GREATEST PORT OF EMPIRE.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1988, 19 February 1914, Page 6

GREATEST PORT OF EMPIRE.

LONDON'S PROUD POSITION. DETRACTORS ANSWERED BY MR J. H. ESTILL Addressing the. Wellington Chamber of Commerce yesterday Mr; J. H. Estill (Commercial Superintendent of the Port of London) spoke interestingly of the advantages offered by London. to New Zealand produco exporters and brought forward a wealth of evidence in support of liis contention that Loudon holds an unrivalled position as a world-port and world-market. Mr. C. W. Jones (President of the Chamber) remarked, in introducing Mr. Estill, that New Zealand had recently' been visited by a representative of the Port of Hull and that a number of commercial gentlemen in the Dominion were emphasising the claims of Bristol. It was, perhaps, only a sign of the times that the Imperial Port of London should now send out a representative to bring under the notice of shippers in this part 'of.tho world the advantages it offered. A Mammoth Port. In the course of his address Mr. Estill explained that the Port of London Authority was a statutory body appointed by Act- of-Parliament to manage the w'liole of the docks on ; tho Thames arid the warehouses within" the docks. It provided accommodation for 1,500,000 tons of floods, and other warehouses on the river provided accommodation of equal extent so that,'in all, 3,000,000 tons, of. good 9 could be stored. The water' area of the Port of London was 746 acres and there were upwards of .46 miles cf quayage in the port. Several omissaries, he went on to remark, had been sent, out from other minor ports in tho United Kingdom with a view to booming their own particular port. A healthy rivalry between ports , conduced to the benefit of trade, but in some cases the advocates pf other ports .than London liad resorted to misrepresentation. All sorts of charges had been made, such as that meat and dairy produce were put into dirty and leaky barges, and that wool was kept littered about on .quays, uncovered except by a tarpaulin. There might be.some small element of truth in the allegations which 1 had been made: trivial could not be altogether avoided, but as to general conditions in tho Port of London he invited them to consider tho fact , that SO per cent, of the meat exported from New Zealand was bought outright by English importers beforo it left theso shores. Was it likely that these people—keen . and ;ibl» business men—were going to lot the bread and butter be taken out of their mouths by tile mis-handling of their goods in London? Though the Port ' Authoritv handled about 60 per cent,, of tho total meat imported into London they, barged practically nono of it—rless tlian one, per cent. In. their hands meat was landed on tho quay, and passed into up-to-date stores by..means of electric elevators, endless band'conveyers, and similar appliances. - Barging was done in the port, but it was done by private cold store owners on the river, and insulated barges were invariably used. "I think I could not put the case more clearly to yon," continued Air. Estill, "than -to point out that if the' conditions of barging are as bad as is made out, by our critics, would it not follow that every importer in London would avoid barging and give tho Port Authority the business? But they do not', although our rates are the same. "Tlie Port of London . Authority is anxious to hiindlg_ your produco in the best way. lam pleased to bo able'to'tell you that tbey are now spending upwards of half a millinii pounds on additional facilities for the meat trade alone; they are also huildmg a new dock, largely for the colonial t-rado. at a cost df a further two million pounds. The new dock will adjfuient to the present Royal Victoria and Albert Docks, where tlie .bulk 'of your produce is handled." London as a Market. ' Speaking of Loudon as a depot for the frozen moat-trado, Mr. Estill said that there.was. a pbpulatfon .of eight million' people within a radius of ten miles from the docks. Buyers were attracted to London from the four corners of the Kingdom, and the maximum amount of competition existed. Th< Port had excellent accommodation foi trade, and a large amount was beinj spent in increasing it. London pos sessed an unrivalled distribution sys tem, equalled by no other port. In ni _ other port in the world was such a com s bination of advantages to bofound. Re

