CHAPTER VII 
THE PORT AS A “ TERMINAL ” 
AMONG the different aspects in which a port may be 
considered, none is of greater importance than that of its 
relations to inland transport—in other words, the linking 
up of its water services with its land services. We have 
seen in Chapter I that consignments of goods for export 
reach a port from inland sources by various routes, and 
that incoming goods from abroad are distributed along 
the same routes, but in the opposite direction. We have 
now to consider the port in its relation to these land 
routes, that is, as a ““ Terminal,” using a word adopted 
in America to express a point or station at which goods 
are transferred from one class of transporting agency to 
another. 
RAIL CONNECTIONS 
Obviously, the most prominent and the most effective 
means of inland transport at the present time is the railway, 
certainly as regards distances of considerable extent. 
Within the immediate vicinity of the port, road vehicular 
transport may occupy the chief place, and, for moderate 
distances inland, there is a growing rivalry between the 
motor lorry and the railway wagon. Furthermore, if 
dispatch is not an important consideration, goods may 
be transported by waterway at a considerable saving in cost. 
But, despite these reservations, the railway remains the 
chief and essential link between the port and its hinterland. 
It acts as the principal collecting and distributing agency 
over a wide area of country, extending to remote towns 
and districts, and forming the connecting medium with 
inland industries and manufactures, mills and factories, 
markets and merchandise. The problem, therefore, of 
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