PANAMA CANAL BLOCKED.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 144852, 2 December 1915, Page 8

PANAMA CANAL BLOCKED.

EFFECT ON SHIPPING. | The Panama Canal has been closed to traffic five times- since its opening on , August I<3, 191-3, but the present inter- : ruption is. bv far the most serious. [ Auckland is already feeling the effect of the latest stoppage (says the Herald), ’as local merchants had-quicaiy become} accustomed to the much quicker voyage via Panama, as compared with the old route. In fact, tlx* steamers hare often arrived here before the shipping documents, tho latter generally coming through Ban Francisco or Vancouver. The steamer Riouw, reported on nre at Cape Town this week, would have arrived hero weeks ago but tor the (’anal being closed, and the Indian Monarch, which has been abandoned , on lire near St. Helena, was coming, by the Cape route because Panama was blocked.

This last slide is of such great pro- . portions that it will probably take many months to remove the mass of earth that is now filling the cut. A survey of tho slide area in the Gailiard cut reveals tho fact that there are probably 10,000,000 cubic yards of earth in motion, which must be taken out by dredging operations before a permanent channel through the cut is possible. The present rate of wet excavation is a million yards per month, and. at this rate it would require not less than ten months to remove. the mass which is j now sliding into the Canal considerably faster than tho dredges can take it out. j It is said that often the Canal bottom | bulges up to a height of 15ft. above I theTsurfaco of the water owing to the tremendous weight of the sliding hillsides. The area in mqtion is roughly calculated to be about 175 acres, which | constitutes the greatest slide area in j the history of the Canal. It extends I 2600 ft. along both banks of the water- ( way, with probably, an average of i 1500 ft. hack from the centre line of tho Canal. ( When tho last mail left America there i were 100 ships waiting to go through | tho Canal, and it was expected that most of them would shortly be ordered to their destinations by other routes.