SHIPPING.

PORT OF LYTTELTON.

ARRIVED. March 23, steamer Rotorua, 600, Carey, Sn>m Wellington. Passengers—Miss Baynes, Messrs Bellamy, Frederick, Rowe, MTavisli, Crupson, Captain and Mrs Rose. Colonial Government steamer Stella, from Wellington. Pussengcrs—Mr. Joseph State and family. 'SAII.ED. March 22, steamer Alhambra, 402, Muir, for Wellington. March 23, steamer Rotorua, 600, Carey, for Southern Ports. steamer Tui, 56, Bonner, for Wellington. Port Cuai.MICRS, Saturday.—Sailed : New Zealand Shipping Company’s ship Piako, with 43 passengers, and the following cargo for London : —3SS9 hales wool, 13 bales skins, 2 bales rags, 230 tons Hour, 200 ions manganese ore, 65 tons oil, 13 casks pelts, 2 casks skins, 37 casks tallow, 1 case ambergris, 5 tons sundries, 10,801 ounces gold. « Valued at £>3L934-

The following are the details and value of ■cargo of the New Zealand Shipping Company's ship Wanganui, 1135 tens, Captain Watt, cleared at the Customs yesterday, and an nounced to sail this morning from Lyttelton for London : —4955 bales wool, ,£99,100; 139 casks tallow, £1946 ; 475 sacks wheat, £'475 : 69 cases meats, £lO4 10s.-, 6 cases sundries, £3O; 3 boxes gold (43780/.. iqdwls. I2grs), £>7.515 >7s- 9 ( h dotal, £119,170 7s. 6d. The following is her pussenger list Saloon : lion. E. W. Stafford, Mrs. Stafford, Masters Stafford (3), Mssses Stafford (2), Mr. and Mrs. lloel T. Pattison, Misses Patti,on (2), Masters Tattison (2), Miss Smith, Mr. R. Colton, Misses Cotton (2), Master Cotton, Miss L. I lick ling, Dr. IJockridge, Mr. W. Macefiold.

COMMERCIAL TELEGRAMS.

Sydney, March 22. Ilennessy’s case ar.d quarters unchanged; kerosene, is. lod. to is. 1 id. ; rice, £24 10s.; New Zealand wheat, ss. to ss. fid. ; New Zea land oats, 4s. to 4s. 6d. ; tobacco, is. 3>4d. to is. 4il. ; sugar and candles unchanged.

Adelaide. March 22, Flour, £l2 15s. ; wheat, ss. fid.

The Evening Echo. SATURDAY, MARCH 23, 1878.

l'ather Ginaly, of Christchurch, has received a telegram from Father Ilennebery, positively denying any departure from the Catholic doc trine on “ Mixed Marriages,” and declaring the telegram of the Press Agency utterly false.

Two singular railway accidents have occurred in our town during the present week, resulting fatally. Fortunately the victims were only dogs—one the property of Mr. 11. T. Winter, a valuable Collie; the other one of Mr. Saunders’ pedigree Beagles. Both were run over by a passenger train, and, of course, in stantly killed.

During the favorable weather which we have enjoyed for the last three or four weeks farmers have been actively engaged in deliver ing their produce to the several stores in town. Wo are pleased to notice that an unusually large proportion of the grain has been pur chased by local buyers, which, besides showing that they can compete successfully with Christ church merchants, is more satisfactory to the grower than dealing with a distant market. During the current week the receipts of a well known milling firm in the district has averaged 1200 sacks a day, a fact Rom which our readers may form some idea of the magnitude of our grain tr2de.

In our Thursday’s issue we noticed the im pending removal of the Rev. Mr Sharp, of the Primitive Methodist Church, from our midst • It gives us pleasure to be able to add that he does not leave us without some expression of the esteem of those amongst whom he has labored. On Thursday evening, ,at the usual meeting of Sunday school teachers, and after some business in re the anniversary to be cele brated next month, Mr W. I.ill, superintend ent, on behalf of those subscribing to the testimonial, presented Mr Sharp with a purse of sovereigns. The presentation was made in a speech expressing the subsci ibers’ sense of Mr Sharp’s value as a Christian minister, and their regret at having to part with his work and fellowship. Mr Sharp replied, thanking them in feeling language for the unexpected gift, and stated that owing to the extent of the circuit he had not been able to devote so much of his time to Ashburton as he could have wished, but felt assured his work had not been in vain. His prayers would be for the good of the station and a blessing on his successor, who, he trusted, would- he able to devote more time to it, and thus secure a greater good.

