SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE. PORT OF AUCKLAND.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXVII, Issue 4456, 6 December 1871, Page 2

SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE. PORT OF AUCKLAND.

..flu^WAifcß Thib 8at.— 0.39 a.m. j 1.16 p m. SuNKi.se and SunsktThis Day. — Morning, 4.38 ; ereoiag, 73 . Wind xsd ,W bather. — December 5 : Wind, southerly ; weather, fine. Phase of thk Moon» — Now Moon, Deoember 12, at 3.4 Q p.m.

Departures. Clio, for Kusaoll ; Tauranga and Hero, for Tanranga ; Seagull, for Russell.

1 Ak Ocean Waif.— The following letter and ita enclosure have been handed for publication by the Secretary of Customs, w. St«d, Esq. :— "Waitaugi, Chatham Islands, , 6|jh .November, 1871. — Sir,— On the 4th '' jnatant, the enclosed paper was pioked up, contained jn a, flaw bottle, oa the beach near ■ thi'd 'place. By R. J, La Nauze Esq. 'a .orders I send the .same to you. I have the >b.bri*dar W be, 1 sir,' your obedient servant, _iSigned) Eic^aed W. Raynbb:— l Editor i.of any qewapapDr . . . his good will in -pttttina ..''.i. enclosed in his daily paper. ,^u_^' CA.WLt»:K, , master.. Ship Weathers* * 'field, from n Liverpool to Melbourne, with 244 passengers, and general cargo ; registered tonnage, 1,051 ; official number, 514*72 ; crew, all told, 27 ; and out from Liverpool 96 days. All well this day, 4th April, 4870., Wind sttong from the touthw«&t, with hail squalls, and a south-west >ea up ; several patohes .of t'-kelp' weed to-day. Latitude, 44 4 south ; longitude, 95*10 east ; aneroid, 29*950; sympieaometer, 29 950; thermometer, 52 ; barometer out of order by tea water. — P. .(Jawxine, .master • P. Nolan, mate ; F. Grose, stcoad mate.' " The bottle floated 4,000 miles in sixteen months. Cruisb *^ the Captain Cook to[thi* Sooth Sjea Islands.— Whixb Woman and Child amongst the Natives.— The Captain Cook, schooner, left Sydney on the 3rd June,' bound oa a trading voyage to the South Sea 1 Islands.* She arrived at the Solomon Group on the 27th, and whilst cruising along the northern coast of New Britain, in the vicinity of the mountains, known as the Mother aud Daughter, Captain Ferguson was very much turprised to observe a white child in one of the canoes which came alongside the vessel. He made every effort in .his power to obtain possession of the child, but without avail, as the natives pulled ashore. This occurred on the afternoon of the 20th July, and as no more canoes oame off to the vessel that clay, j CaptaiuFerguaon determined npouheaving-to for the night, with aview to obtaining further j information respeoting the child the next morning, At daylight the vessel stood in to within a cable's length ' of the shore, when a white woman ,was perceived carrying a 'bundle of wood on her head. The child could also plainly be Mea.^b'out half a mile dittant, in the midst pi a group of natives. When first observed, tha woman had just emerged from a thickly voided patch on the faoe of .the mountain, and was walking in the direction of the child, but her progress appeared to bo intercepted by a native, who evidently accosted : her ti causing her to drop the bundle and return from whence she came. Neither the Woman nor the child was again seen", and as no canoes could be induced to come off to tho vessel the captain was obliged to abandon toy further effort of communicating with the short, as the well-known hostile character atid demeanour~of the natives prevented a boat being sent on shore from the vessel. The echooner proceeded to the Duke of York Island, distaut about 25 miles, and the ! natives • there stated that a ship's bowsprit had drifted ashore at the S.E. end of the island, and from the description and aire of tha spar it was inferred that it must have belonged to a •ve&sel of over 300 tons burden. The natives also said that about 18 months previoue-* canoe containing two white men and two white women landed on a small island ia the channel between thj Duke of York and New Britain Islands, aud that the natives of the island on which they landed killed one of the men ; and that one of the •women died, and that the remaining man and woman were sold to the natives living neat Cape Palliser, New Britain. Captain Ferguson is of opinion that the woman and j child he jaw could not have been a portion j of those just referred to, but that a veisel had recently been lost in the vicinity, and that in all probability lomo of the, orew and j passengers had reached the shore, and were | now amongst the New Britain natives. On leaving the Duke of York Island the j aotaoonar continued her cruise till reaching i Rubiana on the 4th October, where she was j boardect by a white settler, who acted as a ; trader on behalf of the schooner Lavinia. He delivered a note to the captain, signed by the master of the LayjniA, which stated that he had »n • board,, th« schooner the captain and crew (10 ingj number) of the British sbip<Dalhi, which had been lost on the Indispensable Reef. The letter requested Captain Ferguson to render ■•me assistance, either by contributing a portion of his stores', or by receiving on board aome of the ahipwreoked crew. The Lavinia j was at this time at the island of Villa I Lavella, and the Captain Cook a,t Qnce..>prooeeded there, and was boarded about ten miles fWm th» Island by Captain Nicholls, late of the Delhi, who ttated his anxiety to ] reach the colonies as speedily as possible, at j the same, time, saying that, i were he obliged to remain on board the Lavinia, he would be unftble-to get there before the 23rd December at the earliest, as the. captain of that ve«aalswould-not have concluded his oruiae earlier., Captain. Ferguson, -in the- -moat humane manner, which certainly deserves ■ome public recogriitidn/roftdily consented to receive the unfortunates on board, and proceeded at once with them tovtho coloniesi Considering that 'they were' ell perfectly destitute^ ahd thai the action on the; part of Captain Fergusdn was one that could not fail to too£ considerable pecuniary loss to him»elf, it is deserving of the very highest praise.' Captain Nioholls, his wife, and 14 of the crew were then taken on board, and the vessel left the island at 10,p,m., October 18, arriving, after a rather protracted passage, at Cape .Moreton*t 6 a.m. yesterday, and reaching Brisbane during the course of tho .xiittwQQn^Brisbanet Courier, N.ov«m« bw2o. "