THE GRAND CONTOUR We haven't lost our canals yet. The
cam- paign to see that we don't goes on, and I, for one, am pleased that this is so. But recently I opened my paper to read that there is a plan to give the country another canal system if it will have it. The Grand Contour was the name applied to it, for this canal would run at a 310-ft. contour and link the north, the mid- lands, the Bristol Channel and the Thames estuary by a waterway 100 ft. in breadth and 17 ft. deep, with a bridge clearance of 25 ft., so that vessels of up to 1,500 tons could pass. Which tide leads to fortune is any man's guess, but I wonder what will become of such a plan when everyone is jealous of the use land is put to, whether for extending the towns or growing food, when transport officials are busily trying to wash their hands of a third of our existing waterways, and politicians are concerned about heavy expenditure on public works. It seems a faint hope.
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