14 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRKSS — SKCTJON A. 



transactions in oversea goods. At Havre, which is, besides Ham- 

 burg, the main entrepot of the world for coffee, and of iM-ance 

 for cotton and metals, the merchandise is kept in warehouses until 

 it has been the object of sale to other markets. The same happens 

 in Liverpool, with the wool, cotton and timber trade. 'Hie pre- 

 vailing function of these harbours is essentially commercial. In 

 some other harbours the traffic consists esi)ecially in the im])ort 

 of rough goods that after chemical or mechanical transformation 

 are exported as industrial products. Chemical manure from 

 su|)erph()S])]iates, soap and other products of oily plants, pottery, 

 metallurgy and many other industries constitute the jjrincipal 

 elements of life of certain ports, which l)ecome famous because of 

 the industrial ])urpose they supply. 



Sometimes these three fundamental fimctions are met with 

 in one and the same harl)our, especially in large ones, such as 

 London and Hamburg. 



These factors have obviously an important influence on tlie 

 arrangement of every harbour and on the economv of the centre 

 of population to which it is attached. 



Coaling ports show huge wagon-dumpers instead of rows of 

 cranes. Sheds are generally dispensed with to give place to, 

 sometimes, an extensive net of sidings, allowing an uninterrupted 

 hauling in of loaded trucks and the release of em[)ties without 

 interfering with each other. 



The amount of sheds and warehouses is much larger in com- 

 mercial harbours where the goods are kept for some time, than in 

 others where they have only a short stay. 



Close to harbours with important commercial connection:, 

 the centres of population grow more rapidly, and attain larger 

 proportions, than those near others where the goods only pass in 

 transit without sustaining any transformation, or which are the 

 object of commercial transactions on a large scale. 



All these peculiarities have a strong influence on the life au 1 

 character of harbours and their urban surroundings, and are the 

 determinants of their special arrangement to meet the require- 

 ments of the trade. 



At Lourengo Alarques it is to be noted that vessels, colliers 

 excepted, being detained only for shipping or landing partial 

 shipments, the same happening in other South African Ports, the 

 handling co-efficient of the Harbour is nevertheless rather high, 

 owing to its being the natural gateway of a vast hinterland of 

 large consumption and production. The effective tonnage of 

 goods imported or exported during the year 1910 was, inde- 

 pendently of the coal traffic, 595.823 ton>. which comi)are(l with 

 the gross tonnage, 2,207,179, shows a co-efficient of 0.27, whilst 

 the same co-efficient at Cape Town was only 0.13, at Port Eliza- 

 beth 0.15, East London 0.14, and Durban 0.20. These figures 

 show that, of all South African Ports, Lourenco ^^larques is the 

 one that deals with larger shipments of general cargo; that is tJ 



