The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. MONDAY, MAY 7, 1888. THE PANAMA CANAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1834, 7 May 1888, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. MONDAY, MAY 7, 1888. THE PANAMA CANAL.

This stupendous undertaking drags its slow length along. Only the other day we had the news by cable that the Lottery Loan had been passed m the French Chamber of Deputies, so that fresh energy may be expected to be thrown into the enterprise by the certainty that there is money to carry on the huge work. M. de Lesseps, the ; promoter of the undertaking, has just issued a report showing the progress made m the work of excavation and the prospects of the canal generally. He thoroughly believes m the future good of the Canal, and attributes the opposition to its being carried out, to a desire on the part of a certain class to secure for themselves, the right of the water way which it will eventually open up. The Canal, he earnestly and conscientiously believes, will be the glory of Franco and a source of profit to its Government and people. All sorts ot rumors and statements about tho Canal being impossible of construction, and that its continuation is only money thrown away, have been made from time to time, and Froude, m his recent work on the West Indies, drew such an alarming picture of the condition of the Canal and those who were employed on it, that for a time people were inclined to believe the whole affair was a costly and expensive white elephant, and was responsible for the lives and sufferings of many a toiling workman. M. de Lesseps, however, now gives us tho assurance that these pictures are overdrawn, and other evidence besides his own has thrown discredit on that of Froude, whose veracity m matters of actual fact, as for instance, his statements about Hew Zealand — must bo taken with very great precaution . There Was much talk about tho impossibility of carrying out the work of tho Canal, owing to a mountain which kept closing m aa excavations were carried on at its base, M. de Lesseps says, m effect, that this is all moonshine, and that he will have the Canal finished before many years are passed. He contends that the difficulties ho met with at Suez are not much greater at Panama. The climate is not a particularly healthy one, and as workmen could not be got m sufficient numbers to make headway with the work, very largo and costly mechanical contrivances have been brought into operation. The only drawback to speed has been the want of funds, and as he has placed the matter m a very clear light before tho French Government they have given tho necessary permission to issue the Lottery Loan, To have refused sanction to this loan would have been tantamount to throwing the canal on the shelf for some considerable time, and most likely allowing the undertaking to be carried out by some other Power with more enterprise. In his report M. de Lesseps quotes what was said by M. Ponce de Leon, the Engineer of the United States of Columbia, who had paid a visit of inspection to the works at tho Isthmus of Panama. This Engineer says : — " We are m a position to appreciate the faith, tho strength of will, and the constancy which have been necessary to commence, organise, and install the works of the excavation of the canal. I now doubt no longer the success of the enterprise. France has commenced the work, and France will terminate it. :> Though there is eyideijee of a some- i what substantial character that tho canal will not bo finished m I$9Q, or even much later if ever at all, there is this peculiar light thrown upon the schome. Another Company has been formed to cut a canal across the Isthmus at Nicaragua, and preliminary operations have been commenced. A Bill has passed through the American Senate to incorporate the Company formed for the purpose, and called " Tho Maratime Canal Company of Nicaragua." Tho promoters of this Company believe that the engineering difficulties at Panama are of such a character as to instil doubt |nto the public mind that it cannot be completed, The rival Canals are likely to create too muph of a good thing. Perhaps both schemes may prove abortive, gtonoral Qrant had"an idea that de Lessops' Canal project was Jijcoly' to end m failure, and it must be confessed that tho terrible death rate among the Qanal labourers is no small drawback to ,tfye sucoosq of the enterprise. The labor difficulty is one whiqli cannot be got Over lightly, Tho bjina). traverses, m great part a country so unhealthy'^9. to be almost uninhabitable. Laborers have therefore to ba enlisted from all parts of the world almost, and the deadly climate works its ravages very quickly, ijyen «

