T'RKSTDENTTAL ADDRESS SF.CTTOX A. 13 



For the handling of goods there is a fine equipment and 

 ample sheds, with spacious room for 90,000 tons, as well as an 

 open area for the storage of over too.ooo tons of goods. 



In order to meet the rapidly increasing export of coal, a 

 coaling hoist of the ^TcMyler Patent is now being built, with a 

 handling efficiency of 400 tons per hour. 



As most of the goods landed are bound for the Transvaal 

 and other parts of the Union, free of Customs duties, several 

 bonded sheds, warehouses and yards, belonging to forwarding 

 Companies, have been established, where goods await orders for 

 despatch. 



These are the most noteworthy characteristics of this Har- 

 bour, which, as every other harbour, has its own features due to 

 the influence that its geographical situation, the riches and extent 

 of its hinterland and the wealth of the community has on it^ 

 traffic, circumstances that, varying from one harbour to another, 

 offer a criterion for grouping them into classes, according to their 

 different functions. 



Coastal harbours are, from this point of view, to be distin- 

 guished from inland harbours established on large navigable 

 rivers, usually at some distance from the sea. The first are, as a 

 rule, called at by passing steamers, for passenger service, mails 

 and small quantities of cargo, while inland harbours deal mainly 

 with cargo boats and full shipments. 



Southampton, Dover, Plymouth, Cherbourg and Vigo are 

 therefore only ports of call and small traffic, while London, 

 Liverpool, Glasgow, Hamburg, Rotterdam, Antwerp, Rouen and 

 other river-served harbours are essentially ports for heavy traffic. 

 Tliere are, of course, some exceptions where the coastal 

 traffic is rather intense, for instance, Marseilles, Genoa, Barce- 

 lona, Havre, and most of the harbours where coal and ore are 

 shipped for export, such as Cardiff'. Barry Docks, Bilbao and 

 some others, but the ratio between the gross tonnage and the 

 effective tonnage of goods handled, or, in other terms^ the hand- 

 ling co-efficient of shipped and landed goods is, as a rule, lower 

 in coastal as compared with inland ports, keeping, in the first- 

 mentioned class, between 0.10 and 0.20, and reaching, in some 

 few instances, up to 0.60, whilst^ inland ports show a co-efficient 

 averaging between 0.80 and T.20. 



The character of harbours is also affected by their dominant 

 economical function. Alany of them supply the wants of distant 

 countries to which they are connected by waterways or by rail, 

 either through import of goods asked for from oversea markets 

 or through export of produce of those countries served by such 

 ports. In these the bulk of goods handled in transit towards 

 their places of destination hardly stops. Their function is there- 

 fore particularly regional. Rotterdam, which is the natural outlet 

 of the Rhine, the most important trade artery of the world, is a 

 typical instance of a port of this class. Others live upon large 



