LONDON’S DOCKS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2512, 27 May 1909, Page 2

LONDON’S DOCKS.

FIRST STEP IN NEW SCHEME OF REFORM.

MEANING TO THE EMPIRE

A number of gentlemen met on March 16th in a London office., and sat at a long table discussing business. The results of their mooting and of the further meetings they will hold will be felt- to the ends of the earth, and may quite possibly affect the history of the world. For these gentlemen were the commissioners appointed to take over the London .Docks and to manage the whole business of London’s great waterway in the public interest. Upon the prosperity of its port depends in a large measure the prosperity of London. If the sun of London’s commercial magnificence were to wane, all Britain would suffer. Further, Britain’s glory cannot bo eclipsed without, the British Empire changing its centre of gravity, even if it did not fall to pieces. So it comes to this that the deliberations and decisions of these gentlemen may have an effect upon the future of the British Empire. £4OOO A YEAR REFUSED.

At the head of the table sat a typical English man of business —keen-look-ing yet not over-anxious, healthy, quiet courteous of speech. This was Sir Hudson Kearley, M.P., who has built uo a great business in London out of nothing, and made himself a name in Parliament as well for sinew dness, industry, and commonsenee. He is the chairman of the new body. The position has a salary of £4OOO a year attached to it, so that it may attract first-class business men. But that salary Sir Hudson Kearley declined to take. He. preferred that no one shou.d be.able to hint at a “party job/’ and he was quite content with the honor and. glory of the post without the emolument, which he can well afford to do without. . . ' Manv .of the other commissioners are also favorably known to the public. Mr Broodbank. for instance, lias been associatecl with the clocks-all his hic; oil John McDougall and Sir Edwin Cornwall are the well-known London County Councillors: Captain Acton Blake was formerly known as a commander of Indian and African “liners. Lord Ritchie has large business interests m the city. Sir ' Christopher Furness, M.P., is a big shipowner,; and is associated with engineering and col .ones. Mr Hugh Colin Smith is a director of the Bank of England. VASTNESS OF THE TASK. The Port of London is the greatest in the world. Into and out the Thames pass every year some 5000 vessels. with a total of some t-hirtj-foui million tons. The value of the cargoes they bring away and carry away is reckoned at £400.000,000. The docks themselves cover 640 acres of water and ISOO acres of land, with a capita] value of £25,000,000. There are nearly feet of quayside. There are! many miles of warehouses, with a floor-space of fifteen . mi.lion square feet. There are fifty-six miles of wine casks in the dock cellars. I here is £9,000,000 'worth of tobacco and cigars. Every day £27,000 worth of grain is landed. As for the value and variety of the goods which are handled and stored in the vast warehouses, they are, literally, incalculable. But here is a little fact which gives some indication. So many cats are required to keep the warehouses free from rats that the hill for catsmeat comes to £7OO a year. . . . What the Port Commissioners have to do is to keep all the present business and attract more. To do that they must spend money upon bringing the' docks up-to-date. The dock companies could not spend enough money because they were not allowed to make it. The dock companies could not levy dues upon lightermen, and therefore could not spend money upon improvements. Consequently the Port of London has been going down. The central feature of the new scheme is that in future dues shall be. levied for the upkeep and development of tile port. The first duty of the authority, then, is to prepare a schedule of rates chargeable on goods entering the port. HAPPY COINCIDENCE. The. appointment of a committee to consider the organisation of the work to be done was the chief result or the meeting of March 16th. Air Pliilipson, secretary of the Thames Conservancy, was requested to act as temporary secretary to the Port Authority. In an interesting little speech, bir Hudson Kearley spoke of the labors which lay before them and of The greatness of the. port, which had been frequented by merchants and trading vessels for 1600 years. He had found in the British Museum an old seal ot the Port of London dating from the time of Edward 11. It was probab.y at this period that it first received a constitution, and it struck him as a happy coincidence that its reconstitution should take place during the reign of another monarch of the same name, King Edward VII. . ~ . • Reference was also made by the channian to the need of finding accommoc ation which would allow the mammotl vessels of to-day to enterLo>idem s docks and m conclusion SiHi.dsoi Keailey said he trusted and believed that every interest would derive benefit c rnrn the new administration . which would aim at laying the foundations o unending prosperity that would extend far into and enrich tne futuie.