The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-04-05

navy as well as or the IH6rCdntllt marine. Of the four principal sea- ports of India (excluding Burma) Bom-
 bay is certainly by far the most bounti- fully endowed by nature with facilities for development. Madras, beaten by a perpetual surf, will perhaps never re-
 pay expensive schemes for the con
 struction of a really safe harbor, Karachi could not be approached by large ships until much money had been
 spent on artificial works. Even now,
 rapidly as it is advancing as a port of outlet for the surplus produce of the
 granary of India, it as well as Madras,
 comes very far behind the great trade centres of Bombay and Calcutta, though there may come a day when it's increasing prosperity will be a thorn in the side of both. Calcutta as yet has no serious rival in Northeastern India, though it is too early to say what eff feet may be produced on it's trade by the energetic development of Chitta- gong, as the seaport and the secondary capital of the new province of Eastern Bengal and Assam, The supremacy which Calcutta enjoys over Bombay in respect of the value of it's foreign trade, is certainly not due to physical advan- tages. The fact that it is separated from the open sea by eighty miles of rapid and treacherous river must all
 ways militate against it's popularity with ship ownere, and it is noteworthy that, only a few weeks ago, the Cal cutta papers thought worthy of re- cord the arrival of a ship of 7,00O tons which was trading to Bombay twenty years ago, at a time when it would probably have been unsafe to risk her in the Hughli The reason which en- ables Calcutta to maintain it's place at the head of the Indian ports as the fact of the natural difficulties which beset it as port for ocean-going steamers, lies in the fact of it's close connection by rail with the rich dis tricts of Bengal and the Gangetic Val ley, rendering it the natural starting point for the trade of the whole of Upper India, though Karachi tends more and more to trench on trade with the Punjab
 But even a fine natural harbor like Bombay is comparatively useless for modern commerce unless it is amply supplied with docks quays, and other facilities for unloading and loading the great ships which bring it's imports or carry away it's exports, It was not un- til 1862 that any serious beginning was made with the development of Bombay in this respect, and then the way was led by a private company, which. in exchange for 100 acres provided by it for railway terminus, was authorized to reclaim 250 acres from the sea in front of the foreshore which it already The company began well, for it started operations during the boom due to the American civil war. when the difficulty of procuring cotton from the Southern States had com pelled the mills of Europe to look for their supplies of raw material to the East But Lancashire has always been in this matter, fickle customer of India, anxious to draw on her when the markets across the Atlantic are
 
 adverse. only to desert her as. promptly when the longer-stapled cottons of Am erica are procurable at profitable prices With the triumph of the Northern States came crash in Bombay. The dock company's shares fell from large premium to a discount of 50 per cent, and 1t was only saved from a CO., laspe by Government loan. Soon after this 1t came to be perceived that pri- yate enterprise was not the best means for developing so vast a scheme, and by 1869 the Government had bought out the company. In 1873 the property was made over to the Bombay Port Trust, a body whose infancy was sickly one, for it's revenues failed to meet the charge for interest on it's debt while it suffered severely from the competition of private owners of foreshore beyond its limits By 1879, these private owners having been bought out by the Government. the Trust was reconstltuted, practically on the lines which have been maintained ever since. Meanwhile, between the first of the Trust and it's re- constitution, a great work had been commenced, by which, on It's complex on in 1880, financial equilibrium was The work referred to was the first wet dock of importance, the Princes Dock of which the foundation stone was laid by the Prince of Wales n 1875. At that period the yearly sea- borne trade of Bombay was valued at I5 millions sterling, carried by 1k mill ion tons of shipping. Last November he members of the Port Trust were ible to inform the Prince of Wales that he value of the foreign trade had ris- en to 9S millions, more than double hat of thirty years ago, while the of shipping entering the port lad risen, in still greater proportion, to "A million tons. This larger proportion Ute increase in the tonnage no doubt indicates the increase in passenger rafiic, and the greater use made of the l port by vessels of war
 The completion of a drydock in 1891, md of the Victoria dock, had consia- srably increased the attractions of the | port. The heavy cost of the latter work, however, again disturbed the Trusts financial position, and the dis | lstrous effects on trade of plague and anime, in the years 1S96-9S, still further unsettled it. Since then there has been a reversion to the previous con- litions of prosperity, and seven fat ears have given the Trust a constantly growing surplus. Notwithstanding the ! anl nnrnr,, eniln clr thn n,r,.rA L. u. 1