CANALS RETURN

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 234, 24 May 1932, Page 3

CANALS RETURN

TRAFFIC REYIYES ON ENGLAND'S OLD - WATERWAYS MOTOR BARGES USED The reawakening of the canals is one of the least expected romances oi modern transport. But a few years ago they seemed to have fallen asleep for ever, delightful drowsy relics oi a* distant past, summer delight oi small, naked boys, with an occasional slow processlon of scarlet and yellow barges drawn by a eonscientious and methodical horse. Now, up from London river througb town and village, over, under, and alongside road and railway to the factories of the Midlands there is a new stirring of life. Motor barges attain almost incredible speeds and almost daily the canals are coming more and more back on to the map. One of the biggest changes which this revival will see will be the gradual elimination of the floating homes which were once such an integral part of the inland waterways of Britain. Here and there, of course, they will still be found, and in some few cases the new boats will be built with living quarters, but in the mai-n the new speeds will tend to obviate the necessity of the barge men living their lives on the water. Another big ehange, and this one of the main factors in restoring the popularity of the canals with the consigners of goods, will be the construction of wider barges capable of navrgating the Thames. In the past the narrow canal craft have been incapable of this feat, while the Thames barges have been too large to enter the canals. With the widening and deepening of the canals a new type of craft is being evolved which can do the through journey from the port to Birmingham or Leicester without the waste of time and additional cost involved by the co-operation of a river barge and tug.