10 H. D. WALSH. 



very great capacity and enable the engineer to carry on 

 his work at a rate which a few years ago would have been 

 quite impracticable. In connection with the draft of 

 vessels, it may be interesting to note that the depth of 

 channel proposed for the Panama Canal is 35 feet. The 

 present depth of the Suez Canal is 29 feet C inches, but it 

 is proposed to deepen it throughout 34 feet 6 inches. 



The difficulty in the way of keeping wharf accommoda- 

 tion up to the demands of the times, arises chiefly from the 

 fact that ship building comes first in order of time, while 

 the wharfage necessarily follows shipping developments. 

 Moreover, shipbuilding is by comparison a rapid process. 

 Even the large Trans-Atlantic liners take a relatively 

 short time to construct. Great harbours, wharves, and 

 docks, on the other hand cannot be as quickly completed. 

 Existing wharves have to be demolished piecemeal and 

 new structures of superior size and strength founded at 

 greater depths, and all such works must be carried out 

 without interrupting or hampering tin- existing trade of 



The superiority of the large over the small ship in earn- 

 ing capacity has become so insistently demonstrated, 

 especially on long voyages, that the consequent growth in 

 size of vessels coming long distances to our ports has 

 rendered imperative the reconstruction of practically the 

 whole wharfage of the chief seaports of Australia. It is 

 very essential to us as a trading community that ship- 

 building should not be hampered in development by inade- 

 quate berthing and docking facilities. How far this lias 

 been the case in the past is not easy to say. Probably it 

 has not affected Australian shipping very much yet, but 

 care must be taken that it does not do so in the future. 



In our own city an auspicious commencement was 

 inaugurated with the forming of the Svdney Harbour Trust 



