GREAT DEVELOPMENT

Hokitika Guardian, 4 October 1929, Page 2

GREAT DEVELOPMENT

SEATTLE’S AMAZING GROWTH I * Many interesting impressions of the harbours and sea-ports of the Pacmc coast of North America and Eastern Cahada are given by Mr M. Cobeli in a letter to the \Vellington Harbouiiioard, of which lie was lorTuauy years a muiiiber, and two years chairman. He represented the board at a harbours conference at Tacoma in July. Mr Cohen describes Puget Sound as •‘that marvellous waterway, which, w itli its many ramifications, amis of Lae sea and natural harbours, affords limitless potentialities, and with tiie outstanding incueases ot productive units, solves any problems which may arise as to adequate export faeiiities to all parts of the world/’’ {Situate upon the Columbia River, Portland, e-regon, is equipped with ail moaeiii appliances, and lumber being ns principal industry it central.i*vii Uiui. i.nportant commodity and dispatches huge quantities of Oregon pnie to the East, particularly Japan, xts general manager and chief engineer Mr l'uhiieinus, has earned a great reputation as a diecige designer, and lias just completed a dredge for the port of 35M) horse-power. ‘’One cannot close reference to the beautiiul city of Portland without mentioning the glorious Columbia River Highway, one of the finest scenic drives i have ever taken, Its interest to visitors is absorbing, and it is to be hoped that the local equivalent, or the marine drive round Wellington Harbour, will serve a like purpose for-our oversea mends". PUGET SOUND PORTS. Tacoma, at the head of Puget Sound, has a water frontage accommodating the largest ships. Its principal exports are lumber, pulp and iron. Of the latter c-omodity, one smelting works alone turns out 300,000 tons annually, incidentally, the chimney of these Works is the. highest in the world, and quite a. feature of the landscape, being oliOit. high. One factory for doors, and three and five-ply■' woodhoard, turns out daily 8000 doors completed at a manufactured cost of 1 dollar 75 cents (equals 7s) and 150,0C0 square feet of three aiid five-ply boarding. The mechanical Organisation is marvellous oeyond description. At the end of ahother ai-rii of Puget Sound is Olympia, the capital city of the State of. Washington. Speaking at a reception there, as the delegate who had travelled the greatest, distance, Mb Cbhen referred incidentally to “at lehst one Common tie, and that was that' the waters, which meant so much ! to the development of the country, the happiness and prosperity of its people; had been discovered and charted by the same agencies to which we also were indebted for similar blessings, in the persons ofCaptains Cook and Vancouver, who had conferred upon humanity in general a great boon in their operations so widely apart -as the v nqrthem and southern ends Ox the habitable globe.”

SEATTLE HAS 400,000 PEOPLE.

Mr Cohen considers that no city in the world has shown such a growth of remarkable rapidity as Seattle. From a fishing village of half a century ago or less it has a population of 400,000 inhabitants, modern in all its phases, of great physical beauty, indeed, the Indian world “Seattle” means “charm.” Immediately outside the harbour and approached therefrom by a lock, is a fresh-water lake oi 26 square miles, .around the borders of which flourish all kinds of industries. Their ice storage has a capacity of 5000 tons of perishabe food, as against summer requirements, and this space is at the disposal of retail vendors on the warehousing principle in vogue at the Port of London Authority. They export 35,000 barrels of mild-cured salmon, 4,000,000 boxes of apples. During the year seven and a half million pounds of frozen fish is handled, as well as eighteen thousand carcases of' reindeer, a food commodity just in process of development. Their output of ice for domestic purposes m the port’s freezing chambers is fifty tons per day, and their total capacity for storage of goods of all kinds on the warehousing principle is eighteen thousand tons.

CANADIAN TRADE POSSIBILITIES,

Vancouver, so well known in New Zealand, has (become the principal, port on the western coast of the Dominion of Canada. Its wheat shipments alone now stand about 100,000,003 bushels annually. About twelve miles from Vancouver is the port of New Westminster, on the Frazer River. A recent development tnere will, Mr Cohen thinks, lead to its growing importance. There has been created a cold storage plant of one and a half million square feet capacity. The port has abrogated many terminal charges, and, as the largest ships can come up to well-equipped wharves and docks, it cannot escape consideration. “Indeed, the head of the Foreign Trade Department, discussing with me their project designed to attract trade with Imperial Dominions, was anxious to know what chance there was of promoting trade with New Zealand, more particularly with regard to lainb, frozen mutton, etc. I placed him in possession of the names of the principal export units in New Zealand, and no doubt suitable correspondence will ensue,” writes Mr Cohen.