THE PANAMA CANAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13305, 11 October 1906, Page 5

THE PANAMA CANAL.

TO BE CUT BY ' CONTRACT, j By Telegraph Press Association.— '"■•_: New York, October 9. The United States Government has decided, that the Panama Canal shall, be : constructed by contract.i( The 1 Americans undertook the making' of the canal in the spirit of men to whom the doing of great tilings was familiar. Thoy i set to work straight away in 1904, with the work of construction, but found j that so many valuable lives were being lost from disease that hygiene must precede blasting. Then it was decided that surveys arid elaborate plans were necessary. , In the meantime a.struggle was proceeding among the engineers, the commissioners, and -thepoliticians, as to whether it '• should be: a sea- level or a lock canal. Decisions were come to, and revoked on this point, 1 and finally the lock canal was recently decided upon. A commission was appointed to carry out the work, and this body has undergone , reorganisation by , President Roosevelt. The final reorganisation took place in April of last year, and the salaries of the commissioners were fixed. Then new machinery was bought, and large bodies of men were set to work.' ' It was' found that the labour.... available was not suitable, and a month ago a contract was accepted for the supply of Chinese. The cutting of the canal has been found to be a work upon which American "hustle " cannot bo used with effect.' Nearly two years has been occupied with preliminary discussion, whereas the time estimate for cutting the canal was originally stated at 10 years.