Volume One - Into the Victorian Age - The official opening of the docks . . .

Both docks had fulfilled the expectations that were entertained of them, but he believed their capacity had not been fully tested. But before that time should have arrived, the Taff Vale, in accordance with its principle of anticipating the wants of the trade, had tripled and quadrupled its lines, and now, he thought, that the freighters would not think him guilty of egotism when he said that the company had and would provide all the accommodation possible. (Cheers.)

Under these circumstances he thought he could not be wrong in hoping that the day would come when the noble marquis and the youthful scion of another noble house who had just spoken (Hon. R. W. Clive), should have attained that age which would enable them to sit down in amity together and concert the means for benefitting the district of which they were the lords and masters. (Cheers.)

If there was one thing which he detested more than another, it was that miserable, huckstering which led men to see how they could deprive each other of a shilling and make ninepence of it. What they wanted was, to see how they could best develope the resources of the country to the benefit of themselves. Under those circumstances, sinking himself, and speaking as the chairman of the Taff Vale Railway Company, he gave health, long life, and prosperity to the most noble the Marquis of Bute. (Loud Cheers.)

The next speaker was the Mayor of Newport. (E. J. Phillips, Esq.,) who proposed "The Port and Trade of Cardiff." He was understood to observe that Cardiff and Newport had been called "rival ports," but he disclaimed the idea of their being any rivalry between them. There was an honourable and mutually beneficial competition, and docks made in one place would not harm the other, but rather benefit it, by forming an incentive to the making of new docks at the other port.

Mr. T. Powell, in response, remarked that the trade of Cardiff had increased faster than that of any port in the United Kingdom. It had doubled itself every seven years, and if that increase continued the trade would shortly equal that of Liverpool. Now that Penarth Dock was opened, giving more accommodation, he hoped the iron and coal masters would make Cardiff their shipping place ; for he might say, without any disparagement to Newport, that there was more accommodation here than at any other port in the Bristol Channel. (Cheers.)