SHIPPING.

Evening Star, Issue 8772, 12 March 1892, Page 2

SHIPPING.

His* Water. To-mobeow. Talaroa Heads: 3.2 a.m.. 3.17 pm. Port Chalmers: 3.42 a.m., 3.57 p.m. Dunedin: 4.27 a.m», 4.44 p.m. Monday.—Talaroa Heads: 331 ft.ro., 3.46 p.m. Port Chalmers: 4.11 a,m., 4.26 p.tr. Dunedin: 4.56 a.m., 5.11 p.m. P»rt CsualiMra. ARRIVED.—Maboh 12. Rotorua, a,*., 576 tons, Stott, from Northern ports. Passengers: Misses M Donald, Quick, Juliuf, Irvine, M'Dougall, Glbb, Mesdames Bheehy, Davidson, Nancarrow and son, Montgomery, Brown, Jocelyn, Brophy and family, Campbell, De Lautour, Messrs Dalziel, Davidson, Marshall, Fielder, Hart, Brown, Gampbell, Telfer, Dr Gardner and servant; three steerage. SAILED.—Maboh 1L Brunner, s.s., 332 tons, Waller, for the West Coast. Duke of Westminster, s.s,, 2,742 tons, Ocx, for London. Kawatiri, s.s., 228 tons, Apstein, for Westpert. The death is announced, at Ceylon, of Captain Auld, who was in command of tbe ship Famenoth when she visited Auckland. The Bronner left Dunedin yesterday evening for Timaru and West Coast ports The Hauroto steamed up from Fort Chalmers yesterday evening, and landed cargo at Dunedin wharf. The ferry boat Pioneer made a hip down to Port Chalmers this forenoon. The barque Umvoti is expected to leave for Fremantle on Monday. The Duke of Westminster having taken on board a quantity of bales of wool, oases of cheese and butter, sailed this afternoon for London. The Morayshire was busy to-day taking on board frozen mutton, wool, and other cargo. The Kawatiri sailed this afternoon for West* port. The Rotorua, from the North, arrived at Dunedin wharf at ILSO a.m. to-day. She left Nelson at 4 p.m. on the Bth inst., called at Picton, and arrived at Wellington at 9 am. on the 9th; left again at 5 p.m. on the 10th r reaohed Lyttelton tt 8 a.m. next day; left again at 1 p.m., called at Akaroa. and reached headquarters this forenoon. She had fine weather throughout the trip. OIL FUEL FOR STEAMSHIPS. Commander Cameron, 0.8., in a letter to the London ' Graphic,' strongly advocates the use of oil fuel for the navy and our mercantile marine. He writes: " Recently I have had some occasion to examine the question of using liquid fuel In steamers, and am of the opinion that it is in every way preferable to coal, equally Bale, far cleaner, more easily bandied and stowed. The danger of explosion does not exist, for the heavy oils which should be used do not flash in closed vessels until a temperature of 210deg deg Fahr. has been passed, while, of course, tha flashing when exposed Is much higher, being (I speak from memory) 287deg Fahr. At present Baku is the great s rarce of supply of heavy oils. These oils are used under the name of Astalki In the Caspian and Volga steamers and the TransCaspian Railway, and the opponents of oil say that in time of war our supplies would be cut off. This is simply a baseless fear. There are many places in British territory in different parts of the world where heavy oils can be obtained t and in Great Britain the distillation of she oil shales wonld yield a practically inexhaustible supply- I & fact, ton for ton, if a demand for oil fuel existed, it could be put on board our ships in England for the same price as coal, and abroad at a much cheaper rate. Cost arid supply are therefore points in favor of oil fuel. The advocates of liquid fuel claim many other advantages. One pound of heavy oil evaporated 56.81b of water as agalntt 91b evaporated in the same boiler by lib of the best Welsh coal. This gives a duty of over six to one in favor of liquid fuel, and I have been informed that in land boilers which have been using liquid fuel for many yeare it has been considered that the advantage is between five and six to one in favor of liquid fuel. Weight for weight liquid fuel does not take up so much space as coal. Having these facts before us, if we allow only treble efficiency for oil as compared with coal, we can easily see what increased power can be given to our men-of-war by adopting liquid fuel. The Blake, for instance, could steam three times tbe distance she can now at either full or economical speed, in the latter case increasing her radius from 20,000 to 60,000 miles and rendering her practically independent of all coaling stations. Owing to forced draught not being required, the com bustion of the oil in the best systems is practically perfect, and in the absence of scour from grits and ashes the life and efficiency of our boilers would be increased. Double bottoms, could also be utilised for storage of oil. Stokisc; would be continuous and automatic, there would be no sweeping of tubes or cleaning of fires required, and the staff of stokers could be argely reduced, enabling us to replace them by an additional number of seamen or marines trained as fighting men. Ihe adaptation of existing boilerß and furnaces would be oheap and easy. The cbbo for merchant Bteamers is equally good. The Atlantic liners on their present stowage could carry oil for the passage out and Home, and have an additional cargo space of 1,000 tons or so. It hus been calculated that the Athenian, of the Union line, could carry fuel for her voyage to the Cape and Home again, besides additional cargo; and that she would show an additional profit of L 50.000 a year if heavy oil were used for fuel Instead of coal. The question now is not Can liquid fuel be used for steamers ? but When will it bs used ? Incidental advantages are the absence of the dirt and misery of coaling—everyone who has undergone this wVll agree with me—and also, as pointed out by ene of your correspondents, a practical solution of the question, not of " coaling at sea," hut of supplying our men-of-war with fuel in the> middle of the ocean, ■hipping Talagraau. Auckland, March 10.—The s.s. Pakeha arrived here on Wednesday evening from London, and after calling at Wellington and Lyttelton will proceed to Port Chalmers, and Is due to arrive on the 20th lust.

Wellington, Match 11.—Poherua, for Port Ohalmers. Penguin, for Lyttelton. Takapuna, for Taranaki and Onehunga.—Grafton, for West Coast ports. Freetrader, barque, Captain Bowden, for Greymonth.—The Hinemo» left this afternoon on a visit to the Northern lighthouses.—Lizzie Carry, barque, for New York. -H.M.P. Tauranga, from Auckland. Bluff, March 12.—Marlanna, barque, Breckswoldt, from Hamburg. Timaeu, March 12,—Arnold, barque (Captain Beenk), for London, with 2,859 bales wool, 3,964 sacks oats, 112 casks tallow.-Cleared: Qryf, barque (Roberts), for London, with 3,652 saoksof wheat and 13,403 sacks of oats.—Ganymede (Stevens), for Newcastle, in ballast. Nrwcastli!, March 12.-p t ndlehill and Aratapn, for Napier.