SHIPPING ITEMS.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 835, 11 July 1871, Page 2

SHIPPING ITEMS.

The Honolulu "Gazette" Bays:— The City of Melbourne sailed for Sau Francisco at two p.m. on June 17, taking from here a few passengers, and about 200 tons of freight, mostly sugar. Judging from the time made on the passage from Sydney by this vessel, it is fair to suppose that she will make one of the quickest passages to San Francisco ever made. She is advertised to leave San Francisco ou 20th June. The barque Parana was chartered on the 20th April, at Port Louis, Mauritius, to sail on the 6th May, with a cargo of sugars, for Messrs Dalgetv, Nichols and Co., Dunedin and Christchurch.

A large importation of coolies is now being carried on from China to Peru, which, in reality amounts to nothing more nor less than slavery. These men have written agreements to serve eight years on the cotton plantations, &c, but in most cases such documents are matters of form, and not worth the paper on which they are written, the poor fellow, when once on board the export ship, having but little chance of seeing his native land again, being kept in constant terror of the lash, life in many cases yielding to its infliction. Mutinies are not uncommon during the passages, and only last month a ship on the way from China to Callao was set fire to by the coolies, of whom there were 400 on board, and more than 300 perished with the ship. A casualty by fire occurred in Callao Bay on the night of the 22nd January. The p.s. Favorite, 1000 tons, of the P.S.N. Company's line was burnt to the water's edge, the fire originating in the spirit room, and spreading with such rapidity that there was hardly time to save the cargo, of which she had some 60 tons on board. The hull of a new and peculiar steamboat for navigation of the tropics, has just been completed, in one of the New York ship yards, and forwarded to Wilmington for the insertion of the machinery. It will be a stern-wheel boat, 160 feet long, 25 feet breadth of beam, and 6 feet depth of hold. There will be two high-pressure engines, 18 inches cylinder, 6 feet stroke, 12 feet face, and 22 feet in diameter, and two locomotive tubular boilers. There are three water-tight bulkheads, with an entire flush deck for freight. The whole length above is divided into two dressing-rooms for ladies and gentlemen, and one grand saloon for the accommodation of all the passengers. There are no state-rooms for passengers, who, in that warm climate, would not occupy them, preferring to swing their hammocks in the main saloon, which will hold about 150. The vessel when fully equipped will sail at the rate of about fifteen knots an hour. It will draw but twelve inches of water unloaded, but may be freighted down to five feet. It will be named the San Fernando, and officered by a captain, two pursers, two engineers, and a mate. The new craft is to form one of the squadron of the Venezuelan Transportation Company, which was organised in 1869 for navi T gation in Venezuelan waters under the United States flag. The company employs three steamers, exclusive of this one, and six sailing launches, of 1400 tons in all. The route commences at Port Spain, in the Island of Trinidad, in the West Indies, and runs up the Orinoco Eiver to Ciudad De Bolivar, about 400 miles. From Ciudad Da Bolivar it proceeds up to Nutrias,, ou the Pura Eiver, about 600 miles. From Fort Spain a vessel runs to Laguayra, 500 miles, stopping at intermediate ports. In this way a regular line of communication is kept open between Laguayra, ,and Nutrias,