LONDON PORT

Hokitika Guardian, 22 August 1932, Page 2

LONDON PORT

THE HEART OF EMPIRE 'TRADE. REPUTATION THAT IS JUSTIFIED. LONDON, August 10.

That transport has always been an important factor in the progress of the human race is an obvious truth. Of all means of transport none has played more part in the development of the civlisation of the world tjban transport by sea.

Ships were the instruments by means of which the British Empire was founded and consolidated; and ships belonging to that Empire must be an increasingly important factor in the further development of inter-Empire relations and trade.

It is not possible to assess how much we owe to the courage and ability of those- connected with the Mercantile Marine, to the skill of marine engineers, to scientists for the benefits of refrigeration, and to others who have contributed to the solution, of the many problems which surround transport

The problem of the provision of port accommodation m\i9t not be forgotten, for all the efforts of ship designers would have been to little purpose unless port facilities had kept pace with each stage of shipbuilding progress It was from London that many of the pioneers set sail; it was from London that the earliest settlers atr the outposts of the Empire obtained the capital which enabled them to develop the resources of the. lands of their adoption; it was the financial and distributing facilities of London that enabled produce from far corners of the Empire to be disposed of to the best advantage and thus .ensure continued and increasing production, London received and disposed of the first hale of wool shipped l from Australia, and it Iras been through the agency of the London Wool Sales that the valuable Australian and New Zealand wool trade has been built up.

The first consignments of frozen mutton from Australia and New Zealand were marketed hi London; to-day the immense papulation served by the Port of London ensures a ready market for tli©' bulk of the exports of meat, dairy produce, and fruit from those lands to the United Kingdom. Canada’s considerable trade with the Port dateg back to the pioneers of the Hudson Bay Company. The* Union of South Africa annually exports to London in increasing quantities such, commodities'as fruit, eggs, maize., and wool. From India and Ceylon, London absorbs large quantities of te'a, copra, grain, spices, gums, drugs, canes, and so on.

The Empire’s trad© can be encouraged—or vitiated—in no small measure by the degree of the efficiency of its ports, and it is an undisputed fact that the Port of .London is today in a better position than at any time in its long history to justify its reputation as the Empire’s greatest Port and Market.