THE PANAMA CANAL.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 73, 25 February 1884, Page 2

THE PANAMA CANAL.

, [Chicago Correspondent.] It really seems as though there were some hope, after all, for the success of the sJtonania Canal, and tbat i&& .shall haves* short cu.(Tbetween the Allantic and Pacific o<&aus and EuropS, and thus attain si dire t route to China and Japan. A contract has been made for the cuttingof the most difficult sections of the work.j ;lt provides for the re- . moral 0f, 2,500,000 cubic metres* Uqvings show it to be one-third rode and two-thirds earth. The price paid is 4a per cubic metre. The work is being pushed on with commendable energy. Trucks of 20in- gauge, of light iron, are run m eveiy direction. Blacks, from Jamaica, work" m the cuts, blasting; the rock and loading up the caw; the capacity of each car being one metre. Many of these cars are run by hand, some ■ by mules, and, when the grade is unfavorable, a powerful Belgian steam-engine-does the work. Ordinary JAborers are* paid 6s per day and furnished with quarters only. They can live, on 2a per day. At present there are 11,000 men a^,. work. Petty bosses get jfrpm 8s to!2s per diem,; engine drivers 16s to 20s. Some gangs are given piece* worky and so can increase their earnings." Tlie entire distance between Panama and Colou is vow under contract, and: the contractors held under heavy bonds to complete theii various sections within two or three years. The task is not,, ,<?asy— 9o,ooo,ooo,* to 100,000;0,00..,mel£e* ofj eartl* and: rock have to be removed out of a piece of r country, of; forty eight miles> By 4 ho end of this nipnth it is expected" that 15,000 labourers will be at work with .the 'finest and most complete American machinery the world has ever' keen, before which all the difficulties arc expected to melb away. .