THE PROVINCIAL PORTS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19249, 13 August 1924, Page 10

THE PROVINCIAL PORTS.

MANCHESTER AS A DISTRIBUTING CENTRE. UP-TO-DATE COLD STORAGE. AGE OF FERRO-CONCRETE. (From Oub Own Correspondent.) LONDON, July 2. Liverpool, Manchester, Hull, and Bristol are all claiming a share of the direct trade with the dominions, and attempting to break down tire prejudice in favour of sending commodities through the Ix>ndon market. Business men and organisations of these provincial ports are thoroughly awake to the virtues of publicity and advertisement, and they leave no stone unturned to interest dominion visitors and others in the facilities afforded by their respective ports. In most cases the war was a stimulant to the building of huge stores, but when the war ended, the slump in trade and the drifting back to the old principle of sending goods to London, left the provincial ports with greater facilities and more commodious stores than their trade warranted. Hence their efforts to claim their fair share of direct trade, and this very effort has been the means of inducing the Port of London Authority to improve their docking and storage facilities. On previous occasions I have given a description of the port facilities at Avonnioulh (the Port of Bristol), and at Hull. Last week I had the privilege of accompanying members of the International Refrigeration Congress to Manchester and Liverpool, and though their interests largely centred round cold storage, one was able to gain a first-hand impression of what these two groat northern centres are able to offer to overseas traders who elect to send their raw products direct to their ports. In 1882 the people of Manchester realised that if their city was to grow and prosper they must have access to the sea, so they built the Manchester Ship Canal, one of the engineering wonders of the world, arid on January 1, 1894, ocean carriers with cargoes for Manchester and beyond sailed past the port, of Livcrnool, traversed the, canal, and discharged their freights within the city’s gates; On the bank of the canal opposite to where the docks were constructed was an ancient park belonging to the cle Trafford family from the time of King Canute. It was a diamond shape piece of flat land three miles in length and one in breadth, and for hundreds of years deer and cattle and sheep had crazed ou its green pactnres, It was plainly impossible that tliis oart of England should remain as a humble pasture land. Tr was acquired bv a company. Mr Marshall Stevens, one of the founders, and the first manager of the Shin Canal, been me its managing director. The Trafford Park Estates Company linked itself bv rail with (be canal, and all the main railway lines of England. How many of the great firms bought up sites on the nark and built new works is a matter of history. CENTRE FOR GREAT INDUSTRIES.

To-day there is plenty of space for disposal, but in (lie past, few years this area of land has been converted into an unlovely industrial centre. The Trafford Park authorities have not failed to advertise themselves, and one has heard a great deal of the history of this enterprise. But it is one thing to read about it, another thing to see the place for oneself.

