More Yankee Ideas.

Manawatu Herald, 24 April 1902, Page 2

More Yankee Ideas.

Barges worked by electricity and travelling on a canal which will stretch across England from east to west may be the next development of American enterprise in this country. It is stated that within the next 18 months two leading English canals will pass into American hands. Mr George Cawley, the canal engineering expert of Westminster, said he had not heard yet of the prospective acquirement of eanals by Americana, bat if such a thing should come to pass he thought the two canals sought after would be the Aire and

Caidercasal, which runs bom th* eut oom4 inland to v Leeds, and 4b* Leeds and Liverpool canal connecting th* two latter places. If Amsricans should hereafter acquire these two properties,” h* said, “ it would, I think, b* with a view to making a waterway across England to th* Continent.” « Steamer* arriving at Liverpool from America would trantf* fer their goods to barges, which would carry them by means of the canal across to the Humber. Hera they might be transferred again to steamers, or there might even be some arrangement by which the boats traversing the canal could go across direct to Antwerp. Besides the facility afforded lor Continental business this scheme would have the advantage of tapping the important industrial district in England through which the canal ran. If the horse haulage ststem were abolished and the Erie system substituted,'it would probably mean that the barges would be fitted with an electric motor, power being supplied through an overhead wire similar to that used for electric tramways.” Mr Cawley thinks canal enterprise opens up a promising field for the capitalist.