IMPORTS.

Grey River Argus, Volume XIV, Issue 1741, 4 March 1874, Page 2

IMPORTS.

(A special charge is made on consignees' announcements inserted in this column.) Per St Eilda : 20 head cattle, 120 sheep, 35 pigs, 2 crates poultry, 3 horses. Per Kennedy, from Nelson : ex warehouse, under bond— 92 bags sugar, 69 cases brandy. Free and duty paid— 4 cases, 10 half-chests 1 box tea, 2 cases sundries, 2 parcels, 1 bar steel, 17 kegs butter, 16 cases fruit, 1 truss • leather, 7 cases eggs, 1 trunk, 30 bags malt, I 2 packages furniture. Shipped at Hokitika : I under bond — 1 quarter-cask 14 cases whiskey, 40 cases claret, 10 do old torn. Free and duty paid— 2oo sacks malt, 1 roll leather, 1 truss, 3 cases coffee, 7 do castor oil, 1 bundle sashes. EXPORTS. Per St. Kilda, for Wanganui : 70 tons coal. The schooner Gleaner is announced to sail positively for Melbourne direct at 11 a.m. to-day. The s.s. St Kilda, with the balance of her cargo of cattle from Wanganui and Westport, arrived yesterday morning. She discharged her cargo on the Spit, and loaded up a return cargo of coal, with which she will leave this morning for Wellington direct. The s s Kennedy, from Nelson, Westport, and Hokitika, arrived at the wharf yesterday forenoon. She will leave on her return trip to Westport and Nelson this forenoon. 41 A telegram received from Townsville by the Post Office authorities," says the Brisbane Courier, " gave some very unsatisfactory particulars relative to the barque Thomas Brown. It appears that the vessel- fell in with a cyclone off Gladstone, during which she lost no less than 70 hones, and that she subsequently struck on the Barrier Reef, 12 miles east of Schnapper Rock, but was providentially towed off by the steamer Wonga Wonga, with the trifling loss of a few sheets of copper off her bottom, a hawser, and kedge. The vessel then proceeded on her way to the Endeavor." A dsath by drowning at sea is reported to us by Captain Tullocb, of the brig Mercury, which arrived from Launceston, on Monday, 16th ult. From what Captain Tulloch states the occurrence took place shortly after 9 o'clock on Sunday evening, about 35 miles N.E. of Hunter's Island, the wind at the time being S. W. by S, with squally weather, and the vessel going about nine knots. About half an hour before that time, one of the crew, named Brace Jamieson, along ■wirh another seaman, was sent aloft to stow the maintopgallanfc sail, but it is conjectured that Jamieson must have fallen overboard, as the other man furled the sail alone, and on coming down inquired after Jamieson, as he had not seen him aloft. Instant inquiry was made all over the vessel, but no trace was found of the missing man. Jamieson was a young man. highly respected, and Captain Tulloch speaks of his loss most regretfully. The progress made by Timaru and Oamaru is something wonderful. These two towns are not the result of any organisation of settlers in England or Scotland, or of any commercial company with large capital, but are purely resulting from the necessity which in each case existed for a town, as an outlet of produce at a place where the protection afforded by a slight projection of the coast line enabled it to be shipped with some amount of safety. The boating services of the two places ire good, but that at Oamaru seems to be the better in respect to the kind of boat used. It is questionable, however, whether the kind of surf boat used at New Plymouth — high and pointed at either end, and manageable with oars, which those at Timaru are not— is not preferable, especially in bad weather, with a heavy sea setting directly on to the beach. Each of these three places has its peculiar kind of boat. Of course each denizen is prepared to swear that his is very much the best kind ; but an outsider, having in view the kind of boat that on a dark night will take off a bower anchor from the beach at Deal to a vessel drifting on to tbe Goodwins, and the kind of boat used at Madras, in the rollers— this outsider, I say, with great deference to local opinion, thinks tbe laranaki boat the best kind of the three.— Correspondent of the Otago Quardian Stewart's Island, with all the navigable waters included therein, and extending one league from the coast, has been declared a port within the Province of Otago, called Southport, under the Customs Regulation Act, 1858.