TERRIBLE RAILWAY CALAMITY.

Waikato Times, Volume IV, Issue 202, 26 August 1873, Page 3

TERRIBLE RAILWAY CALAMITY.

American papor3 contain the following particulais of the dreadful disaster that occuued near Scrubgrass, the last station on the Allegheny Valley l'ailroad. It was the most serious tJiat had happened on that l.ulway for many a year. It occurred to the o(F city accommodation tiaiii. The cause is unknown, ('no spectator Attributes it to a broken rail ; others to a hicak dropping off the tiacks Six oil cais and one coach went down the steep bmk in a mass of nuns. The coach made a 1 evolution and a half, landing the trucks up ten or fifteen feet from the shore, m about five feet of water. The oil from the bioken tanks or trucks immediately covered the stream, and ran down atound the co.iches, penetrated through the broken windows and doors, and took fire from the stoves. The coach was an iron one, and the passengers not yet escaped, found themselves encased in a wrought iron oven, heated outside and inside with the burning petroleum. The surface of the water was a flame, and the alternative of staying within the car, or swimming iv the burning stream, was presented to them. The heat was so intense from the volume of flames, that no person could stand on the track above the wreck, so all attempts at rescue were impossible. All who did escape alive got themselves out, and all were burned more or less. Those who escaped got out of the car before the oil took fire. One of the survivors says that a car rolled down the embankment into the river, and was submerged to a depth, perhaps, of three or four feet, bottom upwards. In a moment a stream of oil came pouring in at the forward windows, which communicated with the red hot stove, and instantly enveloped the coach with flames. He kicked out a window and crawled through and climbed up a, bank with some difficulty. In the confusion and excitement of the scene, it was impossible to tell who had perished. There were twenty-live or thirty passengers in the car, of whom probably one- half contrived to save themselves ; others got out with assistance. Six or seven freight or passenger cars went over the bank, which was thirty-five feet high at this point, and very precipitous. The fire raged so fiercely that uninjured passengers were powerless to render assistance to the wounded, whose shrieks of agony were heart-rending. The blazing oil flowed down the river, and the whole scene was terrible in the extreme. In getting out the car he found the water up to his waist. The flames raged furiously, and the shrieks of the poor victims were terrible. Some of the passengeis must have been buried under the wreck, and burned to death, of drowned. Several oil cars and a coach went over. It was very difficult to ascend the bank on account of the ice.

Tnn Swedish Licensing System — It is proposed to bring in a bill into Parliament next session to introduco the Gothenburg principle of licensing, by enabling the ratepayers of any burgh or rural parish or district, to take into their own hands the whole public-house trade within such parish or district, the trade to be conducted by trustees elected by the ratepayers. All supplies of liquor required by the trustees to be purchased by open public tender. The net profits to be applied to the payment of interest on capital, expenses of management and gradual extinction of such loans as may be required to initiate the business and provide reasonable compensation to the present licenceholders. Such compensation to be on the basis of the actual value of the good-will usually paid for any such business. Any overplus of proiits to be paid to the parochial Board, but should such additional profits in any year exceed onehalf of the local poor-rate, the surplus to be paid to some non-local fund, such as the Lunacj' Board No new spirit licenses to be granted to grocers and spirit dealers. Persons at present holding such licences to have their licences renewed through the trustees. Such dealers to obtain thensupplies of spirits through the trustees, and not to sell any smaller quantity than one quart bottle Hotels and restaurantsj in like manner, to receive their licences and supplies through the trustees subject to proper guarantees that they do not carry ou the ordinary publichouse trade. Should the trustees fail to provide a sufficient number of suitable houses for the sale of spirits at fair prices, bo as to meet the reasonable wants of the population, a certain number of ratepayers to hate the right of appeal to the magistrates or Justices in Quaiter Sessions. If either party be dissatisfied with their decision, an appeal may bo taken to the Home Secretary. In any town or burgh a minimum number of houses in proportion to the population to be fixed by the Act. To the testimonials from the authorities of Gothenburg to the sueoess of the system there can be added the testimony of the Swedish Diet at present sitting at Stockholm, winch last month passed a Bill by largo majorities to enable tho " retail" or grocers' licences, still sold by auction, to be acquired by the same association that holds the publiohouse licences, thus rendering the control of the traffic complete. This is expected to have a most important effect in the further diminution of drunkenness, and is conclusive as to the opinion of tho Swedish nation, aftor seven years' experience of the G-othenburg system. It is intended in the first instance to limit the proposed legislation to Scotland. Mr I). L. Mundy. who has been for three years travelling through the most picturesque districts of New Zealand, with a view to collect the materials for an illustrated work on the islands comprised in thnt colon y, has opened an exhibition of photography at the corner of Collins and Elizabethstreets, which will repay a visit. They embrace every variety of the magnificent scenery of both the principal islands, and when they arc displayed to the eyes of English artists' on MrMundy's approaching visit to the old country, we should think they will have the effect of alluring to New Zealand many of the landscape painters, to whom there is no field that has not been exhausted for the purposes of art in Europe. Among the photographs in the collection now on view are numeious representations of tho boiling springs of Lake Taupo and Koto Mahani ; others taken on the eumniit of Alpine passes, and in view of the enormous glaciers which are to be met with in those elevated regions ; and others, again which, vividly portray the variety and luxuriance of the forests of New Zealand. Nor has the lake scenery, or that of the harbours and bays which indent tho coast, been overlooked by Mr Mundy, who is evidently bent upon making the British public thoroughly well acquainted with the natural features of tho beautiful islands through which ho has travelled with that apparatus which, as Salem Scuddor was accustomed to observe, " can't lie." — Australasian. Confucius said that the world could not get on without truthfulness. The Springfield Republican is ofjthc opinion that that single remark stamps Confucius as a feebleminded old fogy. It is altogether probable that the sapient old coolie, if he could have foreseen the present condition of society and politics in the "lited States, would never have made such a blunder. The other day a youth was observed sliding down an alley, and enjoying himself hugely. He would coax a big dog up the alley, and when the animal would run back the lad would grab hold of its tail and slide down most beautifully. In playing this game it is always best to select a pood-natured dog— one that doesn't take much pride in his tail. "Wordsworth, says Charles Lamb, one day told me that he considered Shakspearc greatly overrated. There is, said he, an immensity of trick in all Shakspcare wrote, and people are taken by it. Now, if I had a mind I could write like Shakspeaie. So you see, proceeded Charles Lamb quietly, it was only the mind that was wanting . In the Street. — (Sunday morning, 10..1j.) — Peit Dissenter : Are you hastening to countenance the institutional arrangement for obstruction of the propagation of denominational ideas? Elegant Ohmchman : Mean, am I going to chinch ? Yes, I am. Morning, I'm late.