Westinghouse Company, now merged into Metropolitan Vickers Electrical Company, was one of the first to see the advantage of the locality, and in the great works now established 8000 men find employment. The Ford Motor Company also established their English works in the park, the Co-operative Wholesale Society established flourmills and a. bacon factory, the famous Hovis bread company built flourmills, and other firms are Shell Mex, Massey Harris, and the Anglo-American Oil Company. One hundred and forty firms have bought. their sites and set up their factories and warehouse:!, and still there is room for hundreds of others. COLD STORES. The buildings that closely conern the dominions, however, are the cold stores and the wool stores. Both these we had an opportunity of visiting. The Trafford Park Cold Stores have a ' reputation. They were designed, hy the way, by a New Zealander—Mr Moorhead, formerly of Christchurch—who remains as consulting engineer to the company. The first things (hat strike the casual visitor on entering these stores arc the particularly dry atmosphere and the freshness and purity of that atmosphere. One feels that the conditions are such ns to warrant long storage under ideal conditions. A s a matter of fact, there was meat in the building that had been there for six months. Before the stores were built there was a complete network .of steel gantries, which were used for the transport of timber. These arc now used for the transport of the meat from the refrigerated trucks-, to the hatchways on the roof of the building. They overlap both sides of the building, and servo as the tracks for high-speed travelling electric. cranes. Railway lines flank each side of the building, and one set is used for incoming produce, the other for outgoingan arrangement, which , makes for very speedy acceptance and despatch of stores. One building of 1,000,000 cubic feet capacity is divided into four sections, each forming a complete unit, bnt the whole is under a single system of air cooling and circulation. It is found that the disadvantages of having such a large chamber to keep always cooled whatever the amount of produce stored is compensated for by the freshness and purity of the atmosphere. Formerly there was only one floor, hut since the -war. and now that there is greater need for differentiating the various IoK n second wooden grill floor has been added, through which the cold sir freely circulates. Three Lightfoot machines of 60-ton remaking canacitv supply the cold air. This enters the building at a temperature of about sdeg Fahr., and is discharged through a system of ducts at low velocity to secure perfect percolation of the stacked carcases of moat. Within fbo ston*, it is thn tf*ninorature nover varies more than 2deg during the 24 hours, the average temperature bein'? Ibtleg Fahr. The slow.v circulating cold a?r is continuously drawn off to be passed over the batteries of brino-rnvered cooling pipes. Although the ■building is fireproof a fire extinction svstem is installed of (he sprinkler type. Water is held in reserve underground, bnt if fnn rise of temperature is such as to affect (ho valves, the air rushes out of the pipes, sets free the water, and the sprinkling system comes into play. Carcases are unloaded from vessels m tho canal to insulated trucks to the company Thcv are then moved over tho Trafford Park railway system to the stores, and picked up in balloon slings by the electric overhead cranes, borne along tho gantries, and lowered through tho hatches. \ll tins movement from the. vessel to tho inside of the stores is carried out for an inclusive charge of 6d per ton. Lnder normal conditions 600 tons of produce can lie moved in and out. of tho stores every dav Inside the stores, in a chamber kept at 36 degrees Fahr., is a power-driven saw for cutting up meat. A retailer is thus able to cut off as much of a beef carcase as ho requires, and leave the remainder of the carcase in store. •\t the time of our inspection the stores were well-filled with Argentine. Patagonian, and Now Zealand meat. The last-named had been brought by the Essex and the Suffolk, and included the Tara tab i and Wairoa brands Incidentally, it was mentioned that the people of the north “swear hy Patagonian lamb - ’ because of its leanness. It is evident, tnereforc. that a system of education is required before the people arc led to prefer tho finer New Zealand commodity. \n insulated motor lorry was being loaded at tho time we were-there. This is evidently one of the reglar trades from these centrally-situated stores. Set m tho midst of a teeming population, it is cii.sv to see the advantages of the Trafford Park svstom. The Port of Manchester Road Service (Ltd.) has a fleet of sueli insulated motors, and provides quick transport within a radius of 30 miles, especially in tho thickly congested area of Manchester and its environs. THE WOOL STORES. Manchester will compete with Hull in tho future as a wool centre. It has proved its: ability to handle this produce expeditiously. Much of tho B.A.W.R. A. wool was stored and sold at Trafford Park. Accommodation is available for the convenient display of the contents of 60,000 bales of wool 'at any one time. For inspection these bales are disposed in rows under one roof in a special building. Bradford is within motor vehicle haulage if a rush consignment, is required, and delivery by road can be assured within five hours of tho receipt of instruction. The Manchester people claim that the time will come when the railway companies will have to put their charges on a profit-earning basis. As soon ns this is done Manchester’s time will come for handling wool. They provide cheap storage, and they look

