To Make the Sea Dry.

Manawatu Herald, 15 August 1893, Page 3

To Make the Sea Dry.

» Not content with having said to the ocean " Thus far shalt thou go," there is in the air a scheme for draining the Zuyder Zee and making the bottom thereof dry ground (says an exchange). Seeing that this gulf is sixty miles in length and 200 in vy. circumference, and is oftentimes gtormy and dangerous, the idea of turning it into farms and cities, and pastoral factories of butter and cheese ■trikes one as a trifle. Utopian. A section of the scheme, however, seems possible enough considering what has already been done ; this is to throw a dyke across from Enkfcuizen to the island of Urk, and thence to the left bank of the mouth of tho Yssel and pumping out the water. "It is estimated," says one Herr Verster, " that nearly half a million acres will thus be laid bare, of which the greater portion will be available for cultivation." The whtfi^Rs to be completed in sixteen years at a cost of £1 0,000,000. Thi B is no very remarkable sum when one remembers that the hydraulic works that keep the sea in check between ' the Dollart and the Scheldt are estimated to have cost £800,000,000 sterling. The dykes of the Holder and Westcapelle cost in repairs

£18,000 a yeai\ the general main tennnce of the internal waterways running up to £'000,000 a year. Many districts are twenty-four feet below the level of the sea, and this is largely increased in times of storm and stress.