CENTRE OF TRADE

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 4156, 1 May 1934, Page 7

CENTRE OF TRADE

LONDON PRE-EMINENT LAST YEAR A RECORD The Port of London established a new record last year, handling over 58,000,000 tons of shipping, but it is not only in this respect that the port is pre-eminent; in the handling of inward and outward cargo London sets a standard of efficiency such as no other port can equal, according to Captain A. W. Pearse, representative in Australia and New Zealand of the Port of London Authority.

Captain Pearse, who spent the summer months in England last year, is visiting each of the main ports of the dominion, and is now in Dunedin. “ The .new Tilbury landing' stage is a fine acquisition to London’s passenger traffic facilities,” said Captain Pearse. ' “It can handle the largest vessels even at low tide, when there is a depth of 37ft of water, obviating the necessity for docking,” MANY PLEASURE CRUISES. Included in the tonnage handled last year was an exceptional number of liners engaged in pleasure cruises, he continued. No fewer than eighty-seven vessels left on various tours, mainly to the Mediterranean and Baltic Seas (the Norwegian fiords constituting a great attraction), Iceland, and the West Indies. British ships dealt with practically the whole of the traffic, which had become exceedingly popular in recent years. Referring to the manner in which the port is controlled, Captain Pearse said that the Authority consisted of a board of twenty-eight members, elected for a period of three years and acting in an honorary capacity. No dividends in the ordinary way were looked for, and once the low fixed interest on the £40,000,000 worth of bonds had been met, all profits went towards a reduction in rates and to improvements, the port being run c on purely co-operative lines. SPECIALISED EMPLOYEES. Everything regarding the handling of inward and outward cargo was done in the docks, where the 26,000 employees included specialists in all sorts of goods. Merchants were relieved of an immense amount of expense and responsibility. The Authority received all produce from the vessels and rendered all the services required in the course of the marketing and delivery of goods. Weighing, tareing, grading, surveying, sorting according to quality and condition, blending, and many other operations were performed by the Authority’s employees. Samples representative of the bulk goods were drawn, and so great was the trust placed on dock samples ■, that they formed the basis of large-scale transactions without the buyer or the seller 1 ever seeing the goods. Merchants therefore had no need to take their goods away until the latter had been sold. Since 1925 the Authority had made reductions in port charges, which were saving users of the port approximately £1,000,000 per year, notwithstanding that wages were 70 per cent, higher than before the war. Referring to the dry summer experienced in England last year, Captain Pearse said that the Thames dropped to an exceptionally low level, but this did not affect the seventy-mile stretch from Teddington to the Nore under the control of the Port Authority, as the water in this area was purely tidal. PROSPERITY IN THE SOUTH.

It was apparent to Captain Pearse that the depression is lifting in England. Conditions in the south, he said, were particularly good, and there was no doubt that London and the southeast of England constituted the most prosperous part of the country. In practically every city the slum problem was being resolutely tackled, and many slum areas had already disappeared.

London was still the financial centre of the world, he said, and exerted a magnetic power in international trade. Bills of exchange on London were the currency of the world’s commerce, and the smallest shipper of produce could hypothecate his documents in Loudon on the best of terms. Both exporters and importers could make more advantageous financial arrangements than in any other market. “ The London market attracts the largest number of buyers,” said Captain Pearse. “ All goods that enter it can find a buyer, and producers who can ship their produce to London know that their sales are assured, and, in the long run, at the best prices.' This is particularly so as regards New Zealand’s primary products. There seems to be more money in the south to-day than ever before. Hundreds of new industries have sprung up in the Home counties since the war, and Southern England, particularly the Greater London area, is at present the richest section of the British Isles.” Stressing the importance of London) as a selling territory, Captain Pearse said that within twenty-five miles of the docks there was a population of nearly twelve million people. Ihe annual army pf tourists made London their headquarters, and all the fashionable seaside resorts bought their requirements in the city. About twenty million people lived _ within economic reach of the metropolis.