PANAMA'S RIVAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 57, 15 March 1907, Page 2

PANAMA'S RIVAL.

U liilf iill ilits vurld has for many .yours pa .-l been discussing the Panama Canal, •i,\ how it should ]>e built, where ii should be built, of whether it could "r should bo built at all, upon the remote isthmus of Tehuanlepee, of which probably miic out of every le n people "•it oi Mexico huvi! never even heard, -hero has been proceeding at an outlay oj nrnrly six million pounds ster'lUg, a colossal enterprise, which oil January 23 rd last saw iU ci'ownin" tinimph in a series of ceremonials in connection with which the Mexicans and tile British, as joint partners, hare exchanged cordial and sympathetic congratulations. Tlie vast importance of this undertaking, its influence upon I lie world's trade from East to West, its ultimate effect upon the Panama' Canal, and the value it will bring to the Kepublic of Mexico, have, been little grasped by tlie world' at large. There can be little doubt that the, Tehuanlepee scheme constitutes a formidable rival to the Panama project, and it has the advantage of from 'ten to twenty years' stailt. It is .stated by a writer of an article in a ixiiulon paper tiiat the railway lias actually teen iii operation for'some two years past, but until the two terminal ports of (Joatzacoalco:,, on the Culf side, and Sallna Cruz, on the Pacific side, had been completed the enterprise could not be deemed actually accomplished. Tlie distance from sen to sea is 1:10 miles in a direct line, but the railway track is 190 miles long, i lie line i« remarkable for the number "of bridges which Jiave had to be built, •-nine of which are uncommon]v tine structure-', while all alike arc (substantially built. 'J'he rolling stock has "■en designed specially to meet the requirements of a tropical climate, and the locomotives are mainly of the oilburning type, it having been' found, by careful experiment upon tin's and i

'•Hut lines, that something like 30 per font can ho saved over wood or coal ( fuel. The Tehuantepcc railway was ; t lie tirst to adopt oil in preference to oilier fuel, and inasmuch aa some yal- , J liable oiMiel.ly have been discovered, j and are now being exploited in Itie jm- ( mediate neighborhood, the economy of- ( fecled in this direction will be emisid- , '.Table. The Tehnanlepee railway's ; influence upon the worlds trade in ex- j. pected to l>n considerable. An Anieri-ca-u-lTawaiin steamship service is be- ' ins started, which, it is claimed, will , revolutionise the .conditions of American coastal transit south of New York nnd San Francisco, as well as open Dp r n. new and speedier m'eans of eonnec- n lion between the Far East and Europe. p "If you take a globe and run a direct t line wilh a pencil from Liverpool 'to n ; Sydney,s*' 5 *' said a woli-known o Mean to a pressman, "you will cut Hie ), American Continent almost exactly in i two along the route of IhoTchiiantepcc y, railroad. Mr Root. the American tj statesman, shares with the, Prescient | T , of the United States a high opinion of it

-he immediate future of tho new line. ' It is nearer the centre of tilings than either Panama or Nicaragua, as will be aeon at once from a few conipaiaUve distances. Via Tcliuantepcc, New iork is 4925 miles from Han Francisco, via Nicaragua 6051, and via l'anania 0107. J'rom Liverpool to San Francisco via Tcliuantepcc is S-27-t miles, via Nicaragua 8783, awl via Panama 11071. It is claimed tlmt there is a proportionate saving in favor of Tehuantepec from British ports to New /calami, Australia, Japan and other remote Fastern and Southern Jandsj, though we Uoubt whether the saving in time and distance to these colonies on the Vancouver route, for instance, would bo anything like as great as is supposed, lor the reason that the new line runs for such a considerable distance along the earth's widest circumference. Nor would it, on account of the long passage in tile tropics be anything like as popular with passengers as the line over the Kockies. The most important bearing the new route may have upon commerce with Australasia is in the freight trade between the Eastern ports of Ihe United States and these colonics. Tchuantepee, for this service, oilers a very substautal reduction of distance, and as many complaints have been raised by Australasian and New Zealand importers .Tiioiit the delays attendant upon the present cargo service from New York there should be good inducements for u shipping company to start a connection with ilexico.