BRITISH WATERWAYS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 703, 31 December 1909, Page 5

BRITISH WATERWAYS.

IMPROVEMENT PLANS, TO COST .£17,500,000, EXCLUDING LAND PURCHASES. By Telegraph-Press Assooiation-Coijyrielit London, December 29. The Royal Comm ssion appointed m 1908 to inquire reguding inland naviga- a tion in Great Britain (tho present Inan- a cial position of canals, etc , their improve- q mont and extension) recommends tlio appointment of a ' Central Waterway n Board with a view to unifymt; and trans- w forming tho existing canals and water- i ways in tho Birmingham and South Staf- i. fordshiro districts into four main routes —tho Thames, Mersey, Severn, and Hum- j. btr—as tho first step in any comprehensive scheme. , The Commission suggests a eombina- n tion of free grants and loans over a long ) period in connection with tho issue of stock for the acquisi'ion of properties. The report estimate* that the cost of improvements, excluding tho cost of acquisition of properties, will bo seventeen and a half millions, and that after the whole capital expenditure is comploted tho annual expenditure mil be t million. Messrs. J. F. Remmant, Unionist M P, R. C. H. Davidson, civil engineer, nnd J. C. Inglis, General Manager and Consulting Engineer of the .Great Western Railway, signed a dissentient report. TRANS-SCOTLAND CANAL, A DREADNOUGHT WATERWAY TOO COSTLY. (Sec. December 30, 0.10 pm.) London, December 30. ' The nport of tho Eoyal Commission on Waterways shows that the Prime Minister, Mr. Asquith, on behalf of, tho Committee of Imperial Defence, informed the a canal deep enough to cany Dreadnoughts from the Forth and the Clyde would be of some strategic value, but such valuo would, be insufficient to justify a considerable State expenditure. It would be worth while if the Forth-Clydo canal wore promoted as 'a commercial schome to offer some Govi ornmont .■ aid.' ' I The Commission suggests that if Scotjtish and shipping interests see a chance i Of raising funds for the construction of tho canal, they should ascertain "what aid the Government is prepared to giro. RIVAL SCHEMES. COMMERCIAL ' AND STRATEGIC , VALUE. Ono 'of the estimates for a trans-Scot-and canal between the Firth of Forth on the East Coast) and tho Firth of Clyde (on th« West Coast) places .tho ;ost at seventeen millions. In favour , of the Loch Loaiond route, it is argued that the canal would enable tho construction of shipbuilding and repairing yards m loch Lomond, which .would bo twelve miles ootsidc. the possiblo ranps of pin are The work would employ 30,000 workmen for a period of nine ytars As tho abovo infers, there aro two aljernative routes for a Forth-Clyde canal. A ir 3 ?? «»nond routo would be from tho JTirth of Torth, near AUoa, to Loch Lomond, and from Loch Lomond across a narrow neck of land into Loch Long, an arm of the rirth of Clyde, estimated cost, 17 millions. Tho other scheme is to [ollow pretty nearly tho line of the existing canal from tho Forth to tho Clyde -from Yoker, on the Clyde, to Grangemouth, on the Forth; estimated cost, 7 millions. Tho latter scheme totally omits Loch Lomond 'and Tuns towards Glasgow and Uydebank. Its critics- urgo that it* would increaso the already oxi&tmg congestion on that part of the Clyde, and that there might be a difficulty as to a sufficient wntpr. supply for a big canal, seeing tha , - many of tho streams are already appropriated for the population along the routo. It is backed by a Glasgow committee and Glasgow engineers, its rival by Edinburgh engineers. Naval Advantages. The advocates of tho Yoker-Grange-mouth propose a depth of 26ft For tho Loch Lomond canal a deptli of 31ft IB proposed, and it is contended that this depth of 31ft could easily bo increased by 3ft., should it bo considered advisable by simply keeping up tho level of Loch Lomond to its winter level at a comparatively email cost. The Loch Lomond route, being so much the longer and more expensive, ■would need big monetary support from the Statoj and its naval strategio advantages are held up as an inducement to the Admiralty. Germany has provided in the Kiel Canal a waterway sufficient to allow of the passage from the Baltio to tho German Ocean of the largest war vessels, and nowi that her navy is tho noxt strongest in Europe to Britain's, and is being rapidly increased, it is pcinted out that a snip canal from tho German Ocean to the Atlantic would in times of stress and war bo of inestimable advantage to the Navy. With the building of a navnl base at Roeyth, on tho Firth of Forth, a canal that could take the biggest warships end the largest ocean steamers acquires added interest. , Commorcinljy, too, great claims aro advanced, though unbiased opinion would appear to be more sceptical of the economic than of tho strategic value Tho advocate of the Loch Lomond scheme argue that 250 miles would bo saved between Glasgow and London, that tho East Coast ports wonld bo saved nearly 200 miles in a voyage to America, and that ships from Northern Europe would also greatly shorten their Atlantic voyages. Tho Existing Canal. The existing canal has done good work in its time. Projected by James Watt, of steam engine fame, in 1793, tho cana was not actually started bll 1803, when Thomes Telford, the famous stonemason, oil instructions of the Government o: that day, drew up plans. Two-thirde of the canal were finished and opened in 1822, but it was 1843-7 before the work vas finally completed, and tho original estimate of less than half a million had risen by 1849 to .£1,311,270. It may be said that the idea of a Forth and Clyde canal for ships of war dates from tho time of Charlos II As to proposal to improve tho existing canal, Sir John Wilson writes.—"While, however, this direct canal has dono good sorvico to the trade of Scotland in tho past, and is stall in a good condition, and ono of tho best canals in Great Britain, yot it is sufficient to say that with thirty-nino locks of GBft. by 19ft. 10m. wide, and 01ft. deep, it is now out of tho question as ft ship canal, and for various reasons it would bo impossible to deepen it Tho only other existing through route from sea to sea is tho Caledonian Canal, constructed and maintained at tho expense of the Government, botwoen Invorness and Fort William, but . . , . the objection to a ship canal by this routo sufficient for largo merchant vessels or of wtr'is that tho entrances to the canal are too far from the great shipping ports of tho Clydo and tho forth."