SUN AND MOON.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 294, 25 September 1935, Page 7

SUN AND MOON.

New Moon, September 28, 4.69 a.m. a.m First Quarter, October 6, 1.39 a.m. Full Moon, October 12, 4.19 p.m. Last Quarter, October 19, 5.06 p.m.

CARGO FROM EGYPT

DESERT PHOSPHATES.

KARU FROM SAFACA BAY.

(Special to the “ Guardian.”) WELLINGTON, September 24

More than ordinary interest attaches -io the cargo now being discharged at Wellington by the Union Company’s new coastal motor-ship Earn, which has arrived at Wellington on her maiden voyage from England via the lied Sea. This up-to-date little ship brought 1000 tons of phosphates which was loaded at Safaga Bay, a small port on the fringe of the Egyptian desert, on the western shore of the Red Sea, about 215 miles south of Suez.

New Zealand’s supplies of raw materials for the manufacture of fertilisers are drawn from many worldwide sources. Large and frequent shipments of phosphates are brought from Nauru raid Ocean Islands, and shipments of sulphur come from Japan or from Galveston, Texas, in the Gulf of

Mexico and, occasionally', from Italy The guano deposits of Surprise and Malden Islands have long since been worked cut, but shipments eome periodically from Walpole Island, near New Caledonia, and from the Seychelles Islands in the Indian Ocean. Shipments of basic slag usually come from Antwerp, Belgium being the principal supplier ot this commodity.

Duo to the difficulty of arranging shipments, supplies of phosphates from Egypt are somewhat infrequent, that prior to the cargo brought by the Karu having come out on the Union Company’s Waitaki on her maiden voyage last year. Yet another source of supply is Casablanca in Morocco, but here again shipping arrangements are difficult and cargoes for New Zealand are infrequent. In the case of the Karu it can oe said that' she has brought something from the Old World) to redress the balance in the new. The phosphates from Safaga Bay are packed in small sacks whose stout, close texture does not prevent the material from escaping and, when handled or disturbed, from filling the air with a, fine yellow dust, Safaga Bay is a harbour somewhat difficult of approach through a gap in a dangerous reef, between which and. a small island is a, channel leading to a wharf in the bay. The Karu spent about six days at Safaga Bay discharging a cargo of patent fuel from Port Talbot, near Swansea, in Wales, and loading 1060 tons of phosphates. It was intensely hot during the time the ship was at jSafaga Bay, the temperature ranging up to 111 degrees. The little settlement lies on the seacoast of the vast Egyptian deceit and has not known rain for about eight years. Apart from small supplies distilled at the port, water has to be brought to Safaga Bay by sea. The phosphates are worked by a British company whoso executive officers are a few Scotsmen, the labourers being Arabs and natives of the locality. All supplies and stores are brought down by sea from Suez. There are vast age-old deposits of phosphates a short distance inland from Safaga Bay. The raw material is dug out from quarries by native labour and carried down by rail to the sea coast, where it is ciushed and bagged for shipment. In the phosphate rock taken from the quarries frequently are found fossilised remains ■of marine creatures, including the teeth of sharks.

SUN. MOON. Sets. Rises, Sets. To-day— a.m. p.m. p.m. a.m. 5.37 5.49 4.18 3.38 To-morrow — a.m. p.m. a.m. p.m. 5.35 5.50 4.41 4.38