The entries and transactions at the Thursday stock sale, crowded out of our yesterday’s issue, were as follows :—Entries Messrs hi ■‘Lean, 11. F. Smith, Davis. Small, Ullyatt, Munroe, Bennison, IT. Donaldson, s! Donaldson, Moriarty, ancl Parkin. Transac

tions—Sheep were sold on account of Mr Allan MT.ean, 200 fat wethers at 6s iod ; Mr Hay T. Smith, 100 fat merino ewes, mixed quality, at 5 s s{l5 { 1 > 100 do., 5s 6d. A pen of cross bred wethers were passed in at Bs. Cattle—On account of Mr. Small, 2 steers, at £4 ss, each; 7 heifers at from £6 to £7 2s. fid. ; cows at £7 17s. 6d., £7 155., £B, £9, and 10 17s. fid. For Mr. Ullyatt, 3 steers, at £8 each ; 2 heifers, at £8 15s. each. Horses—For Mr. G. Parkin—Draught, £36, £33, £29. For Mr. Bennison, a draught gelding at £3B. For Mr. S. Donaldson, one for £46.

Timaru showed a clean charge sheet at its R.M. Court yesteiday. The freight on grain Irom Lyttelton to Lon don is advertised at 30s per ton.

“ A Jourist” writes to the Melbourne Argus complaining that the owners of the steamers to New Zealand do not pay enough attention to the tourist element, and says : “ Every sum mer New Zealand will become more and more the playground of ihe Colonies as Switzerland is that of the Mother Country.” A labourer named Templeton, resident at Tokomairiro, Otago, has been sent to gaol for ten days for non-paymeig of school fees for ljis children. It seems that the fees became due under the old system about a year ago, and being unpaid, a judgment summons was taken out against Templeton, with the above result. From xvliat we can gather, Templeton had not the means to pay, and his imprisonment under the circumstances appears to be monstrous.

CHISPA’S LETTER.

“I am not yet so bald that you can see my brains. ” I ,ong eei.i.ow.

My worthy spouse addressed me in language like this, last Saturday, when she had perused my letter in your issue of that date : “ Old man, you’ve been and run down the people’s weather here, and you hadn’t any right to do that. This is going to be a great town ; every body says it, and a ‘ blow of wind ’ won’t do any harm. When this town gets to the great future that everybody says is before it, it will be able to stop all that blow. A go-ahead town can always make itself comfortable, because it knows how to go about its business in a proper way. Chisp, I think you’ve put vour foot in it.” Mrs. Chispa is a sensible woman ; I chose her as she chose her wedding gown—something that would wear well. Some greater man than I did the same thing long ago, but that’s nothing. After she had spoken I thought of the turntable, but was silent. She went down town to buy a hat, or something of that sort, in the evening. It is lying now, 1 suppose, anywhere between this and where the blow of last Saturday spent itself; but on Sunday when her morning face met mine I could see disaster written in every line, and she softly whispered, “ Chisp, old man ; you were right—this may be a great town, but it will have to he greater a long way than it is now if it has to fight that wind.” We went together to hear Sir George Grey. When we came back from that meeting, and had settled down to our final palaver before roost, she suddenly said—“ Dr. S is a love of a man.” I made a rapid mental memo randum. which would not be pleasing to the Dr. were I to write it here. I asked aloud, “ Why ? ” “ Because he wants Sir George to give votes to women as well as to men.” I thought for a moment. Then I asked, “Is that why you think him a love of a man?” “ Yes, of course, y.ou old fool; you didn’t imagine, did you, that I had any other reason?” “No.” Felt relieved. Mrs. C. —“ I don’t know that you are any better in the head than I, why then should you have a vote? and there’s Polly, along there, you are always cracking up so —she pays her rent, and keeps her own house, and Sir George told us we all paid taxes alike; why don’t she have rights of citizenship as well as you?” “Well, I allow, Poll ought to have a vote, because I think representation should be co-ordinate with taxation. But it wouldn’t give her any more power than she has at present, for I know she carries the votes of a dozen or so young chaps in her pocket.” “ Like I carried yours, I suppose, when I was single.” I didn’t care to con tinue that subject; but I found in the morning the following scrap of Victor Hugo’s lying on my dressing table :

