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Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 116, 22 June 1914, Page 6

The constant references to the opening of the Panama Canal an<l its probable effect on the diversion of maritime trade serve to recall the ill-fated attempt of the French Government to unite the waters of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. The work was in the hands of the hero of the Suez Canal venture, Ferdinand.de Lesseps, who was confident, or so professed himself, as to the work being, successfully completed by the Frencli engineers. It'is on, record that when money was jiiiltning short, de Lesseps arranged a visit of French deputies—an exclusive party, which also included representatives of English and American financiers—with a view to impressing them with the progress that was being made. The hope c . the veteraiydfe Lesseps—who, by the way, is said 'not to have been an engineer in the serious interpretation of the term —was that more money would be authorised by the Government. A tremendous "blow-up" of thousands of tons in one of the cuttings was arranged for $e visitors, and wsis an impressive explosion, the bnly fiy in the amber being that the demonstration had taken a year or two to prepare,.and was not one of the regular operations in excavation, as de Lesseps intended'it to be understood. The extra advances were not forthcoming, despite all the ingenuity of those in charge of the work. Aubrey Stanhope, the special correspondent of the "New York Herald," who. accompanied the party on that prodigal excursion—money was spent like water, to ensure first-class living, comforts for the tourists —states , that one after another the French contractors . robbed the Government, by ordinary '' graft'' methods, and retired to Paris wealthy men. GoethftXs succeeded where de Los-.; seps failed, because he s'was the better man for the job. Under the French regime, the West Indian negro workers died like flies, and it did not enter the heads of the supervisors that effective sanitary conveniences and the destruction of the malaria inoculating .mosquito,, in such a climate, were .factors militating against tho consummation of this gigantic, enterprise. A; id. Culebra was not a fiat Suez plain, as . the remarkable Frenchman found.to his cost.