THE PANAMA CANAL.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XVII, Issue 1110, 14 January 1885, Page 4

THE PANAMA CANAL.

Reliable information about a matter of such extreme importance to New Zealaad as the Panama Canal is alway3 welcome. Unfortunately, it is noi always easily obtainable; for owing to the Jealousy shown by Americans to this scheme of M. de Lesseps we are flooded from time to time with the most adverse accounts from United States journalists. At one time we are told that disease has swept away half the laborers ; at another that the works have been entirely destroyed by floods ; then we hear that the canal cannot be completed for at least ten years ; and finally that it can never be made at all, because the funds will not be forthcoming. The lc Times," of October 6th, throws a rather more encouraging light on the financial arrangements of the Canal Company. In a letter from its Paris correspondent, describing the continued absence of all speculation on the Bourse, owing to the failure of the Union G-enerale some two years ago, and the settled determination of the public not to invest in any new undertakings, the writer says: — The only three exceptions to this paralysis do but confirm the rule, for they show that what is lacking is not money, but confidence. The three exceptions are Grovernment loans, M. de Losseps' enterprises, and the Credit Foncier issues. The public prefer letting their money lie idle to investing it in anything else. M. de Lesseps is an exception, and his name is sure to be responded to by investors. His recent Panama issue was not made on account of want of funds, but in order that there might be no want of them . later. The Company had 80,000,000 francs in its coffers"; it can call up 140.000,000 francs on its shares ; and it could therefore afford to wait. It preferred, however, to issue debentures, so as to be certain of going on steadily during the next year, and with the proceeds of the subscription it has 320 millions available. Its decision to issue only the 318,000 dedentures taken up by the public, and to reserve the 69,000 subscribed for by the banks, shows that M. de Lesseps means to do for Panama what he has done for Suez — namely, create a class of investors who keep their securities, and thus make them scarce at the Bourse.