PORT O’ LONDON.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16487, 28 February 1914, Page 10

PORT O’ LONDON.

Probablt the average reader, attracted by the report of the address delivered by Mr J. H. Estill at the Chamber of Commerco, will wonder why the Port of London Authority should trouble to send an agent into these remote parts to 6ing the praises of the historic Thames. The common impression is that London already has all the trade it can accommodate. But the fact of the matter is that tho great harbours of the Old World are as keen in the competition for business as if they were mere trading agents. A few years ago the newspapers were printing gloomy predictions of the decline of the port of London, were telling us that it had already lost its proud preeminence and that it could neither accommodate the largest ships nor handle the trade with which it had to deal. That weaknesses existed in the administration was plain. The development of the port had been left largely to private enterprise and a 6 the .control was in many hands there was a lack of system and a slow response to new demands that threatened to divert trade either to the Continent or to more progressive ports in the Mother Country. The problem of administration was taken in hand betimes, however, and during the last year or two there has been a. signal improvement in the conditions. A competent public authority now manages the water-front and the improvement of the waterway and of the docks is proceeding apace. Antiquated methods of handling cargo have given place to the most modern facilities, immense new stores have been erected, the channel of the river is being deepened and vast extensions of the docks have been projected. Mr Estill’s mission \s primarily to reply to criticisms that have been directed against the port of London from time to time, and of course the matters with which he has to deal are in the main technical and of interest directly to only a small proportion of the colonial community But he made his address yesterday generally interesting by his description of the facilities the Imperial port provides for handling the products that New Zealand exports and of tho special attractions it possesses as a market and a distributing centre.