VIA PANAMA.

Patea Mail, 16 October 1880, Page 2

VIA PANAMA.

Bakox de Lessees lias succeeded in (< floating” his scheme for constructing a canal through the isthmus of Panama. Capitalists in Loudon and New York have formed a syndicate, and have contracted to find the money required for this greatest of canal schemes. r lhe capital is estimated at ten million pounds* and the-work is to be finished for oceangoing vessels within ten years. Lesseps made the Suez cutting in eight years, and French money did it. British politicians were jealous of the work, and did much to retard it by influencing English capitalists against the feasibility of maintaining a canal through a desert of sand. The Mediterranean sea is now linked with the Indian ocean after longdivorce, and international commerce lias developed remarkably, to the advantage of colonics on this side.

Cast forward ten years, and try to reckon the effect upon these colonies of a direct steam route through the American continent to Britain and Europe. No colony is better placed than New Zealand for benefiting by this now Homeward route. Trade with the eastern states of America would be opened by direct communication. This colony would be in the line of passenger traffic both ways, and all the large steamships would be likely to make this a place of call in their round trip, “ putting a girdle round the earth.” We should probably be within 30 days of London by steam. The Homeward trip would cease to be a serious journey, and would become a holiday excursion.