Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, MARCH 8, 1892. The Manchester Ship Canal.

Manawatu Herald, 8 March 1892, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, MARCH 8, 1892. The Manchester Ship Canal.

The town of Manchester in England is built on the banks of the river Mersey, about thirty five miles inland from the port of Liverpool. Cotton was the making of the town, and as far back as 1760 cotton goods were there made and exported. Before railways were dreamt of, and the roads were but poorly made, the Duke of Bridgewater interested himself in opening up a large portion of England by communication by water, and canals were made. Manchester had one canal formed in 1761 and afterwards it was connected with as large a network of canals, as it is at this day with railways. The trade of the town is immense and the merchants have been vexed that all.their enterprise with the rest of the world has been hampered with the inland charges by rail, road, or water to the port of Liverpool. Of course year by year ocean going ships have got larger, yet distinguished engineers asserted that was possible to make Manchester a port at which the largest vessels could trade, if sufficient capital was forthcoming. In 1885 the Manchester Ship Canal Act was passed, and a company was formed with a capital of £5,000,000. The amount proposed was not merely to make the Ship Canal but was also to acquire the property of other waterways known as the property of the Bridgewater Navigation Comn&ny. With the new ofcaftl the

mileage of the waterways of the new company would be some seventy live miles. A contract was let to Messrs Lucas and Aird for £5,750,000 in the same year, and the first sod was cut in 1887. Work went on well up to June 1889 when abmt a third was completed, bat wo learnt that somo tima last year a portion of heavy eiabankment was washed away and very serious damage occasioned. Our latest cablegrams inform us that the Manchester men will not allow the want of money to interfere with the work, and the Corporation has decided to raise a million and a half pounds for the assistance of the Company. At first this sounded strange that a Corporation should traffic in shares, but the Ship Canal completed will give a wonderful impetus to the trade of Manchester, and the outlay bears a very likely chance of being an excellent investment. In 1888 the Ship Canal is stated to have expended on its ac quisition of 75 miles of canals £4, 880,649 and had paid a dividend cf four per cent, and this whilst a large portion of the expenditure was not of a present* remunerative character. The action of the Manchester Corporation may teach us a lesson in this Colony, and that is that every town is more directly interested in in opening up its connections with the surrounding districts than in simply beautifying its municipal property, and it is one we trust will be taken to heart by those entrusted with Municipal Government.