The Engineering Supplement of the Times on Wednesday contained an
account of the third and last section of the " Triple Canal Project" which is now irrigating a vast terri- tory in the Punjab. The Lower Ban Doab Canal, which has just been opened, has a level crossing across the Ravi, the engineers having abandoned the original idea of taking the canal across by siphon. The new canal has cost one and a half million sterling, and it is expected that it will irrigate 871,000 acres. As the Times says, Indian irrigation has not the dramatic compactness of Egyptian irrigation, nor have the five rivers the peculiar romance of the Nile—the Nile is Egypt, and Egypt is the Nile—nevertheless, the irrigation system of India is much greater than that of Egypt. The " Triple Project" has cost nearly £7,000,000; it pays the Government 74 per cent., and has brought prosperity to the peasants and greatly increased the value of their land. We suppose that Mr. Keir Hardie and other " friends" of India would sum- marize this transaction by saying that it robs India of £525,000 a year.
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