PANAMA CANAL.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 34, 4 November 1907, Page 9

PANAMA CANAL.

EFFECT ON TEC PACIFIC ISLANDS ' • : \ ■ \ i ■...■. Lby telegraph.—press association.] Auckland, November 1. Speaking with regard to the Panama Canal and its effect on the Pacific Islands, A I ii loun S> ln an interview to-day stated that a commission is shortly expected at fahiti from Paris to study the question ot building a dry dock, and instructions have been given to , blow up some rocks to still further widen.the channel of the entrance to the harbour. The latter, which,is commodious and secure, is situated on the north side oT the Island of Tahiti. It is well protected by a reef, and being well lighted and buoyed is easy of access by day or night. The channel through the reef has a minimum depth of ,34ft. in the centre, while the depth-inside varies from 6 to 15 fathoms ihis harbour is remarkable in having almost no tide. The greatest variation between the height of neap and spring tides is no more than , 18m." As , there are from five to six latlioms of water close to shore almost all round the foreshore vessels lie close in even whore-there are.no wharves. "It is worthy of remark," continued Mr. Young, 'that all the harbours in the East- ?[" S a , S0l ! tl! of tlle equator aro : under the irencli flag. In the Marquesas. Tuamotu Group, Gambier, Itaiatea,. Huahino, and 15orabora Islands,T there' aro 'a dozen good harbours, but Great Britain has not iii the boiitJi-lacihc any harbour suitable ; for'large vessels cast of Vavan, in tho Tongan Group which itself is very little to the eastward of Isew Zealand, if we tho little atoll of Suwarrow which offers only an anchorage without supplies.'Thus the French possessions in the Eastern Pacific must,' as time goes on, havo an ■increasing, importance, not only as ports of call,,but also from a strategic point of view, for. as an American statesman said 40 years ago the Pacific Ocean, its shores and its islands, are destined to bo the theatre of events of the greatest importance in the yvorld's history."