SHIPPING.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1440, 5 October 1899, Page 54

SHIPPING.

ALBANY, Thursday, Arrived —-E.M.S. Himalaya, from London. Passengers for New Zealand—Miss Faulkner, Messrs Wood, Holmes. MELBOURNE, Thursday. Arrived—Hawke's Bay, from London. By the San Francisco mail the New Zealand Shipping Company received authority to act as agents for the U.S. and A.S. Company's Sahara, which left New York for "Dunedin, Lyttelton, Wellington and Auckland on August 19th. The steamer has 1311 tons of general cargo for Wellington. The local agents of the Shaw, Savill and Albion Company received advice by the San Francisco mail that the four-masted barque Hinemoa was loading in. London for Capetown when the mull left. The ship Nelson arrived at Queenstown from New Zealand on the 18th August. The Bristol ''''Observer''' states that Messrs Elder, Dempster and Co. have decided to place their fine steamer Arawa (formerly of the Shaw, Savill and Albion Company's fleet) on the mail service between Avonmouth and Montreal. Yet another order has been given out by the Norddeutscher Llovd for a rapid steamer, 23 knots, of the same type as the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse. The Stettin Vulcan Company will build her, and she is to be delivered in the summer of 1901. With regard to the rates for coal from Australia to Honolulu, it is reported (says "Fairplay") that a vessel has been fixed at 17s 6d, August, 1900, cancelling—an un-heard-of event heretofore in the history of the trade. The steamer Lavinia, bound from Hamburg to Australian ports, ran ashore on Gando Rock, near Las Paimas, on August 4, ripping her bows. After being ashore a day she floated off, after a quantity of cargo had been jettisoned. Owing to having dynamite on board, she was not allowed to enter the harbour of Las Paimas, so anchored outside the porv. After temporary repairs were done she returned to Hamburg. News from Vancouver reports that a new steamship line from Seattle to Alaska, Honolulu and San Francisco will soon be established by the Seattle and San Francisco Railway and Navigation Company. The vessels are to be new, and they will be as modern and complete in every detail as the best builders in the country can make them. The ships are to be of 4000, 4500 and 6000 tons capacity, respectively, and will probably be finished and ready for delivery within ten months. It is reported that the IJ.1 J . and O. Company have contracted with Messrs Caird and Co., Greenock, for the construction of a cargo steamer of about 6000 tons gross and about 450ffc in length. She is to be a duplicate of the Assaye. KUMARA, FROM LONDON. The following are the names of the passengers booked to New Zealand ports (up till August 25th) by the Shaw, Savill and Albion Company's new steamer Kumara, which sailed from Plymouth for Wellington via Teneriffe, Capetown and Ho hart on September 2nd:—Misses Allan, Andersen, Forbes,' Heron. Mesdames Blamires, Laing, Ray, Rosenblatt. Westerman, Colour-Sergeants Cheater, Farthing, Taylor, Serjeants Hoar, Knee, Peacock, Sanderson, Messrs Blamires, Burke (2); Dempster, Hebden, Hatchings, -Tones, Laing, McGoinn, Ray. Rosenblatt, Sibun, Stevens, Tattersneld, Westerman, Witham, Young, Masters Ray, Westerman. There were also 27 booked to Capetown and one for Hobart. A SMART SAILER. The Norwegian barque Viking, which arrived at Melbourne on the 16th inst., completed the voyage from Port Elizabeth (South Africa) in under 25 days. The topgallant sails were never furled the whole way, and up to 500 miles from Cape Borda an average speed of 230 miles per day was maintained. The round voyage from Oeelong to Port Elizabeth and back to Melbourne only occupied 91 days. PILOTAGE AND THE WHITE STAR LINE. /. The pilotage dispute as it affects the White Star line of steamers, writes a correspondent, is complicated by the fact that the famous line has its own special arrangements for the insurance of its boats in all parts of the world. Some years ago, in the course of my travels, I became acquainted with the fact that as the company does its own insurance business, and even insures the boats of other companies to a very large extent, it has adopted the plan of giving a bonus to the commander of each steamer on the successful completion of a voyage. This is a particular instance, respecting which, I was informed, a bonus of =£2oo would be payable to the captain if he brought his boat bank to Liverpool without having lost a spar or touched ground. In order to be fair to the men in command of the steamships it is evident that if they stand to lose heavily in the event of a pilot causing a vessel to touch a sandbank they ought to be able to exercise some discretion in respect to the pilots entrusted with the responsible task of handling the monster steamers in narrow waters.