Women are right in looking for a better lot, and all the efforts of my life have been on their side. Man has been the problem of the iSth century, woman is the problem of the 19th ; and to say woman is to say child, that is to say, the future. The question thus put appears in

all its gravity. It is in its solution that lies the supreme social appeasal. Strange and violent situation ; man really depends on you ; the woman holds the heart of the man. In the eyes of the law she is a minor—she is incapable, she is without civil power, she is without poli tical right, she is nothing ; she is all, for she is the mother. The domestic hearth is what she makes it; she is in the household the mistress for good or evil. Complicated sovereignty of oppression ! Woman can do all for man— nothing for herself. The laws are imprudent to make her so feeble when she is so powerful. Let us recognise that feebleness and protect it ; let us recognise that power and direct it. There lies the duty of man; there lies also his interest. I do not tire of saying the problem ; it must be solved. Whoever hears a part of the burthen ought to have a part of the privileges. Half the human race is outside equality ; it must be made re-enter. It will be one of the great glories of our great century to give the rights of the woman as a counter-balance to the rights of the man—that is to say, to put the laws in equilibrium with the customs.

Was at Court yesterday. Always like to look fitter tlje men in, trouble. Ope poor chap had to stump up £5 for ex pressing his fondness for a servant girl in a manner which was rude and un lawful. She was a plucky girl, though, and threatened to go for him with a table knife if he repeated his horse play love-making. He was not so fond of her mistress, and when that lady interfered, he was the reverse of choice in his language. I fancied that had I been R. M. of this district, I should have advised that poor bewitched man to wear a charm against the attractions of this fair servant girl—and should have suggested a £"5 note sewed in the front of his braces. It would be a good thing to think of—a £5 note—when bright eyes trouble him next time. A man is drunk when he lies on his back feeling up for the ground ; when he tries to pick up the shadow of a swinging signboard for a handkerchief; when he saddles a brindled cow instead of a piebald pony ; when he mistakes soft soap for honey; or forgets the difference between his bosom friend and a lamp-post. There are many other signs, of course, which I need not spin out to you ; but I have always thought that a policeman of twenty years’ standing would be a better judge of a man’s state of drunk than any other professional person—because, as the proverb has it, “experience teaches fools,” and I should say a drunk or two would come through such an officer’s hands in that lime. But there are men born under lucky stars, and there are those whose natal stars are the reverse of lucky. The most “ contrairy” man met by a {wenty-years’-experience police man in Ashburton was borne under lucky stars: for the whole collective wisdom of the Ashburton blue coats was not sufficient to outweigh the ex perience of two respectable tradesmen, and for once the keen-eyed drunk hunters were at fault, and the man they apprehended, who kicked like a maniac, who was too sopbrific to be bailed out, and was as “ contrairy” as an unbroken mule, was acquitted on the evidence of two respectable men. Truly, it is dan gerous to trust in experts ; and our boys in blue will henceforth have to go in for a scientific study of the signs "of “ drunk.” Good Templars ought, in conjunction with the policemen, to lay down a rule, or found a system whereby the R.M. may be guided in the future as to what constitutes the crime of drunk.

CORRESPONDENCE.

A' e do not hold ourselves responsible for the opinions expressed by our correspondents.

To the Editor of the Evening Echo,

Sir, —The accident which occurred at the bridge a few days ago, and which might have been a far more serious one, certainly points out two lessons to be deduced from it.

