TELEGRAMS.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 4086, 9 January 1878, Page 2

TELEGRAMS.

CABLE TELEGRAMS

[SPECIAIi TO^TIJE i'RBSS AGENCY. J LONDON, January 6. , The Russians have occupied Sophia. Vienna telegrams state that Russia requires Bulgaria evacuated as the conditions of an'armestice, but it is unlikely that the Porte will assent. The Observer asserts that England has just replied to France that no action is intended regarding Egypt. . Mr Forster made an important speech \ at Bradford. He said he believed that all the European Powers will prevent Russia occupying Stamboul. He thought that if any difference of opinion existed between Earl Beaconsfield and his colleagues they would appeal to the nation. The ' existing treaties must remain unaltered, unless with the consent of all the contracting Powers. It is reported that if Earl Beaconsfield finds Parliament unwilling to support his foreign policy it will be dissolved. January 7. Radetsky crossed the Shipka unopposed. A junction of the armies under the Czarowitch a»d Zimmerman is probable. Germany and Austria object to Russian war vessels entering the Hellespont unless the other Powers have the same privilege. General Sorelle's corps on the Balkans has 800 men frostbitten ; fifty-three have died. Mr. Layard has officially informed the Porte that Russia requires that the armistice be arranged between the opposing commanders. Turkey had appealed through England for an armistice. Six thousand Turks engaged the Russians near Erzeroum ; the Russians were defeated. Scindia's conduct in India is regarded as disaffected.

[Reuter's Telegrams to the Press Aqekcy.] SYDNEY. January 8. Mr Marshall Wood, sculptor, leaves to day for New Zealand per Wakatipu.

[From the Press Agknot.] CHRISTCHURCH, January 8. Blue Bay, a valuable . thoroughbred entire horse, imported from England in 1876, and owned by Mr Delamaine, died on Sunday. The cause is unknown. Osborne's large furniture warehouse at Christchurch, and Burnip's Hotel, Kaia r poi, had narrow escapes from fire yesterday. In each case the fire originated in outbuildings, and cannot be accounted for. Saturday's thunderstorm was severely felt on the Peninsula ; hailstones an inch long fell, doing considerable damage to the fruit crops. Lightning struck the chimney of a house at Akaroa, some of the inmates having narrow escapes. Several telegraph posts on the Christchurch and Akaroa road were also struck, and split to pieces. Roberts, the champion hand-stroke billiard player, plays here to-night. DUNEDIN, January 8. At the criminal 'sessions of the Supreme Court to-day, Thomas Roth, convicted of arson, was sentenced to one year's imprisonment with hard labor. This leniency was shown in consequence of the prisoner having extinguished the fire himself. Jessie Kilpatrick was found guilty of the larceny of £45. There were six previous convictions against her. She was sentenced to three years' penal servitude. Michael Egan, charged with committing an unnatural offence, was acquitted. The other cases were trivial. ; GISBORNE, January 8. Sir G. Grey and Mr Sheehan landed this morning, and had an address presented to them from the local bodies. Sir G. Grey and Mr Sheehan were recoivod by both Europeans and Maoris. In addressing the public meeting, both Sir G. Grey and Mr Sheehan dwelt upon the point of Poverty Bay being made a separate electoral district. Mr Sheehan will address the Maoris at their native settlement this evening, TAUPO, January 8. The survey of the Hukuia block was finished yesterday by Captain Turner's party. Lately no opposition has been given to the surveyors, or to the erection of iron trig, stations. Severe storms have been prevalent here during the last few days. WELLINGTON, January 8. Share report. — Buyers : Bank of New Zealand, £23 ; Colonial Bank, 495 ; Union Insurance, 10s Gd. Sellers : Colonial Batik, 50s ; National Insurance, 30s ; Union Steam Shipping Company, £0 10s ; Grey mouth Coal Company, 503 ; New Zealand Insurance, 90s ; Now Zoaland Shipping Company, 755. The acceptance of tenders for Popota contract is not yet decided. Tho New Zealand Loan anil Mercantile Agency Company report from London, date not given : — The wool market is unchanged. To date 40,000 balos havo arrived. There has beon little private enquiry. Tallow is in good demand, and 24,000 casks of all sorts aro in stock ; mutton is quoted at 46s ; beef, 395. The wheat stock on the2ndinst. was 1,170,000 quarters ; Adelaide, 06s ; Now Zealand, 50s. The leather market is quiet ; boat sides, lOfd. There is yet no sign of tho Ladybird, which is now out 32 hours from Napier, having left the Spit at noon yesterday. It is intended to arrange so that tho cricketers may remain hero to-morrow, and return home on Thursday by tho Wellington. Last evening the engine-house of tho Patent Slip was nearly demolished by a singular accident. The Stella, which had boon on tho Slip for repairs, Avas being loworod into tho water ; when half way down a tremendous crash was heard and largo piocos of the galvanised roof, followod by clouds of steam and smoke, wuro moou high in the air. The engineer's account is that he was standing between (lie two engines, about shutting off steam, when, without any warning, Uio immense- flywheel, seventeen feet in diiunotur mid tivo tons in weight, which was revolving with groat rapidity, burst into fragments. Somo of tho pieces, half n ton in weight, wore driveu between Iwo and throe hundred feet from the building, going through the roof and smashing the brick Avails, Nothing was left of the Avheel but the centre and some stumps of tho arms. All inside the

engine-house became a complete wreck, The escape of the engineer is considered miraculous. Beyond being knocked down, and sustaining a few cuts and bruises, he was uninjured. The Easby, from Sydney, brought only one later paper,, the Sydney Morning Herald of the 31st ult. Ifc contains a letter from Mr E. H. S. Minton, who had just returned from New Guinea, in which he expresses surprise at the statement of Mr Beddome, police magistrate, regarding the discovery of gold at Papua. Mr Minton says that he has sixteen years' experience as a mining engineer and prospector, and during three weeks at Papua' he explored the creeks, banks, and rivers ; also at the foot of the falls and the bases of ranges, but found no gold whatever. He found any quantity of mica, which looks like gold, and which he says would deceive any non-ex-perienced miner or prospector. He thinks that Mr Goldie, being a botanist, was deceived by the mica. Mr Minton brought some sand away from the different places he tried, and had it analysed by one, of the most experienced analytical chemists in Sydney, who pronounced it mica sand of no value. — An account in the same paper of the hailstorm near Albuiy says that cubes of ice from one inch to four inches thick fell. The greatest force- of the storm was near the Moorwitha district, which is covered, with small farms, the crops just ready for the machines. Within twenty minutes of the commencement of the storm the entire crop in a dozen paddocks was |completely ruined. The straw was cut down as neatly as if the stripper had been at work j the grain was actually battered intoV-the ground. The hailstones falling dug notches into the sides of big .gum-trees, sliced off wedges of bark as though the axe had been at work ; iron roofs were penetrated as if they had been of brown paper, shingle roofs were unable to withstand the force with which the blocks of ice descended, fowls of the air were fain to seek shelter in human habitations, flocks of parrots took up their quarters during the storm in, the houses of selectors, dead birds strewed the ground in all directions, some literally flattened out under lumps of ice. Rain followed, and gullies that had been dry for years became foaming rivers, sweeping away a dozen valuable dams. Many farmers are completely beggered.