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Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 25, 28 July 1864, Page 2

«. The tNTEBCOtOKiAi. Steam Compact. — The Banama, New Zealand, and Australian Royal Mial Company (Limited) have published thenreport, preparatory to the meeting on the 30th inst. The receipt for Government subsidies, freight, and passage-money, were £118,702, against £67,233, the previous year; while the expenditure on working account was £84,900, £46,926 in 1862. After appropriating £13,600 to repair, renewal, &c, account, the difference in favor of the company is £20,201, which added to the balance brought forward from the last account, makes the total amount to .the credit of profit and loss account £21,195. The directors have set apart £4,750 for depreciation. The entire balance of preliminary expenses, &c, amounting to £4,645, has been written off, and the sum of £3 500 has been applied in reduction of the balance to the debit of insurance account. The dividend for the half-year ending the 30th June absorbed £3,278, and the directors recommend a declaration of the dividend on the old shares, for the six months ended the 31st December, 1863 at the rate of seven per cent per annum clear' of income-tax, which will amount to £4,500. The earnings the first quarter was at the rate of £7 500 per month, whereas the latter part of the year when the Auckland and Phoebe were placed on the station, they were £11,000 per month, and according to the last advices the receipts had risen to more than £12,000 per month, while the increase in the disbursements is small. The company's fleet is now in a perfect state of efficiency. The directors report that 25,000 of the new shares recently authorised to be issued have been allotted, jepresenting the sum of £250,000. The remaining 12 500 shares are reserved for allotment at a future period, and it is intended to offer a portion of them in Australia and New Zealand. The holders of the new shares will be entitled to receive dividend from the 30th March last. In the interval that will elapse before the service between Sydney, New Zealand, and Panama is commenced, the profits on the existing lines will suffice for the -payment of even a higher dividend than that now declared on the entire paid-up capital of the company. — The Times. Picked vb at Sea. — The captain of the Ireneh chip Clare, arrived here, reports :— " On the 26th January, at noon, being then in 23deg. sSmm. S. lat., and 61deg. 32min. E. long. I perceived to leeward what appeared to be a flagstaff. I hore to and Baw that it was a raft, on which there -were three men. I ordered a boat to be put out at once, and sent the boatswain, ordering him to make haste, and as soon as he could see my colors flying to return immediately to the vessel, as the weather was threatening and had a very bad appearance. He returned in a very short time with three men, who could not stand on their legs. Their bodies were covered with, sores from the effects of sun-stroke, and the intense heat they had to endure. During the time they were on the raft they had neither eaten or drunk anything, except trying on one or two occasions to swallow a little human flesh. These poor men turned out to be shipwrecked mariners. They had belonged to the American ship Elvira, of Boston, of about 1,200 tons register, bound from Calcutta to Boston The ship foundered at sea on the 20th January. They had formed the raft they were on by cutting down the masts and fastening them together. The awning they also secured, as it got loose when the foremast, fell into the sea. When the snip foundered, there were eleven, Jiands on the raft. Some of them were washed away by the etrong swells, and' others died from exhaustion and hunger Out of eleven men only three were left, and^hey had been struggling for three days over the disaster to which their comrades had succumbed when I saw them on the raft. In itheir extremity they had eaten a portion of one of thenshipmates, who had died a couple of days beiore, and it was with the greatest care that I at last succeeded in restoring .hem as it were to life and health. The names of these three Americans aro jßlake/Palmer, and. Aaxderson."- J -J2a!«g'oon. Times, May 21.