NOVEMBER.
1.—At Terrington Petty Sessions, the Norfolk and Norwich Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals instituted proceedings against two persons for cruelty to 130 geese by plucking them alive on October 4th and 5th. Remarkable statements were made in the course of the hearing. The practice, it was said, was not uncommon a quarter of a century previously, but it had since ceased except in remote localities. Evidence was given to the effect that the process was unquestionally barbarous and cruel. A witness for the defence, who described himself as a “goose puller,” stated that for twenty years he had plucked 1,500 live geese annually, and 5,000 or 6,000 were so plucked every year in his village. It was the custom to pluck the same birds four times a year—first on June 18th, and afterwards at intervals of three weeks; and every goose so plucked weighed two pounds more at Christmas than those which had not been plucked, and the flesh was of better quality. The magistrates dismissed the cases.
4.—Mr. A. J. Balfour, First Lord of the Treasury, addressed a large meeting of the Conservative party at the Agricultural Hall, Norwich, at which Lord Amherst of Hackney presided. Mr. Balfour stayed at Catton Park, as the guest of Mr. S. Gurney Buxton.
9.—Mr. Clement Charles Rix Spelman was elected Mayor and Mr. Alfred Haldinstein appointed Sheriff of Norwich.
16.—The new Royal Hotel, erected on the site of Messrs. Foster and Burroughes’ offices and of a stonemason’s yard and other premises on Bank Plain, Norwich, was opened by a public luncheon at which Mr. Blofeld, chairman of the Directors, presided. The building was designed by Mr. E. T. Boardman, of the firm of Messrs. Boardman and Son, and the contractor was Mr. John Youngs.
28.—A severe gale visited the eastern coast, and continued on the 29th. At Yarmouth a high sea flooded the Beach Gardens, and the river overflowed its banks, and entered private houses, offices, and warehouses on the Quay. At Cromer a portion of the jetty was washed away, and at Horsey serious breaches were made in the sea wall and thousands of acres of salt marshes submerged. The fishermen and others on the coast sustained great damage, and a fund was opened by the Mayor of Norwich for their relief. On December 30th Capt. Vereker, the professional adviser to the Harbour Department of the Board of Trade, held an inquiry at the King’s Arms Inn, Martham, for the purpose of receiving suggestions as to the best methods of preventing future encroachments.
DECEMBER.
7.—The Norwich Town Council elected Mr. Ernest Edward Wild, barrister-at-law, judge of the Guildhall Court of Record, in place of Mr. Carlos Cooper, deceased.
22.—Died at 14, Trinity Street, Norwich, Mr. William Hunter, aged 77. He was a native of Bury St. Edmund’s, was elected Mayor of Norwich in 1881, and appointed a justice of the peace in 1893.
26.—Died at Belper, the Rev. Edwin Augustus Hillyard, vicar of Christ Church, in that town. He was formerly rector of St. Lawrence, Norwich, and the pioneer of ritualistic observances in the churches of the city. “Mr. Hillyard was the first to have celebrations for the departed, and they have been held in one church or another in Norwich ever since.”