BRITISH CANALS

Evening Star, Issue 20136, 28 March 1929, Page 11

BRITISH CANALS

Drain tin* valor from England s ran ai s and lav the foundations nu their beds to form motor roadways, is the suggestion of Major Goronwy Owen, in Hie. ‘ Motor.' In support of this idea. Major Owen i( ll otes the final report, of the Royal t. ommission on Canals and Waterways, to the effect, that “ the waterways have no share in the enormous increase of internal transport which has taken place between the middle of (be nineteenth century and the present time.” The old, placid transportation of goods by canal, even though cheap, is no longer good enough for the merchant of to-day When ho can get his material delivered to his own place without a change and rapidly, withal, by motor lorry, lie will not send it by canal, which is slow and involves several handlings. Hut the canals, Hays Major Owen, represent a well-tbonght-out system of links between points of strategic importance, commercially, throughout the country. Their ■ transformation into roads would mean a speeding up of delivery and would enable British commerce to compete to greater advantage in the world’s export markets. Major Owen visualises a steady stream of high-power lorries bringing the products of mills to London factories and returning with .raw and semi-raw material and finished imports. Why keep in being an obsolescent moans of transport which, compared to acquiring the land for new highways, would be cheap to buy and turn into efficient motor roads lor heavy traffic 1 ' he asks.