The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1881-06-28 00:00:00

WZYNOUTH AS A TRADING PORT.

Harbour dues to the amount of £3,941 12e. fied. are
stated by Mr. Robins to hare been received last year,
and as the.. were manly paid by the Great Western
and Channel Island steamboets, we may as well
examine some of the details of the trade which has been
thus attracted to the comparatively small part of Wey-
mouth. We must not forget that it is no new thing
for thousands of pounds to be received in Weymouth
for harbour does, for Mr. Robins reminds us that in
1842, when of course it was long before any railway
pains to Weymouth, the dues amounted to £2,000,
while in 1857 they bad actually sunk to 005 116., with
a debt of £7OO to the treasurer beside the funded debt.
Undoubtedly the enterpries of the Great Wotere
Railway Company sad the Channel Islands Steamer
Company has been the means of providing the port
with the trade in piece of that it had lust, and perhaps
the most striking branch of the new trade is that
extraordinary potato traffic, which, commencing with
the new potatoes about the end of May or beginning
of June, causes the employment of scores even of
labourers, in addition to the ordinary gangs, puts the
stades authorities at their wit's end to invent contriv.
slices for relieving the station from the continually
threetened block, and amazes visitor' from the inland
with the spectacle of great themes made up from 20 or
40 tracks loaded with new potatoes aloes.
1 Great hes been the development of the traffic, for
whereas at this time last year, the weight of potatoes
1 sent through the station in a week was about 1,200
1 tons, this year it considerably excite Is 2,000 toss. Out
of the 22 arrivals and 22 departures of steamboats
(exclusive of Comes and Co's. pleasure vessels), 12 are
those of special potato boats, running for the company,
and eight of potato boats also, employed by • Birming-
ham merchaet 0 run between here and St Maio. 1
Dealers go over early in the season to the Channel'
Islands and to France, the lather being searched from
Normandy to Brittany for potato grower., and hers
purchases ore made in advance, in some instance the
speculator buying the crop a certain breadths of land
et a fixed pries, and thus taking the risk whether the
season will turn out well or not, in others purchasing
according to the market and the weight of the crop.
When brought to the steamers for optimal:we to Eng-
land, the, are taken away in cargoes of about 200 tons,
some being known to be.. high as 270 tons, and the
quick run savor the Channel to Wejmouth, which lies
so nonviolently opposite, b -intro them briskly within
easy range of the great consuming districts cif the Mid-
land and North, whose potatoes are not ready so earl
en account of their colder climate. At Weymcnth
they are discharged on the harbour staging erected on
the Quay out of the gains of the traffic Itself, at the
beck of Devoushire and Palteney-buildings, and here
ordinary gangs of 40 day and 40 night men are assisted
by 70 extra men during the rush of the new potato
Oak- A couple of steam cranes rapidly hoist the well.
Iliad basket. and barrels from the steamers' holds, trellis
of tracks are in waiting on the tramway alongside, and
the light engine, which immlanted the work of horses,
draws them aw
juiLt a steady pace .11 round the QUAY.
of Meloombe There is plenty of room for
1 exercising management and forbearance, for very often
the vmsels Almeida the Quay higher are discharging
their cargoes of coal, wheat, kh., scram the tearaway,
aad the two kinds of work have to be seragge4 fo In
the best way the cinnunsteame will permit, planks
Minn the tramway ohm trying the Names of the