SHIPPING

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 September 1927, Page 8

SHIPPING

HIGH WATER. September 12 —10.53 a.m.; 11.15 p.m. September 13—11.38 a.m.; 11.58 p.m. September 14 ; 0.20 p.m. September 15 —0.45 a.m.; 1.7 p.m. September 16 —1.30 a.m.; 1.53 p.m. DEPTH OF BAR. The depth on the bar and river at high water yesterday was: —Bar, 20ft. Sin.; river, 21ft. Bin. ARRIVED. September 11—Alexander, s.s., .185 tons (Maylen), 8 a.m., from Wellington. September 11 —Kaimai, s.s., 784 tons (Hackworth), 5.25 a.m., from Wellington. ' SAILED. „ September 10—Kaituna, s.s., 1208 tons (Chatfield), 11.30 p.m., for Hobart. IN PORT. Kaimai, Alexander. EXPECTED ARRIVALS Parera, Gisborne, Wednesday. Waipori, Auckland, Wednesday. Kaitoa, Wellington, Thursday. Piri, Melbourne, early. Gabriella, Wanganui, early.

PROJECTED DEPARTURES. Alexander, Wanganui, to-night. Kaimai, Wellington, to-night. Parera, Gisborne, early. Waipori, Wellington, early. Gabriella, Sydney, early. Kaitoa, Wellington, early. Kaitangata, Wellington, early. AT OTHER PORTS. AUCKLAND, September 12. Arrived at 12.30 p.m., Niagara, from Suva. LONDON, September 11. Arrived at Colon, Canadian Scottish; sailed from Honolulu, Aorangi; from Vancouver for New Zealand, Hauraki; from Colon, Ribera; from Glasgow, Tongariro. x MELBOURNE, September 11. Arrived, Manuka, from Wellington. SYDNEY, September 11. Correction: Marama, not Maheno, sailed at 4.30 yesterday for Auckland. Maheno arrived at midnight from Auckland, and sailed at 11 to-day for Wellington. Sailed last night, Karehu for Wellington.

SHIPPING NOTES. The Kittawa is due about Thursday from Wellington to load coal, timber and general cargo tor return. The Kaimai arrived yesterday from W-ellington, via New Plymouth and Westport, and will load coal for Wellington and New Plymouth, sailing tonight. The Alexander arrived yesterday from Nelson and Westport, with general cargo. After discharge she loads coal for Wanganui, sailing to-night. The Kaituna, after bunkering, sailed for Hobart on Saturday. The Parera is due on Wednesday from Gisborne. She loads a cargo of poles and returns. The Gabriella is due from Wanganui on Sunday. She will load a cargo of timber for Sydney. The Kaitangata is due on Monday next, and will load coal for Wellington. The Waipori is due, via Portland and New Plymouth, on Wednesday from Auckland, to load coal and timber for Auckland. The Kaitoa leaves Wellington on Tuesday for Nelson, Westport and Greymouth with general cargo. After discharge she loads coal for Tarakohe.

For the information of shipmasters at sea, the Melbourne broadcasting station 3LO has established a very thorough method of signalling the exact time, with a precision so close that even ships at sea may set their chronometers by it. At the Melbourne Observatory there is a scrupulously accurate timepiece that is set daily by asttronomical means. A star is observed through a telescope with a hairline across the eyepiece, and the exact time when the star crosses the hairline is found by reference to carefully calculated tables, called an ephemeris. The observer, presses an.electric contact, which records a mark on a revolving drum, and by this means the clock can be adjusted with remarkable accuracy to the fraction of a second. This clock is adapted to make contact on a controlling mechanism which sends out electric signals on a special line from the observatory to 3LO studio. The contacts are closed every 10 seconds, and a dot signal is made until at the 56th a series of dots is sent, one per second, thus, 56, 57, 58, 59, and then a long dash indicates the exact minute. The operator in 3LO control room can “fade in” those signals whenever he chooses, underneath whatever is being transmitted at the time, whether song, speech, band selection,, wrestling, or what not. At present they are being faded in to the last minute of each hour throughout the broadcasting session. > Captain John Vine Hall, the oldest marine surveyor in the Port of Sydney, retired recently from active work as a member of his profession, but will continue to give advice as a consulting surveyor, states “The Harbour.” He settled in Sydney in 1873 .after many years of experience at sea, and began to practise the profession of a marine surveyor. He was surveyor for a number of steamship owners at that port, and also represented the Bureau Veritas, the British Corporation, and the American Bureau of Shipping. On the establishment of the Court of Marine Inquiry, in 1901, he was appointed as an original member of the court. The firm which he founded will be carried on by Captain Howell and Captain Gibson.

Preliminary arrangements are being made for the construction of Newcastle’s floating dock, states the Sydney “Daily Telegraph.” Already some of the material hds been delivered, and more is expected to arrive from overseas at the end of Octobefr. The manager of Walsh Island dockyard will return to Australia in September and, as soon as the material reaches here, the dock will be commenced. The dock will have a lifting- power of 15,000 tons, will be 630 feet in length, and 113 feet in width. Construction involves 6,330 tons of material, and the gross weight of this dock will be 7,660 tons. A CLOSE RACE. ' AUCKLAND, September 10. The Union Company’s Kaimanawa, and the Westport Coal Company’s Canopus, both arrived from Westport this morning within a few minutes of each other. Both left Westport on Wednesday, the former at 5.20 p.m. and the latter at 6.6 p.m. The Kai*