LONDON, PORT OF

-on march 31 1909 the port of london authority became the chief body controlling the port of london. | before 1909, no public body had been charged with the duty of maintaining and improving the accommodation in the port. the city corporation, trinity house, and the thames conserv- ancy had each exercised certain powers of conservancy, and the dock companies had enlarged their docks as and when it seemed profitable to them to do so. the outstanding change made by the port of london act of 1908 was that it set up a public body whose principal duty is to investigate the accom- modation and facilities in the port and execute such works in the river and docks as are necessary to keep the port up to a standard befitting the first port of the world. the main features of the authority's policy have, therefore, been more concerned with the improvement of the port than with the reorganisation of port methods and practice. a comprehensive programme of new works was tentatively adopted in rg1o. the principal works put in hand at once were:— (a) the construction of a modern dock to the south of the royal albert dock, 64 acres in extent with a length of quay of 12,700 ft., capable of receiving vessels of about 35,000 tons burthen. (b) an extension of the ‘tilbury dock. (c) the rebuilding of the north quays of the east india and west india docks. (7) a river cargo jetty at tilbury. the world war delayed the com pletion of the new dock which was opened by george v. on july 8 r921. by the opening of this dock the total water area of the docks was increased to 704 acres and the length of dock quays to 156,450 feet. improvements—an enormous amount of deepening and dredging of the river channels and docks has been carried out between 1909 and 1925. during 1924-5 alone, 3,897,000 cu. yd. of material were removed from the river, and the quantity of mud removed from the docks was 1,206,000 cubic yards. the result of the deepening operations in the river is that for the greater part of the 25 m. below tilbury and for the 10 m. above tilbury, the channel at low water had, in 1925, 4 minimum depth of 30 ft. with a width of over 1,000 feet. for the remaining 6m. up to the king george v. dock, the width of the channel is main- tained at 600 ft., with a minimum low water depth of about 27 feet. at high water, these channels are wider, while the depths are from 17 to 21 ft. greater. the new works in hand in 1925 included a new dock in the surrey commercial system. prep- arations were well advanced for a new dry dock, a new river entrance, and a passenger landing stage at tilbury. up to march 31 1925 the sum spent on new works by the port author- ity approximated {11.000,000. value of the port shipping —the amount of merchant ship- ping entcring and leaving the port was affected by the war, especially during 1918, when the tonnage was only 14,564,000 tons as compared with 40,080,000 tons in 1913. since 1918, re- covery has rapidly taken place, the figure for 1924 being 45,393,- ooo. the total value of the overseas trade of the port for 1924 was £677,342,000, compared with £582,464,000 at liverpool and {121,186,000 at hull. though the port of london authority provides most of the accommodation in the port, there is an im- 734 portant system of private riverside wharves and warehouses, where small vessels are discharged and warehousing business is carried on in competition with the authority. recent develop- ments in the river below barking creek favour the establish- ment of industrial enterprises which expect to benefit by their easy access to thames port facilities. there have been several labour disputes in the port during the period roro-25. a general strike for higher wages took place in the summer of 1911; a more serious strike occurred in 1912, when the question at issue was the employment of non-union labour. during the war, labour was comparatively quiescent, threats of trouble being averted by concessions of higher wages to meet the increased cost of living. another strike took place in 1924, in resistance of a reduction of wages previously agreed upon. the minimum rate of pay in the port in 1925 was 12° per day. the organisation of labour in the port has greatly im- proved since 1910. the administration of the port by the au- thority may, on the whole, be regarded as successful. dock charges are doubtless higher than they would have been had the dock companies not been dispossessed, but compensation for this is found in the more comprehensive treatment of port problems under the management of a body in which the traders using the port are in a majority. (j. g. b.)