The Manchester Ship Canal seems to be going the way
of ship-canals. The city was induced to lend the Company three millions by estimates showing that this sum would be ample for the completion of the works. It is now reported by a sub-committee of directors that £512,000 more will be required, or it may be even 2800,000. The Corporation, there- fore, have now ordered a "close investigation" as to the real cost, and the directors intend to urge the closest economy, and the abandonment of all work that can be postponed. The truth is, it is next to impossible to predict the ultimate cost of these vast though possibly remunerative undertakings, one reason among; many why such risks as are involved in large loans to them should never be imposed upon ratepayers. They cannot judge deep problems of engineering, and should leave such undertakings to great capitalists and men with a fancy for industrial speculations. How is an ordinary rate- payer to know whether a vast hydraulic project will turn out a Suez Canal or a canalilike the Panama ?
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