HBH 1892 Nov 23 Shipping Notes The s.s. Australia leaves AUCKLAND today and is due here on Friday morning The schooner Spray, Captain B.B.CREAGH ten days out from Bluff, arrived yesterday morning. That so many steamers are laid up at Home is not altogether due to depression in trade, but to improvements in marine engineering, the result being that the steamers which were economical ten years ago cannot compete with new ships. The Lord Erne was built by HARLAND and WOLFF at BELFAST, and is manned entirely by Irishmen. It is stated that a change is to be made in the running of the North German Lloyd steamer Lubeck. At present she only goes from SYDNEY to SAMOA and TONGA and back again. The trade does not seem to have been remunerative, and was only continued because of "political considerations" on the part of the German Government. Though nothing has officially been decided as yet, it is likely that the Lubeck will include FIJI amongst her calling places.