AUCKLAND.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3517, 16 October 1882, Page 3

AUCKLAND.

October 16

General alarm is expressed here for the safety of the steamer Lalla Rookh, which left Onehunga for Waitara on Wednesday last, and has not yet reached her deetinatioD. There were on board, besides three passengers, whose names are unknown; Captain Robinson, Dempsey (mate), Lamborn (engineer), Angus Beele (fireman), Howard (cook), and J. Nevelle (apprentice). Dempsey and Howard are married men, and their wives and families are resident at Onehunga. At 10 o'clock on Wednesday night, when a few miles south of Manukau heads, the mate of the steamer Macgregor observed a signal from a vessel which is supposed to have been the Lalla Rookh, about a mile distant on the port quarter. She dipped her masthead light a fevr times, but it ultimately seemed to have gone out, and a blue light was then burned. The mate of the Macgregor, deeming the signal to be one of distress, called Captain Macarthur, who, upon coming on deck, identified the vessel as being the Lalla Rookb, and eaid that it was merely a complimentary farewell signal. Th* sea was perfectly calm at the time, and the wind was blowing freshly from the south-west. A seaman on board the Macgregor was dissatisfied with the decision ot the captain in not going to see whether assistance was required, and several passengers also took notice of the neglecf. One of the seamen who was on board the Macgregor says that there could have been no doubt as to the signals made being those of distress, seeing that the first lights having gone out a blue light had to be adopted. The steamer, he eaid, appeared to be under sail, and was heeling over on the port side. She was heading down the coast. The general opinion is that she was at that time nearly full of water, and, though the wind was strong, it was not sufficiently so to enable her to put about and return to port. It is not impossible that she has gone into Kawhia harbor for safety. She is insured for £1100 in the South British office, of which £600 is reinsured.

The captain of the Macgregor denies bavins seen the Lalla Rookh on his last

trip, and threatens to take out an action for libel against the New Zealand Herald for its strictures on his conduct.