Uruguay-bound steamer diverts

The Federal liner Durham called at Port Chalmers yesterday evening on account of boiler trouble.

The vessel was on her way from Sydney to complete her loading at Montevideo for Hamburg. The Durham, a steel steamer of 6975 tons gross register, was built at Newcastle-on-Tyne in 1904, and ever since she has been a well-known oversea trader to New Zealand and Australian ports. On arrival at Port Chalmers she was in light trim, her draught aft being 20 feet 5 inches and forward 20ft 2in. The Durham left Sydney last Sunday. Everything went well until the boilers began to develop leakage on Monday night. She has three main boilers and a donkey boiler. The main boilers supply steam for the propeller machinery. The leakage was not restricted to one boiler. There was evidently no particular reason for it apart from the fact that the vessel has not been out of employment for the past 20 years. The engineering staff had a strenuous time. Some of them worked 12 hours at a stretch. There was neither peace nor rest for several days and nights. Someone it is said, asked an engineer what was the matter with the boilers. The engineer answered, Scotch fashion, by inquiring of his questioner: "Can you tell me what is not the matter with them?" As one boiler was put in order, steam was raised in it, and another of the boilers was cooled down, so that it could be attended to. At length success was attained and the day before the vessel reached Port Chalmers all the boilers were in working order again. The vessel could then have proceeded on her voyage, but in view of what had occurred and also because there is a long stormy stretch of lonely ocean between the south end of New Zealand and Cape Horn, it was deemed advisable not to take any risk of possible break-down on a route now rarely frequented since the Panama Canal became an established fact.

 

On Monday, March 17, St Patrick’s Day, the shamrock of Ireland decorated many a buttonhole; I myself from sheer sympathy might have ventured on this Wearing of the Green. Wound up the day and went with a swing the usual Hibernian concert, "ending with the National Anthem heartily sung by everyone." says a press report. Good. For Irishmen as for the rest of us the King is the King; there is no reason why they should not pray for his safe keeping.  Between St Joseph’s and Knox Church there is no intimacy worth speaking of; same between the Anglican Cathedral and the Salvation Army. But whatever our nationality or religion we can all unite and be happy in "God Save the King." Sung by a miscellaneous crowd, it makes for a fellowship 

of good feeling and for a sense of common citizenship in an Empire we can be proud of.  — by ‘Civis’

 

Beautiful hair adds immensely to the personal magnetism of both men and women. Actresses and smart women are ever on the lookout for any harmless thing that will increase the natural beauty of their hair. The latest method is to use pure stallax as a shampoo on account of the peculiarly glossy, fluffy, and wavy effect which it leaves. As stallax has never been used much for this purpose it comes to the chemist only in quarter-pound sealed original packages, enough for 25 or 30 shampoos. A teaspoonful of the fragrant stallax granules dissolved in a cup of hot water is more than sufficient for each shampoo. It is very beneficial and stimulating to the hair, apart from its beautifying effect. — ODT, 22.3.1924