FIFTY YEARS AGO

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 147, 24 June 1933, Page 26

FIFTY YEARS AGO

A telegram from Nelson, fifty years ago, reported that the barque Conference, from. Newcastle, groundcdvon the point of th. Boulder Bank while coming into the harbour.. She was floated oft' unassisted and was undamaged. The barque Dora Ann, which arrived in port from London fifty years , ago, was a vessel of 589 tons, and was consigned to the New Zealand Shipping Co. She had an uneventful voyage and the trip was made in 98 days. She brought one passenger. The barque Estrella, also from London, was brought into" port . shortly after the Dora Ann. Her sailing time was 123 days from London, and she experienced unfavourable weather during the greater part of the voyage. She brought no passengers, and hecargo was consigned to the New Zedland Shipping Co. The master of the vessel, Captain Martin, reported on February 20, 1883, that they fell in with a dismasted barque. She appeared to be a Norwegian ship and the decks had been swept clean. There was no one on board, and her uanie could not be ascertained. ;

So satisfied were merchants "and others" with the prices realised by the British King's cargo of mutton in London that several intending shippers of frozen meat by the steamer Doric were offered a premium of 2s per head for the space allotted them.

A cable from London reported that the Shaw, Savill, and Albion Company, Ltd., decided to increase, their capital by £200,000 and build steamers suitable for the New Zealand trade. ;

Tho cook of the schooner Colonist missed his passage at New Plymouth by about fifteen minutes. So he set off in a rowing boat to catch up. On reaching the bar the boat capsized and the cook was left hanging on to the floating hull. • The sea was too heavy for ordinary help to be rendered the unfortunate fellow, and before steam could be got* up. in-one of the larger vessels in port he had been drowned. .

The tonnage under construction in foreign countries is 488,543 tons, which is about 52,000 tons loss than the work that was in. hand at the end of December. This total is the lowest recorded for the industry abroad since December, 190.0. Tho aggregate of the torinago under construction in the world .amounts to tons, and of that 34.1 per cent, is being built'in Great Britain and Ireland and 65.9 per cent, abroad.