PORT ECONOMICS 
for cargo handling purposes. The practice does not obtain 
in this country. 
CARGO ACCOMMODATION 
It has already been indicated that on receipt (unless 
homogeneous and ready for immediate transfer to lighter, 
or truck), cargo is landed on a quay, or wharf, and taken 
into a Transit Shed for sorting and dispatch. These 
transit sheds are structures of varying size and material, 
according to the circumstances of the trade and the 
resources of the port, but it devolves upon a port authority 
to provide and maintain them. They may be single, 
double, or multi-storied. They may be long or short, wide 
or narrow. It is impossible here to find space to lay down 
conditions of design beyond stating that they should be 
of ample capacity for all demands likely to be made upon 
them, and pointing out the great importance of fireproof 
(or fire-resisting) construction as influencing the cost of 
insurance of goods, some of which are of a very combustible 
nature. 
One thing should be made clear. Transit sheds should 
not be used for storage purposes. It is essential for the 
smooth working of the berth with which they are associated, 
that the shed should be speedily cleared of its incoming 
goods in order to be ready for the next arrival. Otherwise, 
congestion will occur, and possibly the berth may be 
rendered idle through inability to find handling room for 
cargo. It is usual to allow consignees a period ranging up 
to seventy-two hours or more, in which to claim their goods. 
Thereafter, they are charged a rental which makes it 
advantageous to evacuate the shed as speedily as possible. 
The proper place for the storage of goods, if and when 
required, is the warehouse, and this should not be located 
1 The process of sorting is often detailed and laborious. In a 
cargo of a few thousand tons there may be different marks amounting 
to six or seven hundred. This necessitates a considerable amount of 
manual labour and militates against the employment of mechanical 
appliances. 
HO