The Pontypridd Chronicle and Workman's News

THE SYSTEM OF PAYING WORKMEN'S WAGES* At a Meeting of the executive of the London Tfsdes Council, held at their officcs, East Temple Chambers, Whitefriars Street, E.C., under the presidency of Mr. Smyth (Metropolitan Plasterers' Society), the following resolution was passed That this council, representing upwards of 25,000 skilled workmen in the inet,ropolia, regards the prin- ciples of the Weekly Wages BtlliNo. 20ri) mid the Preferential Payment of Wages Bill (No. 234) as not only equitable and just, but also necessary for the alleviation of mUch misery which the present system of payment of wages inflicts upon a large proportion of the industrial population. Therefore this council earnestly entreats the Government to give these measures their effective support, in order Unit they may be speedily passed into law." The secretary of the council was instructed to forward copies of the resolution to the Government and to the hon. members who are in charge of the two bills.

A C L E R GYM A N CHARGE 0 WITH ASSAULTING A SCHOOLBOY. Mr. Jaineg Ferguson, described as a clerk in holy orders, residing at 3, Bedford- villa5,, Carshalton, lias been summoned at Croydon, by James Bucking- ham, fur having assaulted his son on Sunday, June 3, vliile the boy was in school at St. Andrew's Mission, Carshalton. The complainant stated that his son was eight years of age, and attended Sun- day school. On the previous Sunday afternoon the boy complained to him that the defendant had assaulted him. Witness went to the church and asked lr. Ferguson what the bother was about, and he replied thab the boys had been throwing the hassock9 about the church, and he chastised Buckingham for it. With that witness said Do you call it chastising him by boxing his ears, —"nning him about the church, and striking him with a stick ? adding that he would summon him Lo the court). Witness then took the boy to a ioctor, who examined him and said his shoulders had been somewhat bruised and swollen. Upon a subsequent occasion, when he saw the defendant, Lhe latter stated that the boye were placed under liis care, and lie would chastise them when neces- sary. Defendant said that the boy was very naughty lie could not do any good with him, and it was no use talking to him. He caught him in he act of throwing hassocks about, aud thought it his duly to chastise him. Sir Thomas Edridge [chairman) suggested that the defendant should ivo the prosecutor 10s. for his loss of time and >xpensos, and the rev. gentleman put an end tQ the case by doing 80.

MURDER OF A POLICE SERGEANT IN IRELAND. Information has reached Monta, county West- :neath, that Sergeant McGowan, of Lyttleton Police Station, had been murdered by Constable Simpson. A body of police, on arriving at the barracks, found the place closed, but saw Simpson, who should have been on guard, walking about. Tliey forced an entrance, but as they did so heard i shot. They found McGowan dead, having been "hot through the head and stabbed with a bayonet. Simpson was also dead, having apparently killed the sergeant and shot himself. Later particulars of the tragic affair at Lyttleton Police Barracks, co. Westmoath, state that Con- stable Simpson first fired with a revolver at Ser- geant McGowan, who fell wounded. Simpson then stabbed him with a bayonet, afberwards shooting himself. The motive of the crime is said bo be revenge, the sergeant having reported Simpson several times. An inquest has been held on the bodies of Sergt. McGowan and Constable Simpson. The jury re- turned a verdict of Wilful murder" against Simpson. The people in the district will not allow the body of Simpson to bo interred in any of the neighbouring graveyards. Two bayonets were driven to the hilt into McGowan's body.

SMALLPOX EPIDEMIC AT PRESTON. OVER 200 CASES.—TWO MORE DEATHS. There have been officially registered ab the Sani tary Department of the Corporation no fewer than i sr. 11(J1,e8 in which patients are infected with «mallpo\. These represent over 200 cases; indeed, it is estimated by some that there cannot be less than 2:^ or 230 patients altogether in the town. The de' elopment of the contagion is said to be utmost unparalleled for rapidity and extenb, almost ill Lhe cases registered having occurred in less than i w eek. The inhabitants, seriously alarmed at the mtbreak, are placing premises in a better condi- tion sanitarily, and getting re-vaccinated. The iiospital accommodation when the outbreak began was only but the Guardians of the Preston I'nion specially met one afternoon, and placed at the disposal of the Corporation, as the Urban Au- thority, additional wards at the Fulwood Work- house not hitherto used for smallpox cases. Since r-hc decision a large number of cases from the poorer iistricts, where isolation is difficult to secure, have been removed. Some tous weight of disinfectants, powder and fluids, have been gratuitously dis- tributed to the public, and the distributing officers nere eagerly besieged by crowds. Vaccination and re-v'accination is proceeding rapidly. Some people ba-e taken their children from the town to tho sea-side or the country until the scourge lias passed. Several public meetings have been post. poned, and one or two Sunday schools have been closed. A letter frenn Kilmarnock states that Good- hall, the North End football centre, who was seized with smallpox while travelling from Preston to Scotland, is improving. Two more deaths have been reported, one of a man at the workhouse liospital, and the other in the town, a young lady who came to Preston a short time ago from Lon- don having died. One patient whilst in delirium through the disease got away into the streets, and after an exciting scone was taken in a cab to the hospital. He was covered with smallpox. Several have been sent from their work with the pustules on them. There is reason to hope that the disease has been checked.

