Untitled

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1183, 14 May 1872, Page 2

The schooner Io is nearly ready for sea, and will leave very shortly for Melbourne. The ketoh Venture will return to Lyttelton with a cargo of coal, a large portion of which she took on board yesterday. Tho ps Charles Edward may be expected from Nelson, via Hokitika, to-morrow, and will have immediate despatch for Westport and Nelson. On her last trip from the Bluff, the Albion was brought into Port Chalmers by Ml Bowden, nef chief officer, Captain M 'Lean being on deck Buffering from rheumatism, and sitting in an easy chair on the quarter* deck. It was raining heavily at the time, but the old veteran seemed, though suffering, to watch his vessel's arrival. On the anchor being dropped, he was removed to his cabin. The steamer Maori collided off Oamaru with the schooner Coronet, for Auckland, at midnight on Saturday week, striking the' port bow and cutting the schooner down two planks below the covering-board. The Maori towed her to discharge for repairs. The barque Mendoza, now in Port Chalmers, has been chartered by the New Zetland Meat Preserving Company, and may shortly be expected at the Bluff, to load for London. She will take away about eight hundred tons of the company's products, i We believe that upwards of five hundred tons of preserved meats alone are now waiting shipment.— Southland Times, April 30. In his annual report to the Provincial* Council, the Chief Harbormaster for Otago, referring to the West Coast, says :— Masters of all the Intercolonial traders bound southward from the westward, would highly value and appreciate a light on the south- west Cape of Otago ; then, as Preservation Harbor is near thereto, and plenty of good coal on 'a convenient site for exhibiting a light, I would suggest, on economical grounds, that a reinstructions to keep burning a coal fire every night. It would be comparatively light work for a long time to procure the coal. Such was the Order of light first exhibited at Newcastle, N.S.W., and for all purposes answered very welL It might further serve to the development of a coal trade in that district. There is steam communication to Martin's Bay, at long intervals, by way of Nelson, but not sufficient to warrant any expenditure at that port. The settlement is slow of growth, but ere long Milford Sound may be required as the principal seaport for the district. "Any one," says the Graphic, "who has had opportunities of observing the progress of ship-building in recent years, must have observed the increasing length of all sea-going steam vessels ; but it is only those who have a practical acquaintance with the subject who are aware of the fact, that step by step with the increasing length and slenderness, the iron plates of these vessels have been growing thinner. The cause of all this is very clearly pointed out by a writer in the city Article in the Times of a recent date, who calls attention very energetically to the disasters likely to result from these new fashions. Briefly, the owners of vessels have discovered that a long vessel can be driven through the sea just as fast as a short one, j by the same steam-power ; and, of course, the thinner the iron plates the less the cost of building. The consequences are obvious. Engines sometimes break down ; and occasionally vessels will find themselves thus disabled on a lee shore. Under these circumstances, it is manifest that their enormous length must render them far less able than the old sailing vessels to cope with a gale ; while the weakness of the plates would render them very likely to break up, even without stranding, if they once become unmanageable.. That numbers of vessels are annually wrecked with great loss of life from these causes is certain ; the recent loss of the Delaware is an example ; but these disasters must go on in increasing ratio as the plates of the vessels bnilt during the last few years become thinner by corrosion. All this, however, is but another illustration of the truth, that the lives of seamen and passengers have no efficient protection under the present Bystera. The competition of the shipowners renders this fatal economy almost imperative j while the fact that all sea risks may be covered by a certain rate of insurance, and, above all, the great reluctance of underwriters and insurance offices to resist claims, make it certain that no improvement will be attained until the Government takes in hand the duty of protecting those who are clearly unable to protect themselves."