SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE.

PORT OF LYTTELTON. Ak RIVED.. April 26—Cicero, barque, from Sydney. April 26—Wave Queen, ship, from Sydney

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,. Iliads, Coldstream, Rangitata, Orari, Winchester, and Geraldine at 10.30 a.m. daily. <, For Grceystrcet, Ashburton Forks, Mount Somers, and Ashburton Gorge on Tuesdays and Fridays at 10,30 a.m.

COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE.

London, April 24. Wool —’Market unchanged. There has been a little private enquiry. The.next sales will commence on 14th prox. The 'sales comprise about 300,000 bales. o 1 » Tallow—Market flat. Mutton, 37s 6d per cwt; beef, 38s per cwt. Wheat—Market quiet. Reports are favor able concerncing the growing crop here. Adelaide is worth 61 s per 4<j6lbs ; New Zea land is worth 50s per 4961b5. t , • Sydney, Friday. • Hennessy’s case, /r its. 6d.; Ileiihessy’s quarters, kerosene, rice, sugar, tobacco, and candles unchanged.

Adelaide, Friday. Flour, /12.55. to /i 3 : wheat 'ss. 7d. to 6s. Auckland, Friday. v 'Southern flour auctioned to-day real isctl /9 to/14 per ton; potatoes, Z 3 45.; provincial hams, G'/ 2 d to 7d.; butter, 6ci. to ud. Rest steers are quoted at 265. per ioolbs,; long wool led ewes, 4s. to 6s. 6d. each ; wethers,. I3 S - tO |BS. ... Share Market-—BuyCis : National Rank, /3 155.; Colonial, £2 12s, 6d.; South Briitsh Insurance, /3 3s.; 1 New Zealand, /6 2s. 6d. TIMARtJ, Friday. Grain-quotations show a heavy fall'coihparcdi with last week. Wheat is down to from 3s. tod. to 2d., and oats to 3s. 2d.; some merchants even decline to give' these prices. Very few transactions have taken place, as farmers, will not operate at such low rates. ‘ ' '

: Qamaru, Friday. Grain is being delivered in' large quantities, but the market is dull. Farmers are still holding back in the hope that buyers' will’ give higher prices. Prime milling wheat, 45.; oats, 3s. to 3s. 3d.; malting barley, 4s. 6d. to 4s. gd.;, floqr, li,i sij. to 155.; oatmeal, /16 ; pearl barley 1 , /20 ; 'pollard, L‘i S s ‘; -trail, 45.; potatoes, /2. , r

ASHBURTON RETAIL PRICES. PROVINSION, &c., LIST.

The Evening Echo. SATURDAY, APRIL, 27, 1878.

■ ■ --- • r-v.-j ?/ j-.X. ■■ • We arc given to understand that the? takings at the recent Wesleyan Bazaar were ' between /120 and /130. 1 ■ :i i • ' /'= "•' Last night, shortly after eight o’clock, a brilliant meteor illuminated the south-eastern heavens. It was only 1 visible, of course,' for a few seconds, but the brilliancy of its streak of light was very marked, and as it shot away its color changed to orange land purple. .! ; / The Rev. Mr. Tout, of the Congregational Church, Christchurch, will occupy the pulpit of the Presbyterian Church, Ashburton, to-

morrow morning and evening. We would draw the attention ‘of our readers to this fact) as the ■’ Rev.‘Mr. Tout is a preacher of note, and is very popular in the district where he labors. The recently appointed pastor of the Primi tive Methodist Church will preach morning and \ evening to-morrow.; !his evening subject will be, as announced .in another column.—“ Buying and selling the Truth.” . The inquest on the body of the boy Steel,

adjourned from last. Monday, was resumed yes terday at Christchurch, and resulted in a jury’s verdict of manslaughter against the mother. The evidence taken yesterday was principally that of neighbors of Mrs. Steel, who has been committed for trial at the next quarter sessions, -•but admitted to bail.’., ; - 3 -

The Telegraph office is the only department of‘the public service in New Zealand in which ladies are regularly employed. There are a considerable number o‘f ladv clerks in the

head office, and a number of operators both at headquarters and at some, of the principal sta tions are of the fair sex. The Clearing Office in Wellington is, we believe; ■ entirely in the hands of the ladies, and the work is done with

great accuracy and rapidity. Some of - the ladies also are excellent operators. Otago Daily Times.

