PORT ECONOMICS
but as regards a wharf, it should be stressed that this is
properly a structure for berthage purposes, flanking a
riverside and only distinct from a quay, in that, as a rule, it
is constructed of piles and framing instead of solid masonry
or concrete. Quays are generally accepted as being substantially
 built river or sea walls, alongside which vessels
may lie. Both wharves and quays are provided with
adjacent space for receiving and loading goods.
And here we may call attention to two statutory terms
which it is desirable to define, in which the words quay
and wharf are used in a legal, as distinct from an
engineering, sense.
“The terms are those of Legal Quays and Sufferance
Wharves. From early times, British quays for the
reception of goods have had to receive statutory sanction,
and an Act of Queen Elizabeth nominated certain wharves
or quays in existing seaports at which goods were to be
landed and shipped. Subsequently, other quays have
acquired the status of legal quays, either by special Act
of Parliament, or by declaration of the Commissioners
of the Treasury, under powers conferred upon them by
the Customs Consolidation Act of 1876. A few quays
have gained the title from immemorial usage.
As distinct from these legally constituted quays, sufferance
 wharves are landing places on sufferance, i.e. places
where certain classes of goods (for instance hemp, flax,
coal, etc.) may be landed and shipped by special sufferance
from the Crown or from the Commissioners of Customs and
Excise.
The following are the sections of the Customs Consolidation
 Act which relate to the matter—
The Commissioners of the Treasury may, by their warrant,
appoint any port, sub-port, haven or creek in the United Kingdom
or in the Channel Islands, and declare the limits thereof, and
appoint proper places within the same to be legal quays for the
lading and unlading of goods, and declare the bounds and extent
of any such quays, and annul the limits of any port, sub-port,
haven or creek or legal quay already appointed to be hereafter set
out and appointed, and declare the same to be no longer a port,

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