Gigantic Projects.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume III, Issue 2, 5 June 1900, Page 4

Gigantic Projects.

France is evidently not dis| couraged by the disastrous collap^ of her great Panama scheme, for i| is reported that she has in vie^ another project, which is far greatef than the attempt to construct I canal across the historic isthmus, The idea is to build a tunnel undef she Mediterranean Sea, so thai Prance may have direct comrnunii cation with her African colonies-! The European end of the trumea^ cious tunnel, it is said, will not \^< very many miles from Gibraltar and it is asserted that when once fche permission of Spain and Morocco has been granted, the work will be simply a matter of Freud finance and French engineering When the tunnel, which is to ft 12 or 15 miles long, is complete passengers will be able to go frotf Paris to the Soudan withotif changing cars, and proceed righj on, by the railway that has alreadj been started, to Timbuctoo. Bui this is only the beginning of th vast scheme. The projected railwaj' line along the northern coast o| Africa will extend to meet the linj it Tripoli, and continue to Cain and the Isbhmus of Suez. Then another tunnel will be cut unda the Suez Canal, and the railrod will continue along the shores tj the Persian Gulf, across tin continent of Asia, and to Bombay! An engineer has already beg appointed for the Gibraltar Tunn<| This is M. Berlier, and he estimate that the cost will not be more tin £5,000,000. It is also proposed^ take advantage of the present waterways of the interior of Frana and to make a ship canal from well-guarded port on the Medita cancan. Those that are pushin forward the project claim thafcos of its advantages will be that ft years it will furnish work forfi French working men, and will call the mind of the labouring classS A Frenchman, writing on t| subject, says that as soon as ffi tunnel is in working order Fraai will have become mistress of tt Mediterranean. She will gin passage to the troops of her al at will. Algiers will have rdij become French soil, while fromfil far-off Soudan will come intermit able trains, loaded with precioa raw material. Spain will join| Republic, Italy will follow; I old dream of the Confederated Laii States will be realised, and ft confederation will control the rotl to India and China. It is a msj! nificent dream, but France haahii magnificent dreams before. "i