Lessens and the Canal.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume I, Issue 41, 15 September 1887, Page 2

Lessens and the Canal.

M. Dx Lessers' success in obtaining the greater part of the loan of 200,000,000 francs asked for, to continue the construction of the Param* canal, falsified the predictions of many critics. In the circular announcing the new loan De Lesseps stated that the company still retained 200,000,000 franc* (£4,000,000) of the la t issue, and the new issue was proposed so that the company should not be forced to obtain funds suddenly and under difficulties. He maintained that the canal will be completed with the 600,000,000 francs (twenty.four millions sterling) authorised by the Government, and if not entirely finishel, it will be opened for traffic on the date already fixed. I'he annual report, submitted to the meeting of shareholders, held at Paris on July 21st, however, did not speak quite so confidently of the completion of the work in 1889, but it expressed the hope that connection between the Atlantic and the Pacific will then exist across the Isthmus of Panama, and that the work will be completed «oon afterwards. The bulk of the subscriptions of the new loan were taken up in small amounts, a fact proving not only the unabated confidence which the French people have in the veteran canal builder, but also the comfort and thrift of the working classes in France. That the canal will be completed there can now be very little doubt. A young Frenchman, who held a post on the Panama Bailway, in an interview at New ¥ork, while caustically criticising the wastefulness of the canal management, stated his opinion that the canal could be constructed within six or ten years. With regard to the work already done, he said : —“ At the present time in the Atlantic section the American Dredging Company has dredged to the extent of about twenty miles, but the work was not quits finished ” The length of the canal will be about 50 miles. This looks like progress, and De Lesseps, though a very old man, may yet live to take part in the opening of the gigantic waterway, which, but for his indomitable ierseverance and courage, must have ieen abandoned long ago as impracticable.