BRISTOL TO-DAY

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 59, 7 September 1926, Page 18

BRISTOL TO-DAY

I AN HISTORIC PAST.-A PROGRESSIVE PRESENT. ! | DISTRIBUTING AND PRODUCING. f 1 {By Norman Wills, President of the Bristol Incorporated Chamber of \ | Commerce and Shipping.) I

Bristol is one of the most beautifully situated of England's older cities, and its records are crowded with romance and historic association. But it is not of the natural beauty or of the romantic tradition that we are here thinking; the only traditions that concern our present subject are those of the seafaring and mer-chant-venturing for which Bristol early became famous. We have to consider the city as a great mercantile and maritime centre, a hive of production and a market of distribution. Her trade and position in the industrial world of to-day, what are they? What does Bristol count for? How does she stand in relation to the other great seaports of the Empire ? These are the questions that have to be asked, and if possible answered in this brief consideration: answered without bias, by the statement of verifiable facts.

THE YEARS OF GROWTH

Yet it is. not possible to ignore the romantic past in dealing with the actual present. There are industrial centres within the British Empire that have been of almost mushroom growth, rising to a prosperous maturity before our very eyes; but Bristol is not one of these. She is a continuity, her bases and sources dating long since; something oi her past must be known if we would in any degree adequately estimate her present position and the possibilities of her future. Though we cannot claim for the existing town anything earlier than a Saxon foundation, Celtic and prehistoric races had known the spot and have left their footprints. The Eomans knew it also, utilising strong places already fortified at Clifton and in the#ear vicinity, and establishing a small port of their own at Sea Mills on the Avon that was to foster Bristol's future prosperity. But Sea Mills was not destined to become the nucleus of a city, though it is becoming a popular suburb. Those who came in the days of Teutonic invasion found a better because a more defensible -position, on the almost insular strip of land that central Bristol still occupies. Here, fed by two converging rivers, one of which came from a great waterway, and partly surrounded by dense woodland, the town was able to nurse its infant days in comparative independence and security; and a few yards of quayside close to the present- Bristol Bridge were sufficient to meet its maritime needs. It was really here that the great Bristol docks were born. The small shipping, mostly coastwise that still lingers at this same spot can give us some idea of the town's early marine doings, but can give ua no conception whatever of the vast activities now centred about eight miles distant at the river's mouth. Yet Avonmouth and this quay among the narrow city streets are truly one; they are simply the Past and the Present of the same undertaking. The advance of the new has not relegated the old to disuse and neglect.

by Liverpool but by the younger ■ ports of South Wales. The position was at last met with some measure of adequacy when the Eoyal Edward Dock was completed in 1908, in time to be of immense utility to the nation during the war; but since that date there have been considerable additions; developments and completions are still proceeding, together with great improvements of warehousing, bonding, and distributing facilities. When its Eastern Arm is completed, ;ho Eoyal Edward Dock will be unsurpassed by any in the Kingdom, while the dock's equipment in the way of cold-storage, granaries, timber-sheds, oil-tanks, bonded stores, floating and other cranes, railway and other transit, are of equally exceptional excellence. Similar conveniences, naturally on a smaller .scale, abound at the older docks in the city itself. Nothing has been spared that can render Bristol fit to face all competition, or to increase her facilities of approach and departure. The dock .it Portishead is chiefly adapted for grain and timber; and these three docks, under the control of a single Port of Bristol Authority, promise a continuance of prosperity to the ancient city warranted by her admirable position as a market and producing centre, her' situation as the Queen City of the West.

CABOT AND THE MERCHANTS,

But young Bristol did not long find this tiny dock sufficient. She was already the chief port for trading with Wales and Ireland; she had combined her enterprise with religion by joining in naval Crusading expeditions; to the famous siege of Calais she was to contribute nearly as many men and vessels aa London. But a century before that noted siege took place Bristol had proved herself a pioneer in dock-extension. In 1247 a new channel for the river Froom was opened, having been cut through what is now St. Augustine's, diverting it from the swampy land now occupied by Baldwin and Marsh streets. The city had become practical and intensely commercial. The younger Canynge, in the days of Henry VI., employed an average of 800 men in connection with his ships. Not many years later the Italian-born Bristol seaman John Cabot sailed from the old dock, and in 1497 touched North America, a year earlier than Columbus touched the South. It was no mean thing to have preceded Columbus in such a path if glorious enterprise. Explorations and discoveries were following one another thick and fast in those days; dangers and difficulties were shared by all; only a few reaped the glory. We are all at one in upholding the reputation of the gallant Columbus, but some recognition should equally be extended to Cabot and his sturdy Bristol men who were among the first founders of our great Empire overseas. Newfoundland became in a special manner Bristol's nursling; nor must it be forgotten that the founder of Pennsylvania was the son of a gallant Bristol admiral, Sir William Penn. Komance is touched more intimately when we recall that a Bristol vessel brought back Alexander Selkirk from his island solitude. Of all these things, of the establishment of medieval trade-guilds, of the doings of Bristol's world-famed merchant venturers, who still flourish to-day, much might be said; but for the most part these records concern the past of the city and port; our business is with their present. The past has been great undoubtedly; but the man who lives on his past is growing old; the town that lives on its past has become decadent. Bristol may be old, but there is no sign yet of decadency. Her life has been continuous. Only during one period did she show alarming symptoms; that period happily passed, and the lifeblood is once more coursing vigorously through the veins of the old and the new alike. There had to be adaptation, there had to be flexibility; with these there have been both conservation and progress.

