SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE.

PORT OF LYTTELTON. ARRIVED. April 17 —Taranaki, s.s., from South, Sailed. April 17 —Paranaki, s.s., for North.

POST OFFICE NOTICES.

Mails at the Ashburton Post Office close as follows :

For Christchurch and North at 10.20 a.m., 4 p.m., and 7.30 p.m., daily. For Chertsey at 10.20 a.m. daily. For Rakaia at 10.20 a.m., and 4 p.m. daily. For Ashburton South, Winslow, Hinds, Coldstream, Rangitata, Orari, Winchester, and Geraldine at 10.30 a.m. daily. For Ashton, Waterton, and Longbeach at 2.45 p.m. daily. For Temuka, Timaru and South at 10.30 a.m. and 3 p.m. daily.

The next outward San Francisco mail will close at Christchurch on Friday, the 26th.

The Evening Echo. THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 1878.

In times of great famine or distress, when gaunt suffering stalks through the land, and when charity opens its heart and unlocks the storehouses of benevo lence to feed the hungry, the dispensei of food finds himself besieged with the cries of starving honesty, of hungry pride driven to beggary by fell want. But the cry is loudest at such times— not of the man whom misfortune has driven to despair, and whose children’s cry for bread has goaded him on to the verge of madness ; but of the man whose vice has degraded him, whose degradation has killed all sense of honesty, and led him to adopt as a pro fession the trade of the common beggar. Not seldom, too, is deserving poverty passed by, while the whining and noisy spendthrift is supplied with what he clamors for, not that his actual want may be either more or less than his more deserving neighbor, but simply, because of his clamor he has been able to keep his wants before the eye of the relieving officer, who, as much to rid himself of the irksome whine as in dis pensation of charity, gives the asked-for dole, while honest poverty stands by, held back, even with the fire of starva tion burning his entrails, till the press is past and he can humbly tell bis tale, or let his haggard face and emaciated figure tell his story for him.

From this picture Ashburton may learn a lesson. Not a county in New Zealand but has a want—this wants its mineral resources developed, that would have its agricultural country opened up and pierced with roads : all want their rivers spanned, their intercourse with the other parts of the colony secured by railway communication. Every city, town, and hamlet has a felt want un

supplied, and all clamor more or less before the great relieving officer—the Government. There is much to be done in every new country before it can enter, even at fair handicap, into com petition with its neighbors; but, comparatively speaking, a new town wants more than a new country, and in the distribution of the public money the value to the colony of such a town as Ashburton ought not to be over looked. With an amazing rapidity it has in its yet short life assumed a size and made a solid progress that can be pointed to in few of its compeers in New Zealand, and that progress has not yet reached its halting place, nor will it yet awhile. Still, with all its strides towards the maturity of townhood, it is still held in leading strings by its maternal County Council, and no signs are made of a recognition of its majority, or its right to the toga virilis of municipality. Its wants are still considered in the same breath with those of districts far away from it, and having nothing in common with it, and considered too by men who—giving ear, doubtless, to its claims as an important part of the county whose affairs they rule—'are non-resident within its belts, and necessarily not alive to its welfare with the interest of citizens.

This is one point on which the town ought to be importunate, but another and more clamant want is one to which we cannot too frequently refer; nor will we cease to refer to it till the want is supplied. Every recurrence of the weekly Court-day tells us of our need for a Magistrate in the town. Sooner or later the authorities must recognise this want, if they do not recognise it now ; and surely it would be a graceful thing for the “Government of the people ” to facilitate the administration of justice in Ashburton by the appoint ment of an officer who would be at hand at all times to dispose of the cases, civil and police, which now accumulate and are adjourned from Court-day to Court-day. We find no fault with Mr. A. Le Grand Campbell as a Magis trate, but we blame the system which keeps him at Temuka for five days out of the six, and on the day he does visit us drives him away with the afternoon train, if he has to cut the history of a case in two by an adjournment to se cure his passage. His residence in Temuka puts the criminal business here in an awkward position Perhaps no English speaking population can show such a plethora of Justices as can that of New Zealand, yet in no place is it so difficult as in Ashburton to find an amateur Magistrate to try the unfortu nate disorderlies who muster so strongly before his Worship. Not seldom are men with charges against them of a heavier character than simply drunk and disorderly remanded by a J.P. till the Resident Magistrate sits, and these cases occurring frequently cause a glut of criminal business. This of course is disposed of first; fortunately Ashburton disorderlies do not trouble the Court long, are seldom defended, and almost always plead guilty ; but when a police case crops up with an agent to fight the Superintendent, it spreads itself far into the day, and thus civil business is al most pushed out of Court, and parties are compelled to dance attendance at Court till their turn for hearing comes. This week an additional day was given, and two civil cases were heard. By an unwonted chance, there was no police business, otherwise one of those cases would have run a risk of being crowded out.

