CANAL REVIVAL

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 688, 14 November 1933, Page 2

CANAL REVIVAL

A MILLION BEING SPENT ON IMPROVEMENT SCHEME. FIFTY NEW LOCKS. London, September 20. Expectations that canal transport may once again come into its own are arising as a result of the £1,000,000 impriOvemeTit schemie upon which -the Grand Union Canal Company is now engaged. The present operations, ithe largest undertakings involving an inland waterway for over a century, are tp be inspe.cted next W-'ednesday by a party -of M'.P's led by the Manister of Transport, the Hon. Oliver Stanley. When -the work is finished, along the whole tof- ithe route from London to Birmingbam: I iCanal locks will have bepn widpned from 7ft to 12ft 6in. -Loads up to 100 tons will have been made possible; and Horse-drawn boats will be largedy replaced by motor-driven models. 'Over fifty new locks. are being built during the course of the work, many of them by the side of others over 100 years old. A feature of the scheme is thait npt once has- it been. necessary to suspend through traffic, Concrete Banks. For miles the canal (banks have now ; been transformed from rough, fallenin boundaries to concrete walls- as smooth as the side of a swimmingbath. "We are determined to make th'e canal -one of the ftnest inland waterways in the world," said MY. W. H, ' Curtis, chairtman of the Grand Union ! Canal Company, tp mle ye'sterday. "We are convinced that there is ,a great future for the carriage of goods, by water. i "By the aid of the canal it is possible for goodsof any kind ito be timed; to arifive -direct fppm tke Midlands, alongside any ship in the Port of London for export, or similarly to be d.elivered from ihcominig ships. "Traders ar© more and more realising the value of the facilities we provide for quick and: easy transport."-