SUEZ CANAL.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 146, 19 June 1908, Page 5

SUEZ CANAL.

DEPTH TO BE INCREASED. (Received 9.15 ajn;) LONDON. June 18. Prince Darenberg, president of the iuez Canal Board, spe-king at a banquet a London, stated that it was proposed to acrease the depth of the Canal to thirty The present depth of the Suez Canal 8 27ft., and owing to the incursions )f the desert sands, dredgers are kept :onstantlv at woik mamtaining this lepth. The canal is 90 miles long and .21ft. wide, so that the cost of deepenng will be an enormous sum. The cost >f construction and enJarpement was £24,000,000, and the transit dues for .906 totalled £4,326,470, the dividend laid amounting to £5 1/4 per share, 'he canal is owned by an Egyptian comany, authorised by the Viceroy in 1856, nd the general management is conduce ed from Paris, the affairs being -carried j n- by an administrative council of 32.) members, of whom ten are British. In! 1875 the British Government purchased ! , the Khedive's shares for nearly £4,000,000 sterling. During 1906 the number of steamers passing through the canal was 3975, and the proposed increase will greatly add to the number capable of using the great waterway connecting East and West.