The Evening Echo. MONDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1878.

Ashburton Herald, Volume I, Issue 213, 2 December 1878, Page 2

The Evening Echo. MONDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1878.

The Crops. —We refer our readers to our county correspondent’s notes on the crops in the district. These do not appear to be very hopeful, but since they were written we have had a very acceptable change in the weather, and from the wonderful tenacity of life possessed by New Zealand vegetation, it is, to use our correspondent’s words, “on the cards ” for the country to turn out a very fair yield of grain after all. To-day has been moist, and the atmosphere is still heavy with a promise of more rain. Foot Race. —The foot race which was to have taken place on Saturday between Oughton and Woods was postponed owing to the weather, but it will take place this evening at six o’clock. Drunk And Disorderly. —Tom Jones, who had since January, 1875, been 14 times before the Court, was fined by his Worship the Mayor to-day 205., with the alternative of 48 hours’ imprisonment. Alleged Theft of a Watch.—His Worship the Mayor, to-day, remanded William Noon for three days. The man was charged with the theft of a watch. Shabby Theft. —Last night or early this morning the meat safes of Mr. Thomas Quill, of the Commercial Hotel, were broken into and robbed. Mr. Quill is of opinion the theft was committed with the object of marring the Masonic banquet, to be held in his dining room to-night, and he offers £lO for information that will lead to the thief being brought to justice. Back door thefts, thefts of firewood, and petty stealing generally have become very frequent of late, and it would be as well if a sharp look-out were kept,' both by citizens and the police. Two or three smart sentences would soon stop such depredations. - •

Charge of Manslaughter.— lt will be remembered that last week an inquest was held at the Spread Eagle Hotel, on the body of a man named Giles, who had been found dead beside his dray in that vicinity. The verdict of the jury was to the effect that the deceased’s death had been caused by a rupture of the liver, sustained by a fall he had had in or near the blacksmith’s shop at Spread Eagle. The police, having become possessed of evidence leading to the suspicion that that fall had happened in a wrestling bout, in which Giles had been concerned with a man named Alex. Williams, had the latter brought up before his Worship the Mayor to-day, vho remanded him for eight days, bail being allowed prisoner in £IOO, and two sureties in £SO each. The body o: the deceased man is to be exhumed and a fresh ‘‘post mortem” examination is to place,