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18 AFFAIRS AT BUFFALO. Buffalo, Nov. 10. Grain receipts of late have gained on last season. The shortage mentioned above took place quite early in the sea- son and then was held pretty steadily for months, then the upturn set in and we are now only 23,000,000 bushels be- hind last season to date. It appears; that the Canadian grain route by water has lost its mid-summer lead entirely, so that there is no doubt that Buffalo will again do the bulk of this business, this fall and lay up the usual big fleet of winter cargoes at the end. The long war of the elevator system is closed; and pool rates will prevail from this time on, which ought to simplify the situation here very much. In a strictly local sense Buffalo har- bor has made considerable advance this year, and there is need only of the con- firmation of the reported Hanna $3,- 000,000 iron plant to make almost a boom out of it. The new Wickwire pig iron plant down the river is in oper- ation with a big pile of ore to begin ont and more to go down there to the end! of the season. Everything in that di- rection is a little previous just now, for though the Niagara ship canal was be- gun some years ago, vessel men do not look to see it completed inside of four years more or so. With that a fact, the big ore vessels 'can go to Tonawanda if they choose fully loaded. The limit from the mouth of Buffalo creek down the Niagara river is at present 14% ft.) and as often as the wind is up the lake vessels loaded to that depth have to wait here, several of them being caught by the east wind last week. What is said to be a very significant! water-front move is the purchase of the half-million-bushel Wilkeson eleva- tor by (Capt. James. J. ..H. |. Brown. Everybody knows that Capt. Brown has no particular use for the elevator, so they turn about and say that he is acting as agent for the Lackawanna railroad. After that it is easy to put a few things together and "show" that the road is figuring for a big steel ele- vator in that vicinity, between Main and Michigan streets on the Buffalo river, and possibly a passenger station besides; the freight station it already has, between Main street and the Com- mercial Slip, and then, after a slight in- terval, the uninterrupted possession of the water front to the mouth of the Buffalo river, which means the early re- moval of the Union elevator and the extension of the water trestle well up- stream. | This road is already the shipper off practically half the hard coal from this port by water, and it would be in con- trol of the situation, with these im- TAE Marine REVIEW provements made, much more than ever before. There remains not much after that but the improvement of the upper water of the Buffalo river. This will be accomplished some day, but no- body knows the date thereof, and when it is accomplished there will be an- other double mile of inner harbor to add to that, provided by the Niagara' Ship canal, and the probable further improvements of the shore back of the four-mile breakwater. These improve- ments are all in a single line. They mean a great port and enough of them, are under way to make all of the others very much of a certainty. JoHN W. CHAMBERLIN. AN AUSTRALIAN NAVY. - The scheme of the Australian com- monwealth for the formation of a flo- tilla of six torpedo boat destroyers, nine submarines, and two depot ships as the nucleus of an Australian navy has been given the generai approva! of the British admiralty. The recent visit of the American battleship fleet is believed to 'thave given impetus to the idea of building up a local naval force instead of contributing annually to the maintenance of the imperial forces. It is believed that the parlia- ment will vote readily the $6,250,000 required for the construgtion of the proposed flotilla. The officers and men, who would number about 1,200, would be provided by the imperial navy, but would be paid by the com- monwealth of Australia, which would retain the administrative control of the flotilla. TRAINING SHIP NEWPORT. The training ship Newport, of the department of education of the city of New York, is undergoing a refit- ting during which the 60 undergrad- uates are enjoying a month's furlough, the new session to begin Nov. l. At the recent graduating exercises on board the ship, at which 28 boys re- ceived diplomas, Richard B. Aldcroft Jr., chairman of the executive com- mittee on the nautical school, made the opening address. Dr. Gustave Straubenmuller, 'associate city super- intendent, presented the prizes, a sex- tant, first prize to Dwight A. Smith, for general excellence; a binocular, second prize for general excellence, to W. A. J. Kopp; Norie's "Epitome of Navigation,' given by Chairman Ald- croft, for excellence in marlinspike seamanship, to Ralph Wood; "Lecky's Wrinkles," given by Mrs. Aldcroft for neatness in appearance, to W. A. J. Kopp, and $10, given by Mrs. Charles Catlin, president of the Na- tional Society of United States Daugh- ters of 1812, for greatest efficiency in "heaving the lead," to Robert William- son. Dwight A. Smith, P. H. Sheri- dan, and Hobart Ramsey won the prizes given by the alumni society BATTLESHIP NEW HAMPSHIRE. It is interesting to note that the new battleship New Hampshire is not the first of that name in the United States navy. The Army and Navy Journal says in a recent issue: "The name is not unfamiliar to naval men since 1864, when the name New Hampshire first appears in the navy register. There had been on the stocks at Portsmouth, N. H., from 1818 until 1863, an 84-gun ship of the line named Alabama, with a tonnage of 2,633. There was also a sidewheel steamer named Alabama. It was decided to change the name of the first, so in January, 1864, the sailing ship was launched at Portsmouth under the name of New Hampshire. After doing varied duty as. store, depot, receiving and training ship at different places, she was lent to the New York Naval Militia some years ago and was used as the headquarters of the first battalion, be- ing anchored in the East river off Twenty-fourth _ street. Recently the name was changed to the Granite State and the anchorage was changed to the North river, near Ninety-sixth street. The Navy Register, published by Ham- ersly & Co. in 1901, gives a New Hampshire of 4,150 tons and two guns as having been built in 1801 and assigned to the naval militia of New Hampshire, but we can find no other evidence of such a craft. The first commanding of- ficer of the battleship New Hampshire is, aS a writer in the Boston Transcript observes, most appropriately, Capt. Cam- eron McRae Winslow, a descendant of New Hampshire's illustrious Revolution- ary soldier, Major Gen. John Stark, the hero of Bennington." The Heffernan dry dock, which is now located at Quartermaster Har- bor, Wash. and which was to have been moved to Seattle some time ago, is likely to stay in its present location for several months at least, as per- mission to make the proposed move has been denied by the city and Uni- ted States engineers at Seattle. A suit is now in progress to determine whether any part of the water front where it was proposed tto locate the dry dock may lawfully be so used and until that is decided there will be no move. Meanwhile the Tacoma cham- ber of commerce is making overtures toward having the dry dock left in its present position.