982 REPORT— 1898. 



by a curve of small radius. The keel has almost disappeared, and bilge Iceels 

 are often added. The result of these alterations of shape in the ordinary hulls of 

 trading- ships is that the sills and sides of many locks and entrances are now 

 unsuited to the new form of hulls, and consequently their original power of 

 accommodating vessels is most seriously diminished. 



Until lately it was generally considered that locks 600 feet long, 80 feet wide, 

 and 26 feet deep were sufficiently capacious, with some margin for future wants ; 

 but I think we must now go further in length and depth, and not improbably 

 to some extent in width. We find that at Liverpool the Dock Board have ordered 

 vestibule basins to act as locks 1,150 feet long and 520 feet wide, with entrances 

 100 feet wide and o2 feet deep; and somewhat similar dimensions were talked of 

 for the entrance lock of the recently proposed Windsor Dock at Penarth, which 

 was intended to be 1,000 feet long, 100 feet wide, and 34 feet deep at neap tides. 



Again, apart from the question of locks and entrances, the older docks them- 

 selves are beginning to be found too shallow and too narrow for modern vessels. In 

 docks which are deep enough at spring tides and too shallow at neap tides, and 

 which are opened to the ' tide of the day,' much may be done to improve 

 the depth by systematic pumping, so as to keep the surface always at the level 

 of high water of spring tides. By this expedient, large areas of old docks may be 

 to that extent modernised at the expense, perhaps, of new entrance locks and the 

 annual cost of pumping. This latter yearly outgoing is not an important matter. 

 At Liverpool and Birkenhead 230 acres of nearly obsolete docks have been thus 

 improved at a capital co.st of about 96,000/. for pumping machinery and an 

 annual expenditure of 6,000/. I am executing a similar improvement by pumping 

 in one of the smaller docks on the Thames, and contemplate it on a larger 

 .scale at an important dock there, and also at Hull. 



The conditions of commerce now require also, in order to realise the necessary 

 economy of transport, the greatest despatch, for demurrage on the large and expen- 

 sive modern steam vessels is a most serious question. Thus there must now be no 

 waiting for spring tides, or, if possible, for rise of tide on the day of arrival. 

 Every steamer expects to discharge her cargo on to the quay without waiting 



. for much stacking, still less for trucks ; and under modern conditions dock 

 work must be got through in one-third of the time which was considered proper 

 ten or twelve years ago. From these reasons larger quays and warehouses, 

 better railway approaches, improved sidings, and better machinery are all neces- 

 sities, as well as deeper water and better approaches. 



These demands have come on us, as I have said, not so much gradually as 

 more or less suddenly, and the call for improved docks is general, and, in my 

 opinion, it will be continuing. 



Liverpool last year undertook to spend nearly five millions on such works, 

 and we know of very many important projects at other places. Taking the 

 expenditure within the past decade, and adding to it the authorised expenditure at 

 Liverpool, at the great ports on the Bristol Channel, on the Thames, at Southamp- 

 ton, Hull, Middlesbrough, Hartlepool, Sunderland, the Tyne and its neighbour- 

 hood, at Grangemouth, the Fife Ports, at Glasgow, the Ayrshire Ports, the 

 Cumberland and Lancashire Ports, and so round the British coasts to Preston 

 and the docks at Manchester, and apart from the canal, I roughly estimate an 



. expenditure, either made during the past ten years or contemplated, of from 35 

 to 40 millions. 



These are large figures, and we ask from whence will an adequate revenue come ? 



.,ioT it is a more or less accepted fact that docks by themselves do not produce 

 more than a very moderate return on their cost, though, of course, there may be 

 exceptions to every rule. Apart from the expenditure which has been under- 

 taken, much remains to be done, and the source of supply of the capital required 

 is a highly important consideration. I venture to think on this point that we 

 should learn to realise that vmder modern conditions docks should be considered 



. largely in the light of being railway stations for goods and minerals and, in many 

 cases, for passenger traffic. Docks and quays, together with improved approaches 

 from the sea, are, in fact, the means of bringing traffic to the railways (and, to a 



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