FANNING ISLAND.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1340, 18 January 1912, Page 5

FANNING ISLAND.

r. « 3 BOUGHT BY NAVAL FIRM. 3 fi Sir Telecraph.—Press Association.! j Auckland, January 17. n Mr. .T. D. Henry, the oil expert, siy« , that Fanning Island was sold by Father Rngi'er to a well-known British naval ~..., 1 shipbuilding.firm, with the- approval nfs ' the Government.' The lagoon is to rn s 3 converted into; a deep-water harbour, with. I I a good anchorage, and used as a naval coaling station. Father Rugicr is now , bound for England to complete ncgotia* tions. . . [The following paragraph rocently appeared in. the "Westminster Gazette":— ; If there is .no-, hitch in the engineers' ; plans, in all probability vessels will bo ■■passing through the Panama Canal in.. less than two years from now. Anticipating the opening of the new route lo s„.a< the Fast, a British syndicate has, it is 3 raid, purchased Fanning and Washington. Islands, in mid-Pacific, with tho inten-- , Hon of establishing there a coaling-station ■: :> for .steamers. Tho United States, which 1 already possesses Hawaii, ideally situated ° on the Panama-Yokohama route, has been 1 looking about for other desirable Pacing 5 islands for a naval base, and recently ) mado Ecuador a tempting offer for the > Galapagos group, which lie about a thou— \ sand miles off the Pacific entrance to the< ' canal, but tho offer was declined.]