664 



The Review of Reviews. 



THE MAKING OF A NEW 

 ENGLISH PORT. 



We are often apt to think that the production of a 

 brand-new seaport, complete and ready-made, belongs 

 to American or Colonial enterprise. Yet, as the Raihvay 

 Magazine for June reminds us, the King and Queen 

 will open next month such a newly-created seapor* at 

 Immingham, six miles up the Humber from Grimsby ; 

 nine miles further up, on the opposite side, is Hull : — • 



On July I2th, 1906, Lady Henderson, wife of Sir Alexander 

 Henderson, the chairman of the company, turned the first sod 

 upon an extensive estate which had been acquired for the 

 purpose. The contract for the dock works was let to Messrs. 

 Price, Wills and Reeves, and carried out under the supervision 

 of Mr. Robert HoUowday. Nearly 100 miles of temporary 

 line (single track), 30 locomotives, 1,416 trucks, wagons, 

 10 steam navvies (including the " Lubecker "), 39 cranes — from 

 3 to 10 tons — 26 boilers, 39 pumps, 30 horses, 14 pile-drivers, 

 and 20 miles of water and other mains were employed during 

 construction. Two thousand five hundred men were engaged 

 by the contractors. At Brocklesby, only a few miles away, 

 Messrs. Price, Wills and Reeves purchased and worked a large 

 ilone quarry, from which a great proportion of the stone for the 

 concrete, ballasting, and other purposes was obtained. They 

 also erected on a site adjoining the dock property an engineering 

 Establishment equipped so that they could make anything from a 

 lip w.agon to a locomotive, and deal with all the numerous repairs 

 to plant. But much of the material required had, of course, to 

 be brought from a distance. For instance, the granite used in 

 ihe copings and the lock quoins came from Sweden ; the timber 

 — Jarrah wood, pitch-pine, elm and oak — from Russia, America 

 md Australia ; the gravel from Sunderland and various places 

 an the south coast of England. At one time there was as much 

 as 70,000 tons of this material in stock, forming a mound 

 several hundred feet long and 200 or 300 feet wide. Cement, 

 Df which 50,000 tons were used, was conveyed by barge from 

 the Medway. 



A THOUSAND ACRES IN SIZE. 



No less than 320,000 cubic yards of concrete were used in the 

 :lock, and the amount of brickwork was about 30,000 cubic 

 yards. At the entrance jetties the river channel had to be 

 Jredged for a considerable distance, and about ij million cubic 

 yards of mud were taken out. This was pumped through 

 wrought iron tubes, about 24in. in diameter, on to the land and 

 allowed to settle. By this process a considerable area of the 

 Jock site was raised nearly 5ft., the remaining area being filled 

 up with 3,500,000 cubic yards of excavation talven from the dock. 

 The raised banks for the coal storage and gravity hoist roads 

 were formed with 1,500,000 cubic yards of excavation from a 

 side cutting two miles distant from the dock site. From the 

 Humber Road bridge on the west, to Iminingham Halt on the 

 Last, the length across the dock property is I2,50ofl., or about 

 2j miles ; the width, from the southern boundary to the bank 

 jf the Humber, 4,800ft., or five-sixths of a mile, and the river 

 Frontage i^ miles. The total area of the dock estate is about 

 1,000 acres, so that ample space is reserved for any subsequent 

 extension that may be demanded. 



The water area is about 45 acres, including the timber 

 pond of si.x acres. The entrance lock has a depth on 

 iill at high water ordinary spring tides of Al^t., while 

 It low water the least depth is 27ft. 6in. The water 

 ivithin the dock basin ranges in depth from 30ft. to 

 ^5ft. At any state of the tide the dock may be entered, 

 ihis is true of no other port on the East Coast. No 

 towing expenses arc necessary. 



It is within forty miles of widc-strctching coal 

 measures, and rich deposits of ironstone are found in 

 the locality. Altogether it is said that " the new port 



of Immingham ranks as the most convenient in respect 

 of geographical situation, the most modern in all its 

 multifarious appliance's for loading and discharge, and 

 the most economical maritime commercial gateway in 

 the British Isles. At the same time it furnishes the 

 latest and most remarkable example of bold enterprise 

 on the part of a British railway company." 



This remarkable enterprise is the work of the Great 

 Central Railway. The same magazine contains the 

 history of the chequered course of the Manchester, 

 ShefSeldj and Lincolnshire Railway. 



THE CAPE AS TACTICAL BASE. 



The United Service Magazine contains a seasonable 

 article on " The South African Defence Scheme," in 

 which " F. 0." emphasises the necessity of retaining 

 the services of " officers of high military rank and 

 experience," with the natural conclusion that " those 

 officers must be British." This moral is also the burden 

 of a contribution by a " Rooinek," who makes out a 

 strong case for the maintenance of the Imperial 

 garrison. The writer has his eye on complications with 

 Germany, and taking into consideration the small 

 forces in the German African Colony, he indicates that 

 in the event of war it would be easy " to seize and to 

 hold this great colony, as, so to speak, a sort of hostage 

 for anything we might lose elsewhere." He continues: — 



With the command of the sea which we can assume to have, 

 troops from Cape Town could be landed at Walfisch Bay, and 

 if it would be difficult or even impossible to control effectively 

 the whole country for some time, the railways should fall a 

 comparatively easy prey, and the rest would be merely a matter 

 of waiting. Nor would it be unlikely that substantial assistance 

 would be repdered by the colonials themselves from the land 

 side. Even during the recent war scare last September this 

 feeling was very much in evidence, and there were many 

 volunteers ready to answer the call. The price of land within 

 the Union is going up by leaps and bounds every year, and if 

 for no other reasons than the spirit of adventure and fortune 

 seeking, the enterprise would appeal to the soldier-farmers. 



It looks simple on paper, but sometimes circum- 

 stances alter cases. 



MODERN 



LANGUAGES 

 CLASSICS. 



VERSUS 



Tiii.s vexed question is discussed by Mr. C. F. Kayser 

 in the American Educational Review for May, He 

 says : — 



We may admit that German literature perhaps has no prose 

 writers .as yet of the perfect type of a Demosthenes or a Cicero, 

 but neither have the Greeks and Romans any such lyrisls as 

 Goethe, Heine, Liliencron, and a dozen of others, or any 

 writers of fiction and romance such as modern Germany 

 possesses. Without fear of serious contradiction, I might also 

 emphasise the greater interest, and the more direct bearing, 

 which much of the best German literature has upon our own 

 immediate lives. When modern language teaching in all its 

 outward conditions h.as reached a position of equality with the 

 classics, its inherent qualities will entitle them to be regarded as 

 a satisfactory substitute for the classics. 



