THE PANAMA. CANAL

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1772, 21 February 1888, Page 2

THE PANAMA. CANAL

Private letters received from Panama report as follows: — "No work of any Importance is beiug done on the canal Two leading firms of contractors are said to be embarrassed financially. Another prominent oontraotor olaima over 900,000 dollars from ♦.be company. {Several important judgments have been filed against the O«oal Company, and many snzares and. sales are advertised, 'The canal is praotioally dead already.' said a prominent engineer the other day, 'though the efforts m Paris to galvanise the remains may keep op an appearance of life for some time to coma.' The importation of th« po>>r Ltberians still continues. They are magnificent specimens of manhood — coalblack. It was fondly believed that they oonld resist this death dealing olimate, hat tHe eveut has proved otherwise. Of the 282 who were the first to be brought here 36 died within fonr months. The statement of M. Blanohet, la his recent work on the Panama Canal, that the canal has already cost over forty thousand lives, la believed by careful observers here to be an exaggeration. The Government of Jamaica ordered an investigation and sent Dr Gaylord to the Isthmuß It is expected that his findings will lead the Governor of Jamaica to issue a proclamation warning Jamaloans against going to the Isthmus.