Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 March 1898 — SEEK CANADA’S AID. [ARTICLE]

SEEK CANADA’S AID.

DOMINION GOVERNMENT ASKED TO HELP A COMPANY. \ Advocates of St. .Clair and Erie flip Canal Want a $5,500,000 Bond Issue —Trouble Between Nicaragua and Costa Rica Over a Boundary. - —: a ,i St. Clair Ship Canal. A proposal to ‘guarantee the bonds of the St. Clair and Erie Ship Canal is being considered by the Canadian Government. A deputation of representative men from the counties interested, accompanied by several members of parliament, presented a request that the) petition of the St. Clair and Erie Ship Canal Company, asking for a guaranty of 3 per cent interest for twenty years on an issue of $5,500,000 of bonds, be granted. The more important of the points touched upon by the delegates were the shortening of the distance between Lake St. Clair and Lake Erie by seventy-nine miles, tVhich would decrease the sailing distance, and thus increase the number of trips in a season, the avoidance of the dangers and delays of the Detroit river route, the lessening of the cost of transports between Fort William and Lake Erie, and, locally, the making effectual of drainage over a very large area of fertile land now only imperfectly drained at a great cost and the bringing of a market equal to that of a large city to the very doors of the farmers and gardeners. It was also shown that the Government would not be called upon to pay any of the interest guaranteed, as tbe company would provide for it during construction, and after that the tolls on less than one-third of the tonnage now passing through the Detroit river would pay the interest on the bonds and all expenses of maintenance and operation. The impression of the delegation is that the Government will do all in its power to grant the canal Company’s request. Trouble in Central America. The President of Costa Riea has announced at a public audience that war with Nicaragua was inevitable, and that preparations for it had been made. Two British warships are at Fort Limon and the United States gunboat Newport is at Greytown. The bone of contention is the Atlantic boundary line of the two countries. The quarrel has been of long standing. By the treaty of April 15,1858, “the channel-of the Rio San .Tuan del Norte at its exit into the oeean” was spoken of as the eastern boundary line between the countries, but owing to changes in currents and the accumujntion of drift at the river’s entrance the channel of the San Juan is a number of miles farther north than it was in 1858. Costa Rica’s contention is for the old exit, and the settlement of her claim must be of great interest to the United States. The old exit, if allowed to stand for the boundary, -would bring theentrnnee of the proposed Nicaraguan canal in Costa Rican territory, giving Costa Rica such rights that construction of the canal might be still more delayed. Nicaragua contends that the boundary should be placed where the river now flows into the sea.