CUSTOMS ENTRIES.

Grey River Argus, Volume XIV, Issue 1410, 6 February 1873, Page 2

CUSTOMS ENTRIES.

INWARDS. February s—Wallace, p.s, Palmer, from Hokitika. Paraer, agent. OUTWARDS. February S—NIL EXPECTED ARRIVALS. 10, from Melbourne Sarah and Maiy, from Melbourne Gleaner, from Melbourne Charles Edward, from Nelson Rangitoto, from Melbourne w Alhambra, from Melbourne, via East Coast ports Kennedy, from Nelson VESSELS IN FORT. dispatch, tug steamer Mary Van Every, from Dunedin Wallace, from Hokitika

The steamer Wallace returned to port yesterday from Hokitika, and is expected to be despatched to-day for the North. A new phase in sailors' demands sprung up yesterday. It appears from our informant that Messrs M'Meckan, Blackwood, and Co. are in the habit of giving the men in their employ LI per month more than is customary, iv consequence of the extra work of taking in and discharging cargo at the various New Zealand ports, at which their stsamers call at all hours, either day or night, and the despatch requisite thereto ; but not satisfied with this, several men, on being called to &ign articles on board the steamer Albion yesterday, positively refused to do so unless they, in. addition to the LI per month above alluded to, were allowed so much per hour after six p.m: for overtime, and thi3 was done just on the eve of the vessel's departure, thereby causing much trouble to her commander at the last moment. The demand was not complied with, and fresh hands were shipped.— Age, 18th January. The Argus of a recent date states that the Williamstown Graving Dock is hastening to completion. Its masonry is finished except as regards the return walls, which are far advanced, and its pumping gear and enclosing caisson are understood to be in an advanced stage. In six months the dock itself will be complete, but it by no means follows that by that time it will be available for use. Indeed, so far as appears, it will remain quite inaccessible to ships in want of the kind of accommodation -which it has been built to afford until long after the expiry of that period. The natural sea bottom outside the stock gate is some 12ft above the level dock sill, and this formidable obstruction to the entrance of ships has to be removed, by dredging or otherwise, before the dock becomes available for use. How long it may take to remove this obstruction remains to i be seen. Under very favorable circumstances a year might suffice; under other circumstances, two years might be required, or even more. But, in either case, it is evident the dock will be finished long before any means of access to it has been provided. The whole cost of the dock will be about L 300.000. The American barque Callao put into Port William on the 21st ult. The captain reports that he bad to "cut from a whale (cast it adrift) during the late westerly gales. The barque was at the time close cruising off the Solanders. The Callao is eighteen months out, and has 608 barrels, equal to 60 tuns, of oil on board. The Southland News states that on the 22nd a man named Philips discovered, on the beach at the Pahi station, Orepuki, a nperm whale with a chain attached to its jaws, ropes to its tail, and four harpoons in its body, which is supposed to be the one " cut" by the Callao.