THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1910. LINKING -THE ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14530, 18 November 1910, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1910. LINKING -THE ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC.

V i It has been the usual fate of great ' engineering works to take a longer » time to complete than ,was origin- ! ally estimated, but the President of the United States has been officially informed that the Panama Canal will be ready for opening in 1913. This acceleration of progress has been necessarily accompanied by vast expenditure, the total of which will not be known to "within millions of dollars until the final accounts are presented, but the practically bottomless purse of the United States Congress renders what is ordinarily , a most vital consideration of little moment. The Washington Government, supported in this by the unanimous approval of people and parties, has pressed the gigantic work forward with a disregard for cost, which would be both unprecedented and incomprehensible were it not intimately connected with the supreme question of national defence. The anticipated result is that in three years the American fleet will be able to pass from the Atlantic to the Pacific without circumnavigating the South American Continent, and will also be able, in case of need, to bolt and bar the great Watergate against any inimical squadron. This latter power is being internationally protested against, but it is surely asking too much of human nature to expect that the American nation should provide a convenient waterway for battleships and cruisers intended to ravage their coasts and prey upon their commerce. Any " nice Tourney rules" of this character would be inevitably set aside under pressure of national necessity, and it is much more honourable of the Washington Government to define its position clearly beforehand than to agree diplomatically during peace to a policy which it could not possibly maintain in war. In any case, the canal which will be so soon opened is the property of the United States, and the commercial world will be glad to avail itself of the great advantages" the wonderful work offers without concerning itself overmuch with the motives -which impelled the United States to the tremendous financial expenditure involved. . I The interest of New Zealand in the canal is a double one. Although great circle sailings do not indicate any marked gain in distance the ports of the Dominion and the ports of Europe by the use of the Panama route, instead of the Horn route, we should always remember that mere distance is not the sole factor in the laying out of trading lines. It used to be an axiom that trade lines followed the parallels of longitude rather than the parallels of latitude, and though this axiom has been obscured by the modern trade in foodstuffs between sparsely settled and closely settled countries lying in identical zones, it still holds good as a general ultimate condition. The Panama Canal will place New Zealand in direct connection with wealthy and populous States offering mutually profitable exchange of natural produce, as well as in close connection with coasts and seas largely occupied and controlled by kindred people. At present Auckland is as far removed from New Orleans as it is from Archangel, while Mexico is as unknown to our traders as Korea ; but with the opening of the canal the entire commercial situation will be changed. In four or five years we may view serenely the loading at our Railway Wharf of produce consigned directly to New Orleans or Jamaica, and the signalling from Tiri of vessels that have cleared from Key West or Galveston. And although we are on the fringe of the European trade which will find it profitable to pay canal dues rather than round the Horn we are in the fairway of great liners which will carry passengers and cargo from Atlantic ports to ports on the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea and onwards, through the canal, to Auckland and Sydney. While our commercial interest in the speedy opening of the canal is thus great we are very keenly interested in the Europeanising of the Pacific. We have nothing to fear and everything to gain from the determination of the Washington Government that its Pacific coasts and its Pacific trade shall be freed from any possible, danger of Asiatic raid or invasion. If there is still the remote possibility that the folly of Governments : : ' A. '

" and the passions of peoples may range British and Americans against one another in fratricidal war, there is also the extreme probability, the growing certainty, that British and Americans will ' stand together against any peril to their common civilisation.