The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1886. THE PANAMA CANAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1414, 23 November 1886, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1886. THE PANAMA CANAL.

In refe ring in a recent issue to the conflicting accounts with reference to the progress and prospects of this, the greatest engineering enterprise of the age, we expressed a wish for seme authoritative and reliable information as to the actual facts of the case. This appears to be now forthcoming, a Californian paper to hand by last mail giving very fall and satisfactory details which are extracted and republished bj one of our Wellington exchanges, the N. Z. Times, and of which we In our tarn avail ourselves for the benefit of our readers. Through this channel-we learn that It is now admitted that in the past there has been much misrepresentation at the hands of American writers, and that “ all the people of Panama who are on the spot are quite convinced that the Canal will be com pleted, although possibly not before the year 1892.” It is indeed said that the most difficult part of the work is already finished and that the work of excavation la now going on along the whole line from ocean to ocean. From Colon to Gatim, a distance of seven miles, the trip can even now be made by water, although this section of the canal is not yet dredged out to its full depth, but It will suon be deep enough for large vessels, ten large dredgers being at work. Of the appearance and condition of the works beyond this point an eye-witness says : —“ al- - the visitor can see that the work done has been vast, and can discern the beginning of a canal. From Oatan one can look far inland and sea the laud cleared, the eaith removed to near the water-line—in fact, a vast cat through the Isthmus, reaching miles to the westward, ready to be cut away below the water-line by the dredgers, which are eaiing their way inland.” The most difficult section of the who'e, known as the Oulebra section, upon which some of the cuttings will be several hundred feet deep, is, it appears, in the hands of an Anglo-Dutoh Company, wnich has enormous financial resources andwhose operations are directed by the very highest engineering talent, its DirectorGeneral, who is described as a most able and energetic man, personally superintending the work, which la being pushed on with great energy. In the opinion of a recent visitor there is no doubt as to the fact that the canal will be dug to the water level by 1892, and that at that date the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific will meet through the great cut. Ha does not think that the canal will be deep enough for use at that time, perhaps two years more being required to dredge to the necessary depth; but It will bo practically complete at that date.” All this is highly encouraging and satisfactory | and is a complete refutation of the disparaging and depreciatory accounts which have so often previously reached as from American sources, and of which the following explanation is now given—“ The trouble with many correspondents who have written concerning the canal is that they have devoted not more than a day or two to a survey of the work done, which Is not sufficient even to begin to get an idea of what has been accomplished. The interior sections, .where such heavy wot& has been and must be done, have scarcely ever been vhited, although every facility for examination is extended by the Canal Company to those who wish to ascertain the condition of the great enterprise." All the stories about the exceptional uaiualthilness —we should perhaps write deadlines*—of the climate seem to have been equally foundationless with those depreciatory accounts of the progesa of the works which are thus so completely refuted, lot it Is now asserted that there is not more illness in Pan ima than in other southern cities, that epidemics are unknown, and that its “death-rate compares favorably with that of more northern regions ” As then there no insuperable obstacles to the work arising from engineering difficulties or climatic conditions it remains only to he shown that the financial resources are sufficient to render certain the triumph of M. Lesseps, and upon this point we are told that “ the Canal | Company has now money enough to last for three years, and when this shall have been exj ended the work will ha so far advanced that the amount necessary to complete the caaa>l will beeasily obtained-” We may now, therefore, wo ate glad to think, safely look .-forward to the opening of the great water-way between the

Atlantic and the Pacific within six or seven years from the present date —an event the importance of which to New Zealand it is scarcely possible to overestimate.