Tunnel In Ireland.

Manawatu Standard, Volume X, Issue 1505, 13 November 1885, Page 4

Tunnel In Ireland.

One of the greatest engineering feats! of tHfe(age:is>therp?opose'd tiunhei'td con- j nect the Scottish and Irish coasts. Thei . distance, W the proposed route ;is twenty- j oneand a half miles', to be. driven from; onlybtwp ■ f aris, 1 ''and^.at si 'great depth, i owing to the remarkable trough' < ''Skirts' ttiis 'Scottish' coast at 'about a: third ; of the distance between- the shores. Sir Charles Crawford, .who has giv ( en tue pro- \ ject ereat'stuayrc'oVsiflers £hat the work ] -could be completed within eight years. He states that such a tunnel would bring the coalfields of Ayr within forty miles of the manufacturers of- Belfast ; would make the jifagnificent harbour of Lough Swilly theijK>r;t of call for trans-At- j lanticlinerSj,; Wotdd bring Anierica nearly twenty tfour hours nearer England, and pourintof Jreland su§h a vivifying stream of me arid 5 commerce as would: do more to spread comfort , and prosperity than decades of remedial legislatibn. As re gardsthe difficulties of ventilation^ fhe thinks 'either air, fen^ine% dailV\bro«glit nearer * perfection, or electricity, no* ', working" a tramway; ,within a score of | miles of Donaghadee, or the continuous ! | wire rope, so largely^ed with i the smokebreathing* locomotives, arid' with ( it banish i the bugbear of Asphyxia. The enorjmoua traffice which would be created, I togethdr.-withsaJ reasonable rebate? which* ! the m'idlsindfandbtbfer lines Would'dQubtjless be glaa to gj/ve on.ihe, yplume,pf lof traffic passed over their lines, would Iprobablysaffice.to jnrpvideitbe I £270;000j inef revenue required-to- give 8^ per cent. ion, £1,000,^00 debentures; find. '. 6 lp^er. jcent. dividend on ,£4,QOO f OOO share capi}tal..'/.;;> ...'..• ■•;; --.-i-..:': .:■•■ r'-:-:> : '-, '-■- ; ■■;