BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.

Evening Star, Issue 4170, 8 July 1876, Page 3

BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.

CHBISTCHTjrRCH, July 8. la the Supreme Court Joseph Catchpole, charged with arson, was fo and not guilty. In the case of Matthew : Henry Koland, charged with manslaughter, Judge Johnston said the shooting of Annuß Henderson by Jtoland appeared to have bitin purely a misadventure. The Crown Prosecutor thereupon declined to offer any enridence, and the prisoner was discharged. I This concluded the criminal sessions. .'

At a conference betwee ri the Chamber of Commerce and the Lytteltira. Borough Council it was decided to prep.atre a draft Bill for the constitution of a Har'fcwr Board for Lyttelton. There are rumors of / more disaffection among the employees -af the Canterbury railways. ,• The ' Press'- this moaning says : "We hear that an action for 'breach of promise of marriage has been commenced against a wellknown squatter, in winch large damages are claimed. Itwillcom.e on for trial shortly, when some amusing revelations will be made. » , A woman named (Sheean was committed for trial yesterday for the murder of her infant child, whioh waa drowned. Mrs Sheean said that during a sudden attack of faintness she let the child fall into a bucket of water, and waa powerless to remove it till too late. The medical evidence went to show that there were no marks whatever on the child, and that! it , could not possibly have 5 fallen into the bucket. Mrs Sheean only had two children before this, and both were killed—one-being'smothered in bed and the other drowned in a well.

. Auckland, July 7. The city everywhere shewed signs of mourning to-day, and there waa a large attendance at Mr Wilson's; funeral. The barque Lady Fn«nklyn, ownad by Messr3 Lord and Hughes of Melbourne, got ashore at Kaipara, where she had gone to load timber. It is expected that, she will be got off.

Rich gold has been obtained in the Kapanga reef at Coromandel, for which an English company has been sinkinc for four years, and have specut L 4,000. Great excitement prevails there.

{From our own Correspondent.)

_ t _ , Wellington, July 7. The Post to-night says :—" We are not surprised that the Dunedin people were deeplj&mortified when they found it was knowiOhat the City of San Francisco not only followed the example of the-Australia by grounding as she entered Port Chalmers, but had improved on that example by touching on the inner bar as she went out. .Nothing could have been more provoking to those who had striven - so hard to prove Port Chalmers a safe harbor for such vessels as the Pacific Mail Company's steamships than to have their arguments so unanswerably controverted by the stern logic of facts jutst after an imaginary point had been scored by a ridiculous attempt to show that the wreck of the Heveivslmm on Lev w*w from Newcastle fco Wellington proved this port unsafe. However, our Otago contempoj&nw caaaot get oyer the fact that Cap-

tain Waddell and Lis officers have asserted most distinctly ar.d positively that the City of San Francisco did touch on the ground, both on entering and leaving Port Chalmers. We have a written statement under the hand of Captain Waddell to this effect, and when the Otago contradiction of his assertion was notified to him at Auckland by telegram, he replied as follows : 'Auckland, July 3, 1876.—The statement of the steamer touching on the Otago bar is correct. The hai-bor master felt uneasy about the inner bar, because of the short turns, as he stated.—J. J. Waddell.' The line of argument adopted by the 'Otago Daily Times' to disprove this positive assertion is weak and puerile in the extreme Our Dunedin contemporary first 'gives a flat denial' to what it is pleased to term 'an extraordinary and mendacious statement.' Had the ' Times ' stopped short at this point, it would have been a question simply of one assertion against another as to which was more creditable, but unfortunately for Port Chalmers and its reputation our contemporary proceeds to prove its position, and succeeds admirably in doing the reverse. sft?he ' Times' says ; ' When the City of San Francisco entered the harbor on the 21at ult. a combination of tide and weather circumstances was in her favor. It was the day before the change of moon, and therefore the tides were close to springs. There was no wind, and the sea was as smooth as a duck pond. She did not cross the bar until the top of the tide, when theremust have been twenty-fourfeet of water to go upon, whilst her draught was only 20ft She was perfectly piloted and steered like a boat, and therefore it was impossible that she could have touched. A more absolute non eequitour could not be established ; moreover, even the premises are not accurate. We have it from Captain Waddell that the steamer was drawing nearly a foot mere thaa is stated by the 'Times.' This throws a doubt on the 24ft. of water which it says there must have been on the bar. It is reasonable to suppose that one is as much overstated as the other is understated. But even were it otherwise, how does it follow that because ' she was perfectly piloted and steered like a boat' that therefore it was impossible she could have touched ? On the contrary, the admission of the ' Times' that all this 'combination of circumstances was in her favor,' coupled with the indisputable fact that, nevertheless, she did touch twice, proves beyond refutation the correctness of our statement that Port Chalmers is utterly unfit to receive such large vessels as the Pacific Mail Company's Steamshipi."