SHIPS AND THE SEA.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 27, 1 February 1908, Page 12

SHIPS AND THE SEA.

Rapid promotion has been given Captain Chadley, who has been made the master of the Shaw, Savill, and Albion Company's latest addition to its fleet of splendid steamers, the- Kia Ora, now making her initial voyage to New Zealand. The reason for the skipper's appointment is that it is in recognition of his services , in handling the disabled Rangatira about a year ago. It will be remembered the untortunale vessel broke her shaft on the passage from Manila to Newcastle. The Rangatira, which made many yoyages between London and New Zealand, is now engaged in the River Plate meat trade. The torpedo-destroyer Ghurlca, intended for open sea work, has just completed her official trials. On the full power trial, a speed of about a knot in excess of that specified in the contract waß obtained ; the speed over the whole period of six hours was 33.91 knots per hour, while the mean of six runs over the measured course during the fourth hour gave a speed of 34 knots, and the highest mean speed on the measured mile was 34£ knots. There is little doubt that had the quantity of oil per square foot of heating surface not been restricted, a speed of over 34 knots could have bsen easily maintained during the' six Hours. The Ghurka's dimensions are :—: — Length 255 ft, breadth 25ft 6in, displacement 864 tons., Tho vessel is fitted with turbine machinery of the Parsons type. Sir Thomas Sutherland, chairman of diiectors of the P. and 0. line of steamers, in the annual report stated ,that the whole of the company's inter-colonial trade between Bombay and Japan has been wiped put by the energy of Japanese competitors. ' These foreign shipowners have been forced by' their Government to increase their departures from Bombay to such an extent that so far as the trade of Japan is concerned, the P. and 0. Company has been completely left out in the cold. Now the trade between Bombay and Japan, which consists chiefly in raw cotton, amounting approximately to about 700,000 bales in the course of a year, is an absolute monopoly, and worked as a monopoly between an association of the spinners of Japan and the shipowners who are engaged in the trade. In order to demonstrate the case of free trade and fair competition, the P .and 0. Company purchased one or two cargoes of cotton, which were sent to Japan. It was found that not a single bale could be sold, and ths shipments had to bo taken bacic to Hong Kong or to Bombay. Up to this year the company has baen able to carry and to obtain a share of that trade in association wilh tho Japanese. But this year they nave so increased their sailings as to shut tho P. and o'. sfceamei& out, which seems hardly fair, seeing' that during the war between Russia and Japan the whole of that business was carried by the company for the Benefit of the Japanese manufacturing interests. Ifc was noticeable* (says an exenange) that the Kronzprinzessin Cecilie, the latest of the Norddeutscher Lloyd express boats, was provided in her dining saloon with separate tables, as 1 distinguished from the long tables, which* were formerly considered the correct thing en board ship, ft is now stated that the innovation has proved such a success tftat the company proposes to make small tables the rule on its boats, and that the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, which is now under repair at Bremen, is to be fitted out with them. Other steamers of the^ line w,ill, it is stated, be similarly dealt with in turn. The tables tobe fitted will seat two, threej, five, or seven persons. Of qourse, if largo parties wish to din 6 together, several tabled can be joined. • ', The Temps has an article, deeply re-, ; grctting that French Shipping "Companies are doing nothing in the way of competing with the Norddeutscher Lloyd's four modern, rapid steamers, . Preussen, Sachsen, fiayern, and' The-/ rapia, which work the service between Marseilles and Alexandria. Several fast sailing performances are credited to the four-masted barque Loch Torridon, and on the present' visit to Melbourne her reputation has been consistently maintained. The' course be- | tween the- Leeuwin and Semaphore was traversed in slightly over sis days, the speed logged being twelve knots on the average-. This, however, > was not her ] best, as 1 on a previous voyage she sailed 341 miles in twenty-four hours, which works out at 14^ knots ;' ari.d' on another j occasion recorded 2119 miles 'in seven i consecutive days. Ths loss of the DundonalcT at Auckland Islands? on the 6th March last, bub only reported under oiich sensational circumstances, after being- posted as "missing" on 2nd October," recalls the case of the Mary Alice, a > new French ship, which left Sydney on ,12th February, wool laden, for Antwerp. She also was a missing ship, but, wreckage was discovered in October strewn on tho north-east coast of Auckland' Islands. It is rarely that hews is received after vessels have been "post?cL" The Brier i Holme left London in July',- 1904,' for Launces'ton, and on 7th January, 1905, a sole survivor was found. The Man* Chester left Naw Yotk on 23rd August', 1900, for Yokohama, and a year later' her. remains wer6 identified washed ashore on the uninhabited island of Bikar, .in the Marshal!. (Group. Traces were found where the cijew had landed, and the body of a sailpr who had recently died was met wfith in the bush by a volunteer search iparty. "We are simply oceaai costers." That is how (says the Dailt Telegraph) the promoters of a scheme Jfor trading Irom port to port with, a clmper ship of 3000 tons burden describe f their 'enterprise. Their idoa is to fill uri in. 'London with an assorted cargo of jmerchandise, and I then sail away on at crui3o embracing Mediterranean, South) American, and South African ports. f'Withih the space of 'a year it is expedited that the 6hip will have sold or bartered all her goods, and be back in England again, with a homeward cargo. There is certainly a spice of the old adventurers' methods about this cdntemplatod voyage. But that is by no means the whole of the programme. The vessel is to combine with her trading tho carrying of passengers, to whom "days are not dollars," and who will welcome, the quietude of the sailing ship, a-nd the absence alike of the thump of tne propeller and of the smuts Irom a steamer's funnels.

"Experience" writes as follows in answer to "amateur." — Speaking generally, your vegetables are - suffering from the effects of dry, hot weather. Leaf curl on cauliflowers is caused by the drought, it is very general this season, in some districts nearly all the plants being affected, withotit being attacked by blightwinch your plants evidently are—it is sufficient to destroy the plants. Your peas are evidently attacked by pea-mildew. The beans and marrows are suffering from poorness of soil and drought. It is no uncommon thing for marrow to cast the young iruits during hot weather, the reason 'being that tho plants have not strength to carry the fruit and at the same time extend the runners. Cutting off the points of strong runners will usually put them right. With regard to the blighte, I advise you to send specimens to the Government Biologist, who will give you the «id of science, naming the .particular blights^ and prescribing a , treatment,