PORT OF MANCHESTER

Otago Witness, Issue 3757, 16 March 1926, Page 54

PORT OF MANCHESTER

OPPORTUNITIES FOR TRADE. ADDRESS BY CAPTAIPN WADE. Captain Win. J. Wade, representative of the Manchester Ship Canal Company in Australia and New Zealand, with headquarters at Sydney, gave an illustrated lecture in the Kinema Theatre at the Exhibition on Friday night on the possibilities of trade between New Zealand and Manchester. Captain Wade is actively engaged in connection with the development of direct trade to and from Australia, New Zealand, an 1 Manchester, the great inland port in the heart of one of the most densely populated industrial areas in the world, and which offers an almost unlimited field for the distribution and consumption of primary products of all kinds. Manchester, which 30 years ago was an inland town, is now the fourth largest port in the United Kingdom. It is the centre of the world’s greatest industrial and most densely populated area. Within 25 miles of the centre of the city there are 4,500,000 people; within a radius of 50 miles there are 10.000.000; and within a radius of 75 miles there are 14,000,000 people, which is 1,000,000 more than there are within a similar radius of London. Manchester is one of the world's greatest distributing centres. There was a large attendance, and Captain Wade’s remarks were listened to with keen interest. Captain Wade recounted the history of the Manchester Ship Canal, which, he said, could float steamers up to 15,000 tons register. It had a minimum depth of 28ft. and in Manchester there wore docks 400 acres In extent. The canal and docks were fed by 85 miles of railway owned by (he Manchester Ship Canal Co., and the docks wore the most efficiently appointed In the United Kingdom. Forty years ago, said Captain Wade, Manchester was in danger of becoming derelict, and shops anl houses wore unused. The rateable value of the city was decreasing alarmingly, nnd the outlook was very gloomy. The reason for this was the cutlet nnd inlet for Manchester was Liverpool, through which all its trade had to pass, and the port authorities and railway companies of Liverpool had placed a stranglehold on the progress of Manchester. They extorted taxes to the limit of forbearance on all goods passing through, until at length they pnssed the limit of human endurnnee, nnd there was the inevitable revolt. Manchester .was made its

own port, despite the bitter and powerful opposition of vested interests, and its pro* grese had been wonderful ever since. The idea of putting a canal through from the Mersey Rivet (on which Liverpool was built) to Manchester was no new idea, but it had never hitherto been considered to be practical. The foresight and public spirit of one man, a Manchester citizen named Daniel Adamson, however, led the idea not only to the realm of practicability, but to achievement in actual fact.

This was not done without a very great deal of trouble. There were tremendous engineering difficulties to overcome, and the sanction of Parliament to be obtained. It took four years of strenuous effort to secure parliamentary authority, and even then the conditions were so stringent that it was a doubtful victory. Seven million pounds were required to finance the proposal. and Parliament decreed that £600,090 of this should be in hand in hard cash by a certain date before the final authority was given—a condition with which compliance seemed impossible. The citizens of Manchester, however, were not to be scared bv the conditions of Parliaments, and other means means failing, they made the project a popular one throughout the whole of the district. In every mill, in every factory, and every shop people their weekly savings away to buy shares in the company, with the result that one day before the due date the £600,000 was in hand, aud the scheme went on.

As to the engineering difficulties encountered. in the first place Manchester was 70ft above sea level. “Engineers,” said a leading newspaper of Liverpool, which was, naturally, bitterly opposed to Manchester being its own port, “can do many strange things, but they cannot make water run uphill.” They managed., however. to achieve even that task, with the result that to-day some of the leading brokers of Liverpool were forsaking that city for Manchester in order to carry on business. So bad. indeed, was Liverpool's treatment of Manchester at that date that The Times likened the Liverpool Port Authority to a band of medieval barons extorting dues from the industrial area. Making water run uphill was only one of the difficulties to be faced. There were railways crossing the site of the canal and other canals on different levels. To overcome'these difficulties the railroads had to be raised 80ft and more, necessitating the construction of embankments miles long. Dealing with the markets of Manchester, and its advantages ns a distributing centre. Captain Wade mentioned that whereas 40 years ago the city was in danger of becoming derelict, its docks now handled annually 6,000.000 tons of commerce, and its annual bank clearings and financial turnover were greater than those of Birmingham, Hull. Liverpool, and Newcastle-on-Tyne combined. In 1923-4 the increase in tonnage dealt with was over 1,000,000. as compared with the previous vear. One had only to look at a map of England to see that Manchester was the heart of its greatest manufacturing area—Birmingham, Leeds. Sheffield. Bolton, Bradford, Leicester, Nottingham, Huddersfield, Stockport, Stafford. Stoke, and a host of other manufacturing cities were nearer to Manchester than to any other port What a great market lay *at Manchester’s door l The nearer produce was landed to its .market the lower would be the cost of distribution, and so the greater would be the profit the exporter. Canada, the United States, Mediterranean countries, Argentina, Biazil, and many other countries had been quick to realise this, but to their own loss Tasmania, the Australian mainland, and New Zealand had as yet not done so. For three generations London had had a virtual monopoly of their trade. That was all very well so far as the markets were concerned which London could best serve, but there were other and even larger markets which could be much more efficiently served from other places. For instance, there was the great maiket of Lancashire, Cheshire. West Yorkshire, and the Midlands, which could he served with much greater efficiency from Manchester tiian from London. Vast quantities of butter, frozen meat, and imported fruit were consumed there niTiuailv. He did not remember seeing New Zealand butter sold as such in Manchester. Nearly all the butter going to the North of England was blended. Now was tho time, and Manchester the means, to turn to great advantage the publicity given by the Wembley Exhibition and the shopping weeks. lie hoped tnat such opportunity would be taken advantage of. It was unnecessary, added Captain Wade, to explain that by shipping direct to Manchester transhipment charges and deterioration by double, treble, and quadruple handling could be avoided. Transport and handling charges all worked back to the shipper and the grower. The onlv charges to be met in addition to freight direct to Manchester were the costs of hauling from the quay-side warehouses to the shops in the city and surrounding area, whereas from London railread charges had to be mot and very large handling costs. It was estimated recently that about £317,000 per annum was expended in transport charges on frozen meat consumed in the Greater Manchester area, but shipped via London and Liverpool. The film, which was most interesting, showed huge heavily-laden liners being towed up the canal to Manchester, passing through the locks, under bridges, and discharging all and every kind of eargo in the Manchester docks. Judging by the film, the docks of manchester must be perfect models of efficiency and speed. Electric cranes, worked by a man standing oi er the hatch aboard the ships, discharge and load everything, so that nothing can be damaged by careless handling. Bulk gram can be discharged direct to a silo a mile away at the same time as general cargo, and many other wonderful things r.re done every clay. The long lines of big steamers look like big squat topmasts tied up to quays with their topmasts struck, and the tops of their funnels lowered.