SHIPS AND THE SEA.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIII, Issue 129, 1 June 1907, Page 12

SHIPS AND THE SEA.

An announcement made in n southorn paper recently that Mr. John Simo had disposed of his business to the recently- formed Jvaiapoi Shipping and Trading Company closes another era in thf history of the shipping trade of the port of Kaiapoi, says the Lyttelton Times. The importance of Kaiapoi as a port in the early daya is but little known to the present generation. Looking at the river in its present si!ted-np condition in the vicinity of the traffic bridge, it can hardly be realised that forty years ago no tewer than eightyfive craft, comprising schooners, ketches, cutters, and small steamers, traded to Kaiapoi. Their inward cargoes consisted chiefly of fencing material, sulphur, and general stores for the stations, and they carried away wool, dressed llax. grain, potatoes, flour and dairy produce. Some idea of the volume of trade done can be gained from the returns for 1870, when 5266 baleis of wool »vere shipped and 337,063 bushels of wheat to Wellington, Auckland, and Hokitika, also 217 tons of potatoes and 235 tons of flour to tho same places, together with oatmeal, bacon, eggs, and checED, to tho total value of £147,024. The merchandise brought in amounted to 11,871 tons. The opening of the rjilway to Kaiapoi in 1872 was a heavy blow to the river trade ; in fact, it was almost annihilated. Mra. Russell Sage, of New York, ha 3 presented to tho American Seamen's Friend Society the sum of 150,000 do!., which is to be applied to the building of a homo and institute. At tho luncheon at which the announcement was made tho Key. E. W. Matthews, secretary of the British and Foreign Sailors' Society, was a guest. For many years the two organisations have worked in harmony, and until recently owned an institute for sailors in Antwerp. The Row Dr. Charles A. Stoddard, president of the American Soeiaty, before introducing tho visitor from abroad, made a brief addrers m which ho told of the gift. lio said he had frequently talked with Mrs. Sago concerning the wolfaro of the sailors, and that .entirely without any hint on hir> part she had sont for him nnd told him. that she would give the society l£o,ooodol. Fosomo time tho socisty had had a plot of land at the noiLh-east corni-i' of West and Jano streets. New York, near the pioi-3 of the Cunard Line, on which it proposes to erect a Jorge structure. Tho building will have rooms for 225 men, n. free shipping bureau, reading room, library, offices, and al'o a club room for officers. It will have an auditorium whoro concerts and lectures may bo heard. The land cast 70.0Q0d0!.." and | it is estimutsd that the bui'dir.g can hu • erected at »n sxpon&e of 225 : U)0d01. InI eluding this benefaction of' Mis. Sage, j tho organisation now hss n building fund of ICO.OOOdo!. Captain C. B. Paieons, the chairman of the Building Comi lrsitt'-e, said that, now there would be little dolay in pioc-ceding with the enterprise. The scarcity of spiloi'3 is ones of the mo-i not?nt factors in causing the congestion ct shipping at Newcastle The matter is virlujlly outside ths scop? of tho NavißPfion Department (cays a Syd noy papa). The deputy superintendent of nivijntion (C'lptam Hacking) slid : — "If wo could get losded ships to cea thore would bo no congestion, and I hp.vc made innumerable visitc to these vess?h, but thoro is always the same ivply uy tho shipmn'tors. 'We can't q^D men.'" Stepa, hr.d, ho said, been t?kon to make buoys avaihblo for mooring. Thowi is more iliflicuity iv manning British ve>:r;b with sailors than in tho_ case of vessels tiying foreign tlags, which is due, directly or indirectly, to tho stringent oifoits on tho part of the shipping authorities to suppress the practice of "crimping." Under instructions from the Premier some time ago tho chipping master cannot sign a sailor on a British vasiel unless ho car show a discharge from his previous vossc) ; but in the ccee of foreign vessels the Kimo difficulty does not obtain, rs men nro signed on by the various Consuls, irrespective of whether tho men h.ivo discharges or not. Meanv.hib boardinghouso masters arc reaping liuge prolits from tlxjir parasitical traffic in .xiiloi-3 Taking advantage of tha dilemna in which s:a captains find themselves those men demand exorbitant prices per capita for supplying sailoro. Recently tho captain of tho barque Levernbank, in order to fi'l his ship, was obliged to pay £2 IG> p°r he-id for 17 sailors'— 3os said to be tho ruling rate, and £1 extra, ostensibly bocauso tho men were imported from Sydney. Higher prices have oven been paid for sailors, so that this "blood' inoa;y business is not the leatt profitibl-p of tho enterprises iv such a port as Newcastle. It is usual for phips going home at tho close of a commission to fly an enormous payinc;-off pennant. That of the cruis?r Diadem, on leaving Hong Kong lately, says the Singspor3 Fres Press, was about a thousand feet lonn, tapering from about 2 feet wide at the niastheaa to a matter of half an inch or so at the tail end, which was decorated with a bladder, beautifully gilt, and inflated with hydrogen to help ths free end of tho pennant to fly light. Just on coming out of Hongkong the pennant foulod the rigging of a Chinese junk. With alacrity tho sailors of the junk cut off about a hundred feet of tho Diadem'fi pennant, including the golden sphere. Then one of tho Chinaso climbed tho mast of the junk^ and made tho annexed portion of the pennant fast to tho mast-head. The junk sailed gaily into Hongkong with the captured trophy from the Diadem Haunting boastfully in thu breeze. ' A won&n named Ida Lewis lately celebrated her /ifticth year as keeper of the Lime Island lighthouse in tho harbour of Newport, Rhode Island. As girl and woman sho has lived a remarkable life. Her bravery and ekill in handling a boat aro well known, and her famo is oecure as tho great woman life-saver in tho world, for sho has tho credit of having saved no less than eighteen livc3, most of her rescues having been effected in tho face of extreme danger and in winter. As keeper of the Lime Island lighthouse, to which post sho wsfs appointed in recognition of her bravery and record no a lifc-savei on the death of her father, Miss Lewis ha 3 shown herself as careful and efficient as a man could bo. She is one of tho few women in such a position. Advico from Melbourne, dated 29th April, say 3 the Afric, when she left Livorpool on her present voyage, had stowed away under her hatches 13,200 tons of general merchandise, which is believed to bo by far tho most extensiv'o cargo that has evor left Great Britain in one bottom for Australian ports.