James Bird

Freight forwarders speak: the Perception of Route Competition via Seaports in the European Communities Research Project.Part 1

This paper, in two parts, reports on the Perception of Route Competition via Seaports in the European Communities Research Project wherein a total of 72 interviews were held in 11 European countries. Respondents were also asked to fill in a questionnaire, and it is these questionnaire findings that are reported in this first part of the paper. These is a perhaps surprisingly widespread belief that frequency of shipping service is a main reason for choice of seaport in cargo movement. Time on the route and labour problems at ports are major concerns of freight forwarders whose minds are powerfully imbued with the spirit of free enterprise(absence of governmental or other planning agency intervention). Among other major conclusions are a preference for ‘delivered price’ consignments and the belief in the importance of port charges in route determination (see table 2 for summary of major conclusions).

Methodological implications for geography from the philosophy of K. R. Popper

Abstract In the scientific methodology of Karl Popper the following deductive sequence is stressed: initial problems, tentative solutions, error elimination, resultant problems. This sequence produces two difficulties, concerning the source of the initial problems and the criteria for testing the proposed solutions. Discussion of these problems is relevant to geography, where they have arisen as in any other science. Particularly relevant to geography is Poppers scheme of the “three worlds”: World 1, objective reality; World 2, subjective consciousness and appraisal; World 3, objective knowledge. Geographers study not merely World 1 but rather its logical articulation in World 3. Acceptance of such a scheme helps to reduce not only any supposed dichotomy between physical and human geography but also any supposed division between field workers and so‐called “armchair” geographers. The open‐ended approach of Poppsrs deductive sequence leads naturally to the problems of prediction and planning. The Popperi...

THE FOUNDATION OF AUSTRALIAN SEAPORT CAPITALS

Ws yHERE written records are absent one can only guess at the initial considerations involved in the founding of a large city. The advantages and disadvantages of various sites as assessed by the first settlers may never be known. Even where the student feels he comes near to guessing the truth about the choice of site, he still may not be sure about the purpose of the first settlement. Sometimes he must ruefully admit that the first settlers simply may have chosen a site for an agricultural village and that the pioneers would probably stand amazed to see a modern commercial and political capital risen upon their primitive holdings. In Australia the study of the choices of sites for state capital cities is aided by the written records of the men who made the earliest decisions. These men were aware that the cities they were founding would be the largest settlements in their respective areas, although they could not realize how large those areas were to become. Today the six constituent states of the federated Commonwealth of Australia are governed from capitals which are also the largest cities adjacent to the largest seaports in each state. These cities were founded in the period from 1788 (Sydney) to 1837 (Adelaide and Melbourne), and, in the cases of Sydney, Hobart, and Perth, the man who chose the capital site was also the first governor of its tributary colony. Selecting from the relevant documents, and quoting wherever possible from the words of the founders, the reasons for choosing the site of each of the seaport capitals will be examined. In this intentionally rapid survey the reasons follow each other closely, and it will be seen that some common features emerge. A comparative review, which attempts to make these common features explicit, leads to the posing of a riddle. Why is it that the founders of these cities appear to have acted with infallible foresight? The central business districts of the Australian state capitals have arisen, and are rising still, upon sites that were chosen as regional centers by the first settlers before the surrounding country was fully explored. To have hit on the best spot for the heart -of a modern city before alternative sites in the surround-