The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News The Echo. SATURDAY, JUNE 13, 1908. CANADA'S INLAND SEAS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 141, 13 June 1908, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News The Echo.

SATURDAY, JUNE 13, 1908. CANADA'S INLAND SEAS.

- » . .. For the cause that lacks assistance. For the tvrong that needs resistance. For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

The decision of the Canadian Government to deepen the canal between. Lako Erie and Lake Ontario has been actuated partly by patriotic motives, partly by a natural desire to promote the growth of Canada's immense internal trade. In the vast expanse of the great lakes Canada possesses unsurpassable facilities for the transport of her products, and their connection by means of canals has given an immense impetus to the growth of her extractive industries and the expansion of her mercantile marine. The Weliand canal between Erie and Ontario enables large ocean steamers to avoid Niagara and to carry their cargoes far into the heart of Canada and the United States. The Sault Ste. Marie—the "Soo" of the average Canadian—between Lake Huron and Lake Superior, brings the largest body of fresh water in the world, backed by the largest grain-growing area yet brought under the hands of man, into direct communication with the St. Lawrence, and thus within easy reach of the largest trade centres of America and Europe. An enormous and constantly expanding commerce centres around these inland seas; and proud as the Canadians are of their lakes, it is natur-

ally a source "of vexation and anxiety to thorn that by fur the largest proportion of their great trade flies the American flag or passes through American hands.

lt is forty-fivo years Blnce the American Senate granted a concession of land for the building of the "Soo" canal; and the famous Henry Clay said at the time that '"the money might as well be wasted for a project in the moon." The canal was completed in 1553, and for .the first year only about 14,000 tons of freight went through. But in 1876 the freight carried from ijako Superior doAvn to Lake Huron through the "Soo" aggregated over a million tons. By 1899, with a freight passage of 9,000,000 tons, it exceeded the tonnage of the Suez Canal by more than two millions. By the end of 1904, the tonnage carried through the "Soo" had increased to over 31,000,000. But in 1905 alone there was a sudden rise of over 12,000,000 tons; and the figures for 1906 show that in this year the total freights carried through the canal had risen to over 51,000.000 tons. But of tAis huge trade, unfortunately for Canada, American vessels carry nearly 96 per cent. In 1905 the total value of Canadian ships engaged in the Lakes trade was only 5,430,000 dollars, while the American vessels were valued at 73.000,000 dollars. These figures may give some idea of the vast importance of this lake trade, not only to Canada, but more especially to the United States.

We have spoken so far of the trade between Lake Superior and Lake Huron alone. If we take the whole course ot the Lake run, from Duluth, the great Minnesota wheat depot, down to the mouth of Ontario, the statistics become even more imposing. During 1906 it is estimated that the total trade transported on the Great Lakes amounted to quite 100.000,000 tons. This is twice the combined tonnage of London and Liverpool; it is nine times the tonnugn that passes through the Suez Canal; it is oO,OOO r OOO tons in excess of New York's total export and import trade. Those curious in statistics may learn with interest that the wneat carried on the Great Lakes in 1906 would have fed a city of a million adults for 60 years, and that the coal carried between Erie and Huron would have required a train of 50-ton cars, 225!) miles long. A morn practical illustration of the immensity of this lake trade is an order recently placed by the Lackawanna Steel Company for five steamers of 7500 tons, and three more of 9000 tons each, to be delivered in August this year. One single corporation, the Steamship Company, has 108 steel vessels on the lakes with an average carrying capacity of 6000 tons. The lakes service at present employs 1500 captains, 15,000 sailors, and 100,000 landsmen for at least eight months in the year, and with the cunstai, l expansion 'of settlement in the North-West and the steady growth of railway transport systems hi the United States, thp, wort: to be done by the lake steamers and those who run them must increase indefinitely for a long time to come. Partly a cause, partly an effect, of the rapid growth of transport facilities on the Great Lakes is the phenomenal cheapness with which the work is carried out. The railroad system of the United States comprises more than 200,000 miles, which co=st over .L 2.500,000,000 to build and equip; yet on a basis of ton miles the average freight on the Lakes is little more than one-tenth of that charged on the railroads. For 1900 the cost per mile per ton over the thousand mile trip from Duluth to Buffalo was only 85 cents. At least 50,000,000 dollars a year ie said to be saved by this low transport

charge. From Lake Superior iron ore which used to cost three dollars to shift is now carried east through the lakes at 60 cents per ton. The handling of cargo has now been raised to the level of a fine art on the lakes, and the railways cannot possibly compete ■with the economies thus effected. Ten thousand tons of coal can be loaded on ship-hoard in three hours with the help of cranes and chutes, down -which the contents of the railway cars afe poured. All this ■can be discharged in eight or ten hours, and 12,000 tons of ore can be substituted for it in less than two hours. The grain trade is served by enormous elevators fitted with pipes for filling and suction pump 3 for unloading the wheat. The pipes feed the ships at the rate of 125,000 bushels an hour, and a 10,000 ton freighter can be filled in an hour and a-half. Worked on this colossal scale, jt is easy to see how freights can be cut down to the barest minimum; and thus has grown up the vast system of internal trade which has made the Great Lakes the centre of industrial activity'for the Continent. So far, the Americans have profited by it to an even greater extent than the Canadians; but the inexhaustible resources of the North-West may yet give to Canada the commercial supremacy which the possession of the Great Lakes justifies her in claiming for herself alone.