PANAMA CANAL.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 12902, 13 February 1906, Page 3

PANAMA CANAL.

WHAT IS BEING DONE

One of the great international -works to which the Government of the United States of America lias addressed itself is the construction of the Panama Canal, that is ta join die Atlantic and North Pacific oceans, and afford ready communication between the seaports of the eastern and western states of the L'nion. The canal will also shorten the distance from the easLern siaies to Australia and Asia, and ope:; up a. new route between Europe and the Pacific countries. • The preliminary operations in connection witl » this great' work are stilt in p t egress, and the story of what is heav and the relative advantages of the Oiixerent schemes were told the other dav in an interesting manner by a gentleman 'who seme months ago paid a visit to the isthS" c'har WaS S^own rOUD(I by the engineers The length of the canal from sea to* sea, he said, _" will be about 64 miles, and one question: which had yet to be oetcimined w^en I was there was whether it should be constructed by locks or cn tee sea level, or whether a combination £; the two methods would be the best. 1 eisoijaliy from what I and heard I iV..r inclined think teat a system of ■ woula be fqiind the .most practicable and would Joe most lively' to" be recom- ■ menued. jtue Americans -tfsre making a veiy complete survey. A very large staff ,s«rvey;.-rs was engaged oa the work. j 1 asu it v. ;-.s anticipated, I was teld, that i .teey mtgas br sufheiently advanced to allow i rhe submission of a dafiniie scheme to! .Cbngress in the coming spring. The ipencn, who started the canal under M. de Lesseps, proposed to construct- it. on the sea level, and canaiised the Chagres'river, which flows into the Atlantic, for fourteen miles, while the small stream on the Pacific side was canalised fcr .seven miles, and a considerable aniount- of cutting was done on the higher ground "between these two points. The surveys have shown that on the route - chosen, taking advantage of a gully between the- high -hills, that rise . soiiio thousands of feet .above, the deepest cutting necessary for the sea level canal vrou i4 , be onl - v about 450 ft. But thero wouid be over 40 miles of cutting to be cloiv?: The maximum height would be more than twice that of any tower in Melbourne, I imagine, while the average would probably be about 2CCft, so that the excavations oi a sea-level canal would be eucrmous—so great, I fancy, that it will be found that the cost .of such a work would be- simply fabulous. With the lock the ships wculd be lifted probably about 20ft at a time, and it would, be necessary to raisa and lower them about- 400 ft altogether. There would not be any great difficulty in constructing the locks? and the lifts of £0 feet, if adopted, would be no greater than on the Manchester ship canal. There would be. say, about 20 locks in each side, perhaps few more.'' (Cable news received in November announced that the Board of Engineers had recommended a 6ea-level canal, but that the " New York Tribune" stated that President Roosevelt would recommend the lock principle to Congress.) The time that will be occupied," the gentleman went on, "in constructing the canal, depends more, perhaps, upon the political wire-pulling than the actual work. If it is decided to build a lock canal, itwas the opinion of Mr "Wallace, the chief engineer, that it could be completed in about seven years: while, if they adopted a sea-level scheme, it would take* 12 years to .complete. ' The main trouble with the lock canal will be the time taken by vessels in going through, and its lesser efficiency than the other scheme. Allowing for delavs at entering, and tying up to pass other shipping? it is estimated by the American engineers that, travelling day and night, the voyage by a sea-level canal would occupy 24 hours: while if locks are in use, and ships have to be raised up 400 feet and let down again, fully 48 hours will be occupied in making the trip over the isthmus from ocean to ocean. And, of course, the capacity of the canal will be very much lessened.

" There are a number of problems which are engaging the attention of the engineers. The River Chagres, which the French proposed to make part of the canal, is very liable to floods, it being on record that ithas risen over 40ft in 24 hours. This risk of extreme fluctuations in the level, the Americans consider, makes it impossible to adopt the river bed for the canal, unless the river itself is diverted. Either a new channel must be cut for the river, leaving the old one for the canal, or vice versa. They were, at the time of my visit, making surveys, and were sanguine of being able to divert the Chagres. which at present flows into the Atlantic, by putting a tunnel through a mountain, and sending the flow of water into the Pacific. It would involve a great expenditure, for the tunnel necessary would be probablv four 'miles long, and by far the largest in the world. The cost «>f the work, however, can be closely estimated, and at the time of my visit the officers in charge seemed inclined to think that this would be the best, scheme to adopt. "While the suiveys are proceeding the Americans are employing all available labour to make the 6anitury conditions of the country more acceptable, and already they have effected such changes that, where the French' had to pay their workmen 5J dollars a day to get them to remaiD, the Americans get labour at a dollar and a half, and expect to get it below a dollar a day. But then the conditions were so bad that it. has been said, and, I believe, proved, that more than one man was buried alongside the railway fr<>m Colon for every sleeper it contained. The native quarters | were on a swamp, containing about 18in of ■water. the house*; being built on piles, and j connected with the railway line with pknks. AH drainage went into the swamp,: and when the water supply saved from the- roof in whisky barrels, kerosene tins, or other receptacles ran short, the natives took all they needed from the swamp. Fre<Jaenfc epidemics and a high death rate followed as a matter of course. Now the Americans are constructing a new settlement -ou the higher lands, with , proper drainage and water supply.

" The Americans-have, not made themselves well liked by the inhabitants of the Panama Republic, but some

'of th§ir worse grievances were rcniuvod bv Mr \V. 11. Tait, Secretary for War, who paid a visit to the isthuius while I was theae. Colon and Panama are both within the canal zone, and practically the only tw t > ports in the new republic of Panama. Soon after taking possession <i the canal zone, the Americans applied the Dinghy tariff, and consequently the inhabitants of the republic were forced to pay taxes on all th-dr imports. There were other questions, and the Auiencar.s. when Jec-iug was very bad, refused to allow a plebiscite of the residents :f Panama on the question whether the r:-:>\:b!ic of Panama should rejoin Colombia ai'ur ii had expressed a wiili-gr.css to allow it. My attention was diawr. to the feeling first by a Panama officer, who refused to drink ike health of the republic of Panama, and asked me to hor.cur the icpublic of Colombia. The people are not to b: compared with the Mexican:--. It is remarkable that the Mexicans i:ave absorbed the Spanish blood, and evolved a distinct race, while in the South American republics generally I lie people are a lot of half-cas;es. governed by the few blue-blooded Spaniards—a combination that always makes for trouble. The Mexicans are quite different, and I believe you can get a just legal decision with them as well ;is anywhere iu the wo:id. In Venezuela and those Centra! American Stales where -tli-sre is always intriguing and 1 danger of revolution the conditions os life are verv different."