presentativfes of some of the. ports talkcd glibly of the eleven millions or so of people their port can serve, but they probably did not gay that those miilions were from 160 to 175 miles behind the port. Nor did they tell of their small local market, and how it would be glutted if asked to absorb more than half a ship's load ol meat. Within a radius of 100 miles t of London there were 16 millions of people. Bristol's Claims. In regard to Bristol, Mr. Estill stated, a direct charge had been made that meat unloaded there could be placed upon the Smithfleld Market cheaper than through London itself. The maximum cost of conveying- meat from the ship direct to the Smithfleld ..Market through the Port of London was 14s. 7d., per .ton. It could be done cheaper than that. The comparative rate from the ship at Bristol to the Smith Held Market was 28s. 7d. per.ton. The rail rate alone from Bristol to London was 21s. lOd. per ton. Even then the traffic had to be sent in . three, ton lots. For smaller lots, the cost -by rail was 345. Bd. per ton. including cartage in London only. Avonniouth, Mr. Estill added, only had cold storage for about 60,000 sheep, about one-third of the total carrying capacity of a meat steamer. TJiero might be other stores in. Bristol, but they lay seven mile's away from, where the meat,'was landed. It was difficult to imagine anything more ludicrous than the statement thai Bristol could supply London cheaper than the Port of London it-self.' Applying Tests. I. Mr. Estill invited his hearers to con-1 eider that if the conditions had been I so rosy, and such El Dorados had existed at the outports, tho smart-business men pf England would have discovered them, and now be making fortunes, instead of being, centred in London? "Tho Amoricans," he added, "are credited with being' eoeedingly smart business men, and leave very few corners unexplored, but even they have recognised that the outports aro very soon satisfied, and tho bulk of their pro-.' duco is sent to London ; to get tho primo price on that loci>,l market before being distributed from there., to tho provinces." Dairy Produce.

In reference to tho handling of dairy produce, Mr. Estill said that a considerable quantity of butter was barged to a wharf, near Tooloy Street Market, but that in all fairness to the wharfingers by whom it was so handled, it niiist be stated that insulated barges were invariably used, as neither tlie insurance companies nor . the brokers would tolerate, such mishandling as had' been represented by critics. . The produie handled' by, the Port oj

London Authority was landed direct oa. tho quays, and was either conveyed by rail , direct to the provinces or carted to tho importers' own premises or dispatched to the Authority's tool stores. An important factor was tins dependence of the trade upon the mail steamers for quick transport. London was a • passenger port of the first rank, and the mail, steamers to India, Australasia, and tho East sailed from the Thames. If, therefore, colonial dairy produce was to reach the British market as quickly as possible, it must corn© by mail steamer, and consequently t-o London., Only by the slower boats eould it ho shipped to the outport-s, and even then it must take the uncertain risks of the local market, where buyers were fewer, competition less keen, distributing facilities inferior, and where last, but not least, tho financial houses chiefly interested in tho trade were not located.' '' Handling Wool. In regard to wool,'-Mr. Estill said: "I am not exceeding the facts in any way when I say confident)}' that the accommodation for wool in London is not equalled or rivalled by any other port in tho world; The Port Authority alone has eight acres of show floors all fitted with excellent top lights, and 26 acres of storage warehouses. In fact, the storage accommodation is almost unlimited. Tho markets "are attended by buyors from all parts of the world, and the maximum amount of competition exists. "Tho Port of London -Authority," he said in conclusion,. "is not sn academic institution, but is composed of real live men" elected by payers of dires, and comprise ship-owners, merchants, wharfingers, arid representatives of labour. The Port of London Authority was only created about three years ago, but very ! largo strides in bringing the Port .up-to-date have already, been taken, and when I tell you that the programme provides for an expenditure of £14-,000,000, out of which contracts for five millions have already been entered into, you will realise that facilities and. arrangements for dealing with your pro* dtico in tho Port of London will not be lacking." . Mr. J. -Macintosh moved that a hearty vote of thanks be accorded to Mr. Estill for his, able and instructive address. Misrepresentations sucil as Mr. Estill had complained of, ho remarked, might givo some trouble for a little time, but in the end such tactics wore ineffective. It was, .of course, only natural that other ports should -come forward arid try to get a share of tlie trade of the Dominions. Mr.' Estil'Ps. address, he was suro, would carry conviction to the minds of those who had heard it. Personally, lie was.quite sure that whatever smiill measure of truth there might bo in-the stories to which Mr. Estill liad referred, tlis business, of a great port like London could not have been carried on. if these defects had been more than casual accidents,-