterious disappearance some years ago caused so mech anxiev. Senn, weeks after his disappearance he wes discovered in Cornwall. employed as a cattle drover. Mr. Spoke was the brother of the late Captain Spoke, the African explorer. The inquest on the body was held at Wakehill-house on Thnrsday. The medical attendant expressed his belief that distress and min st, occasioned by the death of his ' late wife. to whom he was fondly attached, so affected the 1 mind of Mr. Spoke that he became insane, and while in in that state of mind he committed suicide. The jury returned a verdict to that effect.