£10,000,000 SHIP CANAL

Taranaki Daily News, 1 October 1929, Page 16

£10,000,000 SHIP CANAL

FIRST STEPS IN BIG SCHEME.. The first steps have just been.taken in a scheme which, if carried out, will revolutionise the sea-going traffic between the great industrial towns in Yorkshire and the Continent, says a London paper. The idea is to build a £10,000,000 ship canal linking Leeds, and the whole of the West Riding, with Goole and the Humber Estuary. The project, which for years past has been' seemingly a mere dream, has assumed a practical form. Under the presidency of the Lord Mayor of Leeds, Aiderman W. B. Foster, a meeting had been, held in the Town Hall of that city which was, in every respect, a representative gathering. It included the Lord Mayor and Mayors of nearly every city and town in the West Riding, and * there were also present a number of members of Parliament, Sir John Eaglestone, chairman of the Aire and Calder Navigation, and many other prominent men connected with the commercial life of this particular part of the country. ' So gigantic is the scheme that it is estimated that it will take ten years, at least, to complete. Bearing’in mind the vast amount of labour that y would necessarily have to bo employed, the promoters of the scheme are hoping to secure financial support from the Government. The Leeds meeting, which was held in private, appointed a special committee to gather facts and data concerning the scheme. It is estimated that the preliminary work of the committee will occupy a couple of months. The vital issue confronting the committee is that, if the proposed ship canal is constructed, will those responsible financially for its construction obtain value for the outlay? ThefGovernment, it is understood, arc inclined to view the project favourably. . This iri, of course, from the point of view of absorbing unemployment, but there an/ other aspects. tu.ra,-c9nsideiation. Mr. T. F. Braine, president of Leeds Chamber of Commerce, is au enthusiastic supporter, of the scheme. If oceangoing ships could come to Leeds, via Goole, the Yorkshire city would, he contends, become one of the greatest distributing centres in the country for both ocean and coastwise traffic. The scheme, too, is of especial interest to the coal trade in the West Riding of Yorkshire, which exports large quantities of coal. A West Riding ship-canal would, it is thought,' go a long way towards neutralising the advantages which certain Continental coal areas obtain over this country through their highly-developed inland waterways. The construction of the proposed canal —about 35 miles, or practically the same length as the Manchester ship canal—is not likely to involve any great engineering difficulties, and considering the nature of the country through which it would traverse, the cost per mile would, it is believed, le far less than was spent in the case of Manchester. ' ■*