PORT OF BLUFF HARROR.

Southland Times, Issue 862, 9 December 1867, Page 2

PORT OF BLUFF HARROR.

SAILED. Dec s—Kate,5 — Kate, 40 tons, ErsMne, for Riverton, with cargo ex steamera. <• Rarely, if ever, has such a gala day been witnessed in Hobson'a Bay as on the occasion of the state landing yesterday of H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh from his ship, the Galatea. The morning proved auspiciously fine — a clear and cloudless sky and a fresh southerly breeze, not too strong, but more than enough to prevent the excess of bunting from clinging listlessly to masthead and flagstaff. At eight o'clock in the morning, on the discharge of a signal gun from H.M.S.S. Galatea, H.M.C.S.S. Victoria, the Government steamer Pharos, and the Naval Train-ing-ship flaunted theii colors, and dressed ship man-of-war fashion, manning yards at the same time. The mancauvre was executed simultaneously, and in so far as the colonial vessels were concerned with a celerity and precision which must have elicited favorable comment on board the Galatea, where practised training and discipline give an almost unapproachable style and finish to such displays. Every ship in port was speedily decked out in its gayest colors, and flags of all nations were fluttering aloft in almost lavish profusion, The shipping on the Williamstown side of the bay seemed one mass of flags, from the vessels being so closely berthed together ; but on the Sandridge side the effect was not so apparent, there not being such an extent of shipping at the piera. Several steamers, including the Resolute, Titan, Sophia, Eleanor, and others, were doing a stroke of business, combining profit to themselves and pleasure to their living freights, by leasurely steaming between the Galatea and the landing place at Sandridge. Numbers of sailing-boats, full of enthusiastic citizens bent on seeing the " sailor Prince " on his chosen and favorite element, were also cruising about, each one tricked out with more or less of bunting, and many of them rejoicing in bran new suits of sails. The Williamstown steamer Kangaroo, an old and faithful and well-tried friend to the public on holiday occasions, pursued the even tenor of her way with loads of passengers, and looked quite spruce^with her extra display of flags. An inadvertent injustice was done to this steamer by a statement not in accordance with fact, to the effect that she chargad double fares on Saturday, the day of the Prince's arrival. Towards the afternoon, the mosquito fleet, which during the fore part of the day had made the bay their special cruising-ground, perceptibly lessened, and boatmen, passengers, and all were evidently moving townwards, and leaving the bay to its usu d quietude and repose. — Argus, Nov. 26.