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Grey River Argus, Volume XI, Issue 996, 5 October 1871, Page 2

There were neither arrivals nor departures at this port yesterday, in consequence of the heavy sea ruuning on the bar. The p.s. Charles Edward arrived at Hokitika on Tuesday morning, but in cousequence of the heavy ra\n, could not discharge her cargo. Yesterday, the heavy sea running on the coast was too strong to allow her to come on here, but she may be expected this forenoon. The s.s. Alhambra, from Nelson, may be expected here to-morrow, when she will be despatched for Melbourne direct, with gold, mails, and passengers. The clipper schooner Gleaner is announced to sail for the Clarence River direct, to-day. She can only take a limited number of passengers, so that early application at the office of Mr.W. J. Coates is necessary.

The Tararua, expected here to-morrow, will probably bring the Suez mail, which was due in Melbourne last Thursday.

Captain M'Kenzie, of the schooner Flirt, states that on his last trip from Auckland to the Fiji, he found that Harvey Island and Curtis Island' (if existing at all) are not in the position laid down in the chart of the South Pacific of 1868.— Press.

From the Scientific American of July I*, we take the following : — " One of out correspondents at Nashua, R.H., sends us a diagram of the mechanism of a new self* moving vessel now building on the stocks at that place, and which is to be launched and tried on the 4th July. Ihe Nashua Telegraj>h thus describes the E3W vessel and its machinery :— For some days public curiosity has been excited by the sudden appearance of a miniature shipyard on an open lot, just north of the South Common. Within ten days the hull of a small ship has gradually assumed shape under the saw and hammer of two industrious workmen, who ply their tools with an earnestness that admits neither of flagging nor any interruption.' At present the thing looks very much like the skeleton of a fossil megatherium. The extreme length is 32ft ; beam, 6ft ; and the depth of hold, Bft. The propelling power is to be a turbine wheel, set at the bottom of a flume rising sft. from the ship's bottom ; the water enters the flume from the ship's sides just below the water lino. This opening is provided with a valve, to prevent the water from returning when the ship lurches in a rough sea. 'How is the water to leave the ship ?' everyone asks. From the bottom of the flume, near the turbine wheel, a tunnel, 18in. ia diameter extends along the ship's bottom to the extreme stern. The tunnel is to be so constructed as to constitute a vacuum, and is to be supplied with a set of revolving fans to accelerate the egress of the water, and with the valves to prevent the inflowing of the water from the stern. The. water in the flume will have a head of sft, furnishing a power of nine horse. Now, the inventor, who is one of the workmen, expects to secure 100 revolutions of the screw before the outer valve in the tunnel is reached by the outflowing current of water, or a rates of speed equal to five miles an hour. Once in motion, the ship is expected to attain a rate of speed only equalled by the power of the turbine " It appears from latest papers that on or about the 2nd Jnne the German schooner Chusan left Chefoo for Passiett, or Port May, but in passing round the Corean Peninsula, was drifted out of her course by the current during a fog, stranded on an island of the Sir James-Hall Group, and was abandoned by her crew. In due time, the wreck was sold at auction at Chefoo, and was knocked down, "as she lay on the Island of Sir James Hall Group," for some 80dol, to two British subjects, one named Campbell and the other PauL They immediately got ready a junk, and, with another foreigner, a German, and a numerous body of Chinese to conduct the salving operations, started for the scene of the wreck. But they had scarcely arrived there -when they were surrounded by large' numbers of the Coreans, who bound the three foreigners handandfoot, .and, slinging them on bamboos, as we see pigs carried about through the settlement, hurried them off into the interior. The Chinese were glad to make their escape, and reaching Chefoo on the morning of the 6th instant, reported what had occurred. - The Admiral had left, some time before, in the Salamis ; and Captain Hewett, of the Ocean, as senior naval officer, at once sent orders to H.B.M. Ringdove to get up steam to proceed, as was generally supposed, to make inquiries regarding the abducted foreigners. After what has recently occurred in Corea, we fear their fate will be a hard one.