MARITIME MATTERS

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1667, 10 February 1904, Page 17

MARITIME MATTERS

(By “Mainsail.”)

After several years’ trial -of electricity as a 'means of lighting the Port Adelaide river /beacons, the system, has. proved a failure. About £3OOO was expended in* the installation, and the cost , of maintenance was much beyond that of the kerosehb lamps which it superseded. For some months past oil has been partially used, ]jut- this week the whole “of the beacons were lit with kerosene. An inspection by the harbourmaster and assistant engineer showed ■ that some of the lamps were hardly of sufficient power, but this defect is being speedily rectified. The advent -of the Panama Canal promises to mark a new era in the shipping worjd. Dir Goditng TJ.S.A. Consul at Newcastle was interviewed on his return from America recently. (Regarding the prospects of the Pana/ma Canal, he said it was expected to be . oompleted in 10 years’ time. Survey parties had been arranged for to make a final survey. The effect of its completion would be to change the various commerce routes of the world, and it was going to benefit Australia a good deal. It would make between Australia and Europe shorter, and the panic line of steamers could be utilised in bringing freight from one side of the United States to the other, as well as to and fre^Australia would miluence the coal trade to % oerfcain ../Extent on the.. West Coast, as the American fields whittl'd be brought doeer, as; w'ell as the English mines, but Australian coal would always have a certain preference, as America had to keep m> the lumber trade. (Moreover!, the Newcastle coal brought more money in -the market than the Western coal of the . . saving devices in the stoke hole are always oooupying the attention of ship-builders. A patent automatic stoking machine was recently brought Under notice of. the PoStmaster-Oenm-al - of would feed boilers in a steamer tnxlh .. greater e%edition than hien, upa that v. it would' place' new fuel below instead of on topV burning ood, Th ? » ; . posal opened up a new vista of poe»* bilitiee P. Eyah. but reference to the Shipping oompaniee soon dashed lflP ! ho ®es. They, informedhim

that they knew of the existence ..of-such automatic stokers, that they werp used 9 n slio-re, but that they had nob been Used an steamers, and that, in short, they doubted their applicability to the boilers bn onailboats. ! It has been definitely decided to extend tho date of the closing of the'.English 'mail tenders until February 'ls. So far there sire no indications filial a usefill.’ tender will be received. One remarkable offer is said to be on. its way to Australia. This is a tender which proposes to carry the mails.from Australia to Chili, thence across South America to Buenos Ayres, where they would again be shipped to England. \ Although the mail tenders with the P. and 0. and Orient, lines close on the 31st inet., there is a margin, of 12 months. This will give the Commoai)wealt'h. Government breathing time, but will not suffice for tho construction of vessels- by any company whose fleet might not new be up to the requirements cf the tender. There are 'events more improbable than an amendment, of the Postal Act to remove the objectionable clause being-carried before the year his elapsed. i -A request was recently made to the N.S.W. Treasurer that branches of the Pest Office Savings Bank should be established. at the shipping offices. It was pointed out that seamen often got large sums in wages, and that seme were led away by gamblers and sharpens, and, while under the influence of drink, lost all their heard'-earned money in one night. If they had the chance of placing their money in the . bank at the skipping office they would have saved tho greater part of it. Mr Waddell

has since discusced-. the matter with the director of the Government Savings Bank, land as the suggestion can be carried out under the new amending Government Savings Bank. Act, it will be ad opted in Sydney and Newcastle. The Alinister states that the new Act is working satisfactorily. The fastest ocean greyhound of the ordinary typo goes at the rate cf 2©| miles an (hour. Air Carl Flindt, a Danish inventor, declares lie could make the same ship travel as fast as 30 miles by simply grooving the bottom. A propeller would drive a 'Steamer much faster, if the sides and. bottom didn’t so retard its work, but given a groove in tho bottom and. the escaping water in the displacement would travel to a. great extent along it with the result the vessel would go thirty per cent faster. Then Air Flindt, says that a good deal of force of the average propeller is lost because of the slowness of tiuim -in the blades. Practically only the ends drive the ship and the balance is so much waste. By making a propeller with blades which ha.ve a driving power from their axle, he says he can add to the spaed of the vessel without putting any mere strain on the engine®. In ordinary steamera those that go fifteen miles an hour now he could make goi twentytwo, while with the turbine steamer where it now attains forty miles an (hour, he could, he says, by means of a grooved bottom, make it travel nearly sixty.