AN AUCKLAND CANAL SCHEME

Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14547, 26 December 1912, Page 6

AN AUCKLAND CANAL SCHEME

Auokland is in an expansive and confident mood. Its citizens seem to think there will be no limit to tho city's growth and importance, and money is being poured out like water in various

! directions of development. An im-

rnenso sum has been spent on wharves, and now it is proposed to cut a canal from tho "Waitemata to the Manukau at a co?t of a million and a quarter. The promoters of the scheme are said t'' bo working hard gathering data o and they may, of course, be able to make tho enterprise an attractive one to investors, but on the information contained in the telegram we published a few days ago, we should not say that the scheme looked particularly promising. It is satisfactory to learn that if the project is taken up the work will bo done by private enterprise. It is certainly not a work that should be undertaken by the Government, which will have its hands full for many years with moro pressing matters. Nor is it a srhoine that should be shouldered by the Harbour Board, which has been indulging in very lavish expenditure of late. If the canal is to bo cut, it should be mt by private enterprise, but there still remains the necessity for the most thorough investigations being ma-do before Parliament permits operations to be started. To say that if tho work is so done "it will not cost tho country i penny' , is misleading. If tho enterprise failed, a largo amount of capital that might be employed profitably would bo thrown away, and the reputation of the Dominion as a place for investment would suffer. Parliament, therefore, should insist on having the fullest information about tho scheme, lincluding reports by outside experts. Thero is one point about tho proposal on which information would bo interesting. Are the promoters euro that shipping companies would send big ships 1 through the canal and over the Manukau bar? We should not bo surprised if owners of. vessels running across the Tasman Sea refused to risk them in such a bad harbour merely to save four hours' steam. It would also bo interesting to know if the cost of improving,the Manukau Harbour is included in the estimated cost of the canal.