ADVANCE CANADA.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 736, 8 April 1910, Page 7

ADVANCE CANADA.

DREADNOUGHT DOCKS TO BE ' BUILT. SIR. R. PERKS THE PROMOTER. By Telegraph—Press Association-Ooprrlent. (Rec. April 7, 11.5 p.m.) London, April 7. A company is being promoted to provide three (? two) dry docks at Levis (opposite Quebec) and at St. John (New Brunswick). Each dock will bo 900 feet long, IQO feot wide, and 35 feet. deep. Sir Robert Perks (whoso firm has recently complotcd the trans-Andine railway tunnel, and who is also a promoter of the Georgian Bay canal project) is the chief promoter of the company. It is also proposed to erect a firstclass steel shipbuilding plant at St. John. The Belfast shipbuilding, firm of Messrs. Harland and Wolff and the Canadian steomihip companies are cooperating, being satisfied with the increased subsidy now offered by the Government. The works will be commenced at the end of the year. [Some time ago the Ottawa correspondent of "The Times" wrote:— ''With reference to the proposed introduction of business into Canada by Messrs. Harland and Wolff, yards and dry docks will, be constructed at Levis, opposite Quebec, and also at either St. John or Halifax. The necessity for the two plants is occasioned by the fact that Canada has a -winter and a summer port. Under recent Parliamentary legislation the company will be entitled to an annual subsidy of £14,000 for 20 years, assuming that each dry dock will cost not less than £300,000. The _ announcement of the proposed establishment of works in Canada by thi? great firm has created general satisfaction." The increase in the subsidy wag announced in tho following cablegram from Ottawa dated April 3: "In a supplementary naval programme the Canadian Prime Minister, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, proposes to augment the subsidy for the construction of large dry docks by half per cent."]

CANADIAN GRAIN. UNITED STATES BID FOB THE ' -TRAFFIC. _ Ottawa, April 6. With the object of capturing the, Canadian grain trada from Fort William (the port .on Lake Superior ■ough which the grain of the Canadian North-West fi.ids its way east), the United States railways have reduced the grain freights between Fort William and the Atlantic. . i The Canadian Grand Trunk railway (which is being built with Government assistance) has replied by reducing its freights. It will ask that shipping freights on the Great Lakes and on the Atlantic be similarly reduced in order that the Canadian, through rate from Fort William to Liverpool shall equal the United States 'rate. '. ' ' -

CRAIN TRANSPORT AND CANALS. ' The struggle' between United States ana Canadian transportation systems for the carrying of Canada's grain eastward will probably stimulate the demand in Canada for the construction of the Georgian Bay canal, at an estimated cost of about twenty The construction of this canal would shorten the Canadian transportation line substantially, and should give it a big advantago over its southern competitor. The position has been:-, set forth as follows , in the "Financial Times":—

"From Fort William on Lake Superior a cargo of grain shipped to Liverpool by way of Now York must travel 4929 miles, exact-measurement.. By way of Georgian Bay, however, the distance is only 4123 miles. Here is a saving of over 800 miles alone in favour of tho Canadian sysfjyn. Fort William will probably be one of the n-ain loading points for ocean vessels utilising the canal, since-it is not only one of tho main terminals of the Canadian Pacific, but of the Canadian Northern and of the Graud Trunk Pacific. Tho Canadian Pacifio _ and' Canadian Northern now have lines running directly from Fort William through Manitoba, Alberta, and other grain and cattle-raising territories adjacent."