THE GLOBE. FRIDAY, JULY 11, 1879.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1682, 11 July 1879, Page 2

THE GLOBE. FRIDAY, JULY 11, 1879.

The cutting of a canal across tho Isthmus of Darien has for years and years been the cherished idea of scientific and mercantile men. The former have wished to prove the possibilities of a scheme which would have to bo carried out in the face of groat physical obstacles, the latter longs for the day when the bonds of commerce will unite more closely the groat manufacturing centres with vaat numbers of possible customers. Even the philanthropist who dreams of a universal brotherhood brought about by more intimate relations being induced between the various populations of the earth, has taken the deepest interest in the gigantic scheme alluded to. Indeed it is only those who, wrapt up in their potty affairs, “ revolve in a vicious circle,” that can pass without interest any facts as to the progress that events are taking with regard to the construction of this canal. The latest intelligence informs us that M. do Lessops and a number of scientific men and capitalists have met together to discuss the practicability of the idea. Never perhaps have a body of men met together who have required more dogged determination ' and scientific and financial foresight. In 1 the first place the capital required is some sixteen millions sterling. The immensity of this sum will not be the chief difficulty to be encountered. Capitalists will be found to advance it by instalments as 1 required, if only the undertaking bo demonstrated as feasible and likely to load to a commercial success. It is the physical obstacles that this body of men must the most deeply ponder over. The Suez Canal was at one time considered an impossibility, and indeed no one can oven , now think of the undertaking without paying a tribute to the genius of the brilliant French engineer who has more gloriously illustrated the French name than her most successful generals. But the obstacles encountered in cutting the water-way through the Isthmus of Suez sink into insignificance when compared with those that will be mot with in constructing the Darien Canal. A groat portion of the latter will run through solid rock, through the end of the Cordillera Range. Then in the other parts, the teeming tropical vegetation will have to bo taken into consideration. At the present time enormous gangs of labourers are constantly at work keeping the native flora from entirely overwhelming the railway that crosses the isthmus. Nature in every aspect fights again man in those parts, as if determined that the latter shall not always bo the conqueror'. The luxuriance of vegetable and insect life is over a most serious source of trouble and expense. Again, the level of the Pacific is on the shores of Central America, thirteen feet lower than that of the Atlantic, and M. do Lessops has declared against the use of locks on commercial and financial grounds. But M. de Losseps is a man of iron will and vast resources, and if the thing can bo done at all in the present state of engineering science, ho is the man most competent to carry the project to a successful conclusion. The issues involved in the undertaking are vas't, they include a turning aside of the current of trade into now channels, and a replanning of the map of the commercial world. None ought to bo more deeply interested in the work than the people of New Zealand. The influence that a Darien Canal would have on our trade and general relations with the outside world would be enormous. What the Suez Canal has done for India, the Darien Canal would do for us. Our water communication with England would be as straight as it could possibly bo made, and our commercial relations with the Eastern States of America would be enormously improved. It is perhaps difficult to got up any enthusiasm about a work, the theatre of which is far removed for us; it is so much easier to arrrivo at fever heat through the medium of a branch line to a small agricultural town, but for all that, the progress of events in connection with the Darien Canal will be eagerly watched by all those who have the progress and material prosperity of Now Zealand at heart.