Two largely-signed petitions from resi dents of Northcote and Birkenhead were read at the meeting of the Auckland Harbour Board this afternoon, protesting against the present " thoroughly,unsatis factory and dangerous condition in which the fairway of the harbour ferry steamers to Northcote and Birkenhead has been kept for a considerable time pasb by vessels being frequently moored right in the centre of such fairway, contrary to the general usage prevailing in harbours."

The locally-owned schooner Jessie Niccol returned to Auckland from Rarofconga last night, after an absence of four months on a trading cruise in the South Sea Islands, during which time jshe has been voyaging amongst the islands of the Hervey or Cook Group. The Jessie Niccol is tho property of the recently-formed South Pacific Trad ing Company, of Auckland and Rarotonga, and the cruise just completed, which has been a mosb successful one, is her second round Island trip for the Company. Mr C. Kohn, of Auckland, managing direc tor of the Trading Company, has returned by the vessel, after a preliminary business visit to the Hervey Group, where the Company's trading busi ness lies. He expresses himself as greatly pleased with the Company's prospects, and says that the resources and trade of the Cook Group are capable of indefinite expan sion. Mr Kohn was very warmly received by the natives on each island visited, and large numbers of shares in the Company were taken up by the natives on the co operative principle. Mr Kohn established stores and trading stations on the islands of Rarotonga, Aitutaki, Mangaia an:l Mauki, and also visited Atiu, Mitiero and Manuai Islands. The Company, Mr Kohn says, has now established an excellent business in the Group. The schooner brought up a full cargo of Island produce, including cotton, copra, coliee, limejuice, oranges, pine apples, beche-de-mer, dried bananas, etc., and there is another full cargo of produce lying at the various .islands awaiting ship ment to Auckland. Mr Kohn states that he found the greater part of the Cook Group trade going to Tahiti and San Francisco, when it should come to Auckland. The Islands are exceedingly fertile, and will grow anything, and under the hands of European settlers could be made most re productive. At present, the natives leave two-thirds of their coffee and cotton rotting on the ground. 