There is such a strong feeling at present at Moonlight anent the Chinese getting the Moke Lake contract, that the question is seriously enteitained whether we should not be on the lookout for an intelligent Chinaman to represent us at the next County Council election—always provided we can legally so do. If we should return a Chinaman and he get elected chairman he could do the office so much cheaper, and those who returned Europeans could have little, if any, reasonable objection. Wahatipu Mail. The Otago Times states that the shaft being sunk at Kaitangata by Messrs. Winter and Co. has now reached a depth of 280 feet. No less than sixteen seams of coal varying in thickness from six feet to six inches, have been cut through, but before reaching the seam they are in search of, a further distance of 50 feet will have to be sunk. Fifteen men are kept at work night and day, and a powerful engine is used-to raise the* earth and water.

The Grey River Ary its says that the separa tion scheme, if such a thing is in existence, would not meet with the approval of the constituencies of that part of the-colony. The Counties Act no doubt requires amendment, and the Councils have not given complete satisfaction, but there is ample room, for im provement, without reverting Jri any form to a system of government which was abolished with the consent of a large majority of the people, of New Zealand.

CHISPA'S LETTER.

“I am not yet so bald that you can see my brains.”—Longfellow. Telegrams take four hours to come, from Wellington! That’s ’ what you would be at in that leading article of yours—doing a growl at the manipula tors of electricity. You mustn’t growl. It’s very bad taste. Bear in mind this is a young country, and,dike all young tilings, t must crawl 7 before it walks Though go-ah(kid countries- like' the States can annihilate time with their rapid telegraphy, and the advanced people' who live- on the rock-bound islands of Great Britain, in what the Yankees" call a cake of a 1 one-horse country—though they can crow loudly •about;,being aide, almost to do as Buck said ire could ido, sl put a girdle round the eanh in forty minutes,” we can’t run a jot)'.fasten than our .swa'ddling bands, will let us. Why, man, your complaint; about the telegraph is nothing. Listen to- myistpry,. - I sent ; to Melbourne for a jiartdl' 't>f smtil 1' things—presents ‘at Easter for Mrs. C. and' some of rny juvenile drjendjS., Alhambra raced .over’with them ini.a!few jhourseover a week, and landed them at Lyttelton on the -ioth of April, where on that day they were placed in charge of the rail way authorities for despatch to me here. When,do you,think I got them ? Next day ? Not T.‘ ‘The way bill came first. That was a weight to carry, of course, and when it \vas sent I felt a \yeight off; my mind ; but the goods only reached hie’oh; thej2 stlj. ' My Easter eggs were all Woken, and I had returned do the* even tenor of my way, with that mild resignation to fate which is my charac teristic, when in came the parcel. Mrs. ,C. yesterday dropped on a paragraph .saying Sir George Grey intended to sell the railways. I hope he will, for the chances are that then the railways \yon’t spll the public as they do, I mean henceforth to adopt your sugges tion and employ a carrier to fetch and carry for me when I want anything from the city. /A friend of mine came up not long ago. .He saw his furniture put’on the train. When he arrived it was not on the trail?. T It came some days after, and then without'the' orthodox way-bill. He wanted ! his 1 bedding badly',' but though he 'saiv it, lying before him at the station, addressed with his own name, he had to wait till another sun had risen, and another light had dawned upon the.railway understanding before the desiderated way-bill dawned upon his goods, and he could get his own. Macaulay’s New Zealander is not yet born, 1 fear.

“12 by 12 ; no .furniture; no food; bedding Only.old sacks roughly stuffed with dry tussock ;■ no fuel; mother making a- foul' substitute out of dried cow dung gathered on the plains ; child ren crying for bread. Three weeks’ con tributions to .the family purse .by worth less father - 4s. 6d. Father with the figure of a giant and the muscles of an ox : set-off against these, the selfishness of a cur and the laziness of a sloth. Spends his time in loafing round pub. bars* sponging drinks, while his children and their mother may starve if they may. Mother in mortal terror of her life every time he visits the hovel he has made an abode of misery, and that terror induced

by the cowardly blows of a great strong man. The brutal are always cowardly. How would the cat-o’-nine-tails behave as a sedative to the hasty temper and an incentive, to work? - If the New Zea lander of the historian’s prophecy is ever to be born, may the date of his birth be after such carrion as this father have all been made men of, or scourged from the midst of where men dwell.

