IMPORTANT NEGOTIATIONS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 832, 2 June 1910, Page 4

IMPORTANT NEGOTIATIONS.

■ 4 VANCOUVER MATT, (By Telegraph-Special Oorresobndent.', „., , r . Auckland, June 1. When Hγ. J. H. Gunson, president of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce hoard last night of the receipt of the Vancouver mail cable he said it was undoubtedly tlio outcome of representations which had been made by the New Zealand Government. : "It is," he said, "the cable we have been Expecting £or some days, but we have yet to hear what are the intentions of the Federal Cabinet with reference tc co-operating in the matter of the Auckland call. There is no doubt that negotiations of a most important character are now taking place, and the present contractors are fully alive to the position. Sir James Mills, managing director for tho Union Company, is due in Ottawa in a few days, and will no doubt greatly facilitate negotiations, with the result that we ought soon to hear something definite. The present contract expires in July, and the question now at issue is whether it shall bo renewed on the old lines or whether a fresh contract shall be let, including Auckland as a port of call. The cable is somewhat vague, bnt I should say that Canada is calling alternative tenders for a bi-weekly, tri-weekly, and monthly service all over the same route, and also probablv for an alternate route, including or excluding the port of Auckland, the idea being to get at what will be the exact cost. When tho tenders are under consideration it will be for the New Zealand Government to intimate whether they are prepared to pay the required subsidy, but upon the point of New Zealand's support there is little doubt, as all the Souih Island centres, including Invercargill, Dunedin, and Chrietchurch, have declared in favour of an improved Vancouver service."