trucks to go directly into India and Ceylon, the vessels not being obliged to stop anywhere on the road to Madras or Calcutta, except at Colombo. With respect to Mr. Robertson's project, the difference between what he proposes and what I have advocated on the part of Mr. Stoddart, the Chief Assistant to the Surveyor-General of Ceylon, is this, that Mr. Robertson's canal at either end is in six to seven feet less water than the other at the same distance from the shore. That is to say, at one half-mile from the beach in the position adopted and selected by him there is only twenty-two or twentythree feet of water; whereas, in Mr. Stoddart's position, which I have adopted as the best, there are but about three miles between thirty feet soundings on either side of the island, while Mr. Robertson's distance would be about four miles, and, being nearer India, you have to turn more in that direction to obtain an entrance into the canal from the northern as well as from the southern, and against the prevailing wind and currents. There is also, in addition to that from the southern entrance to Mr. Robertson's position to deep water, two miles of dredging in the open sea against one mile of dredging over a shallow for the other position. Mr. Robertson's position is one where the canal ends in twenty-two feet of water, instead of thirty feet, and I rejected it at once on that account, and adopted Mr. Stoddart's, who had lived on the spot and who actually carried out the surveys for Mr. Robertson and Mr. Townshend, and who had local knowledge extending over many years, while Mr. Robertson only went there once, stopped a few weeks at that place on his way to Calcutta, and took up what information he obtained and went on without inquiring further. My local knowledge extends over nine or ten years, from which and from the detailed reports which I have studied for the last six years, I have come to the conclusion that the middle position (two miles east of Paumben), between Mr. Robertson's and Sir William Denison's, is the right one, because on either side of Ramiseram, at this particular point, deep water is not far from the shore, and both entrances to the canal have natural shelter. With respect to the width required for the canal: the Suez Canal varies from 200 to 300 feet at the water surface, and has different widths at different places, as they have different materials to deal with and different positions to look to some of it partly dry and some all wet, other places all dry, some in rock and some places in the land. The bottom is about 72 feet

wide, unvaringly, except in the lakes. That is for one ship passing through. In my case I have adopted 176 feet as the bottom width, knowing that the stuff to be excavated will stand at so steep a slope, that at the top of the bank the extreme width is only about

300 feet, or about the mean average breadth of the Suez Canal cuttings. The object of making the canal so wide is that the expected development of the trade from Kurrachee right round to Burmah and Europe to India in time will be so great locally and generally, that the canal will not be wide enough to comply with the requirements of trade unless it is constructed double width ; and it should be so constructed as to comply with the demands of European and local trade. Mr. Robertson's estimate is £440,000, but he does not include in that estimate the cost of deepening a length of two miles of shallow water over 200 yards wide. In the position adopted by me as most suitable, only one mile-which is through mud and sand, dredged easily, without any extra difficulty -has to be deepened outside the actual canal; and I think that, with Mr. Robertson's including this deepening, a single canal in his position would amount to a greater price than the double canal in Mr. Stoddart's site. With respect to the monsoon opposing both ways, there is the southern part of India which shelters that position, so that when you get into the canal you do not feel the monsoon which blows in that direction. The southern part of India shields this point; you do not much feel the force of this southern monsoon at Ramiseram. At the entrance to Palk's Bay there is a reef stretching almost across between Ceylon and the mainland, stretching on the other hand from the north-east monsoon, and the whole force of the monsoon is broken on the outside, so that the canal in reality is well-sheltered water, both in the Gulf of Manaar and Palk's Bay. Another point that Mr. Robertson mentioned in his report in favour of his own project was that, being nearer India, he was more sheltered by the two islands, Shingle and Coonsuddy; he admits, too, that Mr. Stoddart's position is also sheltered, although not quite so well as his own; but he forgets to mention that he has got only twenty-two feet of water, while the other has thirty feet at the same distance out from the shore. The breakwater is only required for Sir William Denison's scheme, but its great cost, amounting to as much as one million sterling alone, condemns it.

The Rev. Mr. LONG: You stated that the Madras Harbour is given up; is that so?

Mr. McBEAN: The latest information that I have about it is, that they will have to abandon it, for as fast as they are laying out the breakwater it silts up at the outside, and they cannot consequently get on with it. And where it is made, even if they extend it two miles out, it will never give them proper shelter, unless they enclose by two arms approaching each other. Anyone who has

A A

seen the beach at Madras will have observed that there is a necessity for a double breakwater, and it is not supposed that it can be done under an expenditure of millions of money, and after a great length of time spent on it, and even then it may be destroyed in a night.

Sir CHARLES STIRLING, Bart.: I should like to mention a few remarks that Mr. McBean has omitted in his paper. If this canal is made, people going to these docks on the canal pass overland to Madras instead of losing time and going through that bad surf which the landing at Madras necessitates. It will be also an advan tage to the steamship companies, for it will go direct to Calcutta, thereby saving a great deal of time and risk. The distance by rail from these docks to Madras would be 200 miles, and passengers going overland there will certainly save time and avoid danger. It is due to Mr. McBean to state this in furtherance of his paper. (Hear, hear.)

