The Canal.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 852, 29 June 1888, Page 27

The Canal.

news conveyed by a recent cable message tfiat the latest French lottery in aid of the Panprpa fainal being eagerly subscribed suggests tworeflpetions. One ijf'tyiat, notwithstanding th® vast amount of njoney GOn ‘ tributed by the French people toward this great work, and the repeated unfavourable reports which have been received as to its progress and pro-

spects, there seem still to be inexhaustible resources for M. do Lesseps to draw upon in the shape of French faith and French capital. Apparently the people of France have resolved that whatever sum may be needful for the completion of the work shall be forthcoming when called for. If so M. de Lesseps has ab least the comfort of knowing that he will not fail for lack of the “ sinews of war.” The other reflection suggested by this news about the Panama Canal Lottery is : How very little authentic information ever reaches this Colony as to the actual position and progress and prospects of the great work in which New Zealand is so specially interested. What accounts do come are hopelessly un.ntelligible from their contradictory and conflicting character. As a general principle, it may be laid down that all accounts which come through French channels are mainly favourable and sanguine, while those that come through American channels aro exactly the reverse. But every rule fan its exception, and in an American paper just received by the mail we find some information seemingly of a much more impartial nature than usual.' A special correspondent of the New York World recently received an invitation to take a trip across the isthmus and examine the work on the canal. lie made the journey -from Colon to Panama in a special train, which was stopped here and there along the route to give an opportunity of viewing the sceneiy and ofexamining the work on the canal. The French agents oE Da Lesseps’ Compauy extonded every courtesy, and the engineers made plain the seotions of work under their supervision. The correspondent iu giving tho results of his inspection deals first with the great question, “ When, if ever, will the Panama Canal be finished ?•” He remarks that although Count de Lesseps has named 1890 as the year whew 110 intends to sail across his water route from the A tlaufcic to the Pacific Ocean, it is considered Very doubtful whether he will live to see the work completed, and the French engineers all differ in their estimates of when the canal will be open to commerce, while there are many who do not believe that the work will ever be finished. But, he adds, “ those who have made careful examinations of the proposed route of the canal admit that there are no engineering problems that cannot be solved. The best experts of all nations and schools of surveying, have been over the ground and find nothing more than the ordinary obstacles, tfiat are constantly met with i#, undertakings of such magnitude,’*

Tfii,g is to some extent a departure from the attitude ordinarily assumed by American critics, the tendency of whose opinions has mostly been to suggest the inference that the “ three C’s,” viz., the Chagres driver, the Culebra cutting, and;‘the pestilential Climate, formed obstacles virtually insuperable. B,ut this correspondent, wlio is, we understand, professionally competent 'o offer an opinion, states distinctly that ihe obstacles are pot insuperable, of. ev.on of unprecedented magnitude. ' He ilisg.oyerg a,notfi,er drawback, however, wfijefi, in,ay prove more tha,n, a s riy of}- thesq. The trouble, lie qays, seems. to, fip. with the men, who fiaye tfiia under talking in change. Lesseps, who sta,n,d;s th© head of ,the great pro yeefc, is “a much belter financier than engineer.” He hag had marvellous success in raising fabulous sums of money, and so far has been atfie, to secur'd all the fuuds necessary. Bjis influence among fiisfelloyv-country men is astonishing, and oft f Van os arp *at fiia mere asking. The canal has become a matter of national pride with the French, but it is feared that the death of De Lesseps will see the end of the canal. He is already a very old man, a.ncl at “the best it will take more years to complete work.' In this time ah onoriaous aiqounf of money will have fo be spent, and, only the employment of the best engineering talent a lavish outlay will see the.work finished. The men %t the hqad of the mechanical pa»t of the work are thought to be jn- } competent'. ' They are Flrenoh engineers and, all, graduatesTwm IjlScoJe, '• Ifolytechffiggtq. in Pa.rip,. Ideas that/difijer from, thn^- 9$ the I practical American eqgipeeis,, and will j pay no heed to, from other (tjha.n gji;Bidiuatea of that particular | Bcli,oah ~ To them, it is said, ia due the Viow progress that has been made, and as long as they remain in, charge the. canal will never be completed. It ia asserted that the best work now being, done is, iu the hands of the American

