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Otago Daily Times, Issue 852, 14 September 1864, Page 4

The Bluff correspondent of the Southland JVews writes :—" For some months past the red buoy offthe end of the outer epit, opposite the month of Bluff Harbour, together with the •■hequered luioy marking the mid-channel coining up the harbor, have been carried away, and no steps whatever have been taken to replace these most mcessary beacons. The i id-channel one has been carried away these six months. The fact will be the next thing- we shall have a vessel on the end of toe spit a«. a beacon, in th<i place of a red buoy, and a second ft lying Mist in the phce of a chequered buoy. The &overnme«t of Southland will then have its harbor well beaconed (as tha Scotia is a good guide on Starling Point) cheaply and at the expense of shipowners, and the risk of many valuable 1 yes. It is high time sotjie steps were taken to buoy the entrance and the channel.

Tbial Trip of tiie Waipa.—The little town of Onehuuga was enlivened on Friday week in an unusual way by the announcement that the Waipa lately built by Mr Hutchison, of Onohunsa, for Mr Young, of Auckland, and which hr-s been fitiei with a pair of hmizontal engines of 25-lvirse power and a Jirqe multiiubular boiler, would make her trial trip on the waters of the Matuikau. The Waipa is aligbtlrtle paddle steamer, of 70 tons, 66 feet in length by 16 feet. beam. Her cabin accouiodation, though small, is good, and is all on deck, the hold being partly occupied by Ihe engines, and the remainder to be used for stowinp cargo, &c. Her rudder is worked by ft chain rnmiiug- along the decks, which is attached to the wheel on the bridge, from which c. fine view of snags or other obstructions in the river for which she is in tended may be plainly perceived. She possesses the good feature that'she can turn round in nearly her own length, and the spnsd she is expeetod with full pressure to attain is ten knots an hour. The tt"; : ipa draws two feet four inches with a considerable cireo and large deck weight, and her engine !m a stroke of 2 feet 6 inches, and makes 31 revolutions per minute. - Southern Cross. Auckland Hakbob.—Th« Southern Cross says:—We aro glad to find that the Piovinciti! (jovcrnrcenti has'determined upon extending the present wharf at Queen street into tha ride way, a distance of sixty feet, which will enable vessels drawii.g twenty-three ieet to Jie alongside at low water. Tenders will be invited for the completion of the works in a day or two_, and no unnecessary delay will take place in commencing them, as Mr Weaver, the consulting engineer of the Province, has already prepared the plans. 11 is not incumbent on us to say anything as to the desirability of this work, seeing that the necessity for increased wharf accommodation is patent to all v.ho are engaged in business in the city; bat we may poiat out, somewhat in detail, the nature of the' proposed improvements, a3 they are not confined to the lengthening of the wharf. It has been found from actual surrey, that the three-fathoms line, as laid down in the Admiralty chart of 1855, has changed considerably siuce then. According to the chart the line of three fathoms sounding* was more than two hundred feet inside the outer T of the wharf, as it stands; but, instead of this being ihe case now, the utmost that can be given at the outer end of the wharf is seventeen feet at low water —less than three fathoms. In other words, th-3 three fathoms line has changed from eighty to ninety yarcls since Captain Brury completed his survey of the harbour of Auckland.

The Saltwater Crvek Steam Navigation Cgmpany.—On Tuesday Jast the ordinary general annual meeting of fhe shareholders of this company took place at Cameron's Hotel. The Chairman, J. X>. Lance, Bsq-, on stating (he objects of the meefing, took occasion to say that r-.0-rsifchstanding the very limited period during which their steamer had been at work (but little more than three months), and notwithstanding the seasoa and the state of trade within the province, he found ivy the statement of her earnings ai-d current, expenses during' that period placed ia Lis hands, lhat he wa* enabled to congratulate them on tne complete succss of the vessel in a pecuniary point of view, and to iv form them that dnrißg that period, and under all the unfavorable circumstances of the times, she had realised an amount of profit, after ail current expenses paid, which represented an interest of Ll4 per cent-pev annum on the capital subscribed. The period over which those earnings ran was the worst of the year for coasting service, and was in a field which was altogether apart from that locality on which she relied for her principal support, the locality in which the subscribers themselves could command so large a shipment of wool, which he iu;dsrstoo;V to amount to about 5000 bales this year, the freight of which, at current rates, he believed would ensure the subscribers a profit which wmid exec-ed that of any steatn navigation company in Few Zealand. The steamer had already been put upon the berth to Kaiapoi for bi-monthly trips to secure ihe trade of that locality, and she would be. seen at Saltwater Creek so soon as circumstances would justify it- There was no question as to the bar ; the difficulty arose from a short space within the sandspit, so that, come what might, she would be there in the wool season. After the meeting the new board assembled, and we understand de termined to put a. limited number of preference shares into the market.— Lyttdton Times.