THE PANAMA CANAL.

Colonist, Volume LVII, Issue 14154, 17 April 1916, Page 2

THE PANAMA CANAL.

IS IT-A FAILURE? Lloyd's agent at Colon cables - •''Continued slide—eighteen ships held up.'-' And again: "Thirty-four vessels waiting transit. Dredging output exceeds inrush, but when transit available unknown." Later nowfrom the Panama side announces, n. landslide of 10,000,000 cubic yards- in the Culebra Cut, and in consequence "the canal will not be open again for traffic before January." January is here, and finds the prospect more menacing than ever with SO-inch suction dredges quite inadequate to deal with the "sliding hills" of which our Minister .in the zoue speaks in a l-ecent report. For half » ir.ilo on either side of the channel both [Gold Hill on the east and Culebra Hill on the wesc are moving into.the groat cut. Gold Hill tumbles- down in bulk ] Culebra Hill moves towards .the oha-i----jnel in-- terraced masses, deeply, fissured ] down to tlie solid rock. j In one place the eanaJ is choked to a height of sixteen foot above thei water and it will t?.-ke-until next July' to remove tho total obstruction. . Mcaiiwoile tho dry season, which begins in !><vomuer, may help. Tlib banks begin to cake and tho binding grasses gee a grip on the treacherous sides--grasses ppocially planted by the engineers for this p-urpose. It is ■hoped to, cut. a narrow passage deep enough ■for light draught vessels to pass. But all estimates of this baffling work are falsified from day to day, or from season to season. America's j ablest exports estimated 103,000,000 cubic yards of "dirt" where 195,000,000 had to be removed. Meanwhile tlte Washington Wai- Department is refunding canal dues to holdup .steamers, and these are pursuing the Magellan route, which takes at least thirty days longer. To-day America is mute, but with tho problem always before her. Has an irremediable- error been made iv. the construction of the canal J A French engineer returned ay. emphatic "Yes" when the 'question was put to him. "It. is a lock canal," M. BunauV'arilla said, "one dependent on the stability of a soft clay dam, 2SOO metres long. It was madness to adopt such a plan in a land of earthquakes and furious floods. Why, tho canal jtr.ay disappear in a night, leaving ail {America. cursing the confusion of ideas which has clone all the mischief. Tho sea level scheme would liavc united tho two oceans in nine .years or so, and given a free arm, two hundred metres broad and fifteen deep at I least, receiving all the rivers of the I Isthmus, including the- unruly Chagres. INo restriction or limitation, no elaborate (•artificial works, dams 01 locks which an earth tremor or an explosion could destroy. For a milliard of francs the United States might have had an interoceanic waterway, proof against all attacks of nature or of man." And now after all the hopes, all the years of labour, with all resources o f science and machinery—steam shovels, blasters, and drills—these ill-omened words ring true. "Why," M. Bur.au-Varilla was asked, "did the United States build 1 lock canal when nil the international engineers counselled tho -sea level design ?" yit is hard to say," he replied "They were probably over-anxious to display their own initiative." —Ex-' J change.

In sinking a foundation for t'l^ v>.ov pit-turn palace, in Oncr-n street, Mnsterton. the contractors hit upon an ok'well, with the four upright beams ir, a preserved condition. In mentionmn the -t'aot to an "Age" reporter, an old. vo.sidor-t of the town said be rerriev-'----bered the sire perfectly well when it was almost in its virgin state. Th'l area of the section was one acre, and the holder, being unable to. meet his '^'•oc'ory account, disposed of it to the shopkeeper for £7 10s. One corner of the land was recently disnnsed of to the picture company for £5000.