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Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1140, 23 March 1872, Page 2

The time for receiving tenders for the mail Bervico between Picton and Manukau, via Nelson and Taranaki, has been extended from the Ist to tho 22nd April, and tho service will commence at Picton on the Utn of May, instead ot on the 14th of April. The Auckland Star reports as follows :— Information has been conveyed to us respecting a circumstance demanding prompt attention from the Custom Honse authorities and police. Our informant has ridden in a long day's journey and conveys the information that » vessel, supposed to bo a schooner, has drifted ashoro in tho Manukau, at Waitakerei South, and has been taken possession of. From the somewhat vagun and cautious statements inado, the impression is conveyed that this possession is being used to some purpose; in fact, the vessel is being vladered. Tho schooner is supposed to bo the Fredericka, and is believed to Lave maize chiefly as her cargo, that grain being strewed about tho deck. She has been in possession of her captore for several days, during which it is asserted a mast or masts have been taken away. Tho almost incredible statement is made that the vessel drifted in across the Manukau bar with nobody on board ; at least no one claiming connection with her is now in her vicinity. It is possible her crew may have been washed away, or. it i» possible they may have disappeared some way else ; at all events the matter demands prompt attention, and if tho allegations made are based on facts our informant, whose name and address we have, and whom we have directed to the Custom House, is deserving of reward. Since writing the above we have found further traces of the oraft. She is a fore-and-aft schooner, with tho name cut in the stem Fredericka, belonging to Mr Garland of Awitu, storekeeper auE mail-carrier. Bhe was formerly engaged in mail service between Onehunga and Awitu. She was abandoned on a sand bank about a fortnight ago, the men waiting till the tide ebbed and wading ashore. Since then it is supposed s*he drifted to sea and tossed' about till captured as above related . The gentlemen in our merchant navy, says a writer on this subject, are dropping the ancient distinctions and methods of nomenclature sanctified by so many pleasant traditions. They are no longer mates, first mates, or second mates, as the case may be, but first officers or second officers. They have grown ashamed of their cloth to the extent of never donning the blue jacket on land. A first officer in the F. and O.S.N. Co. or Mr Green's service is not recognisable as a sailor ooce he leaves his ship, lie can ride to hounds and hold his own in a ballroom with any garrison lieutenant. He can do his share of work in the hot corner of a preserve. He never by any chance belays nis timbers or shivers bis main braces! He is rather addicted to lavender kid gloves, and walks the Row if he be in town during the season. If Commodore Trunnion could see him, bis rage and astonishment would be unspeakable. The kettles and the hot water, as Admiral Rous contemptuously terms our steamships, have much to answer for in spoiling many sea illusions. The boilers and the paddle-boxes or the screw do not easily lend themselves to picturesque uses. As for your steam yacht, it is nothing lesa.thiva aa abominable incongruity. The New York Herald informs its readers that its " fleet of steam yachts is now an essential and valuable pare of its establish-. . meat These smart litfcle yachts dash and dart about Sandy Hook at all hours and in all manner of weather, keeping a shary look ont for homeward-bound vessels, boarding them, and steaming rapidly to the nearest telegraphic station, or up to the headquarters with tho news. The panting of their engines is heard . through the fog and mist, while they are themselves invisible on the waves. Their graceful forms are seen riding saucily over the roughest seas, . and beating onward im the teeth of the fiercest gale as they pursue their adventurous and. important labor. By means of one of these remarkable vessels tlie Hnold was enabled to trive the earliest news of the arrival of tKe Russian Duko Alexis and to inform its readers that its reporters had seen the Grand Duke on board the Svetiana, dressed in a blue uniform, with a flat pancake hat on his head, and his bands in his pockets. The Grand ' Duko saluted tho Herald reporters with a well-bred courtesy, and while he 'unbent from his Imperial etiquette they had a good look at him.' They fonnd him to be ' very fair-skinned, with large blue eyes, very light hair, and a straight nose,' and over 6ft high."