MARITIME CANADA.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 650, 29 October 1909, Page 7

MARITIME CANADA.

TWO DOCKS. TO SAFEGUARD ATLANTIC SHIPPING. REQUEST FOE' SUBSIDY. ,j (By Telegraph.—Press Association.—Copyright.) ' , • ' Melbourne, October 8. The project of providing docks for Canttda'6 Atlantic warships and mercantile marino has boon advanced a. stage .by'the formation, provisionally, of a company to build two dry dock&—ono at Levis, an industrial town on tho right bank of tho St. Lawrence,' opposito Qucbcc, told the Other nt 1 St. John,'capital of Now Brunswiok, on the loft bank of tho estuary of the. St. John/ The Levis,dock- is estimated to cost J8700,000, and tho St. John, dock .£500,000. The company inohtdes tho ■ Belfast shipbuilding firm of Messrs. Harland and Wolff. ... , An influential deputation urged the Canadian Premier, Sir Wilfrid Lauricr, to grant ail anjnual subsidy of ,£25,009 to tho dock at oaeh place; Sir Wilfrid Lauricr promised to. consult the Cabinet. .. . •

[la addition to: naval arguments, the risks of navigation ih the St. Lawrence 1 and in Canadian Atlantic waters'call for better docking.- It was recently cabled- that a representative of Messrs. Hariand and Wolff had spent two months in "prospefcting" the - River St. Lawronce for a site for A dock : suitable for •White Star liners of 14,000 tons.; As things aro nt'present, if'an accident occurred to one of these great vdSsels ; on' the Canadian coast, it would possibly become a totar wreck, because it would be impossible to patch her''sufficiently to enable her to steam,to Now York. The many recent shipping casualties on the. coast of Canada have Caused insurance rates to be raised to a very high figure. From the naval standpoint, ,it is- pointed out' that the dock at Halifax is too Email for Dreadnoughts. ' On the I'itciflc coast, also, it is. objected that EsquimaulHs too much exposed.] .