CANALS IN ENGLAND.

Evening Post, Volume LXIX, Issue 118, 20 May 1905, Page 15

CANALS IN ENGLAND.

Public attention in Great Britain is beginning to bo {Jireofcd " tow^'d' thp . improvDinont of tho ciuml hystoin. In cm important p.iper road thu other evening at tho Royal United Service'lnstitution in London a prominent engineer advocated tho nationalisation n,nd oleutrifkntioi) pr ih 0 cannls. He said tjiat if tho 3500 miles of the uystein could be bought al two-thirds of (he origiiiiil cost of construction, sny, £2350 p«r mile of length, tlifii the i>at)it.il required would bo £8,225,000. Cs»lwl«tinj{ at £500 per milo- for the cost' of Mtiindardising tlio locks, and i>2ooo per mile for- the electrification of the eaii.ils, then the total amount required -would be £16,975,000. Allowing £3,000,000 for worJdng capital, he thought th.U .i round Mini of- twenty millions would secure for tho Slute a splendid transport property. He then picceeded to argue tli.it inasiinuch a« more than sixty • millions sterling had bocii expHiuled in tmunvqy systems in tho country, und thnt. over three hundred millions sterling had been absorbed in municipal woik, tho Government, might surely be permitted to boi'ome the owners of nn eilioiqnt, electrified, navigable, inland water svi-vice. The" olectrificnlion of the cannl xystoin \vould provide a ehe.ip »upi)ly of elect nc jiower for transport service, as well as for pumping, irrigation, ploughing, churning, milling, and vegetable nnd flower growth, while tho revival of the inland navigable waterway system would go" far towards securing a new era of agricultural prosperity. Some of the feeder cmals, ho suggested,, might ba converted profitably into motqr or car ways. Only fcitato ownership, lie maintained, could restore the canals lo general usefulness.