The CHAIRMAN (Lord Dunraven): I think we owe our best thanks to Mr. McBean for the very able paper which he has written, and for the discussion that has followed upon it. I cannot pretend to speak technically upon the subject; I can only say that it is very im portant, and it has proved of great interest to me, and probably more so to you, who are able to take a more enlarged and technical view of the matter. I can scarcely agree that the Suez Canal was made when it was wanted, as one speaker said. My impression is that it was wanted many years before it was made; and I further think that there is a great deal of necessity for some canal such as that Mr. McBean has proposed. The advantages of it appear obvious: it would save a great deal of the danger and risk of going round the south of Ceylon; it would save a great deal of time, which is another word for saying it would make a great deal of money, besides which it would stimulate the coast trade very much As to the size of the canal in its relative proportions to the Suez Canal, if it were to carry only an amount of trade like that which goes through the Suez Canal, it would not be policy to make it larger; but as it would carry not only the trade equal to what goes through the Suez Canal but a great deal more, I should imagine that the proposition made by Mr. McBean not at all too large. I thank Mr. McBean for his able paper, and I have great pleasure in proposing a vote of thanks for the interesting and able paper he has read before us. (Applause.)

A vote of thanks having been passed to-the noble Chairman, the meeting separated.

355

NINTH ORDINARY GENERAL MEETING.

THE Ninth Ordinary General Meeting took place in the Theatre of the Society of Arts, on Friday, June 7th, 1878. The chair was taken by Lord ALFRED CHURCHILL, in the unavoidable absence of the President of the Institute.

Amongst those present were the following: Mr. Donald Currie, C.M.G.; Rear-Admiral Booker, C.B.; Hon. W. Brandford Griffith (Barbadoes), Mr. W. T. Deverell, Dr. Rae, Mr. J. Duncan Thomson (Cape Colony), Mr. D. P. Andrew, Sir Bryan Robinson (Newfoundland), Mr. and Mrs. F. P. Labilliere, Messrs. Augustus B. Abraham, Jas. H. Kennedy, A. Focking (Cape Colony), S. McBean, P. Auney (Jamaica), H. W. Freeland, G. Molineux, Wm. Andrews, jun., A. Nathan, Jas. B. Stephen, D. M. Rose, J. A. Quinton, F. E. Metcalfe, Mr. and Mrs. Purdy, Mrs. Roche, Messrs. S. W. Silver, Hugh A. Silver, S. Hirsch, W. M. Farmer (Cape Colony), John Balfour (Queensland), J. Vesey-Fitzgerald (Victoria), J. Dennistoun Wood (Victoria), Rev. J. Long, Dr. A. Bisset Thom (Manitoba), Messrs. W. M. Beaufort, Henry Wellings, J. L. Ohlson, C. Holden, Abraham Hyams (Jamaica), T. B. Freeman, C. F. Gahan, Hyde Clarke, D.C.L., Henry Adderley, A. J. Adderley, Edward Ransome, W. J. Anderson (Cape Colony), A. R. Campbell-Johnstone, S. Conway Campbell-Johnson, Frederick Young (Honorary Secretary), and Miss Young,

The HONORARY SECRETARY (Mr. Fred. Young) read the Minutes of the last Ordinary General Meeting, which were confirmed. The CHAIRMAN then called upon THOMAS BRASSEY, Esq., M.P., to read the following paper:

A COLONIAL NAVAL VOLUNTEER FORCE.

It is not surprising that the idea of organising a Colonial Naval Reserve should have been deferred to the present time. The growth of our Colonial Empire has been so rapid that the resources out of which such a force could be created have only lately been at our disposal.

It has been remarked by Mr. Wilson, in his recent volume on the resources of modern countries, that none of the Colonies were of great promise before 1845. Canada languished; New South Wales -then including Victoria and Queensland-was a feeble settlement, still troubled by a residuum of transported criminals; the Cape of Good Hope was almost Dutch. The total English population of the whole of our foreign possessions did not, in 1850,

exceed 2,000,000. The population of these Colonies has at least quadrupled in thirty years, and in some cases is now tenfold what it was in 1845.

Visitors to the Exhibition now being held in Paris will see abundant and gratifying proofs of the marvellous development of our Colonies, and of their ability to provide adequate means of selfdefence. The Australian Governments have wisely embraced the opportunity of showing to the world their varied and valuable products. From New South Wales we have copper, silver, lead, marble, tin, slate, and opals; wine-including all the varieties of the French and German vineyards-tobacco, and perhaps most important of all, wool. From Western Australia we find leather, timber, silk, coal, lead, and wines. Victoria, which boasts of 800 trees and flowering shrubs, exhibits also coal, wines, and cloth manufactures. She reminds us, by means of pyramidal models, of the value of her productions of gold, and of the exceptional good fortune of certain adventurers. From the Cross Reef Mine £1,000,000, from the Long Tunnel 221,262 ounces, from the Port Philip Company's workings £1,500,000 have been extracted.

Queensland exhibits malachite, gold, copper, cinnabar, chrome, iron, plumbago, and antimony, sugar, coffee, wheat, maize, tobacco, silk and wool. The commercial and agricultural development of the Colony is set forth in the following figures :

In 1876 the total value of the exports amounted to £3,875,000, including

The value of the imports in the same year was £3,126,000.

Queensland has a population of 200,000.

The live stock depastured includes

Lastly, South Australia exhibits copper, tin, wines, timber, leather, wool, and tobacco. With such a collection before us, we are justified in forming the brightest hopes for the future prosperity of the great Anglo-Saxon communities at the Antipodes. The page of their history is short, but they are a vigorous and energetic