SHIPS TO SAIL UNDER A TOWN.

Hokitika Guardian, 1 August 1922, Page 4

SHIPS TO SAIL UNDER A TOWN.

(By H. Cliallino'r James). VEVEY, Switzerland. Ships to Kail under a town ! Not phantom ships, but soa-going vessels of fifteen hundred tons, carrying cargoes from London and the North Sea ports to towns at the foot of the Alps and places far beyond. • .. 1 Such is the plan l>v which the engi-neers-engaged oil the colossal scheme ; for linking up the Rhone with the j Rhine hope to solve the problem of ] navigation through the City of Geneva. , The Rhone at this spot being very . shallow, a deep canal connecting with j Lake Geneva will have to he made, and this it is proposed to construct under i the town of Geneva itself. Being an inland country without a | sea port, Switzerland’s economic status l would gain enormously by the develop- j incut of Europe’s international water-! ways. Once the great arteries of the ( Rhone, the Rhine, and the Danube are made navigable for vessels of a thousand tons she will become the “clearing house” for a large part of Europe s , water-borne trade. . I Traffic- up the Rhine is already possible as far as Bale, the Swiss port, and when the scheme recently adopted by the French and Swiss Governments for “regularising” the river is completed, barges of 1,506 tons will be able to reach. Bale at all seasons of the year. From Rale a series of locks will raise vessels to tlio Lake of Constance, communication with the Danube at Clin being assured by means of a canal. This will give Switzerland direct connection with Rumania and the wheatproducing countries of the East. But the Rhone is perhaps of even | greater importance to the'Swiss. Many millions will lie required for the construct ion of locks and dams to make it navigable up to Geneva, but by using tl><> lake as a reservoir in summer, power at, low cost will ho provided for a considerable number of hydraulic stations to he erected along the water-

To raise the canal from Lake Geneva to the Lake of Ncuchatel. something like 200 feet, a series of 23 locks will be necessary. The cost of this section alone is estimated at more than seven millions sterling. From Ncuchatel the canal will run through the Lake of Bienne and alongside the Aar, to enter the Rhine at Eelsenau. Tributary waterways will connect with Zurich-1 an erne and Bcrtic-Tlioiine. Thus merchandise could lit- transported from London direct to the Lake of Tlioune, a distance of only 29 miles bv rail from flic Italian Irontier. This would mean a big economy in freight on British trade with Italy. At least sixteen million pounds sterling will have to he found if this ambitious project to connect Rotterdam with .Marseilles is to lie achieved. As an engineering feat it would certainly ho one of the wonders ol the age.