Dredging Company, which has a contract for the lower part of the canal from Colon to Borio. Here the work is being carried on with a practical system. Steam dredges and the best machinery are used, and skilled American workmen are employed, the work being highly satisfactory and remarkably quick. Along the other parts of the canal negroes aud. French labourers are working with pick and Rpade, and the progress is slow and uncertain. Here the French engineers are in charge, and the inferiority of their work seems to he apparent to everybody but the managers of De Lessep’s Company. The method employed by the American dredgers is not unhealtliful, while the labourers who work with pick axe and shovel contract fevers and malarial diseases aud die by hundreds. This again puts the work back and causes a constant importation of labourers to fiil the places of the men who drop out every night when the roll is called. This may, of course, bo merely national prejudice, or it may be a just and wellfounded criticism. Of this we have no means of judging. Regarding the method by which it is now proposed to overcome the Chagres problem the correspondent of the New York World says: “How to dispose of that river, and how to lay its new bed so that it would not interfere with the canal has been a quesliou whioh many have tried to settle. Nsar Bas Obispo, to the eastward of the high hill, is a deep vailey, and it waa to that valley that De Lesseps intended to lead the Chagres. Two years ago tiie Caual Company decided to lead the Chagres river into a large basin or reservoir, which was to be budt in the Valiev of Obispo This idea ha* been abam’o ted, however, and the Canal Company has decided 10 bring the 1 ntire Chagres away from the canal eastward. As soon as all the necessary conduits which are to lead the Chagres from its original bed are completed the old river-bed will befilled in. This seems to be the best plan of disposing of that, troublesome water.” Next as to the gigautie Cuhbra cutting Another change of the original plan as presented to the first sloi-kholders of the Canal Company Has been made. It had been intended ,to build the canal on a sea-level—that is to remove all the earth along the route until a certain level, nine metres, ; b,e\ow the level of Aspinwall, vyas reached. The Panama entrance, tp, the canal was to be supplied vyita, a lock. To-day the Company thijuk that this may cost too, mu(?E, m,oney, and now, in order to have the canal opened as soon as possible, intend to put eleven locks along the route from Colon to Panama. By this plan, a vessel coming Colon will go through Ipcks. until gradually to the level of frpjn wjiich point it will be lowered again in the same manjner toward the Pacific side. M. iJacquier, the Dipector-Ghenpral of the | Canal thinks, that, by adopting fchip coursej fie will succeed- in lessening, the expense of tfie enterprise and haslcu tfie opening o,f the cana.fi Tfie rpon.ey raised fro,® ships going, through Uvo c-amalj is to be utilised alomg tfie eanal route by gr.\dm% doing- away wiffi the different locks. The water for the upper locks, which is to float the vessels passing through them, L to be plied by heavy pumps, which t.o. bp erected at each loefi Tfie American as many <jf tjfij?, French surveydo not fieheye, that the Pguawa Canal 1 Company will have, tfie lock system I above Referred to earned out, and couisider that it would cost nearly as ' much money to build locks as to excavate the canal down to its original intended depth of nine mptr,es : below the Atlantic sea-layel, ihe letter concludes as jqollpws : :

Tt requites a journey along the route of the • canal’ to gain a conception of the magnitude, of, De Lesseps’ undertaking. the canal will some day be opened and tvyo oceans connected by means of a water-way through, the Isthmus of PauaujA ip generally conceded here But \t'is not, b?l*pvedi that De Resseps. wit , liyhto see his great project accomplished, nor--1 is 'ft thought that the Eyaaph, ■vyilf hp the ones 1 to complete the' The settled, bgßef; ia that it remains fop Amierican, in-. gehuity. dud; pj-actipal engiuC-WS; to, take up and qiirry to. a, Successful,' endj thp- undertaking ! that tli<3 Erench, ha,va tepjgup, ! There, perhaps, just a suspicion oT gasconade running s tfirottgfi the letter, but on the whole Jife represents the difficulties; of qhe undertaking in a much, leas, disheartening light than that in which, they are commonly exhibited by American : critics. The gist of report seems .to h,e that what difficulties there are :may appear alarming to mere Frenchmen, but would be bagatelles to Ameri® can engineers, who are quite prepared to complete the work in a “ jiffy ’

when those “ poor Mounseers ” havegrown tired of trying and failing, So' we may look forward to having thePanama routs to and Irom Europesome day by somebody. But unluckily the point which appears to us the most awkward one of all is not touched- Andl that is : How is the caqal to be madeto pay ? A very capable authority has estimated that it can only pay by' receiving all the traffic that couldi possibly pass through, and at a rate off tolls that no vessels could afford to give. For instance, a toll of £2OOO to £3OOO for each passage of one ol the New Zealand Direct liners through the canal is proposed. This, of course, would be simply prohibitive, as the saving of distance would be smallecthan might be supposed from glancing at a map on Mercator’s Projection. If tfie respectivecourse via Panama and via Cape Hornbo measured on a terrestrial globe the 1 difference will be found less than mos& people imagine, and the loss of time through delays in entering aud leaving and passing along the canal will have* to be taken into account. When all these things are considered, it must be confessed that the paying prospects of the caual do not look very brilliant. Indeed, it is feared by many competent judges that 1 the best to be hoped is that the canal, if completed, may pay the bare expenses of working and maintenance,, leaving nothing toward interest upon the enormous sum which the work wilt have cost the shareholders.