SILVER FOR BANKS

Taranaki Daily News, 13 July 1933, Page 7

SILVER FOR BANKS

SHIPMENT FROM AUSTRALIA.

ARRIVAL BY MAUNGANUI.

Wellington, July 10.

Part of the cargo carried by the intercolonial steamer Maunganui, which arrived in Wellington this morning from Sydney, was a large consignment of silver for distribution among the banks in New Zealand. The usual crowd that collects on the Queen’s Wharf on the arrival of ovreseas ships gathered- to watch the unloading of the silver. The orderly manner in which everything was carried out, however, and the absence of any sign of the importance of the occasion among those concerned in the work soon satisfied the onlookers’ curiosity. Th unloading of the silver was begun by the time most of the passengers had left the ship and were in the customs shed. From the large strongroom in the vessel a number of labourers carried small wooden boxes down the gangway and loaded them on waiting lorries. At the door of the strongroom a tally clerk checked the boxes as they were taken out.

Plain-clothes police stood'near by to accompany each lorry load as it left the wharf. Passengers on the Maunganui continued to use the gangway as freely as before, and they often squeezed close to the handrail to allow a small fortune of silver to pass in some labourer’s arms.. ___