to the buying that is done by sample (as most brokers do in this country) to bring the wool trade to their doors. These are two of the important stores. There are others, and everey ton of produce is handled from ship to store for a fiat rate of 6d. There seems only one drawback to Manchester as a port—the canal itself, for not every shipping company cares to send its vessels, even if it is possible, up the narrow- wafers. As it is pointed out, however, the carriage by water up the length of the canal is half the amount paid by rail from Liverpool to Manchester, and the lower cost of getting produce to any one centre in this district, which has a population of 10,500,000 within a radius of 50 miles, will tell in the long run. THE MERSEY DOCKS. A visit to Liverpool and a drive along half the docks, an inspection of the cold stores and the now Gladstone system of docks and warehouses, gives one a wonderful respect for this mighty centre of industry and shipping. The Port, of London is not visible* to the ordinary wayfarer. Liverpool port, with its massive stores, are for all to see. What the hand of man has done here in piling up these mountains of buildings is a testimony to the industry and enterprise of modern civilisation. Ami here there come and go the largest vessels in the world. In recent years it has been found necessary to build further dock accommodation, and the Northern Extension Works with the Gladstone Graving Dock were the result o£ the new move. These we had an opportunity of .visiting. The Graving Dock is the largest, dry-dock in Europe. It cost. £500,000, and was opened on July 11. 1913. The length is 1050 ft. The width at the bottom is l4lft and USift at the top. The depth at high-water is about 45ft. so that the largest vessel in the world is able to enter the dock wnthout difficulty. Owing to the intervention of the war, the Gladstone system was held in .abeyance, but since the Armistice the work has been pushed on vigorously. The system includes a river lock entrance 107Cft in length and 130 ft in width; a vestibule or turning dock having a water area of about 22 acres ;and a branch dock 1420 ft long and 403 ft w;ide. opening out cf the vestibule dock, and having treble storey ferro-concreto sheds on both sides of the dock. It was one of these magnificent concrete structures that the visiting party who were here for the Refrigerating Conference went over, and viewed tlie works under construction from the top. A further dock is to process of construction, similar in size to the last-mentioned, which will have entrance to the vestibule as well. VV hen completed, the sheds of each dock will cover a ground floor area of about eight acres, and the total floor area (including the flat roofs) will amount to nearly 32 acres. Electric movable cranes are to be placed on the dock sides at. the quay level, and electric cranes will also bo provided on the flat roof to deal with cargo to be leaden from and to railway trucks or other vehicles. The new works seem to be a triumph in ferroconcrete, and when they are completed Liverpool will be able to deal comfortably with all the trade she is likely to have for many years to come. A hasty visit to this great centre of industry is quite inadequate to appreciate fully its extent. There is a water area of docks of 609 acres, and a quay length of 37 miles. All the principal quays are connected by rail with the main trunk lines of Britain, and the whole dock estate is served by numerous great goods stations which enable Liverpool to secure the utmost despatch from the ship to the inland centres of the country. COLD STORAGE ACCOMMODATION. An opportunity was provided of going over the Union Cold Storage Company’s store at Alexandra Dock. This has a total capacity of 2,777,000 cubic feet, andis the largest cold storage building in Europe. Tlie building consists of three separate sections. each divided into six floors. The capacity cf the building under freezing temperature is 1,200,000 carcases of lamb, or 809.000 carcases of mutton, or 260.C00 qrs of beef. The store is also suitable for keening butler, cheese, eggs, bacon, and fruit at suitable temperature, special rooms licing available. The meat is lifted from the bolds of the ships, passed on to electrically driven escalators which carry the meat on to endless travelling bands running parallel with the quay, and at a central point the meat passes on to other bands which travel right into the cold storage building. The entire operation is carried out under cover. Another interesting feature of the building is that the whole of the roof is covered in for use as a sorting floor. It is on this floor that the endless conveyor bands from the ships side deposit the meat. Here it is. sorted, and immediately moved away to the chambers. On the roof, too, are electric cranes which discharge the contents of the company's refrigerator barges, which have received their cargo from steamers unloading in ether docks. Railway lines are laid along the outside of the building, and a double track is takep right inside the premises. The total berthage for trucks enables ISO refrigerator trucks to be dealt with every day. in addition to numerous motor transport and horse vehicles. The buildings are cooled by elec-trically-driven ammonia compressors in triplicate. Each machine is capable of maintaining (he whole of the buildings at suitable temperatures, so (hat a very big margin of safety is thereby provided. AVONMOUTH DOCKS. Mr David Jones was one of the party that elected to make the trip to Southampton .and Avonmouth, intending to go to the northern ports later when there are vessels discharging New Zealand produce. At Avonmouth a hearty welcome was accorded to the delegates by the Lord Mayor of Bristol, who described the local refrigerating appliances as being as good as those in any other part of the country. He hoped that \ieoplo who were ignorant of (he fact (hat Bristol was on the map would revise the map and realise (hat the little snot at the mouth of the Avon was Bristol. He trusted that one of the results of the congress would bo the binding of the peoples of thoir countries and our country in a firmer way than had been possib.p in the past. A certain number of people, even some from the British dominions. who were ignorant of matters concerning Bristol had been disillusioned at Wembley. Mr Jones was delighted with his first visit to the ancient city of Bristol. Ho said that, no country in the world had benefited so much from refrigeration as hid New- Zealand. At one time it was overstocked with cattle, and in those days cattle were driven over the cliffs, into (he sea. in order to get rid of them. Refrigeration came along, however, .and made the opportunity for shipping their surnlus overseas. Without refrigeration New- Zealand was poor- with it they w'ere enjoying prosperity. New Zealand was the largest producer of butter and cheese in the avorld. and, through refrigeration, also the largest exporter of meat. He paid a tribute to the members of tbe congress for the measure of wealth brought through refrigeration. The London representative of the Now Zealand Meat Board bad spoken in glowing terms of Bristol’s eold stores, and he w r as anxious (n see them. The greater portion of New Zealand's production of meat was purchased by dealers who shipped it to the port that suited them best. The best cure in the matter of inspection was exercised in order to secure the shipment of good sound meat. Uniformity, extending over the whole system of cold stores plant was advisable, and also the notification of the quantities in storage in Great Britain itself. He hoped (hat the suggestion which Had been discussed at tbe London conference would eventually b° adopted.