AMERICA'S CANALS

Rodney and Otamatea Times, Waitemata and Kaipara Gazette, 7 August 1912, Page 3

AMERICA'S CANALS

The greatest canals in the world are in the north country of America. By "greatest" is meant the most import, ant in the economics of transportation, for these canals are not the longest or the deepest or the most costly, nor did their construction involve very unusual or spectacular feats of engineering. But in point of tonnage passing through them and in influence upon freight rates throughout the country no artificial waterways ever made approach them, even remotely. It is a surprising statement, but true, nevertheless, that these important canals carry a far greater commerce in eight months of the year than is borne by the Suez Canal, the Kiel Canal, and the Manchester Ship Canal combined in an entire year. If the commerce of the Erie Canal, the Welland, and the canals of the St. Lawrence, system be added, the aggregate will still fall short of reaching the enormous tonnage floated by these inland waterways. It reached, in 1910, according to "Cassier's," a volume never dreamed of by the early navigators—namely, 62,363,----218 tons, an increase of 4,468,096 tons over 1909. The figures that tell of the prospective tonnage of the Panama Canal, when opened to the commerce of the world, seem insignificant when compared with these.