McCarthy — trinidad as a commercial centre 
labour benefit equally. At least half the g„ oc f s are 
European ports is merely a transit trade , < ’ confrere’s 
consigned to somebody elsewhere, and to quo \ on( j e d for 
■words, “are either transhipped in the hariou , * people 
a day or two and then re-shipped." Tens of thousands of people 
in Southampton depend on the shipping tra e, l 1 . 1 .. . erlinm 
company lately spent there on docks some e T, “aS-grown were it 
Eut. the quays of Southampton would be & *■“ © 
not for her transit trade In Plymouth at Pf sent J“ 
Corporation are seeking Parliamentary powei- « e of 
£600,000 to build deep water quays ia the 
getting the ocean passengers to land theie, a , there in 
hope of getting the steamers to discharge 4h£ 'goods ther^ 
transit. I have a still stronger illustration. Hon- t, Britain 
a sixtieth of the size of Trinidad, and when ceded to ^ 
50 years ago it was inhabited by a hand u o „ ten 
now has a trade worth 40 millions sterling annually, 
times as much as ours ; and its shipping is fi ecl \ , shipping, 
It has five influential local banks ; it has laige practically 
and insurance companies; and Hong Kong . ^ the 
control the tea and silk trades. There are ^tonesjor ^ 
manufacture of all kinds of ship stores; theie a shops. Its 
three slips, and every description of ship-repai o g ra ther 
population, about as numerous. as ours, as • Customs, 
larger than ours, without receiving one f ro m the 
This reads like a romance, but the informa i exp l a ins the 
Rnromantic Colonial Office List, which v°mme duces 
marvellous record of 50 years’ progress , „^. en tre°of trade.” 
little or nothing, but its position has mac e « these are 
The story of Singapore is just as won er • millio ’ ns sterling 
essentially ports of transit, as is Colombo, 
liave been expended on harbour works. 
t , ., smaller scale, but which is 
Let me take an example on a sn „ r tni<rhtly between. 
Under our eyes. The steamer Bolivar ra, @ ? ; n tranship- 
Trinidad and Bolivar. Nine-tenths ° i n0 Business here; 
uient goods, without which she wou # ro m her is due to the 
and the profit which the Colony recede- derived ; — on wages, 
transit trade. These are among the }> ene “* diture of 
repairs, stores, &c., there is a l° cal Q ;? 0 oo or about £11, 000 
year, and on lighterage and laboui , b > ’ passe ngers a y ea *> 
altogether. Then, she brings us abou V’ on y .n average £10 
and if we count each of these a \ s P," 0 ben efit to us from the 
during their stay in the island, t ie i , owing to easy com 
Bolivar amounts to £26,000 per annum. ariC l other vesse s 
tnunication with the Main being provided oy 
