NEW ZEALAND'S HIGHWAY TO BRITAIN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12213, 7 March 1903, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEW ZEALAND'S HIGHWAY TO BRITAIN.

THE PANAMA CANAL.

[from our own correspondent.]

London, January 23. One definite and practical step has at last been taken in the direction of completing the marvellous marine highway which will enable steamers from New Zealand to make as nearly as possible a "bee-line" for England, instead of pursuing a lengthened and devious course around the two famous " Capes of Storms," the Horn and the Good Hope.

The treaty between the United States and the State of Columbia, through whose territory the canal runs, was signed at Washington to-day. The United States had already acquired by purchase all the rights of the French Panama Company, subject to the condition of, Columbia agreeing to the necessary .treaty, which gives the United States control over the canal and its shores. The condition has now been satisfied, and if the treaty be confirmed by the American —work on the canal will be started, or rather resumed, at once.

About one-third of the total length, i.e., about ten miles out Of the total thirty, has been made in the face of unprecedented difficulties, alike climatic, engineering, and financial. Perhaps the two most formidable of all still remain to be overcome, viz., the damming and diversion of the large and turbulent Chagres River, and the cutting of a ditch more than 300 feet deep and wide enough for two ships of the largest size to pass abreast through a spur of the Culebra Mountain. But no one doubts that America will accomplish this now she has once taken the matter in hand. Only the roughest estimates have yet been made of the probable cost of completion or of the time likely to be occupied in the work. Naturally the acquisition by America of the entire results and possibilities in which so vast an amount of French capital lies sunk is a very bitter pill for France to swallow. So exceedingly indigestible is this same pill that it may well set up disturbances as yet unheard of.' If America is resolved to dominate the canal, and England to have it freely open to her maritime commerce, and Germany to do all in her power to obstruct and limit American jurisdiction, is it likely that- France will look on with uninterested eye? Is it at. all probable she will hold aloof should there appear to be impending any struggle for predominance on the Panama Canal, or in its control? Hardly. And herein may be discerned some interesting potentialities should relations between Germany and America become more and more strained in the early future. A Franco-German alliance is not more improbable than was an Anglo-German last year. ■