THE PANAMA CANAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14925, 24 February 1912, Page 6

THE PANAMA CANAL.

"Now that the i Panama Canal is so nearly approaching completion that preparations for its opening and regulations for its management are being made by the Washington Government, any disaster which seriously threatens the successful conclusion of the great engineering feat will excite world-wide regret. From any engineering point of view there were always two supreme difficulties—the maintenance of a great dam intended to divert the tropical deluges to which the isthmus is subject and the making and maintenance of a great cutting thrcagh the highest land to be traversed. According to the American engineers the original French calculations as to the maximum amount of water to be diverted were greatly under the mark, and the consequent increase in the height and strength of the dam required added enormously to the original estimate of cost. The excavation work in the great " cut" was also enormously increased by the caution of the American engineers, who worked with the unlimited financial resources of the United States at their disposal; but cabled information indicates that the fear which has always been felt of a collapse at this point has proved only too well founded. Great landslides are reported and further landslides are expected. The full extent of the disaster cannot well be estimated until the disturbance is finished and the engineers are able to estimate the additional work with which they are thus confronted. It is most sincerely to be hoped that the completion of the canal will not be greatly delayed, for it is already evident that a great impetus will be given to the commercial development of the Pacific the moment a navigable waterway has been opened at Panama. But the land-slides compel recognition of the constant care which will have to be exercised if the canal is to be kept open. The only difficulty at the Suez Canal arises from the silting up of the channel, and this is effectively dealt with by dredges in a comparatively easy and inexpensive manner. At Suez there are no high banks, no torrential rains, no terrestrial convulsions, but at Panama every danger known to canal engineers has to be expected and provided against. Earthquakes are frequent, the rainfall is excessive and the character of the country is peculiarly difficult. The cost of the Panama undertaking is so vast that it cannot now bo regarded as a commercially profitable enterprise; events have clearly proved that no private company could have completed it The encouraging feature is that the national interest of the United States in securing a short waterway between its Pacific and Atlantic coast makes the cost of the work a matter of secondary importance. Just as Britain and Germany are spending many millions upon armaments, so the United States is pouring out its millions to secure the practical unity of its fleet. Whatever new difficulties are encountered at Panama, and whatever may befall the canal after it is opened, the Washington Government may be depended upon to find as much money as the