A SECOND PANAMA CANAL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18353, 17 September 1921, Page 10

A SECOND PANAMA CANAL

RIVAL ROUTE. It is being proposed that the Americar continent should be cut through again The present Panama Canal is_ used by an over-increasing number of ships, and ail the authorities are agreed that in lo years’ time it will be quite inadequate for the world’s commerce. This being ,tho case, either the present canal must be greatly widened or a second canal must be out, and the general opinion of the experts leans to the cutting of a new canal. This would have to be much larger than the present waterway, and such a gigantic undertaking would occupy a number of years, so it is suggested that work should be begun at once. But two old controversies have broken out with renewed vigour. The first ig as to where the new canal should be out, and the second as to whether a canal with ! ocks or a sea-level channel is the better.

There are many in a canal like the present one, where -ships paissing from ocean to ocean have to go up and down stairs by means of a series of huge locks. Much time is wasted in this way. With a sea-level canal navigation would be much more rapid. o.n the other hand, there are points in which a sea-level canal is at a disadvantage. The excavation of the channel is a far more formidable and costly undertaking than that of a lock canal, owing , to the greater quantity of material that has to be dug out. Then, of course, the greater the depth excavated the more serious the consequences of any possible landslide. Not only would a greater depth have to be excavated, but the slope of the banks would have to be far more gradual than at the Culebra Cut in the Panama Canal, and this would mean still more material to be dug away. It is now generally agreed by experts that tho French made a mistake in not avoiding the massive basalt rocks at Culebra and Gold Hills a mistake perpetuated by the Americans. Basalt rock is soon weathered, and breaks up into stones and sand, and this means that landslides are frequent. There is a possibility that, instead of making a second canal at Panama the Nicaraguan route may be followed. This was the original plan of the Americans before they took over the French works at Panama, and as far back as 1826 a survey was undertaken there on behalf of a British company. In July, 1860, a treaty, known as the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, was signed by Great Britain and the United States,j settling the principles that were _ to govern the construction and operation of a Nicaraguan canal, and in 1889 such a canal was actually begun. Later it was abandoned in favour of the Panama route, but now the likelihood of a Nicaraguan canal being cpt is very great. The total length from Grey town, in the Atlantic, to San Juan del Sur, in the Pacific, via Lake Nicaragua, would be 183 miles. as compared with the 49 miles of the Panama Canal, but nearly 50 would be in the free, deep waters of the lake..

Owing to climatic causes ships would have to spend 43 hours more on th,e Nicaraguan route than by way of Panama, but against this the distance to San Francisco anil New York from the ends of the Nicaraguan canal would be 500 miles shorter than from the ends of the Panama Canal.