Lawyers, clients, officers, witnesses, prisoners—all complain of the slipshod manner in which we have our law served out to us. Unless we keep con tinually wearying the ear of the Depart ment our wants will not be attended to, and if clamor will bring a Resident Ma gistrate amongst us, then surely the want is pressing enough to call for the outcry. Hungry—and not always blamelessly hungry—districts, and dis tricts whose selfishness and covetous ness are greater than their need, are supplied with what they crave that Go vernment may rid themselves of the annoying importunity, and surely we ought to feel no diffidence in wearying the departmental ear with our cry of “ Give, give.” We crave no charity, but a right; and that right withheld is a grievance and an injustice.

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

To-morrow being Good Friday, there will be no publication of this paper.

We would remind our readers that the unsold goods left over from yester day will be disposed of to-night and on Monday night at the Wesleyan Bazaar in the Library Hall. Intending Good Friday excursionists will be pleased to hear that single fare tickets issued to-day or to-morrow are available for return up to Tuesday. The third anniversary of the Sunday school in connection with the Ashbur ton Primitive Methodist Church will be celebrated by a tea meeting in the Library Hall to-morrow. Sunday hours will be observed at the Telegraph Office to-morrow (Good Fri day), and the Post Office will be entirely closed ; any letters, &c., however, which may arrive by the first train will be sup plied to box-owners. Dr Somerville’s meetings are being largely attended in the city. Nearly all the Timaru grain stores are full of grain, and it is being largely stacked in the open air. A little girl has died in Wellington from inflammation of the bowels caused by eating some pineapple rind. His Worship the Mayor of Christ church has left for Auckland on a visit to the Hot Springs for the benefit of his health. He will remain a few days at Wellington en route , to interview the Government on municipal business. An infant son of Mr John Marsden, an engine-driver on a Canterbury line, died yesterday from the effects of a scald received from the upsetting of a pannikin of hot tea over his neck and chest.

Mr. Fox, in a recent lecture at Bulls, stated that the annual amount ot the taxation of the Rangitikei district was and that the money spent m the same period by the people for drink was If this be true, the Rangitikei people must have hard heads and strong stomachs. A proclamation in the Gazette per mits the slaughter of native game in the several provincial districts during the months of April, May, June and July of the current year. The term “native game” includes:—Wild duck of any spe cies, bittern, pied stilt plover, wild geese dotterell, native pigeon, teal, black stilt plover, curlew, and quail. The Bowen prize, open to competi tion by all. matriculated students, not being graduates, is to be given this year for the following subject:—“ The Nor man Conquest: Its effects on the sub sequent development of English insti tutions.” Essays must be sent, under motto, to the Registrar of the Uuniver sity, Christchurch, before 31st Dec. An Auckland paper will have it that “ the Auckland milkmen are crying out for rain, and continually looking out, like the prophet of old, for the promis ing little cloud, no bigger than a man’s hand.” There are no artesian wells there, sympathetically comments the Sun.

Someone in authority in the railway department is playing the fool with our railways. Lately the employes, who had for some considerable time been compelled to work late and early with out extra pay, received the welcome intelligence that overtime would in future be paid for. Everything went as “ merry as a marriage bell.” The men worked well and performed wonders. The employes were, however, informed at the end of last week that they would no longer be paid overtime, and they very properly struck work. We hear that their places will be taken by a number of men from Christchurch.— Oamaru Mail.

