Merchant ships of all nations that come to refit, provided that no commercial transactions whatever are entered on. Packets conveying mails or couriers from North to South or from neighbouring colonies. Ships freighted by the State. Those ships which depart with a bill of lading will only pay half dues. 13. It is expressly forbidden to throw any sand, stones, or any kind of ballast into the river. The captain of the port will point out where all this may be deposited. Every infraction of this article will be visited with a fine of 500 dollars. 14. All proprietors of lighters, junks, or vessels serving for the discharge of ballast from a ship, or any other purpose, will be required to moor them at their assigned places by the captain of the port, and in the manner pointed out by him. If by neglect of the proprietor of any of these vessels they become stranded, or break adrift, a fine of 500 dollars will be levied on him for each, besides the expence of repairing the damage that may be caused by it, or those arising from the recovery of it as a derelict. If the vessel should have been laden with ballast, the fine may be increased to 1000 dollars. 15. All commanders or pilots of ships are required not to quit the berth at the anchorage assigned to them by the captain of the port, without having his authority for doing so. 16. If a death should take place on board any ship at Saigon, either among the crew or the passengers, the commander is required to report the same immediately to the captain of the port, and to observe the regulations published on this subject. Any infraction of this and the preceding regulation will be visited with a fine of ten to twenty dollars. 17. If a ship requires repairs, smoking or caulking, her commander will state the same to the captain of the port, who will direct the necessary measures to be adopted, in order that it may be done effectually, without any hinderance or accident. Every infraction of this order, or any disobedience of the orders given concerning it by the captain of the port, will be attended with a fine of fifty dollars. 18. Should any ship be discovered in danger, all the commanders are required before any order is issued by the captain of the port, to send assistance to her, to the amount of half their crews, as well as anchors, &c., if such should be necessary. On the first requisition of the commandant of the anchorage or captain of the port, they should furnish all the assistance required, and in case of their refusal they will be proceeded against according to the law of the French mercantile marine. If the boats or hawsers employed in assisting are damaged thereby, the laws of average will make them good as determined by experienced persons. Duties of Commanders on departure. 19. All commanders of merchant ships must give notice of their intended departure to the chief officer of police, two days previous thereto. 20. No commander is to receive on board his ship for the voyage any person whose name does not appear either in the list of the crew, or that of the passengers. Any infraction of this law will incur a fine of fifty to one hundred dollars. 21. No ship is to quit Saigon without having been moved by the captain of the port, to whom the captain will submit the bill of lading, the list of the names of passengers vised by the officer of police, and the receipt from the officer charged with the collection of anchorage and light dues. The pass of the captain of the port must be submitted to the inspection of the captain of the guard ship, at Cape St. James, Saigon, 26th August, 1862. To the foregoing we are enabled to add the following account of the light just established on Cape St. James: The Vice-Admiral, Governor and Commander-in-Chief in Cochinese waters, has the honour of informing navigators, that from the 15th of August, 1862, a first-class light has been established on Cape St. James. It is a fixed white light, and should be seen 28 miles distant, but in clear fine weather has been seen 33 miles distant. The height of the ground on which the tower stands is 456 feet, and the tower being twenty-six more, makes the total height 482 feet, and it stands 776 yards from the southermost extreme of the cape. The latitude of the tower is 13° 20′ North, and longitude 106° 57′ East, according to the old charts not yet verified. We perceive by a notice which follows, that we may look for a chart from the hands of M. M. Manen, commanding the Torbin, shewing the approaches to the cape, and are glad to learn that in all respects the light is found to be most efficient, and its regular appearance to be fully depended on.- -Moniteur de la Flotte. The letters used in the Sailing Directions of Captain Loftus refer to his chart, which with some important improvements will be shortly again published, by the Hydrographic Office, Admiralty. JOURNAL OF CAPTAIN CRACROFT, C.B., OF H.M.S. "NIGER."-New Zealand. (Continued from vol. xxxi, page 635.) In tracing the outline of the proximate causes of this "native difficulty," and of these deplorable events, I have endeavoured to obtain reliable data upon which to form an impartial opinion, without giving heed to all the gossip and scandal, about the probable destination of the land in dispute, had it been quietly given up. I cannot see unmoved the misfortunes that have suddenly overwhelmed a flourishing community, and regret deeply that it is too much the fashion in one quarter to speak flippantly of this insurrection, and talk of the " wopping," that the natives will get, and how quickly they will be put down when "more" reinforcements arrive. Of course there is no chance of the individuals holding this language being exposed to any danger. * * * * But there is another party, and by no means an uninfluential one, who honour the natives for the resistance they have made to what is considered an act of undoubted tyranny and oppression, which no one with Anglo-Saxon blood in his veins would stand for a moment. These gentlemen argue, not unnaturally, that if the natives are to be served in this manner, it may be the turn of the Europeans next; as it seems only necessary to accuse any one of disloyalty, invoke the Queen's name, and declare "martial law" by a simple stroke of the pen. They do not forget also that a few years ago, during the late war in this country, Wiremu Kingi did good service, and was our staunch friend. Loyal to the back-bone, he always upheld the Government; and now, because he refuses to part with his land,—in Maori phraseology, "will not agree to his bedroom being sold, because it belongs to the widow and the orphan," the same Government declares him a rebel, and threatens to exterminate his race. The whole case, in all its bearings, reminds me very much of what has taken place in another of our colonies, and I shall close the subject for the present with some remarks from Mason's Life in Natal, which are considered very applicable to this one. Page 213:-" And here let me observe that these unfortunate Boers, so far from being the savage barbarians that the official despatches have always represented them to be, are simply rough straightforward country gentlemen, differing but little from ourselves in religion, by no means disloyal, and very much attached to English laws and usages; but detesting-as every true Englishman, whether in England or Africa, must detest-a form of government which enables one man, generally an imperious military commander, to make appointments only to fill them with worthless profligates, or confiscate property to enrich poor relatives, and then send a voluminous document to the Home Governmen putting down as arch "rebels" all who venture to raise a voice against such gross injustice, and demanding British troops and British treasure to support them in their iron rule!" * April 24th.