THE CASE OF MRS. MARY WILSON. At Bow Street Police Court, Mr. Marcus Lewis, solicitor, attended before Nl r. Bridge and referred I ac to the of Mary Wilson, aged 5H, who iri January last was charged with attempting to commit suicide. It was then stated that many yearj ago she lived under the protection of a gentleman, who died, leaving considerable property to her natural son. The Bon suhso uiently died, without making a will, and the wholo of the property was forfeited to the Crown, from w hom Mrs. Wilson had since received an annuity of £ i'5. She had. however, become very much embarrassed, and is now in difficulties with her landlord. 0« the occasion of her being charged a gentleman who had read the reports in the newspapers wtote to Mr. Bridge and expressed a desire to assist her. On the suggestion of the learned magistrate Mr. Marcus Lewis petitioned the Lords of the Treasury with a view of obtaining an increased allowance I out of the money forfeited, which is said to amount to between t-7,000 and £8,000. He now read a letter, dated June 17, 1886, addressed to L. Wilson, in reply to her personal application. It read as follows:—" Madain,—The Lords Com- missioners of her Majesty's Treasury having had under their consideration your memorial of the 2nd inst., I am directed to inform you that their lordships have no funds at their disposal from which they could afford you relief. (Signed) C. G. Barrington." In reply to Mr. Lewis's letter, hp had received a reply under the same signature, which read as follows:—" I have laid before tha Lords Commissioners of her Majesty's Treasury your letter of the 11th inst., relating to the case of Mrs. Mary Wilson, the natural mother of the late C. W, Norton. I am desired to transmit to you, for your information, the enclosed copy of a letter (given above), which my lords caused to be addressed bo Mrs. Wilson on June 17, l.SKt:, and I am to add that my lords must decline any further correspondence on the subject." Mr. Lewis said his object in stating what had transpired was with the view of bringing the case under the notice of J the gentleman who had proffered assistance, or anyone who might be disposed to offer Mrs. Wilson a home in return for her annuity. Beyond thab jum she was without meane, and was in bad health. —Mr. Bridge regretted to say that the letter had teen destroyed. He was unable to do anything urther for Mrs. Wilson, but gave Ir. Lewis 10e. out of hia private purse fer her.

The State Apartments of Windsor Castle wW fef jiowd on U tffecr Uatlli". %be lgtb iIIoo.

TERRIBLE DEATH OF TWO BOYS. A Chesterfield correspondont. telegraphs-A num. ber of persons, chiefly children were picking coat in a colliery refuse-heap atijoitiitig the Midland Railway, at Dunston and Barlow sidings, VVhib- bington, when a terrible accident happened. The heap, which consists principally of ashes and slag, is continually burning, and a cavity had formed ia the centre. Two boys, aged 13 and 9, suddenly disappeared in the burning mass. They wer« immediately extricated but their burns were fear- ful, and they afterwards died at Chesterfield Hos- pital.

THE CANONBUR Y MURDER. Two more men, bearing resemblance to those omcerned in the murder of Mrs. Frances Wright :<■ Canonbury-villas on May 16, were brought to Islington for identification. They had been arresied in a lodging-house at Bow by Detectives Mellish and Bradshaw, and were said by Detective- Inspector Glass, of the Criminal Investigation Department, to bear a remarkable likeness to the men wanted. The French ladies, MadameChefde- veil and (Mdlle. Pretofal, were summoned to the station, as well as two of the schoolboys, but they were unable to say positively as to the identity of- the men with those they saw on the day of the outrage. The suspects were accordingly released.

WRECK OF A BRITISH VESSEL. A telegram from San Francisco, states :-Ititelli. gence received here from Honolulu, dated June 2, states that on April li;, at ten o'clock in the even- ing, the British barque Henry James, from New- castle, N.S. W., for San Francisco, ran on a sunken rock not marked on the chart, 35 miles north- west of Palmyra Island and became a total wreck. The crew, numbering 2" men and 10 passengers were saved in boats and landed on Palmyra Island the following day. A boat, with five of the crew, ft. the island on April 21 for Samoa, where they arrived 1!' days later. The remainder of the crew and the passengers were rescued by the steamer Mariposa on May 29, and wore landed at Honolulu on the 1st instant. Only a very small quantity of provisions was saved from the wreck, and the- castaways had to subsist for the greater parbof the time on cocoititits and fish. They are now in charge of the British Consulate at Honolulu, and are ia good healthy

CHARGES OF THEFT AGAINST MARRIED WOMEN. Beforo the West Riding mitrit-trate at Ponte- fract, Ann Westmorland, a married woman, of Castleford, was charged with stealing one shirb and a handkerchief, value 6s. d., the property of AVin. Little, draper, Castleford, on various dates; and further, with stealing a table cloth, apron, half a dozen handkerchiefs, &c., from Jabez Nichol- son, in April last. The property had been pledged at h. Lorriman's, Castleford. Fined 40s. and costs, or one month.-Georye Rutherford, miner, Castleford, for resisting and assaulting the police when searching for sbolen property ab the above prisoner's house was fined 20s. and costs, or one month. When Police-constables Hill and Jackson wenb to Westmorland's house, Rutherford, who lodged there, prevented the officers searching the house, and struck Hill with a poker on the shoulder. -Ellen Exley, a married woman of Hemsworth, was fined 10s. and costs, or one month, for stealing a table cloth and blankeb, value 5s., the property of a widow of the same place, named Mary Aon Finnigbam, on the 12th May.