The late Bishop Selwyn devoted his attentton to the subject of funeral reform. In consecrating a cemetery in England he said nothing was more out of place than ostentation, pomp, and ceremony at the funeral of the dead. A feeling in favor of abolishing the un meaning surroundings of ordinary fune rals was growing in the country, and he urged Christians to unite for the pur pose of conducting interments at as little cost and with as little ceremony as possible.

An extraordinary circumstance (says the Ballarat Courier) has been related to us, of the truth of which there can be no doubt. In a comer of the shaft of the New Eureka Company, at a depth of 170 feet, a live frog was found last week in solid sandstone. The frog was taken to the surface, and every effort made to keep it alive, but without avail.

There is a probability of very serious scarcity, and perhaps famine, this year in Cashmere. Already in some parts of the valley hardly any rice is procura ble except that which is damaged. Many ponies, cattle, and sheep have died from the grass famine. The failure of the khariff is owing to the heavy rain during harvest time.

The sea serpent is reported to have been seen by a person on board the clipper schooner Leslie on 26th Feb ruary, when in latitude 38 deg. 6 min. S. and longitude 149 deg. 56mm. E. The story as narrated to the Otago Times is that about 11 a.m. on that day, a man named William Mitchell, who was at the helm, observed something unusual on the port bcw. He called the attention of Matthias Werterland to it. They made the object out to be a serpent, in color as white as snow, with a flat but pointed head, red eyes, in length about 30 feet, and in girth about 6 in., or 7 in. It was about 15 feet from the vessel.

General Neal Dow has presented to the Temperance Convention of Maine a Bill to make the sale of liquor a felony. The Act contains 24 sections and makes the penalty for the first offence, single sale, 100 dollars, and six months in the county gaol; second offence, too dollars and one year in the State prison ; prohibits the transporta tion of liquor within the State, even for private parties, making parties responsi ble on whose territory it is found; apparatus for selling to be deemed evi dence of sale; takes away all power from country attorneys to enter a nolle pros., this to be done only by the courts; in default of parties paying a fine, an additional year in the State prison or gaol ; officers having seized liquors not to give them up, except by order of the court, the burden of proof to be on the parties claiming the same ; the horse and carriage conveying or drawing liquor to-be seized; persons arrested as common drunkards to be sent summarily to the county gaol for one year, to be let out when the person selling them liquor shall be convicted; no surety, to be received from a person who had been convicted of liquor sell ing; liquor runners fined 1000 dollars and one year in the State prison; a reward of 20 dollars offered for the arrest and conviction of parties; no stay of proceedings or compromise made at any stage of the proceedings; 500 dollars fine and six months in the county gaol for displaying a sign offer ing liquors for sale or advertising the manufacture; all other liquor laws to be repealed The committee have the Bill under consideratfon.

The Btoad Arunv of the 16th Feb. writes :—Russia enters the Conference fully armed, with her guns loaded and her swords ground, and, above all, with the material guarantee of the actual possession of Turkey; and yet there are Englishmen imbecile enough to talk of the bad taste of England also arming herself for the Conference. All Europe, except England, is armed—■" armed to the teeth—and it is time that all of us, Whigs, Tories, and Radicals, should awaken to the suicidal folly of allowing the interests of talk and party to rule England in the hour of danger. The best men of all politics are now agreed on this point. Earl * Fortescue, a Whig, says, “ First I am an man, next a Liberal.” Mr. Joseph Cowen, a Radical, says, “What hope can English Radicals have for freedom at the hands of Russian despotism ? ” Even Lord Hartington, the Liberal leader, refuses to record his vote against the credit of six millions; and Mr! Gladstone, whose religious zeal for the Eastern Christian Church had be wildered his otherwise English sym pathies, and overstrained his expectant opposition to the Government policy, how says, “ I will provoke mine enemy no more.” We have, now, therefore, little else to do than to arm—arm by sea and arm by land—not as a make weight, not by way of demonstration,

THE EVENING ECHO, THURSDAY, APRIL 18, IS7B.



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