THE PANAMA CANAL

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1691, 20 October 1887, Page 3

THE PANAMA CANAL

Unfavorable reports continue to be current regarding the Panama Canal. The latest adverse critic is Mr Arthur W. Roudler, * late Venezuelan Consul at Boston, who ha« been spending a year at Poiiima ia various capacities In the emplojmunt of the company. Mrßoudier does not, like some persons, consider tbe task of cutting a canal through the isthmus an impoaaibillty, but he declares at tho extravagant rate at which the company le. spending its money, It will have used up all its capital long before tha Work ha? been half completed. The directors and higher officials of the company, ho says, live m Bplendid palacea, which have been reared at an enormous experts, aud which are totally unnecessary. Immense quantities of material are ordered which are not wanted and are rever used, and large sums are spent m bribiDg the French press to give favorable ncoounte of the progress of the work; f 'Mr Noudler controverts the statement tint 80 million cubic metres havo been excavated, At the present moment, he says, m the Atlantic section the Amerroan Dredging Company has dredged some 20 miles, bnt this work has not m any way been quite completed, Very little has been done towards th 6 erection of a dyke to stem the couse of the river Ohagres, a task whioh he regards as a gigantic if nob an impossible undertaking, and which, if it ever Ib done, will occupy five 3? eare. Tbe undermining of the Sliding Mountain, at the rate the excavations are going on, will, he calculates, occupy 10 years. The funds at the disposal of tbe company certainly will not hold oot as long, and Mr Boudier has little hope tbat M. do Lesaepa will ever get another loan m France. Altogether de doea not regard tho prospect before the company as a very bright one.