SHIPPING.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16143, 22 February 1918, Page 9

SHIPPING.

f PORT OF- LYTTELTON. ARRlVED—February 21. Putiki (1 a.m.), from Sounds. Wootton (3.15 a.m.), from Sounds. To Anau (7.10 a.m.), from Napier. Maori (7.15 a.m.), from Wellington. Kabika (1.35 p.m.), from Greymouth Cygnet (11.50 a.m.), from Kaikoura. Huanui, schooner (11 a.m.), from Wellington. SAlLED—February 21. To Anau. (2.15 p.m.), for Napier. "Wootton (3 p.m.), for Sounds. Putiki (6.40 p.m.), for Wollington. Maori (7.50 p.m.), for VVellington. Cygnet'(9.4o p.m.), for Kaikoura. N SHIPPING NOTES. The steamer Karamu will leave Greymouth to-night with a full load oi coal for Lyttelton. She is due hero on Sunday. The Kahika will leave this port to-morrow afternoon for the West Coast. The Orepuki is due here to-day from Timaru, where ehe has been discharging coal from Greymouth. The Monowai is due to-morrow from northern ports, e ailing i" the evening for Dunedia. Thojcoastai steamer Invercargill js expected to arrive on Tuesday morning from the North with a- load of-sheep, and after discharge Tv-ill go into the Lyttelton dock for cleaning and painting, no other dock or slip being available. The following passengers have left Now Zealand for America: —Pre. Story, Sexter Bock, Meadames W. Blake, Brown and child, Story and child, Messrs W. Blake, Ch<is. Brushwitz, Brown, T. A. Callender, and H. Crane. AUSTRALIAN CREWS FOR AUSTRALIAN SHIPS. The Council of the Federated Seamen's Union, has decided to urge the Federal Prime Minister to man .the fleet of ships in course of construction in America for the Commonwealth Government with Australian seamen (says Sydney "Shipping List' 1 ). Mr Edwards, secretary of the I£cw South Wales branch of,the union, when interviewed, stated that there would bo no difficulty in finding tho necessary seamen in Australia to man the vessels. Referring to* tho report of Mr Hughes that it had not ye£ been decided whether or not to obtain crews abroad, Mr Edwards pointed out that as America was speeding up with her shipbuilding programme, there would be a big demand for men in the United States without masters, engineers, and seamen being taken for tho Australian ships. "Moreover," added v M* Edwards, '"the rates of pay arc slightly n higher in the United States than those obtaining in Australia, and as the crews recruited there would be of cosniopo.itan character, it is to be hoped that Mr Hughes mav fall into line with the suggestion advanced by the union. Australia is finding the money to build the ships, and it would be only cultivating the Australian sentiment to permit Australian officers and crewg to man the vessels." HARBOUR BOARDS' INDEBTEDNESS. "There are in the Dominion 45 harbours controlled by Boards," said Mr J. Blair Mason in h'is presidential address at the Civil Engineers' Conference at Wellington, "25 of wbich,have a collective' loan indebtedness of nearly £7,120,000 with assets other then cash valued, at £8,440,000, and total annual charges for interest and sinking funds amounting to £350,000. The loan indebtedness of the terminal and main ports, viz., Auckland, Napier, Wellington, Lyttelton, Timaru, Dunedin, and the Bluff, amount to. £5,400,000. Most of these ports possess landed property of great prospective value, notably at\ Auckland, Napier, Wellington, and Dunedin, Where the endowments of land and land reclaimed from tho sea are city lands and the sources of considerable revenues which are in every casa increasing every year. For example, the port of Dunedin possesses 145 acres of land in the city of Dunedin available for leasing. From the portion fully absorbed into the city rentals at the rate of £1500 per' acre are obtained. When it is remembered that Dunedin, like other towns in New Zealand, is in its infancy, it can be predicted that such an estate will some day provide a revenue largs enough to meet the cost of harbour improvement and maintenance. . . . The position, however, with Tespect to some of the subsidiary coastal ports cannot be said to be generally assured. Where little or no trade has developed the opening up of the land by railway or road may effect, a diversion of traffic and Tesult in the stagnation or ruin of a port. In the meantime money has been spent on improvement works which m the future may become useless, and the port authority may have ' contracted liabilities which it finds itself impossible to meet." EDISON'S "INVISIBLE SHIPS." The first of Thomas A. Edison's "invisible ships" to come to Baltimore dropped anchor off quarantine (says an American paper). It is a. new ship or British register, and ha® just been completed after the original plans by Mr Edison. As she appears in tho harbour the freighter looks like any of the other boats at anchor. The towering masts, with their massive derrick booms, :'orm the chief feature ef the invisible plan, fa- the-.- are hinged at the deck. When the vessel is entering the waters infested bv U-boats these masts are lowered to the deck in such a manner that they extend aior.g each side near the rail. The smokestack is removed, and any breaks left in the top line are hoarded so that the line is straight. In her neutral colours tne ship can scarcely be detected on the horizon. The decks are low, and in the danger zone hard coal is burned eo that there is no telltale trail of smoke.