PANAMA CANAL

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 July 1939, Page 12

PANAMA CANAL

OPENED 25 YEARS AGO The Panama Canal completes this year a quarter-century of activity; and the United States Government prepares additional defences to preserve it from attack. Canal Zone officials are outlining ceremonies to mark the recurrence of the historic date of Auguse 15, when the water highway was opened in 1914. The captain of the modest s.s. Ancon, of the Panama Railroad Company, which made the first transit of the canal, probably never thought of the enormous stream of ocean traffic that would come after him, of the trade routes established for centuries that would be changed, and finally of the defences now believed necessary to keep it safe. When the s.s. Santa Maria, carrying Secretary Hull and the American delegation, passed through just after the New Year began, more than 100,000 ships of 300 tons or over had made the transit of the canal. A little less than 500,000,000 tons of freight had gone through, goods of the United Slates West Coast for the East Coast, and from the West Coast of South America for the East of the United States or for Europe, from the East Coast of South for the Orient.

The canal originally cost 380,000,000 dollars; improvements have brought the present capital investment to 541,000,000 dollars. When the s.s. Santa Ma,i;ia made the passage the canal had taken in through tolls about 450,000,000 dollars.

A large-siz;e passenger ship must pay many. .. thousands of dolars to go through the canal. The Empress of Britain, largest commercial ship to transit, was charged 18,985 dollars. The British batteship Hood had to pay 22,400 dollars. . . . ; Congress has in its files a report presented last year on Panama Canal tolls in which the prediction is made that the net tonnage of the canal will probably .pass the 41,000,000-ton annual mark within the next 25 years. Canal Zone officials calculate this means that in the 1960’s a yearly average of more than 8,000 ships will pass along the water highway, since the average tonnage of ships using the canal is 5,000. This is considerably above the peak year of operation—--1929 —when 6,289 ships went through. The boon of the canal to shipping comes in the distances shortened on various trade routes. The distance saved from New York to San Francisco is 7,873 nautical miles; from Liverpool to San Francisco, 5,666 miles; from New York to Valparaiso, 3,747 miles; from Liverpool to Honolulu, 4,403 miles. The world trade routes converge upon the Panama Canal, the heaviest traffic coming from the United States intercoastal route. Consequently ships of American registry form the largest national group that has used the canal. British ships come next, with Norwegian third.

The movement of cargo from the Pacific to the Atlantic is about twice the amount shipped from Atlantic to Pacific ports. Of commodities that have passed through, mineral oils make up the most important in point of quantity. The last five years have seen a decline in oil shipments, but this has been balanced in part by increased shipments of wheat, lumber, canned goods, and fruits from the North American West Coast and shipments of manufactured or semi-manu-factured goods from Atlantic to Pacific ports.—‘Christian Science Monitor.’