THE PORT OF LONDON

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 2, 4 January 1939, Page 10

THE PORT OF LONDON

FACILITIES FOR VAST TRAFFIC I | The Port o£ London is controlled by I a public body known as the Port ol I London Authority, consisting ot 281 members which came into being in I 1909. The Port Authority have jurisdiction over 69 miles of the /River Thames as well as five large enclosed dock systems formerly owned by private dock companies. The dock estate is 4235 acres in extent with a water area of 721 acres having 45 miles of quays for berthing ships. There is accommodation for over 1,000,000 tons of goods in the huge warehouses, cold stores, sheds, etc., within the docks and the most up to date appliances are provided for handling the multifarious classes of goods wnich use the port. Amongst the 10,000 employees of the Port Authority are experts in every commodity who perform the many operations required by merchants in marketing their gooas. Since 1909 the Port Autnority have spent over £20,000,000 on extending and modernising the accommodation and facilities for shipping and goods. The equipment of the docKS includes 1500 cranes of varying capacity up to 150 tons and 10 graving docks, bulk grain suction elevators capable of discharging 2500 tons per hour, numerous electric trucks and special machinery for handling particular commodities such as meat, mananas, etc Some idea of the vastness ot the traffic can be obtained from the fact that in 1937 over 62,000 vessels with a total registered tonnage of 62,645,000 arrived and departed from the port and the tonnage of goods handled was 44,380,000 valued at £509,756,000. London Markets The great London markets for primary products attract more buyers both national and international tnan any others in Great Britain or elsewhere, and merchandise can always find a purchaser at the best price. London offers to buyers a wealth of variety which is unequalled by any other market in the world. Experience has shown that the London markets owing to their immensity can absorb quantities which at other centres would result in a glut while competition is too keen for buyers to dictate the price . The Smithfield Meat Market has no counterpart anywhere in the world. More than 9000 tons of meat can be displayed at one time. In 1936 the ’supplies sold through Smitnfield exceeded 469,000 tons. The cold stores in London are capable of holding 4,750,000 carcases of mutton. The wholesale provision market in Tooley Street is the greatest dairy produce market in Great Britain. Buyers from the London area and the provinces come to Tooley Street to obtain their supplies of all kinds of provisions. The principal markets are Covent Garden and Spitalfields, where the fruit is sold either by private treaty or at auction sales open to all comers. At the London Fruit Exchange Spitalfields the auction theatres have nearly 800 seats allotted to the buyers and in the words of the market superintendent “the function of the new Spitalfields is that ot a great clearing house serving through its fruit exchange not only the city and home counties but the whole country.” Wool The auction sales are held at the wool exchange in Coleman Street. Forty acres of floor space in the Port Authority’s warehouses are allocated to wool. The show space on the lop floors is capable of displaying 60,000 bales at one time. Buyers examine the wool there before attending the sales in Coleman Street and the attendance at the sales runs into hundreds. London as a “spot” market and as a supplementary market tc the Commonwealth and Dominion markets is of very great value to the wool growers. Wool can be financed more easily and cheaply in London than anywhere else. Producers of good quality primary products in order to obtain the best prices should take advantage of the great London markets and ship then goods direct to London.