THE PANAMA CANAL.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 225, 16 June 1908, Page 10

THE PANAMA CANAL.

ENORMOUS STEAM SHOVELS AT WORK. A RARE MIXTURE OF NATIONALITIES. Tho "Saturday Evening Post" of Philadelphia contains the following .'report on the progress of the Panama Canal:— "The Canal Zone, or Swath, is 10 miles wide, 40 miles long, and tho chief aim has been to make tho conditions so sanitary as to preserve the health of tho residents. The total population .of the Canal in January, 1907, was 45,000, and tho death rate was 27 per thousand. The greatest foe the doc-:, tors have is malaria. The death rato in j January, 1908, was 19 gper thousand, and the population 61,000. Only one American died in January this year, tho 'principal deaths , being among tho negroes.- There oro 69 steam shovels at work on the Canal; the largest of these shovels weighs 95 tons, and will scoop up five cubic yards at a time. When they ara working well thoy can scoop it, load; and get away' every 16 seconds.. •No doubt steamer men will say they should be pushed faster than that, but thoy think overy 16 seconds is good work. The writer adds that he watched one of the smaller shovels take up at a scoop 2} cubic yards of dirt. Every 18 seconds that big claw grabbed about two horse wagon loads of dirt, and dropped it on to a flat car. • "Tho total excavation for December last was' 2,200,539 cubic yards, in January 2-,712,568 cubic yards, and it was expected that the February excavation would equal that of January, although there wero fewer working days, whils March was expected to roach 3,000,000 cubic yards. TJp to .February 1 the Americans had excavated 25,469,05'! cubic yards. The total excavation by .the French at all points was 81,548,000 'cubic yards. At tho beginning of this year'the United States had spent, exclusive of tho ten, millions ' sterling paid the original. French company and tho public of Panama for tho Canal Zone, eleven and a half millions sterling. There is no adequate estimate of the ultimate' cost, but tho engineers are now estimating it at sixty millions sterling. Of tho entire population, there wero only 70 arrests in January for intoxication, and there are only 6000 Amoricans out of the sixty odd thousand various nationalities in; the Canal .Zone. Tho Americans living along the lino are woll paid and fed, and sent back tp tho United States £600,000 in 1907. There aro 34 saloon bars in the Canal Zone. No bar-room is allowed to have a table or chair in it, and no one is allowed to loaf in its. The American Government have erected two hotels, woll managed, but expensive. < "Tho Panamaians • resent the introduction of sanitary conditions. They protest wildly against the Government establishing stores across the Canal Zone, and. claim that the people who aro digging the Canal should buy from them instead of the Government. Thoy consider tho innovation an outrage which consisted of the Government soiling to tho Canal people stores of all kinds at cost,' instead of allowing the local trader to sell them at five prices. In fact, the local traders sent a delegation to Washington to protest, but the authorities at Washington, who helped them become a republic and gave them two millions sterling for the Zone, think" they ha'vo done enough. The construction of tho Canal is attracting natives of every country in Europe: Italians, Spaniards, Greeks, etc. In fact, looking over the list, every nationality i 3 represented there except Australia and New Zealand. Tlio Jamaican negroes aro the most interesting features of tho Canal, as'there aro several thousands there. He is not so gcod a'labourer as tho Greek or Italian.. It t::kes about six Jamaicans to carry a sleeper that two Itali- | ans or Sikhs would pick up and carry with

" "The negro labourers ere improvident. They aro paid 6£d. an hour and board, or lid. and board thcmfelves. If tliey-board.'themselves, thoy. generally feed on bananas, and cannot do a good day's work. Tho Jamaican women form tho servant class. "They are a source of amusement also. A foreman* at Culebra 'told off' two Jamaicans to watch goods trains and', prevent, any'person jumping on, and instructed them to. arrest any 'train jumper.'_ Later on,'two Jamaicans came m in triumph, dragging a man between thorn who jumped on a car. Ho was bleeding and bruised, and clothes torn. On explanation being given, it was discovered that* ho was tho guard of tho train, and had a right to jump on and off. "Tho negroes keep together pretty well, sotting great store on the protection of tho British Hag, and pestering the lifo out of tho British Minister. If a foreman is ni:le to him, ho draws himself up and. says, 'Re,member, Sir, I am a British subject.'"