DOCK DEVELOPMENT.

Nothing but a wise extension of dock facilities has saved Bristol from relegation to a comparatively unimportant position. These extensions, intermitted, with periods of inactivity, have continued from the opening of the Floating Harbour in 1809 to the opening of the first dock at Avonmouth in 1877, each step taken being attended by much controversy, always keen and sometimes embittered. Portishead Dock, on the western side of the river, wag opened two years later, and the two were shortly acquired by the Corporation; but the accommodation was still quite insufficient for the growing needs of the time and to face the severe competition offered not only

IN TOUCH WITH MILLIONS

Standing at the head of a great oceanic waterway, Bristol's distance from the chief oversea ports of America and Australasia is slightly less than that of Liverpool or London; while its position as a distributive centre includes, within a radius of 75 miles, "the whole of South Wales, the entire West of England as far as Exeter, the Midlands as far e s

Birmingham. This radius embraces i population of nearly 6,000,000; within a circle of 100 miles there is a population of over ten millions. In each direction there is a fine service of railway transit; there are also inland waterways whose use might be indefinitely increased. Admirable and constantly improving roads in all directions allow for efficient motor traffic. Coastwise business and trade with European ports is for the most part served by the City Docks, where the almost extinct sailing vessel may still frequently be met with, giving a picturesque touch to the old-world quaysides; but ships of heavier tonnage, such as those of | the Federal Line, find ample accommodation and every facility at Avonmouth. As we are particularly concerned with New Zealand, it is interesting to note that the Federal - Line brings grain, frozen meat, and general dairy produce, for the reeeption,handling, and storage cf which the Docks are provided with the most efficient and modern equipment. It goes without saying that there is direct communication between Bristol and the world's seaports generally. The return cargo from Bristol is chiefly galvanised iron, structural iron-work, and general. In this department, that of exports, Bristol, like the rest of the Kingdom, is keenly anxious to see an increase, and is doing her best to.achieve it ' Some conception of the city's importance as an importing and distributing centre may be gathered from the fact that 10 per cent, of the grain received in this country comes to Bristol, nearly a quarter of the tobacco, and more than half the bananas. There is also a very large import of oil, facilities for which are being extended, of oil seed, of cheese, butter, bacon, meat, and canned goods; also of wines and spirits, of which Bristol was one of the earliest receiving ports •')) the kingdom. Timber, chemicals, sugar, molasses, fertilisers, hides, "attle, pigs, are also received in large quantities. Much of this is immediately transferred from deck to rail or lorry; Bristol, though herself a large consumer, finds her occupation largely in distributing. But of this perhaps enough has been said; we must turn from her position as general market to that of producer. It is not enough to handle and pass on what others produce; a healthy community must be itself productive, must manufacture ss well as sell.

BRISTOL AS PRODUCER.

In earlier ages the city was already a producer as well as a trader; she exchanged her cloths and leather, cordage, soap, and glass for foreign wines, silks, oils, and spices. Some of these branches of commerce have declined relatively; the chief woollen business has gone northward; traffic in southern wines has diminished; West Indian cane-sugar has been routed by beet. But all the old trades have not gone and many new ones have come. It is a mistake to think that when you have mentioned tobacco and cocoa you have exhausted Bristol's claim to industrial distinction. Even if that were so, it is no small boast to hold the largest tobacco factories of the world, or to produce cocoas and chocolates whose

