ST. LAWRENCE SEAWAY

Press, Volume C, Issue 29504, 4 May 1961, Page 17

ST. LAWRENCE SEAWAY

Professor Mayer’s Address

The St. Lawrence Seaway, linking the Great Lakes of North America to the Atlantic Ocean with a 35ft channel, "holds as much promise as space travel and colonisation of the moon, and cost nearly as much money.” Professor A. H. Mayer, professor of geography at the University of Chicago, told the Canterbury branch of the New Zealand Geographical Society last night. Professor Mayer is Fulbright visiting professor at the University of Auckland. The seaway, which eost about a thousand million dollars. saved just as much in another sense, Professor Mayer said. It "opened a new era of commetitive transportation” in the “core” of North America. The seaway took five years to build, and was formally opened in June, 1959, when the Royal yacht passed through. The seaway was expected to pay for itself in 50 years. The Canadian and United States Governments were the oniv bondholders. Canada took 71 per cent, of the revenue and the United States the remainder. A feature of the seaway was the huge hydro-electric newer project at the former International Rapids. This nroject took up two-thirds of the capital investment in the seaway and produced twothirds of the revenue The flooding of the rapids had involved moving a tribe of Indians on the United States side and four Canadian towns. There had been hold-ups during the first year, especially in the Welland Canal, which by-passed the Niagara Falls, but most of these difficulties had come from inexperience, and traffic was now flowing more freely. The tonnage of shipping using the seaway during each of its first two years had been below expectation, mainly because of the 1959 steel strike and the “great depression" of 1960.