1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Delagoa Bay
DELAGOA BAY, Portuguese East Africa (see 7.942).—Improvements in port accommodation during 1910–21 were mainly in connexion with the transit trade with the Transvaal and the development of the coal trade. Coaling plant was erected in 1914–15 and other plant added in 1921, so that altogether 1,400 tons per hour could be loaded direct into ships' holds. A new ferro-concrete wharf, 1,614 yd. long, was completed in 1916. The wharf was amply provided with electric and steam cranes. In 1920 the building of a dry-dock was begun. Dredging vessels maintain a minimum depth of 2112 ft. over the bar. Lourenco Marques drained, given a good water supply, and largely rebuilt, had become by 1920 one of the finest cities in South Africa. Considerable sums had been spent in making marine drives and golf links, in erecting hotels and on other measures to convert the suburbs, notably Polana, into health and holiday resorts in the winter months (May-Sept., average temp. 64° F.). Pop. of Lourenco Marques (1912 census) 13,353—of whom 5,324 were whites, including 668 British. Pop., city and suburbs (1920 estimate) 20,000.
The convention of April 2 1909 between the Transvaal and Mozambique provided (for a period of 10 years) for free trade in the products of the two provinces and for facilities for the recruitment of natives of Mozambique for labour in the Rand mines (from 80,000 to 100,000 Portuguese natives are normally employed in the mines). In return Delagoa Bay was to be given 50 to 55% of the railway traffic in the areas of the Transvaal in which it competed with Union ports, i.e. Durban. This was an effort to adjust conflicting political and economic factors. Had Delagoa Bay been a British port it would have had nearly all the trade of the so-called competitive area, the route from it to Johannesburg being not only some 100 m. shorter than the route to the Rand, but having easier gradients. During 1910–12 the division of traffic favoured Delagoa Bay. Rate adjustments followed and the share of Delagoa Bay in 1916 fell to 31% and thereafter showed no marked recovery. A proposal made by Senhor Freire d'Andrade (sometime governor of Mozambique) that the part of the province S. of the Sabi river—including Delagoa Bay—should join the South African Customs Union found supporters but was not adopted, and pending a new settlement the Mozambique Convention continued in force.
The following table shows the value of imports into and exports from the Union of South Africa via Delagoa Bay in the years named:—
| Imports. | Exports. | |
| 1909 | £4,826,000 | £253,000 |
| 1913 | 4,551,000 | 740,000 |
| 1918 | 2,308,000 | 1,100,000 |
Coal bunkered at Delagoa Bay was 136,000 tons in 1912; rose to 426,000 tons in 1917–8 and fell to 251,000 tons the succeeding year. In the same period (1912–9) the coal exported rose steadily from 179,000 to 589,000 tons. Most of the coal exported goes to Indian ports. The coal comes almost entirely from the Witbank mines, Transvaal. Besides coal Delagoa Bay receives from the Transvaal for export copper, tin, asbestos and maize. The export of copper on a considerable scale dates from 1913. It quickly attained the first place in regard to value (£573,000 in 1916 compared with £199,000, the value of the coal exports the same year). Exports of commodities produced in the province developed slowly. In 1913 they were worth £162,000, the chief item being sugar (£62,000); they fell during the period of the World War. Imports for consumption in the province reached the value of 1,083,000 in 1912.
Shipping remained mainly in British hands, though between 1905 and 1913 German shipping increased by 60%. In that year British shipping was 66 and German 18% of the total. After 1914 the shipping was almost wholly British and Portuguese. In 1917 the vessels cleared numbered 736. The Union of South Africa maintains an agency at Lourenço Marques.
The Manual of Portuguese East Africa (1920), a British Admiralty publication, gives useful information in respect to the relations of Delagoa Bay to the Transvaal. (F. R. C.)