AT AUCKLAND.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14843, 8 December 1913, Page 8

AT AUCKLAND.

STATEMENT BY CHAIRMAN OF HARBOUR BOARD. (mSSS ASSOCIATION TBIJEGRAIC.) 1 AUCKLAND, December 7. All the available berthage in port was occupied yesterday, and cargohandling proceeded satisfactorily. "Noxt week," said Mr J. H. Gunson, chairman of the Harbour Board, on Saturday, "wo will have a busy time. After that it is possible that wo will have a quiet period for a little while. In consequence of the interruption of the intercolonial cargo trade, the southern traffic has also been interrupted, but the Ennerdale and Waitomo are due shortly with full cargoes of produce from the South. The Union Company's service will be resumed from Lyttelton and other Southern ports nest Monday week, and from that time forward the period of inconvenience will be over. At the present time the local produce markets are somewhat bare, but the position will be eased after the arrival of tho vessels named." "As far as we are concerned," continued Mr Gunson, "the trouble in Australia, viewed from a purely local standpoint, is not nearly so serious as was the dislocation of the local coastal trade and the interruption of South Island communication. Moreover, communication with Europe and other oversea ports is much more important to us than the trade with Australia, and the inconvenience is not nearly so great as some people believe; in fact, the Australian trouble has been robbed of most of its significance now that coal supplies for New Zealand, apart altogether from the local mines, are assured from Japan and South Africa—places where Australasian > industrial troubles are of no moment at all."