POLITICAL PARTIES AND NATIONAL WEAKNESS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 1990, 28 January 1907, Page 3

POLITICAL PARTIES AND NATIONAL WEAKNESS.

A striking feature of English political life, it not of all political life (says the Port Elizabeth Herald), is that men seem able to fasten their attention on only'" one thonie at a time This might be well, were the concentration to continue till tho problem was solved. But only for a certain period does it remain the question above all others. Long before a satisfactory solution has been reached, it has to give place to some other matter, which serves <i s an apple of discord To this, may be traced tlie cause of the unsatisfactory progress made towards the solution of our real national jiroblems. Another cause may be found in the so often called necessary evil of party. Party politics are much tlie same as they used to be, but the parties are for ever, and rapidly, changing. . . . . A curious feature of these parties is that, while they differ on national questions, they owe their origin to individuals. The result' is that wherever there is a man of original cast, and dpcided powers of leadership, he either supplants some other leader or forms a new' party. It may he taken as a fairly safe judgment that there are just as many parties as there are leaders The people in the Old Country are in a strange position to-day. Either there are none who possess the necessary powers of leadership, or the nation is richer in such men than it has been at' any previous time. If the former is the case, then these numerous sections are signs of weakness and decay; if the latter is the case, then, though the parties be many and the opinions varied, the final result will be for the nation’s good. Considerable attention has been attracted during recent days to the so-called Labor party. Even it consists of two divisions, the one a Progressive ,tho other a Moderate; the one a Socialist, and the other an advanced Liberal. This Liberal party has many would-be leaders.- The one who, perhaps, originated the cause is largely divorced from it at present, and. Mr. Keir Hardie seems by sheer insisetnee and push to have put himself at tho heacj,

BOLD ENGINEERING. Mr. W. H. Taft, United Staten Socrotnry for War, who is said to liavo contributed more to tlio ndvanco of the Panama Canal than any other American statesman, with the exception of President Roosevelt, contributes a very interesting articlo to i |,o Century, on tlio ontorpriso. The ease for tlio lock-canal is, first', that it is choapor, tlio ostimatod cost boing £30,000,000, whorotis a soa-lovol canal would cost £60,000. Further, tlio lock-canal is oxpootod to bo finished in eight years, while tlio soa-loyol canal would take sixtoon, which moans an immonso saving in intorost, and an oarlior production of rovonue. Tlio lock-canal will give a much faster run for stoamors, for they will ho nblo to get up a good speed in tlio two lakes, which would bo impossible in a soa-lovol cnnnl. Tlio canal will run for three miles from the Atlantic mouth to Gatlin, at a width oi 50011. At Gatun thoro will ho two flights of tlireo connected locks, tlio largest ami most powerful over built. “A vossel will enter ono lock, bo carried by tlio wator to 28 l-3ft. above tlio soa-lovol. The gates will then bo opened, and at this level the stenmor will immediately movo into the next lock. The gates will bo closed behind it; it will ho olovated again by the water 28 1-3 ft; the gates will then be opened, and it will enter the next lock for a similar proceeding. Thoro nro to bo two set's of tlieso throe locks in tandom, all in one unit structure. The structure is to bo made of reinforced concrete, and it will ho about 33001't long and about 360ft' wido. Tlio outer works will ho 50ft thick at tli.o bottom, narrowing to about 12ft at. the top, and the centre walls about 60ft thick. Tlio whole structure will ho buried in the earth, and none of the walls will be exposed, except the coping and the interior of tlio lock chambers.” Migliy liners like the Lusitania, and battleships like the Dreadnought, will thus he raised 85ft nliovo sea-level, Tlio vessel will emerge from the locks into nil artificial lake thirty miles long, and the famous Culobra out will then he reached. Further on, tlio vessel will ho'let down 30ft, and then thoro will bo fivo miles of lake navigation at 55ft level, to the locks which will carry the vossel down to the level of tlio Pacific ocoan. The part of the canal to be built' above sea-level is 24 miles long.