First, that the approaches to the bridge are quite inadequate to the requirements of the traffic over them, and ought not to he allowed to remain as disgracefully narrow as they are. And last, but not least, that a standing rule should he enforced that a walking pace should he observed in crossing the bridge, to avoid the fright which the noise causes to timid horses.

Only this afternoon in crossing I was over taken by a two-horse carriage, driven at a fast gallop, making no inconsiderable clatter, and had I not stuck firm to my seat and reins, I should have been either ran away with or thrown off. ,To a had horseman there is at present a considerable risk. I am, &c., Subscriber. Ashburton, March 21, IS7S.

TELEGRAPHIC NEWS.

[Per Press Agency.]

LATEST FROM EUROPE.

[By Submarine Cable.]

THE SITUATION IN EUROPE,

London, Thursday The Emperor of Russia refuses to reduce the indemnity of three hundred million roubles demanded from Turkey. Parliamentary papers just issued, re garding the Victorian crisis, include a despatch from the Secretary of State to the Governor of Victoria, dated 28th February, which sets forth that Sir M. Hicks-Breach declines to express an opinion regarding the merits of a dis pute on matters appertaining solely to the Government of Victoria ; but ex presses a hope that mutual concessions may be made to bring about a settle ment of the difficulty pending between both Houses of the Legislature, and that both the British Government and Governor Bowen will keep aloof from the dispute.

AUSTRALIAN

Melbourne, Saturday. The Australian Eleven made 153; the Victorian Eighteen made ten for the loss of three wickets.

Sydney, Friday,

Arrived Siam, at King George's Sound, yesternight. She brings no New Zealand passengers. In the Assembly the new Electoral Bill was thrown out by the decision of the Speaker, being improperly before the House. The Government intend to introduce the Bill again. (Special to the Globe.)

The Torres mail has reached Cook town ; also the Bertha steamer. Both b’ ing numerous Chinese, and a large shipment of rice and opium. Ihe Wakatipu’s potatoes reduced the market 9s. Ihe ngure now is £5. Breadstuffs are easier. There is an active market for New Zealand pro duce.

New Zealand miners are proceeding to New Guinea. 0

The Albert Russell arrived from New York with kerosene, and the Hopeful, from Manilla, with hemp.

INTERPROVINCIAL.

Westport, Friday. A tremendous squall lrom the south west struck the upper part of the town last night, completely demolisning Stewart’s Brewerp, besides doing other damage.

Hokitika, Friday. John Howe Hamer, late agent of the Bank of New Zealand at Ross, was committed at the R.M. Court to the Supreme Court on three charges of embezzlement of Bank funds. There are six other charges being proceeded with, on all of which it is thought com mittals will take place. The total amount discovered short is a little over The defalcations commenced last March. At various times since Hamer granted fixed deposit receipts, not entering the,, amount in the cash book. There are also amounts which were entered in the customers’ pass books and initialed, but which never went through the books of the Bank. . Blenheim, Saturday. The own correspondent of the Ex p/ess telegraphs from Havelock that considerable excitement is manifested there over the opening of a new terrace at Wakamarina. Prospectors obtained an ounce to the tub. The ground is deep and will require another week to properly test it.

Last year a Prebbleton gentleman sowed five seeds of mummy wheat, brought from Tasmania. Only one of them grew, but it produced 47 ears, with 1600 vrains, the stalks reaching 3ft 6111, and the gram resembling rice in shape. The Press suggests the usefulness of this grain, as a mixture with softer wheat.

A New Zealand Coal Mine on Fire A correspondent of the Dunedin Herald, writing from Palmerston, says :—lt may not be crene raHy known that one of the best-if not the best—coal mine in the province is on fire. I allude to the Shag Point mine, which has been 0.1 fire for months. The fire was caused through gross carelessness, and, as far as T can learn, no steps are being taken to put it out; it seems such a waste of public property. There is nothing to prevent it burning out the whole scam, consuming hundreds of thousands of tons of valuable coal.

THE EVENING ECHO, SATURDAY, MARCH 23, 1878