THE PANAMA CANAL.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 143, 2 June 1911, Page 11

THE PANAMA CANAL.

WILL NOT BENEFIT NEW ZEALAND. According to a navigator < f high standing was recently on a ’ isit to Tijnaru. t .-e popular opinion that New Zealand will benefit c r.sideiabiy by the opening of the Panama Canal is quite erroneous. T’ * C|» n ing of tne canal, he asserts, '»■! not reduce the distance between New Zealand and London by even one whole clay, and taking into consideration tne canal dues that will be imposed he thinks it is highly improbable that th? canal will be utilised by New Zealand home traders at all. Taking Cape Palliser as the centre of New Zealand. he gives the distances according to Mercator’s Projection, as follows :—From five miles south of Cape Palliser to Nicaragua. 6334 miles ; through the canal and lake. 170 miles; from Greytown to a point in Mona passage, 994 miles; from point in Mona passage to Eddystone lighthouse. 3645 miles ; total 11.143 miles. Following the Great Circle Track, the distances would be : From five miles south of Cape Palliser to Nicaragua. 624i> miles : through the canal and lake. 170 miles; from Greytown to a point in Mona nassage. 9<M miles: from point in Mona passage to Eddystone lighthouse. 3577 miles; total Io.OTI miles. This litter course, although inathrmaticr.llv the shortest possible, could not. however, he strictly adhered to owing to the obstruction of islands, ete.. and necessary diversions to make for coaling ports. The former estimate (11.143 miles), therefore, is probably nearer the actual distance that would be covered bv a steamer. When this distance is compared with that covert'd by a recent arrival by the beaten track around Cape Hom, viz.. 11,636 miles, the actual difference in favor of the Panama route is only 493 miles, and against this must be debited the loss of time that would be occasioned by a vessel having to go through the canal at a very much reduced speed. The loss was estimated at 24 hours for a steamer running on an average 300 miles per day. Thus the net gain by going through the canal would be apparently 193 miles, or less than twothirds of a day’s steaming, and to effect this the steamer would hare to pay heavy dues, which would make such a proposition altogether out of the question. The navigator in question admitted the distance from Auckland to Panama is shorter than from Cape Pahser, but he says this does not affect the position to any appreciable extent, and he thinks the sooner New Zealanders realise that the canal is being constructed by the United States for the purpose of its navy and the benefit of its east and west trade, and incidentally that of the west coast of South America, and not for the benefit of the South Sea Islands, the better.

“In looking at an ordinary map of the continued the navigator, - one is tempted to think that a straight line route, drawn from New Zealand to England across the American continent somewhere near Panama, be the shortest. In reality, it is not so. As a matter of fact, were one able to disregard ail obstacles to navigation which improvements to airships may in time acrnmpli.sh. the shortest route t.» New Zealand from Eddystone lighthouse would be by steering north and passing within 160 ndlrs of the North Pole, and then bearing auav south to New Zealand, the distance being a little over lO.twsn miles."