A RIVER OF FORTUNE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20005, 24 January 1927, Page 8

A RIVER OF FORTUNE.

WEALTH IN THE THAMES. MAKER OF A MIGHTY, CITY. 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 legarding bridges in general or Waterloo Bridge in particular. That raises the questions, says a London paper. Is the Thames worth its place? . 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 and away the largest, factor in keeping London mighty. Had there been no Thames there would have been no London —or but a small and insignificant town. Possessing no mineral wealth of coal or iron, she would have remained stagnant. But she has risen on water —the muddy waters of the Thames. And hew many know that there was a time when the Thames did not touch London, but emptied itself in the Wash. London was a busy port centuries before the Roman invasion, and became 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 f ort of London,” issued by the Port of London Authority. But what does the Thames mean to London to-day? The writer says: “Of the vast army qt London’s workers, manual and mental, it is estimated that 98,000 out of every 100,000 ‘live on the Thames.’ Yes, t that puzzles. Your work and the reward it brings, may not seem to have the remotest connection with the Thames. Think hard, however, and track it back. A link-ano heranother—and you touch the Thames! The following instances may he*P; : “T* . ~ “Do you sell shoes? Well, the leather was brought, ns hides, in one of the thousand ships that every day pass Lravesend If you sell fruit, most of that came Thames-wise to London. You may ,b« employed in the home, 'say. of a Smithhcld meat salesman or a Mincing Lane teabroker. Well, the meat and the tea came to London on the Thames, and thus you, through your employer, are living on tne results of the Thames.” “And think of the direct work it provides. Dockers, wharfingors, lightermen, stevedores sailors, engineers, packers, the staffs in the great warehouses and at the docks —a veritable army lOn that Thamesliving army lives another one—-the one that feeds ' and clothes it. The direct Thames-earned wages spent each week run into millions. If bv some convulsion of Britain’s crust the Thames went back to the Wash, the plight of 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 That is one way of showing what the Thames means to London, and the Picture has , been under and not over-pa nted Nothing for instance, has been said of the wealth that goes into London, ing/itself all over the community, from the fact that the Thames-created traffic drawn to London a wealthy floating population of business men and buyers from all parts of the world. They spend money—millions in a Lr. ’That is all to London s good as a whole, for tbe hotel proprietors and tradesmen who take also spend. The nione.V passes on.