THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 1888.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9139, 22 August 1888, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 1888.

When misfortunes reach us, according to the proverb, there is generally more than one at a time, and why should not some of our blessings take the multiple form also 1 If only half what we hear be true, we are about to have an affluence of ship canals to connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Who would have thought it?—just when M. Lesseps has been able to raise the further amount of cash required for his Panama work, some of the lively fellows in the United States, who were so obstinately hostile to his undertaking, are now fired with a similar ambition, and it is breaking out in several places at once. Not only is their long-neglected Nicaragua project to be at last dealt with, but the construction of another canal, just within the Mexican frontier, is to be likewise taken in hand. So, wherever there is an isthmus, or anything like it, in Central America —at Panama at one end, at Tehuantepec at the other end, and at Nicaragua in the middle— navigable waterway is to be provided, and commerce will be endowed with three canals at no great distance from each other. It is very wonderful, and seems almost too good to be true, but it is positively asserted that the new works are to be at once set about; and we already know that the indefatigable Lesseps has made sure of the sinews of war needed to go on with and complete the old work.

We are told that in New York on the 11th July a contract was signed, by which a company, termed the Atlantic and Pacific Construction Company, has undertaken the formation of a ship canal across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, and that the bonds have been issued and will be placed on the European market. Again, we received the other day a telegram dated San Jose, ugust 10, announcing that " Congress has ratified the concessions granted to the promoters of the Nicaragua Canal.' As we explained on a former occasion, the authority to make the Nicaragua

Canal was obtained some years ago from the Republic of Nicaragua, and it appears from the above telegram that to facilitate the work, now apparently about to be commenced, certain concessions have also been required from the neighbouring Republic of Costa Rica— which San Jose is the capital and it seems there has been no difficulty in getting the arrangements wished for. It is evident from the foregoing items of news that the Mexican Government and those two Central American ones are very anxious for the presence of such great commercial canals, and are not afraid to entrust the work to companies formed in the United States— sharing the suspicions on this point attributed to the New Granada Government.

But that we are abofit to get three canals where half-a-dozen years ago there was small prospect of getting one, is quite too good to be true. We are not prepared to believe that. No doubt after the traffic has been fairly started, there "will be ample opportunity for a couple of such waterwaysfor another as well as the Panama. There will be plenty of business for both. To understand this, we need only consider what happened at Suez, where after a while it became necessary, by the growth of the traffic, to choose between forming a second canal or doubling the size of the existing one. And the connection of the Atlantic and Pacific will be to the full as important as the connection of the Mediterranean and Red Sea. The passage at Panama must be as fre-j quented and crowded as that at Suez. When the rush has been set going by the Canal at Panama, the time will have come for another gate at Nicaragua or Tehuantepec —then, and not before, it is common sense to see. We have always maintained that M. Lesseps would carry out his undertaking, and that the rival proposals were only put forward diplomatically, and these views are corroborated by the opinions expressed a few months ago by Mr. Melton Prior, the well-known correspondent and artist when, after his opportunities of observation, he was interviewed on the subject in San Francisco.

" Did you see the Panama Canal ?" •' See it ? Why, my dear sir, I spent two weeks in it, examining it and making sketches." " What do you think of its prospects ?" " I feel confident De Lessens will complete it, and that without allowing the work to fall into the hands of his Government. lam willing to bet a champagne lunch that De Lessens' company will have the canal completed before 1890—that is, if a European war does not interrupt. They have done far more work than they are credited with, notwithstanding that millions of money have been wasted in extravagance, and in lavish expenditures for machinery which lies rusting and going to ruin in great quantities. In my opinion all your American alleged scepticism of De Lesseps' ability to finish the canal, and even your Nicaragua project, is simply a method of bearing the De Lesseps stocK, as you say in your speculative dealings, in order that the Panama Canal may eventually fall into American control."

The opposition to the Lesseps' enterprise was raised by the railway companies foreseeing that the waterway must divert from them a great part of their traffic, and of course they do not really want to promote the construction of a canal at Nicaragua or at the Mexican isthmus any more than at Panama. As for the Panama work passing out of the hands of the present company, it is now evident from the readiness with which M. de Lesseps' recent call for additional funds has been met by his countrymen that they have full confidence in the paying future of the enterprise, and will hold fast by it. Indeed, it is in this private way—dividends to the shareholders—that France must reap the chief benefit from the canal. As at Suez, her commerce passing through, can be only a fraction of the English. The great public and national advantage resulting from a connection of the two oceans must be principally to England and her colonies, and among her colonies New Zealand in particular and, next to the British Empire, the great advantage must be to the United States, because of the searoad provided between her Atlantic and Pacificcoasts.