CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 128, 31 May 1901, Page 3

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.

A meeting of the Council of the A.uck-< land Chamber of Commerce was held yesterday afternoon, Mr D. R. Caldwell, presiding.

The Northern Lands.—ln answer to ai letter from the Chamber supporting a, resolution passed by the Waikato Farmers' Club, urging the Government ta acquire the Assets Realisation Hoard's estates for clo^e. settlement, a communication mus received ,ivn the. Pivmiefl siiUing that the matter had been reftTred to the Minister of Lands for consideration. Mr Caldwell considered the Chamber should ap« proadi the Government with a view to( getting the ycry rich valley of Kaikohe, in the North, opened up for settlement. It was at present in the hands of thei Maoris. . Mr S. Vaile supported the proposal to give more attention to the North. He said if Auckland looked welJi after the interests of the North (which: was all her own) there would be no need to bother about the South, which' was shared in by Wellington, Hawke's Bay and Taranaki. Mr Aickin said he was informed that there were many, more such blocks of good land in th© North lying idle. Legislative machinery was now provided for bringing thesa lands under settlement, and the Government should be urged to facilitate the opening up of these lands at present locked up from settlement. Mn Vaile said that there were some 80,009 acres of native land close to Whangarei lying quite idle. The matter of urging on the Government the opening up of these lands north of Auckland was relegated to a committee of the Council td deal with. '

Quarterly Meeting.—lt was decided to hold the quarterly meeting in thef Harbour Board Building at 2.30 p.m. next Thursday. i

The Exhibition Surplus.—Mr B. Kenfj returned his sincere thanks to the! Chamber for the vote which had been placed on the minutes at last meeting expressing the confidence of the Chamber in his actions in connection witfc the Exhibition Surplus Funds.

Island Steamers.—Mr Aickin said a! great deal of inconvenience was caused to business people here interested itf the fruit trade through two or three* steamers often coming in very close after each other. Several large "cargoes of perishable fruit were thus landed} here very nearly about the same time. It would be very much better if the time-tables of the Union Company's Is* lands steamers could be so arranged! tliat there would be a longer interval between the arrival of each vessel. It was resolved to draw the attention of the Union Steamship Company to thei matter, and to ask the company; whether the time-table could not be sa altered as to give a longer interval be« tween each steamer. s - si