LATEST DATES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 269, 30 October 1862, Page 4

LATEST DATES.

England Aug. 26 By telegraph Sept. 2 Mauritius .... Aug 22 Ceylon (Colombo) . Sept 18 China (Hong Kong) Aug 30 Calcutta ./........ Sept 8 Singapore Aug. 4 Cape of Good Hope ....* Aug. 30 America— NnwYork Aug^ 18 San Francisco .-.,. Aug. 28 Nbvt Zealand— Auckland Oct. 8 Tiuanaki Oct. 4 ■Nelson Oct. 10 Picton Oct.^lo Wellington Oct. 18 Marlborouph Sept. 28 Hawke'sßay ~ Oct. 10 Canterbury Oct. 17 "Wi.nganui, Oct. 16 . Invercarsjfll ...„....• Oct. 13 Australian Colonies-— Melbourne Oct. 6 Sydney ,pet. 11 Queenslaiiii Oct. 4 Adelaide ... ........... Oct. 10 Launeeston Oct. 10 Hobart T0wn..... Oct.lo Perth Oct. 4

The correspondents of the New York papers, being under the necessity of producing a certain amount of sensation writing, arc obliged, when they have no exploits of their own side which wil) bear embellishing, to take in hand the exploits i f their enemies. From tills cause it happens that the Northern accounts of this foray of the Arkansas are written in a strain by no means disagreeable to Southern vanity. The more the details of the action are examined, the more striking appeal's the contrast between the energy and sagacity of one side and (he supineness and folly of the other. This was not a ease of iron employed against wood alone. That opportunity was the Merriinac's, and she profited by it; but now the Federals have had time to protect their own ships with iron, and they have done so to some extent, but not, as it turns out, effectually. The vessels which did engage the Arkansas were unequal to her, and those which were equal to her—if there were any such—were not ready to engage her. And yet the Arkansas, as we have said, is only a very inferior specimen of an iron-plated ship. She is covered with railway iron, and the work of plating mid fitting her. was completed, after she had been removed from Memphis, in the Zazoo Itfver, where it is not to be supposed that mechanical appliances exist in any great, profusion. She is admitted by her enemies to be a small vessel, carrying only twelve guns ; but her defensive strength enabled her to move "slowly, quietly, and unconcernedly" through a fleet of 15 war-ships and 7 rams. One of the first vessels that engaged her was the Carondelet, whioh is called an iron-clad gun-boat. Her iron .clothing was of a texture or conformation unsuitable to the severity of the storm of missiles which she encountered. The wooden parts of the ship were pierced, and a heavy loss of men was suffered. The crew boarded the Arkansas, but could find no opening by which to enter her. Further down the river, a Ynir called the Lancaster prepared to charge the Arkansas, but the movement was anticipated by two shots which caused the boiler of the Laucastcr to explode. This ram was no doubt constructed specially for the present Avar, Whether she was called invulnerable, or partially ihAlnerable, we do not know, but it is a fact that she became a victim to the first two shots fired at her. It is wonderful that, whether the Northern appliances for war be new or old, they never seem to be suitable for the service in which the\ happen to be engaged. A single welldirected shell from a huge Dahlgren gun would have sent the Sumfcer to the bottom of the sea. But no heavily-armed gunboat ever fired a shot against the Surater. Now, however, when the game afoot was the Arkansas, whose plated sides could afford to despise shell s. Such fire was opened on her as the correspondents of the New York papers almost fail in finding epithets to describe. "Tho shells went hissing through the air like great serpents writhing destructively through space ;" but apparently not hitting, to say nothing of penetrating, the Arkansas What the Federals might have accomplished if they had been on the alert, we do not pretend to guoss. It is confessed by themselves that they were surprised, and their enemy's judgment and boldness cannot be too highly praised,

DAILY TIMES BRANCH '. »FFIO E.. XpO R the farther convenience of our Advertisers -*- and Subscribers, ■. we have opened a Branch Office of the, Daily Times & Weekly. Wit.nsss, ' in Manse-street, the first.door from the comer of Princes street. At th<? Daily Times Branch Office, Advertisements will be received from 7 a.ra until 9 p.iu. ; and will raett with the same attention as if brought to the Chief Department. Subscriptions to the Daily Times & Weekly Witness will also be received and the payers delivered by the runners in town, or forwarded in any manner directed to the up-country districts.

ABSTRACT OF SALES BY AUCTION. THIS DAY.

James Patzrson and Co., at JR. Wilson and Co.'s Yards—buggy aud harness, gigs, &.c. S. G. Isaacs, at the London Auction Mart—Town

property, ship biscuit. H Joseph, at the Parisian Cafe, Princes-street—The furniture and fittings. Mr. E. De Carle, on the Wharf—Hay.