CANAL TRANSPORT DELUSION
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sia,—We are invited to believe that canal transport is cheap, and we are urged to adopt a great national canalization pro- gramme. Our canal advocates are mistaken. Inland water transport can only be economical where the country is flat, or nearly flat, and where there are big rivers lending theni- selves naturally to canalization. On the Continent the canals have been more than half made by Nature ; much more than half the mileage is natural_ river ; in nearly every case the canali are in level Country ; canal construction has been Chan- and maintenance is cheap. In Mir country, save in small, selected areas, the very oppoSite conditions prevail. Industrial Britain is hilly and alMost destitute of rivers suitable for navigation or canalization. The average rise or fall on fcireign canals is less than 1 feet 6 inchei per mile: In our case it is 10 feet 6 inches. - This one fact destroys nearly every assertion made by our canal advocates. For instance, between Berlin and Hamburg the country is so flat that there are only three locks. Here, between Birmingham and LOndon; a shorter distance, we have more than 150-locks; plus several tunnels: Britain can no more be :Converted into • a :first-claSs: canal country than Switzerland can be Made a first-clasS ocean shipping country.7-I- ain, Sir, &c.,
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