I had a letter put into my hands yes terday. It was sent from the quiet old town of Nelson, more “ beautiful for situation” than attractive as a temple of the golden calf (because the said calf isn’t there much). It is,said that town is “'Sleepy.”'' Do you “believe it after reading this extract from the letter? “Old =is ,’cutq. .He is a^, church treasurer, and the’ ’collections' didn’t come up as he liked. He would rais.e them. The average coin in his weekly ‘ltake ” from the pews was the inevitable threepenny. Old was an extensive storekeeper. He bottled up all the church threepennies-and-four pennies, ;and. all those , he .took in his own shop. He did that for a month. The average coin in the col.-box became sixpence, and' 50 per cent.' was put on to the “ take'”' “He “ went,” in ‘ like manner, for the sixpences; but the re suit..wits not so satisfactory. Nelson Christianity would not bleed shillings, and the average coins became bronzes, and that average small. He set free the “ tanners,” but held on Jo the .smaller- coins. Things have come again to the’happy sixpenny medium.” That mdn) deserves a special canonisation in the animals Of 'church finance. v / . Chispa.

The Turkish ironclad Memdouheye, just purchased by the British Govern ment, is to be renamed the Orion.

. The state of Virginia, finding itself compelled to support gaols, hqspitals, lunatic asylums, and a plentiful supply of paupers, owing to'the liquor traffic, and perceiving that repressive or pro hibitory legislative; failed, conceived-the idea of taxing drinks’, and compelling topers to support the criminal and chdritable' institution's. Accordingly a tax of two cents a drink was itripo'sed. The liquor dealer was compelled, under a heavy penalty, to use a bell punch, which registered each drink sold, in the same way that the bell punches register fares' in street cars and check -the con-i ductors. The law came into operation six months ago, and Richmond, a sober city of 70,000'people, paid $150,000 on single drinks during that period. It has been estimated -that a similar tax. in Chicago alone would yield four million dollars yearly, and one million dollars would be rajsed in San Francisco and Oakland. It is certain that sufficient revenue might be raised for all purposes of government by the ‘ expedient of tax ing single drinks. This is an idea (says the correspondent of the Daily Times ) which your Permissive Bill might adopt. It would come to the relief of the tem perate, and could not be objected to by anyone,, inasmuch as the payment of the tax would be purely 1 voluntary.

' A certain lady will not take a vapour bath soon again, though the one she did take was not. lacking! in, .extraprdiqary and quick results. She had been in duced by one of her dear friends who knew the personal effects of a vapor bath, and she resolved to try it. The extem porised bath was arranged by filling a saucer'with, whisky, in which was placed boneset and sassafras. Then she placed that saucer on the floor, and she placed a cane-bottomed chair over, and she took a seat on the chair, dressed a la Eve, save, that a huge blanket enveloped the whole outfit. A modest attendant then lifted the corner of the blanket and applied a match to the whisky, in order to produce the gentle, soothing vapour which was supposed to arise and do worlds of good. A veil might be drawn over the subsequent proceedings, but an ordinary veil wouldn’t cover them. That gentle soothing vapour did not arise) hut a red-hot scorching flame did arise, like lightning, to the height of about five feet from that saucer; there was a terrific report, and the bath-taker was lifted off that chair on the wings of a sirrocco, and deposited, half grilled, in a corner of the room. And now she is nearly well, but opposed to vapour baths.

THE TWO WORKERS.

Two workers in one field Toiled on from day to day: Both had the same hard labour, Both had the same small pay, With the same blue sky above, The same green earth below, One soul was full of love, The other full of woe.

One leaped up with the light, With the soaring of the lark; One felt it every night, For his soul was ever dark. One'heart was hard as stone One heart was ever gay; One worked with many a groan, One whistled all the day.

One had a flower clad cot, Beside a merry mill— Wife and children near the spot Nlade it sweeter, - fairer still; One a wretched ho.v,el had, Full of discord, dirt and din— No’wonder he seemed mad— Wife and children starved within.

