THE SAPPHO'S CRUISE.

Evening Star, Issue 4045, 12 February 1876, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE SAPPHO'S CRUISE.

_ H. M. S. Sappho, acting under instructions from the Admiralty, has recently made a trip from Auckland round the North Cape to Onehunga, visiting all the harbors on the coast. The ' New Zealand Herald' contains an account of the voyage, from which we condense the following:—The Sappho arrived off Onehunga on the 27th, having completed an interesting cruise round the northern portion of the island. Auckland was left on January 12. Mahurangi was fetched on the following day, and Kawau on the next day. Wangarei was left on the 17th for Wangaruru and Russell, and we stayed a couple of days at the latter place. We arrived at Wangaroa on the 28th, the most picturesque and beautiful of any New Zealand harbor yet visited by the ship, and it has visited many. Monganui was next visited. On the 22nd rounded the North Cape, first looking in at the River Awanui, Ohoru Bay, and ParengaT£ nga ;\ We Hokianga, Kaipara, and the Manukau, the dangers and difficulties of which are greatly overdrawn. Smooth water and clear weather is, of course, a great advantage. At Hokianga the ship went seventeen miles up the river to Hurd's Point, Sailed the next day for Kaipara, crossing the bar early in the morning. The Sappho ran forty-two miles up the Wairoa to Mangawhare, which is the highest the ship could have gone. The Sappho is the first man-o'-war that has tried the bar har. bors for some years. At Hokianga, none seemed to know when the last put in an appearance. At Kaipara, none have tried the harbor since it was first surveyed by H.M.S. Pandora, as far back as 1852, the survey being little or no guide at the present day. At the Manukau it is pretty well known that none of H.M. ships have attempted the harbor since the wreck of the Orpheus some twelve years ago. It was the general impression that there was an order preventing them from entering the place; but such is not the case ; no order of the kind being in force.