THE PANAMA CANAL

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LIV, Issue 9027, 5 November 1925, Page 3

THE PANAMA CANAL

lie lore the American* took over the rights ol' the French Canal Company in ItJOl there wn> keen controversy anions engineers 'ever the rival plans lor cutting through the Isthmus ol Panama. In the end America decided in favour of a high-level canal, involving locks ol eoL'asai proportions. Despite th(e. suoce-s "I t"::e canal, with its elaborate system ol lockage, the alternative plan .;(• a waterway ar. >ea-levol still found >uppurier=. and prominent, among them was the French engineer. Al. lMiillippe Bunati-Vanlla, who has liceii writing in its favour since 18N2. Slowly the idea has made its way in the United States. and early in tins year M Tiunatt-Yarilla in a speech at Cincinnati. created a sensat'i in l,y lii.s pkm l< » 1 " converting the existing canal to a. sea level waterway. This, he declared, could he done without the los* of an additional dollar because of Tlie immediate growth of revenue, and also without interrupting navigation for :i. single day. The speech made such an impression that it has heen printed in the "Congressional Record," the official publication of the I'nited States. By making use of the present waterway fdr transport of machinery, material, and so on,it is believed that »« less tlian twenty years a waterway could he made, 300 yards wide and affording unobstructed communication between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The surplus waters of the Chagres River and its tributaries would 1,0 carried in artificial channel. by the side of the main canal to the Pacific. ._»»—«-