names are familiar wherever civilisation has reached. It is something to import about 30,000 tons of tobacco yearly, and in a single year to pay Custom duties of nearly £25,000,000 for tobacco alone. But take away these two industries, and the city would still remain an active producer and a prolifio distributor. Bristol does not merely dispatch far and wide the cargoes that are unloaded at her quaysshe makes her own commodities and dispatches these as well. She cannot produce all the raw material, but she takes this and couverts it into a marketable article. There is hardly a commodity that the city does not manufacture for herself; though in thi3 age of specialisation it is more to her advantage to cast her energies in certain directions than in others. There has always been something wide-awake in Bristol's commerce— the proverbial Bristolian sleeps with one eye open; and this has prevailed over passing fits of unwisdom or inertia, as when^ the city ran a risk of losing its shipping through the imposition of excessive dues. The clearer vision, the truer trading instinct, have given the city at this day a unique position not only as i distributing market but also for versatile and indeed almost unrivalled manufacturing productivity. A Bristolian might go through life dependent on nothing but local products.; his house with its decorations and furnishings, his clothing, his food and luxuries, his trams and buses, his car or motor-cycle, his tobacco and his drink, can all be supplied him by direct local manufacture. He can go to sea in a Bristol-made ship, or fly in a Bristol 'plane. While admitting that local shipbuilding has been overshadowed in amount and size of vessel by that cf the Clyde, the Tyne, or of Belfast, it remains a considerable local industry. We may emphasise the point that as regards motor-cycle or aeroplane no finer result is achieved anywhere; they are as supremely good as Bristol tobacco and chocolates. Other industries can only be mentioned hurriedly. The city claims to have made the first soap in England, and her soap trade still flourishes; a considerable quantity is exported. If it be true that the • local boot and shoe trade makes :i less figure than half a century since, it is not that Bristol's business in this de.partment has actually declined, or her productions become less excellent; it 'S only that rivals within and outside the Kingdom have gained a measure of success, without really leaving Bristol behind.

INDUSTRY AND EFFICIENCY.

Reference hag been made to the prcr ponderance of imports over exports at the Bristol docks; this is largely accounted for by the fact that Bristol does not deal in the export of coal. But the city ' has a very considerable trade in articles that are her own actual manufacture, and in special has a wide reputation for the excellence of her engineering factories, electrical, constructional, locomotive, and marine. Equally reputed is her I production of galvanised and corrugated .ronwork, which leave the port for many parts of the world, taking its share in the equipment and development of faroutlying districts. Girders and bridges, iron and steel work of all kinds, have been shipped, and are continuously being shipped from the Bristol Docksides. Tinplates, clays, petroleum are also shipped in considerable quantities. Large spelter .works have recently been established at Avonmouth; tar and resin are also locally ,dealt with. Among newer activities may be mentioned the artificial silk industry; , much might also be said of aluminium goods, of rubber and waterproof products, drugs, surgical instruments, corsets, perfumery, condiments, paper, flo,ur —the record might extend to a merely tedious catalogue. There is pottery also; Bristol pottery has had a rare repute among collectors, and the business is beginning to revive old traditions. It will thus be seen that Bristol not only buys and sells,'not only receive? in order to distribute, but is herself <vn active centre of direct production, a hive of present-day industry; proud of her historic past it is true, but looking to the immediate day for her prosperity and her future. The whole of these energies and enterprises are under the fostering care of a remarkably efficient' Chamber of Commerce, whose birth more than'a century since was in close connection with the fortunes of the city's shipping, then threatened by outside competition and some local short-sightedness; but though this Chamber ig still intimately concerned with seaport matters, its interest and care go out to every possible branch of industry, and the city's leading merchant* take an active part in its councils. Such then is the present trade and position of Bristol in the British industrial world. It is centrally situated, controlling as we have seen the entire southwest of the Kingdom, with easy access to more remote parts and direct connection with Dominion, Colonial, and foreign markets. It is a largely productive as well as a distributing contre: its huge

docks have been brought into touch with the utmost needs of the oceanic mercantile service; it can accommodate great liners and offer comfortable berthage to canal barge, Continental "windjammer," or coastwise "tramp." For residential purposes it is unrivalled, and even that counts for something; it is a delight to Rve and trade in Bristol. Aa an educational . centre the town has exceptional advantages, with its magnificent new University, its Clifton College, its Clifton High School for Girls, its Grammar and other excellent public schools. What hat hitherto been lacking has been an instinct of self-advertisement; the city has been too modest as to its own advantages. But that is being remedied to-day, and Bristol is learning to realise the resources, the benefits, as well as the responsibilities of her position. She knows now that she is not merely an attractive West of England trading-town, but an active producer and a great national seaport, one in spirit and aim with the most remote points of the Empire.