POSSIBLE DELAY TO MAILS

Southland Times, Issue 23376, 7 December 1937, Page 8

POSSIBLE DELAY TO MAILS

POST OFFICE EMPLOYEES TO ASSIST (United Press Association) AUCKLAND, December 6. One Christmas mail and two other mails from England will be delayed in delivery if a settlement is not reached in the next few days in the labour dispute on the Auckland waterfront. In addition mails arriving tomorrow by the Wanganella from Australia will have to be unloaded by other means than waterfront labour. The Wanganella is at present due to leave Auckland for Sydney on Thursday and she will have on board the New Zealand mail which must connect with the air mail closing in Sydney next Tuesday if it is to be delivered in England ort Boxing Day. If she cannot leave before Thursday it will be touch and go whether a connection is made and the mail will arrive in England on December 29 if the air mail is missed. Both the Port Chalmers and the Waipawa will have mails for Great Britain, Ireland and Europe and the Matua will carry a mail to the Islands. Some delay in the delivery of these mails will also occur if the dispute is not settled. The mail from Australia by the Wanganella will be brought off the ship on her arrival by Post Office employees, arrangements for this having already been made and no delay will occur in its delivery. Similar arrangements will be made for the loading of outward mails on other ships. CABINET COMMITTEE SET UP SERIOUS VIEW TAKEN BY GOVERNMENT (From Our- Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, December 6. With a view to reaching a settlement in the dispute which is holding up work on the Auckland waterfront a conference is to be held between the representatives of the interested parties tomorrow morning. Until this meeting has been held, according to a statement made by the Minister of Labour (the Hon. H. T. Armstrong) in interview this evening, no further

developments are expected. The position at Auckland is viewed seriously by the Government and a sub-committee of Cabinet consisting of Mr Armstrong, the Minister of Marine (the Hon. P. Fraser) and the Minister of Mines (the Hon. P. C. Webb) has been set up to deal with it. Mr Armstrong stated this evening that Mr W. H. G. Bennett, the representative of the shipping companies, had left Wellington for Auckland by aeroplane today and he himself had endeavoured to make ararngements for the president and secretary of the Auckland Waterside Workers’ Union, who were attending a conference at Wanganui, to leave for Auckland this evening. The Minister said he hoped to hear tomorrow the results of the conference which Mr Bennett and the others were to hold with the union’s representatives.