THE WORLD'S GREATEST CANALS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 61, 4 November 1907, Page 4

THE WORLD'S GREATEST CANALS.

WILL THE PANAMA OUTSTRIP THEM? The Panama Canal, which tho United States Government have resolved to construct, is still a thing of engineers' estimate.

The impression prevails quite largely that the work done on the big ditch by the two French companies has gone a long way towards completing it, and what remains for the United States to do is to put upon it the finishing touches. And it would seem as though nearly 60 millions sunk in the gigantic undertaking by the De Lesseps Company and its successor, the company ought to make a splendid showing of works completed; but the fact of the matter is that the biggest part of the work still remains to be done.

Whatever plans are finally adopted for the completion of this gigantic undertaking, it is interesting in this connection to examine the details of the other great canals of the world. In the first place there is the Suez Canal, joining the Mediterranean and the Red Seas. This, of course, was De Lesseps' triumph. It is 99 miles long and 121 ft sin wide, with a draught of 26ft, and took 11 years to make. The cost, including enlargements, was about | £24,000,000. ! In the beginning it belonged to the | French and Egyptians. It is still managed by the French, but John Bull holds a controlling interest. There are altogether 400,000 shares. Great Britain paid something like £4,000,000 for almost half of them to the Khedive of Egypt. She made the purchase through the Rothschilds in 1875, and the Rothschilds received a big commission on the deal. Since then Great Britain has been receiving dividends right along, and her shares are now worth about six times what was paid for them.

An important European canal is that of Corinth, which cuts through Peloponnesus, in Greece. The canal is less than four miles in length, but if you look at the map you will see how it shortens the distance between the Adriatic and the Western Mediterranean. It brings Athens 175 miles nearer Venice, and more than 100 miles nearer to Rome. The Corinth Canal is 72ft wide at the bottom and 26ft deep. It took seven years to.dig it, and its cost was in the neighbojjbod of £1,000,000. Leaving the Mefltorranean, let us take a jump across Europe and light on ! the Baltic.

We are sailing through the wide waterway, walled with stone, which connects St. Petersburg and the Neva with the Bay of Cronstadt. It is 16 miles long and 20ft deep, and forms the northern passage out from and into the great empire of Russia. It cost about £2,000,000, but it is of enormous value to the Czar, for it communicates with other waterways, covering a great part of his empire. Russia is a land of canals. Its great rivers are joined to each other by them, and there is now talk of building a ship canal from the Baltic to the Black Sea. On the other side of the Baltic is the big ditch the Kaiser dug. He needed a short cut for his men-of-war out to the ocean, and he made the Kiel Canal. This reduced the time from sea to sea almost two days, and it has, for all practical purposes, made the Baltic a German lake. The Kiel Canal is 60 miles long, ana it cost about £8,000,000. In time of war it will be closed to outside nations, but to-day merchant vessels can pass to and fro through it. This canal is wider and deeper than most ship canals. It is 70ft broad at the bottom, and of 30ft draught. About 30,000 vessels pass through the Kiel Canal every year. It is built as a sea-level canal, although it has great locks at either end to control the tides.

Both France and Germany have been building waterways from river to river nntil they have gridironed themselves, as it were. You can go all over France by boat. Everyone knows of the Dutch as canal diggers. They understand more about controlling the waters and taking advantage of them than any other people. There are canals everywhere in Holland. So many have been constructed that the Government have a Department of Waterways, the clerks of which are the best civil engineers. They have a big ship canal from Amaterdam out to the sea, and Rotterdam is connected with Antwerp by canals. Our next picture is painted on the other Bide of the world. It is on the Grand Canal of China, which starts at Pekin, the Chinese capital, and is a greater wonder than even the Chinese Wall. It deserves to be ranked as one of the wonders of the world. It begins at Honjjchow, and cuts the Yangtse near Chinkiang. From Chinkiang it goes northward 380 miles without a lock. It is carried further on over country on stone embankments 20ft and more in height.

The canal at some of these places is 200 ft wide. It has flood gates managed by soldiers, and is fed by creeks and rivers. At one point a river was conducted into it ,and the Chinese say that 300,000 men worked seven months to turn the waters of that stream. The Grand Canal cuts the Yellow river as well as the Yangtsc Kiang. It is about 1000 miles long, ana passes through territory containing about six times as many people as are in the United Kingdom.

Japan is a land of canals, built both for traffic and irrigation. Ono of the most wonderful is the Biwa Canal, which was planned in a schoolboy's graduation essay, and was carried out by the same schoolboy when appointed engineer. India is said to have the best irrigation system in the world. It has the Ganges Canal, which is 440 miles long, and which has more than 2000 miles of branches. The Sirhind Canal is 542 miles long ,and it has about 5000 mil. j s of distributaries. There are great irrigation works in Persia, and as for Egypt, everyone has heard of the wonderful water systems of the Nile valley.