CARGO IN ENEMY'S SHIPS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 706, 23 September 1914, Page 2

CARGO IN ENEMY'S SHIPS.

FOR LOCAL CONSIGNEES. As a result of the publication of a Gazette notice relative to goods on Board enemy ships detained or captured in Austria, the AttorneyGeneral, who was interviewed by a reporter, said that he had been inundated with correspondence from business people anxious for the release of the consignments on German vessels in Sydney, Melbourne, Freruaiitle, and other Australian ports. Mr Herdman explained that the Government could not, of course, interfere with those cargoes—-it was a matter for the Prize Courts established in the different States of °the Commonwealth. All that the Government could do had been done. He had cabled the Commonwealth Attorney-General in Melbourne,asking what facilities could be given to New Zealand consignees for the release of goods consigned to them, and he had received the follow ■ ing reply: "Ships and cargoes are now in control of Prize Court. Persons interested in cargo should make application to the Court. Applications by New Zealand consignees., on similar conditions to those now being made by consignees in various States, will not be opposed by Commonwealth." The Minister recommended those firms in Now Zeuland who were interested in the cargoes on many ships in Australia to communicate with their representative in the Commonwealth, and have their claims properly represented to the Prize Courts. lie thought that those firms who had no agent or representative in the Commonwealth had better forward their applications to the Attorney-General's office, Melbourne, for submission to the Prize Courts in the various States. Up to the present no German vessel

ha 3 been detained or captured in New Zealand. Ships of German origin > infrequently visit New Zealand waters, but all the principal Austrlian ports have their regular tramps, and it is at those ports that goods from' Germany are transhipped for New Zealand.