Still they worked in the same field, Toiling on from day to day; Both had the same hard labor, Both had the samd small pay; But they worked not with one will, The reason let.'me tell— ' Lo! the one drank at the still, . And the other at the well.

THE CHIMNEY CORNER.

0 A man that ought to be allowed to sit down —A merchant of 40 years standing. i

When asked , how the ladies were dressed at a fashionable party the other evening, a modest youth,replied, “ About as much,as an oyster on a half shell. ”

“ Ain’t ye ashamed of yerself to be having a black nager for a husband ?” said an Irish man to a white woman. “ Law, no ! 1 had a sister done worse than that,” was the reply. “ What was that, shure?” “She married an Irishman. ”

A glutton of a fellow was dining! at ail hotel, and in the course of the “battle of knives and forks ” accidently cut his mouth, which, .being observed by a Yankee sitting near by, he bawled: out;. “I say, friend, don’t you make that ar hole in your countenance, any larger or we shall all starve to death.”

A rollicking widow lady, was persuaded a short time since to accept the hand of her dear departed husband’s brother. The portrait of her first was left hanging in its old place in the dining room. One day a visitor, remarking the painting, asked, 1 Ik that a member of your family ? ’ ‘Oh, that’s my brother-in-law,’ was the ingenious reply. A ‘fgreat Conservative song,” entitled “Hur rah for Beaconslield/or God Defend the Right,” is being sung in the London music halls. So is one of which the following is a part :

We don’t want to light, but, By jingo, if we.do, We’ve got the ships, the pluck, the men, And we’ve got the money too ; We’ve thrashed the Bear before, boys, And whilst we’re Britons true, The Russians shall not haye Con stan ti no pie !

; , In the course of a speech on the war .vote in tliej blouse of Commons, Mr. Gladstone, said : I really must say that the arguments on the other side are Very cleverly summed up in an anonymous letter that has been sent to me. It consists of a parody upon the verses of Tenny son in the well-known ode on the Battle of Balaclava. The poet, whoever he is, sums up in these verses the arguments for the present proposition, and he heads it “ Tennyson to the Rescue !” ' Ring out the battle cry, Vote us our war supply, This we must have or die, Vote the six millions. Yours not to reason why, . Ours not to make reply, Ours but to say “ You lie,” Vote the six millions. I think that gives a very fair and very spirited summary of what has been said in support of the vote. A Modern Sculptor.—Brown and Smith, two gentlemen well known to every one who walks the streets, were out a few days since, when they were met by an overdressed individual, who appeared as if he thought he was somebody and'wanted everybody to know it. . ‘ Do you know that man, Smith ?’ said Brown. ‘ Yes) I knowihim.’ ‘Well who in the name of sense is he ?’ ‘ Why, he is a sculptor ! ’ Surely you must be mistaken. 5 ‘He may not be the kind of one you mean, but I know that he chiselled a tailor out of a suit of clothes last week,’

In a recent number of the journal of the So ciety of Arts, we find Shirley Hibberd, the great -horticultural authority, says:—‘Those who smoked and drank generally disliked fruit, whilst on the other hand the eating of fruit created a distaste for alcoholic liquors, and he defied any man who was a real fruit eater to take to drink. He was satisfied that the more the consumption ot fruit was promoted the more you .would promote the sobriety of the people.' Not that every apple contained a tem perance society ready made,, or. a number of good resolutions ; but, whilst farinaceous and vegetable generally was antagonistic to the use of alcoholicAiquers/tlle' use 1 of fruit was still more so, because it brought the palate into that delicate condition that strong drink was distasteful.

THE EVENING ECHO, SATURDAY, APRIL 27, >B7B



i'., ' ... s. s. Butter, inferior to best, $ lb Q 8 to I 0 Eggs, $ dozen 2 0 to 0 0 Bacon, k>' lb - 1 - O 7K to 0 ,, prime smoked, lb ! 6 10 to 0 p JIams in cloth, |i? lb - , i 0 \o, 0 0 Cheese, prime quality, lb o 8 to 0 0 Flour in bags, $ loolb'; . IS 0 , to .0 0 Oatmeal, ioolb 26 0 to 0 0