-Our tender, the schooner Caroline, arrived to-day from Auckland, which she left a week ago. This little vessel, of twenty-five tons, builder's measurement, and about fifty tons burthen, was purchased by the Colonial Government for £650, upon my recommendation, for the purpose of being employed in the Manukau as a gunboat under my orders. She was only six weeks off the stocks, built by a Mr. Micklejohn, at Omarr, a small settlement a few miles North of Auckland, and is a rakish-looking craft, very much like a Virginian pilot-boat. A 32-pounder of 25 cwt., one of four guns which I ordered to be landed from the Elk for the service of the colony, was put on board, together with 100 rounds of shot and shell and the requisite ammunition; and I sent Mr. Smyth, Acting-Mate, with six men, to navigate her round the North Cape, which she has thus successfully accomplished,-a pilot named Marks, well acquainted with the coast, having been also put on board by the Government. The carpenters have her traversing-slide in hand, and I hope in a few days she will be thoroughly efficient, should her services be required; but I must confess that at present there does not appear to be any very imminent danger. The Waikatoes hesitate to commit any direct act of hostility; notwithstanding which, the panic at Auckland has not yet subsided. The Militia has been called out, block-houses are being constructed with all possible despatch, under the superintendence of Colonel Mould, R.E., on every commanding position round the city, and even at the settlements of Otahuhu and Onehunga; and in case of attack these are to be the rallying points. Scarcely a day passes that I do not receive requisitions for assistance, as though the tide of war had already rolled this way, and all business is at a standstill. H.M.S. Iris arrived at Auckland on the 26th from Sydney, and her men are held in readiness to land; but Commodore Loring does not intend to interfere with my arrangements for the protection of her Majesty's loyal subjects on this side of the isthmus. * * On the 27th the screw steamer Airedale arrived here from Taranaki; she brings no news of importance. The war still languished, although reinforcements had arrived from Sydney and Melbourne, and H.M. ships Pelorus and Cordelia were on the coast! By an arrangement made with the Superintendent of the Inter-Colonial Steam Navigation Company at Nelson, this steamer hauled alongside and gave us seventy-four tons of coal, an acceptable addition to our stock, which I hope to complete by driblets in course of time. Monday, April 30th.-I started this morning in my galley, with the Master in the pinnace, well armed, to examine the southern shore of this magnificent harbour, and select the most eligible sites for stationing our force in the event of hostilities. My plan is to make Waiuku the base of operations, and the Waiuku Creek was our first point. But off Popunga it came on to blow very hard, split the pinnace's foresail, and so heavy a sea got up that we had to take shelter from the gale in Big Muddy Creek, where we met with a hearty welcome from one of the settlers, who gave us good accommodation for the night. Our host, Mr. Letheart, has lived here six years, and up wards of twenty in the colony. His land has been reclaimed from the Kauri forest, which comes down to the water's edge, and there were some magnificent trees at no great distance,-one measured eighteen feet in circumference close to the ground. The fern trees are also very fine in this neighbourhood. I obtained here some specimens of what is sometimes called the wooden caterpillar dried, with a small plant growing out of the back of its neck. The plant is called the Sphæria Robertsii, and is a sort of parasitical fungus, the seed of which falling on the back of the moth (Hepialus virescens), there vegetates and grows. These curious specimens of a defunct insect creation are usually found under a tree called by the natives "rata" (Metrosiderus robustus), and the theory is that the creature goes into the ground to change into a chrysalis, when the seed takes root in the joints of the neck, and, growing there, the caterpillar dies. * The weather looked still more unpromising the next morning, so I returned to the ship, not without some difficulty, in the teeth of a hard easterly gale. During my absence the Caroline has been sent to Raglan (Waingaroa), a small settlement on a navigable river about sixty miles South of the Manukau, at the entrance of which there is, as usual, a dangerous bar. The settlers there, a small but thriving community, had become alarmed, and applied to the Governor to send a vessel to remove them. The state of Kawhia, an infant settlement still further South on the coast, completely isolated, excites also some uneasiness, this being one of the strongholds of the greatest Waikato fighting tribe. In all probability every European will have to withdraw from it, and thus a fertile region which sends large supplies to Auckland of agricultural produce (the Kawhia* apples have a great renommée), will be ruined. It has been broadly stated, that a war conducted by England in a colony, means a new and rich market for colonial corn and cattle, and a vast body of customers for colonial tradesmen: but these poor settlers in the bush, who are liable to be shot, or worse, may perhaps view the matter in a different light. To them it means homesteads in ruins, farms overrun with thistles and weeds, stock driven off or destroyed; themselves and their families without work, and "ashamed to beg," misery and want staring them in the face! May 10th.-The gale which commenced on the 30th at E.S.E., continued with more or less intensity till yesterday; the wind veered round through North to S.W.b.W., blowing furiously in squalls at times with very heavy rain. The ship rode it out well, and none of the anchors started, very much to my satisfaction, but although so near the shore we could only communicate twice during this period. The screw steamer Victoria, belonging to the Melbourne Government, arrived here to-day, last from Nelson, where she had gone to complete coal, after conveying a detachment of troops from Hobart Town to Taranaki. This beautiful vessel, a perfect yacht, has been * Pronounced Karfia. |