PANAMA CANAL BLOCKED

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2630, 27 November 1915, Page 3

PANAMA CANAL BLOCKED

EFFECT ON SHIPPING. , • : The Panama Canal has been closed to traffic five times since l its opening .on August 15j 1914, but the present interruption is by far tho most serious. Auckland' is already feeling thß effect' of the latest stoppage (says the "Herald"), as local merchants had quickly become accustomed to the much quicker voyage via Panama, ag. compared .with the old route. In fact, the steamers, have often arrived here before the shipping documents, the latter generally coming through San Francisco or . Vancouver. The steamer Riouw, reported on fire at Cape Town this week, would have arrived here weeks ago but for the Canal' Being closed,' and the Indian ; Monarch, which' has been abandoned on fire near St. Helena, was coming by the Cape route because Panama ' was blocked. - ' I

This last slide is of such great proportions that it will probably take many months to remove the mass of oarth that is now filling the cut. A survey of the slide area in tho Gaillard .cut reveals the fact. that there are probably 10,000,000 cubic v yards of earth in motion, which-, ,'iiiust be taken out by dredging,operations before a permanent channel through the cut is possible. The_ present rate of wet excavation is a million yards per month, and at this rate it would require not less than ton months to remove the mass which is now sliding into considerably faster than tho dredges can take it out. It is said that often the Canal bottom bulges up to a height of loft, above the surface of the water owing.to tho tremendous weight of the sliding hillsides. The area in motion is roughly calculated to be about 175 acres, which constitutes the greatest! slide area in the history of tho Canal. It extends "GODfi. along both banks of the waterway, with probably ail average of1500ft. back from tho centre line of the Canal.

[ When the last mail left America there were 100 ships waiting to go through tho Canal, and it was. expected that 'most of them would shortly be ordered to their destinations by other routes.