A SECOND PANAMA CANAL

Otago Witness, Issue 3524, 27 September 1921, Page 22

A SECOND PANAMA CANAL

RIVAL ROUTE. It- is being propost d ’ 1 at tlie American coni ii.cm should be cut through again. piemnt I’ananm Canal is used by an t ver-incTi a-ing number of ships, and ail :ne authorities are agreed that in io years’ tune it will 1;,- inadequate for the world s commerce. 1 hi- 1 oing the case, either the present canal must be greatly widened ,r a second canal mu;; be cut, ana the general opinion <,f the expert..-* j leans to the cutting of a ih-w canal. ‘This ; would have lu be much larger that'. ;ho prei - ttm wat-.nway, and sm-h a gigantic undev- | taking would occupy a number of vi ui s, ;> t* IS suggested that work should be | begun at cnee. But two old controversies have broken out with renewed vigour. The hr.H is as to where the now canal should be cut, and the second as to whether a canal with -oaks or a sea-level channel is the better. ~ here are many disadvantages in a canal like tne present one, where ships passing itoni ocean to ocean have to go tip and ciown stairs by means of a series of huge u’ time is wasted in this wav. \vuh a sea-level canal navigation would be much more rapid. O-n tiro other hand, there are points in which a sea level canal is at a disadvantage, lue exc.t-ration of the channel is a far more formidable and costly undertaking than that of a lock canal, owing to the greater quantity ci material that has to Lie dug out. I hen, of course, the greater the depth excavated the more serious the consequences ot any possible landslide. Not only would a greater depth have to be excavated, but the slope of the banks would have to bo far more gradual than at t ie Cuiebra Cut in the Panama Canal, and tins would mean still more material to be dug away. It is now generally agreed by experts tnat the French made a mistake in not avoiding the massive basalt rocks at Cuiebra and Gold Hills a mistake perpetuated by the Americans. Basalt rock is soon weathered, and breaks up into stones and sand, and this moans that landslides are frequent. lhere is a possibility that, instead of making a second canal at Panama the Nicaragimn route may be followed. This was tne original plan of the Americans before they took over the French works at Panama, and as far back as 1826 a survey vi us undertaken there on behalf of a British company. In July, 1850, a treaty, known as the Clayton-Bulwer J reaty, was signed by Great Britain and tile 1 nited States, settling the principles that were to govern the construction and operation of a Xaearaguaii canal, and in 1839 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 cut is very groat, the total length from (Ireytown, in the Atlantic, to iS.m Juan del Sur, in (he Pacific. via Lake Nicaragua, would be 183 miles, a* 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 the Nicaraguan route (han by way of Panama, but against this the distance to San Francisco and New York from the ends of the Nicaraguan canal would be 500 miles shorter than from the ends of (he Panama Canal.