...7750 Nagasaki ATLANTIC, WEST INDIES, BRAZILS, CAPE OF GOOD HOPE, EAST AND WEST COAST SOUTH AMERICA, Bermuda 10015 Jamaica. 12400 Monte Video .4785 New Orleans .4085, New York. 3335 Panama. 3310 Quebec Arica LONDON to M. .6340 .4470 Antigua.. .3830 .9735 13610 Ascension .3905 4490 Auckland, N.Z. 12120 11530 Azores .1460 .6450 Bahia... .4505 .7090 Barbadoes. .3805 .4970 Belize. -4570 -3525 Bermuda 3055 .....12450 Bonny 4170 11630 Boston, U.S.A 3030 ...4410 Buenos Ayres 6280 Buenos Ayres .3210 Caldera 9210 6560 Rio Janeiro 5480 Callao. Caldera 9970 9490 Rio Grande .6050 Cape Coast Castle...3870 Callao 10250 San Francisco Cape Coast Castle...4150 Cape of Good Hope 6345 St. John's, N. F. Sierra Leone ..13950 Cape of Good Hope 6065 3280 Cape Horn 7400 Cape Horn... 7680 St. Vincent (Atlan). 2805 2485 Chagres 4990 Chagres.. ..........5270 Sydney. Cobija 9490 Cobija .11120 Coquimbo 9770 Valparaiso .9050 Demerara ..9320 Wellington, N.Z....12150 Fiji Islands. ..9040 .4030 ..11720 ..4310 LONDON to Fiji Islands... 12000 Acapulco. Guayaquil .........10950 Adelaide ..12070 Halifax, N.S. ....2685 ...8745 Havana 4190 SHIPPING WORLD THE SUEZ CANAL. The Suez Canal was projected by Mons. Ferdinand de Lesseps in 1852. It was opposed by Lord Palmerston, but approved of by the French, Austrian, Russian, Turkish, and Egyptian Governments. The cutting was commenced in 1858, and the first vessel passed from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea on August 15, 1865, and though the first ship of any con. siderable tonnage which passed through the canal was the Primo (on February 17, 1867), French and English vessels entered in November, 1868; and in 1869 the course was declared suitable for the mail steamers. The official opening took place in November, 1869. In July, 1872, the Canal Company levied their dues on the gross tonnage of ships, and the British Government demanded an International Conference, which met at Constantinople in November and December, 1873, and accepted certain proposals of the Porte, against which M. de Lesseps in vain protested, and after attempting the closing of the Canal for four days in April, 1874, he gave way. There are 400,000 shares in this undertaking, and in 1875 the British Government bought from the then Khedive of Egypt 176,602, or nearly one half of the whole. A premium of 12 per cent. was paid for these, the price being £3,976,000, though the actual cost was £4,076,565, a large commission having been paid to Messrs. Rothschild. The present capital of the Suez Canal Company is £16,867,000, £8,000,000 in shares and the rest in debentures. Dividends, which were only 5 per cent. in 1874, 51% per cent. in 1876, and 6 per cent. in 1879, have advanced up to 17 per cent. in 1883. The proportions of Canal against Cape voyages are about as 104 to 60. An average of 76 per cent. of the tolls are from British vessels, 9 per cent. from French, 4 per cent. from Dutch, and 10 per cent. of all other nations. One-seventh of our foreign commerce now passes through the Canal, which was 13 years in construction, is 87 miles long and 26 feet deep, and has shortened by one-third all voyages to the East. The British Government, in May and June, 1877, claimed for the Canal international neutrality. In October, 1887, a Convention agreeing to the neutralisation of the Canal was signed at Paris by the representatives of Great Britain and France. The Canal was opened to night traffic (over part of its length only) in the year 1886 to steamers equipped with the electric light, by which the duration of transit was considerably lessened, vessels making the passage in about 20 hours as compared with the average ordinary passage of 36 hours. On March 1, 1887, the entire length of the Canal was thrown open to night traffic, and ships availing themselves of this permission now pass through the Canal with comparative case in 16 hours. |