PRECIOUS CARGOES FOR LONDON.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 16463, 16 June 1919, Page 3

PRECIOUS CARGOES FOR LONDON.

GLAD SCENES AT THE DOCKS. Goods of ©very description are now pouring into London from all parts or the world through- the docks,, wharves, and barges of the Thames. From the old docks up-river within sight of Tower Bridge down do the great Victoria and Albert Docks come reports of full warehouses, and great trade. Happily • both- transport and labour are working smoothly and goods are being moved out again almost' ad quickly as they enter. Trade, as shown by the port rate returns, is undoubtedly looking up and returning to inormaJ. If the export trad© were only moving at the same pace, all would bo well.

“Meat is a bit short,” said Si* Joseph Broodbank, one of the reprew sentatives of the Board of Trade on the Port of London Authority, “but therqi arc 1,000,000 carcases from New Zea* land on the way. The first ©alas are now being hold, at the London Docks, We have 22,000 tons of tobacco in bond' and 3000 hogsheads in craft on the river. As for port wine—-well, you had better go to the London Dorics qnd see the pipes and the new schoon. efs the' Portuguese have built for thd trade!” ; -. Port makes a wonderful show. It lied in “pipes”—barrels Which swell in the( centre and- narrow to the ends—every■< where. - One square is full of it. Thq lanes are full, and every minute another pipe is swung out of the hold of thej schooner to the dockside.

NEVER TOO MUCH POET. “We never had so much- port at 0n.9 time,” said an official. “It is said that there are 80,000 pipes at Oporto waiting to be shipped, "We, must have had 20,000 already. Brandy came right through the war and is still coming. -We have a great stock of whisky also.’ Wool is another; remarkable feature of the London Docks at the moment and will be all through the year, It is believed that at least 2,000,000 bales will come to the Thames this year. Much wool has come on the hide. The large warehouses where the British In* dustries Fair was held are covered with thousands of bales, and the buyers are busy every day gauging the worth of each hale to a farthing tho pound. So much wool is arriving and due to com© that thex*e will be no “seasonal” wool sales this year. They will he held monthly. There are great days in store for the textile land tanning trades. In adjoining warehouses are great stacks of boxes containing cun-ants and sultanas. .... The Port of London Authority has no fear that Britain is going tolose her supremacy as tho market for wool, tobacco, furs, spices, tea, coffee, ivory, dried f ruits ,and all the variety of merchandise handled so expertly and with so much inherited knowledge in her docks.