STRUGGLE WITH THE WOOL.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1630, 23 December 1912, Page 4

STRUGGLE WITH THE WOOL.

AT SHIP'S SIDE. EECOHD DAY IN THE SHEDS. During the past fortnight the Wellington Harbour Board has handled about 15,000 bales of wool, and when, the lonic , commenced to load societhias Hfca 25,008 bale 3 had been, stored in the sheds. Members of the board's staff have been, doing their utmost to cope with the unusually fast rash of the season's clip and have succeeded very well indeed. What lit. Fletcher (the chairman) called a record was put up on Friday. From 3 p.m. until midnight en. the day of question, no fewer than 3CCO bales of wool were uploaded from truck?. In. connection with this the board received the following letter from Mr. A. Duncan, traffic manager for the Railway Department: — The Secretary, Wellington Harbour Board. Wellington. Dear Sir,—l find that you discharged 23S wagons of wool and fibre yesterday (December 20), leaving 97 loads s on hand at 8 o'clock this morning. This is very "ood work, and I beg to express gratification at the special effort made. I estimate you will require to discharge an average of 120 wagons per day to keep the wool reasonably clear. I am liftinz my instructions of yesterday. A. DUNCAN, District Traffic Manager. In regard to the last sentence in Mr, Duncan s letter, Mr. Fletcher explained lo a reporter on Saturday afternoon . that instructions had been issued to country stations not to accept wool for railage to Wellington on' Saturday because it was anticipated that there would be a blockage. This, it has been proved,- was not the case and the chairman of the board said: "Now that we have the boats here we will take all the wool they can give us as fast as they like. There is not a truck, of wool here now. Wo aro wanting it on Monday. The wool can oome down from the north of Auckland if they like, and we will deal with it. We have shown what, the .board's appliances and staff can do in an. emergency case and we are not afraid of anything now." How is the enforcement of the bylaw dealing with the orders for wool, being taken? Mr. Fletcher was asked. "Oh, it is working fine," ho replied. "You should have seen the orders corao pouring in this morning. The-board is a business concern and must ia future keep people up to the mark." You do not anticipate having any trouble in dealing with the estimated 25,000 bales of the January sale then?—" Not in the least. We will handle all that and more if we are required to do so. As long as the ships aro nere to take the wool awny, and aa long as we eet our orders from tho brokers and others, we will handle the stuff all right. "There is one thing I would specially like to mention," continued Mr. Fletcher, "and that is the manner in which the staff has risen to the occasion during this rush. They have worked well and everything has gone smoothly. I would like "to take this opportunity of publicly thanking the staff on behalf of the board for the able manner in which they have carried the work out." '