New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-04-16
INDUSTRIAL ENGLAND.
BY ROBERT p. PORTER, MEMBER OF THE LATE
TARIFF COMMISSION.
THE SEAPORT TOWNS OF SOUTH WALES

TIE SEAPORT TOWNS OF SOUTH WALES
,rRoM SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT OF THE TRiBuNE'l
CARprFF. Wales, March 20:
The tourney from Bristol TO Cardlh On o'i"'
h,aak rainy day in March is anything but lnspn-
inc At"New Passage" we were all turned cut OF
the train and had TO shiver on the letty unui
connie of primitive lifts" had lowered the lug
.acsv Wistfu were the looks of the passengers
toward the spot on the banks of the Severn where
The Great Western tunnel works are progressing
and every one said to every one when wlli the
tunnel under the Severn be oompletedT" NO one
knew The wind WAS bitter, the ram was pene-
trating and the red muddy water spiasned anu
rushed amid the wooden piers. Alter ABOUT hi'ccu
minutes WAITING bell rang and down rushed the
half frozen passengers into ferry-poat ana ai,ei
disagreeable passage we landed in Monmouthshire
and were soon on the road to Newport was
anxious to reach Cardiff that night so did not stay
long at Newport which has recently been descrlbec
very aptly think as "a strange, busy. primitive
pushing and sagacous town" The streets arc long,
the billy byways are numerous and very steep the
houses are for the most part fat shallow ana uhih-
teresting the shops are OF the cheap order-sone-
thing like Dewsbury-an6 the thoroughfares are
said to overflow with children. The latter state
ment do not make on my own authority. Gays .no
author of very interesting series OF papers III 1'
Eaily Telegraph on 1.-The British Channel forts
BOYS and glrls sprawl about the pavement 'oi
NEWPORT in shoals. From time to time Indignant
householders dart on. of their doors and threaten
them and scamper instantly follows, out DacK
they come again III Highs.
To AN American, however all these Welsh ports
present nothing very novel Newport Is truS
town in the making" and there are many such
llu in ha
library lad recently been opened, wing of puDhc
in6rmary completed and a park presented to
the city. These events were, OF course
celebrated in the Western fashion Inc
police. the fire-sneine his worship the Mayor, the
Council the clergy and the volunteers, followed cy
an array of pilots, compositors. boiler-maRers,
bakers wagons vans etc. with display OF bunting
formed a procession and the town biazed III glory
for day. Newport has nearly 10000 population
The shipping business is extensive and small
amount of shipbudng is carried on. 1t is a busy,
progressive place but of no special interest as a
manufacturing town.
arrived at Cardiff late in the evening, and aster
trying IN vain 10 obtain accommodation at the Ioar
principal hotels informed at the Royal that the
Boots ght be able TO find me "aroon over the way
/ followed the Boots and thereby obtained garrett
with a skylight for window, rickety chair,
q sauare yard of three-ply carpet for furniture.
"What is going on in town. / said to the Boots.
"Nothing SIR he replied; "Cardif grows 80
fast that the hotel accommodation is insufficient
Why we are hundred thousand now"
And the Boots was right. Cardiff has grown OF
late years from very Insignificant place to an I'M
portant port. 1t and Swansea are in fact the two
outlets to the great coal fields of South Wales. and
around them have clustered variety of Industries
According to the census of 1881 the population OF
Wales was 100000. Gamorganshire. IN which
Cardiff, Swansea and Merthyr Tidvil are situated,
contained 512, 600. and industrial Wales contains
over one-half of the entire population OF Wales.
Including Observation-Disclosures it is almost I'M
possible to speak of industrial Wales
without including Monmouthshire. which. for
apparent reasons, / shall consider with Wales
and taking the population in radius of twenty
five miles around Cardiff we have total OF
b63 $50. The same radius around Swansea would
give 404, 49S. Indeed, until the development OF
South Wales the whole of that part of the United
Kingdom was sparsely settled and of no economic
importance OF interest In the present letter shall
treat Of the two ports. and in a second from this
locality. give an account of visit to Merthyr I'D
vii and a walk from there to Dowlais and days
rambles among the Welsh coal miners and iron
workers
The history of Cardiff during this century
IA considered by Engishmen "a commercial
romance though it is what Americans would call
ordinary commercial progress. At the opening OF
the present century, eight pages of directory
gave the list of the inhabitants Of Cardiff IL will
be graft Tying TO know that at that early day nine of
the townspeople were styled gentry" Under the
somewhat generic head Physlc," four persons de-
scrlbed themselves as Surgeons. apothecaries and
men-nidwives" There were five lawyers, and nearly
every one else was CLASSIFIED under the head
"Traders" MultltudinOus characters were these
old Weishmen and here again they remind one of
the pioneers of the West The peaceful loom Is
combined with the implements Of war In the
person of one citizen described as a
"hnen-weayer and sergeant-major" literature
and foresight in another, who was printer, book
seller clerk to the Marquis of Butte and insurance
agent" The far Elizabeth Jones was draper,
hat-dealer and maltster." Her namesake Tom Jones
was dealer in earthenware, and tailor" John
Mocan was "baker and mason" and Edward
Whiting a tailor and soap-boler" while John
Stibbs held the enviable position of "peruke-
maker bleeder and tooth drawer" to the commu-
nifty which then numbered less than 900. The
de6nition of trader" IN Cardiff has always been a
broad one and as late as 1880 included schoolmas-
ters cashiers Of banks, auctioneers, architects or
french drawing masters, organists ana music mas
tiers. bookkeepers, and the governors of the
jail. Al that time the population had
only reached 6,1s7, and twenty years later pS5l),
only g. ISL In 1861 1t had nearly doubled in 1871
it reached 60 900, and to-day is nearly 100000 The
beginning of this progress dates from the construc-
ton of the canal from Merthyr Tidvil to Cardiff;
the second period in what the population has
doubled from the construction of the docks. With
in the last twenty five years over $15,000000 has
raid in he al docks
port OF Cardiff In five years II .5000 600 has been
expended on the streets. Tie value of the exports
from the port of Cardiff has increased from $l4,-
600. 600 in 1876 to 500 81 900 m 1880 while the
Imports aggregate $I2,0O0o00.
No town displays such a strange inter