A RIVER OF FORTUNE

New Zealand Times, Volume LIV, Issue 12659, 20 January 1927, Page 4

A RIVER OF FORTUNE

WEALTH IN THE THAMES MAKER OF A MIGHTY CITY WHAT IT MEANS TO LONDON Some statements are secure from contradiction. One is that made recently by a London architect. He. said that if there were no Thames there .would be no bother regarding bridges in general or Waterloo Bridge in particular. That raises the question, says a Loudon paper. Is the Thames worth its place P Would London be better off without it? It can be said at once that the Thames made London the mighty city she is, and the Thames is far ancj, away the largest factor in keeping London mighty. . Had there been'no Thames there would have been no London —or but a sniall and insignificant town. Possessing no mineral wealth of coal or iron, she would have remained stagnant. But she had risen on water—the muddy waters of the Thames. And how many know that there whs'a time when the Thames did not touch London, but emptied itself in t|he Wash. London was' a busy port centuries before the Roman invasion, and be-came-’even more flourishing under Roman rule. The Venerable Bede records that in his time London had become “the mart of many nations resorting to it by sea and land.” Its growth onwards a fascinating narrative—told in detail in “The Story of the Port of London,” issued by tho Fort of London Authority. But what does the Thames mean to London to-day ? “LIVING ON THE THAMES.” The writer says: “Of the vast army of London’s workers, manual and mental, it is estimated that 1)8,000 out of every 100,000 ‘live on the Thames.’ Yes, that puzzles. Your work, and tlie reward it* brings, may not seem to have the remotest connection with the Thames. Think hard, however, and track it back. A link—another —and you touch the Thames 1 The following instances may help;— “Do you sell shoes? Well, ithe leather- was brought, as hides, in one of the thousand ships that every day pass Gravesend. If. you sell fruit, most of that came Thames-wise to London. You may be employed in the home, say, of a Smithfield meat-salesman, or a Mincing Lane teabroker. Well, the meat and the tea came to London on tlie Thames and thus you, through your employer, are living on the results of the Thames. “And think of the direct iwork it provides. Dockers, wharfingers, lightermen,. stevedores, sailors, engineers, packers, the staffs in'the great warehouses and at the docks—a veritable army! On that Thames-living army lives another one—the one that feeds and clothes it. The direct Thamesearned wages spent each week run into millions. It by some convulsion Of Britain’s crust the Thames went hack to the Wash, the plight of London would be appalling. Unemployment, destitution, starvation, would result. Bankruptcies would be as leaves in autumn. London would become a derelict city, and the disaster would shake the world.” That is one way of showing what the Thames means to London, and. the picture has been under and not overpainted. Nothing, for instance, lias been said of the wealth that goes into London, distributing itself all over the community, from tlie fact that the Thames-created traffic draws to London a wealthy floating peculation of business men and buyers rrom all parts of .the world. They spend money —millions in a year. That is.all to London’s good as a whole, for the hotel proprietors and who take also spend. - The money passes on.