A COLLIERY FLOODED. An extraordinary case of flooding of colliery workings has occurred near Barnsley. The heavy rain which accompanied a thunderstorm which took place the other afternoon, flooded a portion of the workings of a "day-hole" situated at Holroyd, near Barnsley, and placed the lives of a number of men in jeopardy, and, ib is believed, caused the death of half a dozen ponies. A day-hole is a colliery worked on a small scale, by means of < drift from the surfece, into which the men can walk, and from which the coal can be run up in the corves. The day-hole in question is worked in connection with Lady Galway's pits at Monckton, and employed a few men and lads. The coal is drawn to the surface by ponies. About noon the men prepared to come out of the pit to receive their wages. They gob near to the mouth of the hole when, perceiving that it was raining very heavily, they drew back. A train of corves was standing in the drift, and behind the corves were the ponies. The men sat down on the corves, but shortly the water from the surface began to pour into the hole. They waited expecting the shower would soon subside, until the water reached the tops of the corves, and then becoming alarmed, they jumped into the water, which took them to the waisb, and waded out of the hole to the surface. The ponies could nob pass the corves, the drifb being narrow, and it is thought they would be drowned, unless they were successful in reaching some part of the workings where the water could nob reach them, and which was considered un- likely.

MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF A REPORTER. An inquiry inbo the cause of the death of Mr. lVm. Brownley Megginson, aged 25, a member of the reporting staff of the Yorkshire Dail;/ Ga'-ctte, published at York, has been held at Acaster Selby, near the city. The evidence showed that the body of the deceased, fuHy dressed, was found in the river Ouse, near Acaster. The deceased had been staying at the house of his brother-in-law, Mr. Thomas Eden, draper, Queen Street, Scarborough,, and whilst there enjoyed good health, and appeared cheerful and in good spirits. He returned to bis home in Nun Mill Street, Scarcrofb Road, York, one evening and on the followitigmoruing left for the office ab which he was engaged, informing his wife that he would be back bo dinner. He did nob, however, return, nor did he present. himself at the office, and ultimately his dead body was found in the river Ouse.—Mr. G. J. Ireland, surgeon, of Tadcaster, deposed thab deabh was the result of drowning, and that a fracture of the lefb arm had I been caused aiter death, probably by a passing steamer.—The Coroner (Mr. H. Wood), in summing up, remarked that there was 110 evidence to show how the deceased got into the water, or to lead to the supposition that lie bad committed suicide. He therefore suggested that they should return a verdict of Found drowned, a suggestion which was given effect to by the jury.

ASSAULT BY AN A 1!( HTTECT. At the Dalston Police Court. Hat «>ld Shenton (22), describing himself as ac a, and surveyor, of 7:\ (;ore Road, South Hackney, of gentlemanly appearance, was charged before Mr Bros with an- noying James Smith, the occllpier of Letitliall Koad, Hackney, by knocking at his street door without law fulexcuse, and further with assaulting him by striking him in the face and mouth with R stick. The prosecutor, a potter, said he was its bed at I no o'clock that morning when he u a- awakt tied Ly a loud knocking at tue door. Alter 12 or £ knocks he went down and opened the door. He Llieli saw the lwi-ieonerand two others all of whom were partially intoxicated. Tie them what they were knocking at. his door for, and the pii- soner answered that they were only knocking foe a lark. Witness shut the door, but as the knock- ing was repeated be again opened it and told the men to go away. The prisoner thereupon use'i very disgusting language, and one of his com- panions told witness to take no notice of him. Thereupon the prisoner raised his stick and struck witness a severe blow on the eye and another in tho mouth.—Horace Reeve, a lodger in the house, came to witness's assistance, and the prisoner was secured and given into the custody of Constable 3'4 .1. Mr. Timbrell, solicitor, who defended, urged thab the (H isoncr was a young man most respectably connected, whose father held an official position in the neighbourhood. The prisoner, unfortunately for him, had taken more to drink than was good for him on the previous night, and was under the impression that a female of his acquaintance visited at the house. He was roughly treated by the prosecutor.—This the prosecutor denied, and Mr. Timbrell said he could call the prisoner's friends to prove this.—Mr. Bros said he would give the pri- soner every opportunity, and he put the case back till two o'clock. At that hour, however, Mr. Timbrell said the gentlemen had nob arrived, and he should leave the case in the magistrate's hands. -Mr. Bros Very well. The prisoner will be fined 40s. for knocking ab the door, and X-It for the assaulb, With 'Oe. costs.

I Mr. and Mrs. D'Oyly Carte have returned to L.r.clou after their honoytaoon trip on Ike Conti. aen4.