negroes from Jamaica died off m hun- j dreds when brought to work on the ! Canal, , South Africans fared no better, though they came from a climate where the weather was hot and moist. In many cases the immigration of such labourers has been entirely stopped owing to the appalling death rate. According to a report recently furnished, to the Government of Columbia the company, up to the end of August last; had . excavated only 33,925,230 meters out or a total of 161,000,000, or less than one-fourth of the whole. At the same time the company has expended more than 800,000,000 francs, or onethird more than the Bum originally fixed upon as covering the total cost of the work. It ig estimated that m order j to complete the Canal there will be j required over 3,000,000,000 francs additional, without reckoning upon the sum the company must pay for interest upon the capital already loaned, and general expenses. Moreover, the work thus far accomplished has been done to a very large extent by powerful dredges and similar machines that have been able to attack the low-lying flats on both shores of the isthmus from the water side ; the really hard work that must be accomplished almost wholly by hand, now commences, and when it is remembered that it includes the cutting of a canal through elevations ranging from 50 to 378 feet above mean ocean level, or the carrying of the water way over them by means of tremendous lock works, the underpinning of a mountain and the diversion of a river that is during the rainy season a rushing torrent of impetuous strength, it will be seen at once that prospects are not by any means promising for the company. Pending the completion of the cutting of the Canal, M.de Lesseps has been induced to agree to the construction of locks, by means of which vessels of the largest tonnage may traverse the canal m 1890 before the workß are absolutely completed. M. Eiffel, the great French ironmaster, who is probably best known as the builder of the tower 1,000 feet high m Paris for the next exposition, has the contract for the locks, which are to be built water-tight and chiefly of iron, and he and M. de Lesseps will go to Panama immediately after the spring rains. A model of these locks, our Paris correspondent tells us, has been exhibited m Paris. These locks or sluices are being built on a very large scale, and prospects altogether are looking better for the canal promoters. It seems difficult to imagine that the Canal will languish now it has been pushed so far. There are 400;000 French citizens holding shares m it, and several of the wealthiest houses of France are mixed up m it, besides numerous other shareholders iff different parts of the world. It is scarcely likely that funds will not be forthcoming to complete the work. Money will carry the undertaking through, and if this be furnished and M. de Lesseps has the health and energy to carry on the superintendency of it, success may be assured. Jf through some means the money is not forthcoming to carry the danal from oceau to ocean, and the practicability of the undertaking is not demonstrated, a financial convulsion will shake all France and the loss will be more than would complete the canal twice over. A waterway between the Atlantic and Pacific at Panama has now been long looked for, and when it has been successfully accomplished it will only remain to bo seen how the commerce of the world will benefit by it. Kemp's victory over Hanlan should saal for ever the fate of the latter as a firstolasa Bouller. Hanl&n may be said to be played oat and he mast now take a bick sen In sonlling circles. His record has been varied. That he was a good man at hla boat no one will assume the provinoa of doubting, bat he Bhoald have rotired on hia laurels like Beaoh. * Hanlan can only now be classed as a second rater and It is moat uo'Ccely that he ever Jriil'have any show for a championship again, as younger and abler m;m are annually corning to the front. Tue colonials have scored another point ia Kemp's vlotory Ie seems liktlyjthat we shall be able to hold oar own with outsiders iv aqcatio oonieate, The latest news shows that tho ex >dos from New Zealand still qontinaos. The bone and muaolo of oue o»lor>y is going to o*rry on tho business and wo?k of Viotoria. When is th : s state of things going to end ? la lieu of the flower of oar yonng man vra a ; e getting a shipment of Chinamen who already overrun oar •goldfields and eke out a living where white men would starve. The Chinese question Is assuming alarming interest, bat not perhaps, moro than It deserves. It 1b hardly likely that we are going to let our country be flooded with* Chinese labor. At Auckland, Wellington and luveroarglll, mass meetings are protecting against the Iflflnx of tho Chinese and ia Australia the Alarm at the it flux ia even more widely spread. It is certainly time an outory was raised against tho ChineßO, And it is certainly time some systematic btepa wore taken to legislate for their exclusion from the oolony, exoept under certain stringent conditions The lower clasa Chinese laborers wo aro opening our ports to, are perhaps the very . worst olasa we could allow to land. They bring loathoeome diseases and villanous habits with them, and though we may m moments of oonsoious superiority speak of the universal brotherhood of man and uphold it as an Idea worthy to be respected, yet the Hoe must be drawn somewhere and we draw it at allowing New Zealand to be An emigrant field for the almond-eye hordes from the Flovrery Land.