INCREASED TRAFFIC.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 17 May 1927, Page 7

INCREASED TRAFFIC.

PANAMA CANAL’S LIMIT. SUPPLEMENTARY SCHEMES. NEW YORK, April 20. The rapid growth of shipping traffic through the Panama Canal emphasises the necessity of the American Government giving immediate consideration to plans to increase the capacity of tiie canal or to construct ’ another waterway irom the Atlantic to tiie Pacific across Nicaragua. About 26,000,000 tons of shipping passed through the Panama Canal last year compared with 5,000,000 in 1915. •The. maximum capacity ol the canal is estimated at between 50,000,000 and 100,000, 00(j tons, which will be reached at the present rate of growth of traffic in ten or fifteen years. Engineers and naval experts must decide soon whether it is more practical to enlarge the capacity of the canal or to construct a new one. Those favouring the present canal advocate its gradual transference into tiie “Straits of Panama” —that is, a sea-level channel , 1000 ft. wide, invulnerable from military attack and freed from all dangers of earthquakes, and landslides. The alternative proposal of a new canal through Nicaragua, which is most often discussed now, is held to ha\e much in its favour, hut to have the disadvantage of giving the United States two routes to maintain, and perhaps to defend. Most Americans, i| is said, are inclined to agree with General Goethals, that the Panama. Canal should he first developed to the limit of its potentialities. Considerations of naval strategy are involved in both projects, and President Goolidge strongly advocates the immediate study oi all aspects of the problem. <