Shipping News.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXV, Issue XXXXV, 27 November 1903, Page 2

Shipping News.

PORT OF NEW PLYMOUTH. ARRIVED. Nov. 26—Rotoiti, s.s., 1150 tons, Robertson, from Onehunga. Passengers : Mesdames Mestayer, Bellringl- - Frost, Leitch, Wilson, Parker, Clemens, Porter, Misses Wilsou, Coker, Ward, Boulttra, Parker, Young, Wilson, Rev. Richards, Messrs Ross, Insley, Healy, Patterson, Mestayer, Nichols, Woolloxall, Blitz, Leitch, McMillan, Neilson, Salmon, Tong, Shaw ; 10 steerage. Nov. 26.—Takapuna, s.s., 957 tons, G. Holfond, from South. Passengers : Mesdanies Barnett, Eaton, Rev. G. T. B. Kyngdon, Messrs Co»nett, Morrison, Morton, Holford, Barnett, Glover ; 4 steerage. Manukau Heads, Nov. 27.—Sailed, s.s. Rarawa, lor New Plymouth. The Rarawa sailed from Onehunga at 4 p.m. yesterday for New Plymouth. With a view to increasing the direct trade with Calcutta the Union Steam Ship Company has decided to make more trips annually than has hitherto been the custom. Consequently the twin-screw stoamer Ap*rima will return to India in January to load there in March. The vessel will call at Singapore and Saraarang, and also at Sourabaya and Colombo, if inducement offers. In previous years steamers have only left India in July and November for New Zealand ports direct. The new steamer Manuka is the thirty-fourth vessel built for the Union Company by Messrs Denny and Song, Dumfbarton. The Mararoa will relieve the Tarawera in the Wellington-Lyttelton service on Dec. 18. This latter will take up the Manaroa's running as far as Auckland. The next steamer to load for the New Zealand and African Steamship Company in the colony for South Africa after the Grange, will be the Everton Gra»gc, wHich is due at Auckland about Dec. 10 from New York via Australian ports. She will be followed by the Nairnshire, 8500 tons, which was to have sailed from New York on the 15th hist. for Dunedin, Lyttelton, Wellington and Auckland. The ' twin-screw steamer Ayrshire will be the next vessel, and is due to sail on Dec. 25 from New York for Australian and New Zealand ports. The Sydney Morning Herald says : The keel of one of the largest, if not the largest, wooden steamships ever built in this State has just been laid at the shipbuilding yards of Messrs Morrison and Sinclair, at Balraain. She is being constructed from designs prepared by Mr Walter Reeks, of this city, to the order of the Northern Union Steamboat Company, of Auckland, New Zealand, and is to be employed as a passenger and cargo vessel in the Kaipara service. Accommodation is to be provided for 80 passengers, and the new vessel will carry 120 tops of cargo on a draught of 6ft. She is to be 145 ft in length, with a beam of 26ft, and 13ft 6in in depth of hold. The vessel Will be fitted with engines of the triple expansion type, capable of driving her at an average speed of 12 knots, and Howden's system of forced draught is to be introduced! in connection with the furnaces.

The steamer Gertie, recently ia collision with the Queeii of the South, put into Warjgftnui on Sunday for repairs, a steam pipe having burst whilst bound from New Plymouth to Westport. The Union Company's steamer Penguin was off the parent slip at Wellington on Tuesday, and repairs to machinery, etc., continued with. The Penguin will be forty years old next year, and is the oldest 6teamer running for the Union Company, which has owned her for ovor_twenty years. The Penguin will ue as good as new wh?n she resumes her running early next week in the Wellingjton-Bicton-Nelson service.

General satisfaction is expressed among shipmasters at the erection of the Kahurangi Point lighthouse, which it Ss thought will tie of inestimable value to the West Coast traders. Next Monday night the light, which will be visible for a "distance of sixteen and a half miles, will Ibe exhibited for the first time. The light assists in locating the Kahurangi Shoal, otherwise known os Stewart Breaker, /our miles and a quarter north-west by north off Kahurangi Point. It consists of rocky ground three-quarters of a mile long by half a mile broad, having near its southern end only twenty feet of water. The shoal hus always been considered a danger to navigation, especially in rougih weather- There is a deep passage four miles and a quarter broad between the shoal and Kahurangi Point. In roujfh weather the sea breaks heavily on the shoal, but the passage inshore is always safe.

The Tttrtinaki Freezing Works €o.— The s.s. Atheßtic will be the next steamer for dairy procuce, leaving Wellington on Dec. 10th, and will be followed by the s.s. Rimutaka on Dec. 34th. The closing days at the Moturoa Freezing Works will be a« follows :—for s.s. Athentic, Wednesday, Dec. 2 ; for s.s., liiiuutaka, Wednesday, Dec. 16th, at 3 p.m. EXPECTED ARRIVALS IN WELLINGTON. Ocean-going steamers — Riffiutaka, left Plymouth Oct. 10, via Capetown and Hobart; due about 80th inst. Maori, left London 3rd Oat, via Capstown, Hobart and Auckland ; due about 30th inst. Tokomaru, left Londoi; iith Oct.. via Capetown and Hobart; due 18th Dec. Kaikoura, left London 9th Oct., via Australian ports and Auckland; due about 3oth Dec. Star of Ireland, left New York 12th Oct, via Australia and Auckland ; due about 30th Dec. Everton Grange, left Jfew i York 80th Sept., via Australian portß and Auckland. Sailing Ships.— Thornliflwnk, teft New York 2nd 'July. Alice, "left New York 7th July. Montgomeryshire, left Liverpool 15th July. Firth of Clyde, left Glasgow 18 July, via Port Chalmers. Besifleld, left Glasgow 19th Aug. Sierra Cadena, left Liverpool 25th August. Inverurie, left Glasgow 19th Sep., via Port Chalmers. Limena, Left Liverpool 30th Sep.

Mails for Fiji, per Rotokino, cldse at Auckland on Dec. 1. For Chatham Island*, calling at Waitangi and Pitt Island, close at Lyttelton about Dec. 1. For Noumea and Fiji, at Sydney cm Dec. 2. For Fiji, Honolulu, Canada, United States of America, United Kingdom, and Continent of Europe, via Vancouver, clese per Taviuni, at Auckland at 11 a.m., Dec. 3. Correspondence must lie specially addressed via Vancouver. For Tonga and Samoa, per Sierra, from Auckland, close at Auckland, 1 p.m., Dec. 4. For United States of America, Canada, West Indies, Central America, United Kingdom, and Continent of Europe, via San Francisco, also Samoa and Hawaiian Islands, -»r Sierra, close at Auckland, 1 p.m. Dec. 4, due London, Jan. 2. For Raratonga and Tahiti, also P»nrhyn Islands, close at Auckland, 4 p.m., Dec. 8. The next best despatch for ConH>ent of Europe and United Kingdom will be via San Francisco, leaving' on Thursday, De«. 3, due London, Jan. 2. Parcel mail for United Kingdom and Continent of Europe close* at Wellington on Nov. 26, due London Jan. 7. Mail for Niue and Penhryn Islands loses at Auckland on Tuesday, Dec. 1 at 4 p.m. Mails close for Melbourne, Adelaide, Albany, Natal and Capetown •n Dae. 14. Note.—Letters for the United States of America sbould be prepaid 2J-d half ounce. F. D. HOLDSWORTH, Chi«f Postmaster.