PROJECTED DEPARTURES.

Evening Star, Issue 11725, 7 April 1902, Page 6

PROJECTED DEPARTURES.

Burruinbeet, for Sydney via Auckland, April 8. Warrirnoo, for Sydney via Cook Strait, April 10. Te Anau, for Auckland via.East Const, April 11. Mokoia, for Melbourne via Bluff and Hobart, April 13. Mararoa, for Sydney via Auckland, April

15 Westralia, for Sydney via Wellington. April 17

Tho Corinna leaves Timarn to-day for Oamaru and Ihmedin. The- Mokoia left. Sydney at 1 p.m. on S.iturdav for Wellington. The Hawea is due at Lyttelton today from the North, and leaves there, this evenin- for the Bluff. The Waikare leaves Auckland to-day for Sv.lr.ev. . "'l'hr tn? Plucky was floated into the iTuvinp dock this'morning for cleaning and piiinting. The Bnrrumbeet arrived yesterday afternoon from Sydney via East Coast porte, and berthed at the cross wharf about 4.30. The trip, after leaving Sydney on the 26th March, was uneventful. Auckland was reached on the 31st, and the usual East Coast ports were called at en route to DunThe Invercargill arrived yesterday from Preservation Inlet, laden with timber. At last week's meeting of the Auckland Harbor Board tho harbor-master reported the breaking away of a number of logs from the booms on the foreshore during the recent gale, and pointed to the danger to shipping. The chairman said the matter was one of considerable importance, and on his motion it was decided that the timber merchants be requested to make their booms more secure, and that the Board's engineer visit and report. A novel arrangement for quickly clearing ;i ship's hold of the sulphur fumes after fumigation was tried on board the Newcastle and Hunter River S.S. Company's steamer Nainoi at Sydney recently. A steam pipe from the donkey boiler on the Namoi was carried to one of the main ventilators in the after hold, and when the hatches were lifted after fumigation a full head of steam was applied. The remit was that the hold was cleared of the sulphur fumes in a few minutes, and the men enabled to resume work below. Usually some throe hours are lost waiting for the fumes to pass out. All the holds of the Namoi will be fitted with these steam connections to facilitate discharging and loading operations after fumigating. The largest cable steamer afloat has just been launched, writes the London correspondent of the ' New Zealand Times,' from the ship yard of Messrs Wigha.ni, Richardson, and Co., on the Tyne. She is the twinscrew cable steamer Colonia, which is to lay the Pacific cable from Vancouver to Fannin* Island, whence it is to be continued to New Zealand, and has been bnilt to the order of the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company. She is about 600 ft in length, 66ft in breadth, and 39ft in deith, will carry about 3,000 nautical miles of'cable in four tanks in her holds, and with 10,000 tons of dead weight will be able to make eleven and a-half knots. Her overhanging bow and elliptical stern will both be fitted with the necessary cable gear, and she will have four pole masts with fore-and-aft rig. Her two sets of triple expansion engines will work at a pressure of I9oib a square inch. Her ventilation is thorough, her heating by steam, her lighting by electricity.

LYTTELTON-WMJJNGTON FERRY SERVICE.

Our paragraph in S&tnrdaVs issue regarding the discontinuance of what is known as the daily ferry service between Lytteltonand Wellington has caused some comment. As the traveling public and those connected with shi£s>!«s know, the Union Steam Ship

Company for the past two years or so have during the summer montiia run> two boats (last year tie Tarawera and Rotomahana) between the ports mentioned on alternate days, so that mails and passengers were able to cat«h the Southern express from Christchurch each day. This was known as the Ferry Service, "and, as stated on Saturday, it has been for the present discontinued in accordance with custom, now that passenger traffic is slackening off for the winter season. So far as Dunedtn is concerned, this, of course, means that mails and passengers will only be able to connect at Lyttelton on certain days. What the company desire to be made clear is that the usual time-table boats from Sydney up and down .the East Coast, and so' on, will make the daily service complete between the ports mentioned. A QUESTION OF HARBOR DUES. In connection with the recent arrival and departuro of the troopships Devon and Kent, the question arose with regard to the payment of harbor dues. Being vessels engaged in the service of tkp King for military purposes, they were, of course, exempt from pavment of such dues; but as they also took cargo on board for South African ports on account of private shippers exception was taken to the steamers escaping pavment, which would have to be home by other trading vessels carrying cargo. The subject was referred to ?t Wellington on Saturday by a deputation which waited on Mr Seddon. The Premier said that harbor boards would in such a case be perfectly within their rights in claiming dues on such shipments, otherwise other shippers and firms would be placed at a disadvantage. He also said that vessels contracting with the Government to carry cargo to South Africa would have to pay the ordinary port charges A FREE TORT IN CHINA.

Verv liberal arrangements are being made at Da'lny, the new city on the coast of the Liaotung' Peninsula, which Russia is opening up It will be a free port (says 'Engineering') in a broader sense than is implied bv its exemption from Customs dues. Individuals of all nationalities may acquire and hold land on the same terms, and participate in the municipal government. The city is to he managed by a Council elected by tho ratepayers, of which two members urast Ho Russians, arxl not more than two niay bo Chinese or Japanese —an arrangement "which ensures representation to any foreign element, and at the same timo prevents domination by either of the neighboring nationalities. All Governments will be invited to establish Consulates, and the town is already being furnished with many of the appliances of civilisation in the shape of administrative buildings, hotels, churches, schools, theatres, clubs, etc, a* well as engine shops for the repair of the locomotives on the railway and the engines of the ships that visit the port. Already a fleet of some twenty steamers, owned by the railway, now affords communication between Dalny and the neighboring Chinese, Japanese, and Corean ports; and in a short time it is intended to have swift steamers plying between Dalny and Nagasaki, connecting with the steamers of the great lines running to Europe and America. It is quite evident that these developments will have great effect on the trade and industry of the Far East, and they will be watched with interest.

HOBBS'S DEATH

Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright.

(Received April 7, at 10.35 a.m.)

SYDNEY, April 7.—Hobbs was not drowned, but crushed to death by the foremast falling on the forecastle of tho Ditton as a result of the collision.

SKIPPING TELEGRAMS.

AUCKLAND, April s.—Tutanekai, from Wellington.—Sonoma, mail steamer, for San Francisco. Her passenger accommodation is full. Hon. F. Dillingham (United States Consul for New Zealand), Dr Grattan Guinness, George Dunnet (New Zealand agent of the Oceanic Company), J.C. Haniia (inspector of the Now Zealand Insurance Company) were among the passengers.—Penguin, H.M.S. surveying vessel, for Sydney. --Tutanekai, for Capo Maria.—April 6: H.M.S. Lizard, from Picton. April 7: Waikare, after a twenty-one and a-haif hours' passage from Gisborne.—Mararoa., from Sydney.—Lizard, gunboat, from Wellington. WELLINGTON, April 5. Talune, for Sydney.— Mapourika, for Lyttelton.—Star of Australia, for Gisborne.—April 6: Tomoana, from Napier.—Rotomahana, Moura, and Janet Nicoll, from Lytteltqn. LYTTELTON, April s.—Jupiter, from Wellington.—Whangape, for Newcastle. BLUFF, April 7. Waihora, from Dunedin. SYDNEY, April 6.—Mokoia, for Wellington.—April 7: The Norfolk and Drayton Grange, for New Zealand. MELBOURNE, April 7. Westraii*, from Dunedin via the BlirfT and Hobart.

(For continuation see Late Shipping.)