The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1911. THE PANAMA CANAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 79, 15 November 1911, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1911. THE PANAMA CANAL.

It is expected that the Panama Canal will really be open to traffic in July, 1913, and in view of this fact steamship developments in Britain and America are now in progress. The work of completing the Canal is now being carried out by the United States Government, and its length under the present scheme, is forty-nine miles, forty of which are through hilly country, which has given much trouble from land slides on the easterly side. J’he width of the locks throughout has been increased to one hundred leet. With regard to the ■•• shipping proposals, so far as the Americans are concerned it is said their lack of suitable tonnage is likely to prove a serious drawback, but attempts are being made to remedy this defect before the waterway is ready for traffic. The most ambitious of these is associated with Air Bernard-N. Baker, a former chairman of the Atlantic Transport Company, who originated the Morgan combine and presented the hospital ship Alai lie to the British Government at the time of the South African war. He is well known to shipping people in England, and the scheme which he has taken in hand is being watched with unusual interest. A company of which he is president has been incorporated in New Jersey with a capital of £3,000,000, and it is the intention to tender for the various mail services between New York and Seattle, for which the United States Government is prepared to offer an annual subsidy )f £IOO,OOO, a condition of the. agreement being' that the contractors must mvc no interest in any of the railway jystems. Fifteen fast mail steamers are to be built, and specifications for them have already been issued to shipbuilders. The opening of the Canal will probably have a consideriblc bearing on Australasian commerce.