TELEGRAMS.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVI, Issue 3292, 1 September 1871, Page 2

TELEGRAMS.

Lyttelton. 31st — 3.40 p.m., Taranuki, for Wellington. The cutter Dawn sailed yesterday afternoon £or Manawatu, with a cargo of stores for tho .settlers of that district. The s.s. Alhambra will be duo here on Tuesday noxt, from Melbourne via the South, and will leave the same day for Nolsou, West. Coast, and Melbourne. She has seventy tons of cargo for this port. The 8.8. Wellington arrived at Nelson yesterday morning, at half-past 11 o'clock, frona Taranaki and Manukau, and will leave for Pieton and this port at 11 o'clock this morning, arriving here to-morrow morning. She leaves for the South on Monday next, at 2 o'clock. The s.e. Taranaki, Captain Wheeler, not having been able to take in cargo at I/yttelton on Wednesday, in consequence of the heavy rains, was detained at that port until last evening. She will bo due here this morning, and will sail for Pieton and northern ports on Saturday morning. The Peninsular and Oriental Bteam Navigation Company, with a view to improve the present mail service between England and Australia, have determined to place their fino ships Pera and Ceylon on the line between -O-alloaud Sydney. These vessels will carry an immense number of passengers, and perform the work with great speed. They were being prepared for the service when the laßt mail left. The following is tlie decision of tlio court of inquiry into the strandiug of the schooner Canterbury at Westport t — That tho schooner Canterbury was stranded on the Buller bur ; partly by an error in tho signals denoting her draught of water, and pavtly from the fact of the bar, at the entrance of the Buller river, having silted up, in consequence of the gales and heavy seas which had been prevailing for some time previous to the an'ival of the vessel. That the error of the signalman (if such it was — and I hmst suppose so — as the Tveight of evidence is to that effect) in mistaking two ftngs of such an opposite character as Nos. 8 and 9 of Marryatt's code, although undoubtedly a very grove one, as under other circumstances ifc might have been attended very serious consequences, was not, in Tihe present instance, the actual causa of the stranding, as it is more than probable that, had the signalman understood the signal of the vessel's draught of water to be nine feet, and shown the numbers indicating the supposed depth of water upon the bar, viz., 9ft. 10in., being a foot more than the vessel was said to be drawing, the master would on his own responsibility have attempted the bar. 3!hat the master might, perhaps, (but it is only supposition on my part), had ho been acquainted with the entrance to the river, have prevented the stranding of his vessel by dropping an anchor the moment he got into deep water ; but taking into consideration his limited knowledge of the port, from the fact that he had ooly been once before, and that Ids veasel, on that occasion, was towed in by a steamer, I am of opinion that he acted to the best of his judgment.