Page 1 Advertisements Column 4

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2226, 25 June 1908, Page 1

PROGRESS OF THE PANAMA CANAL. ENORMOUS STEAM SHOVELS AT WORK. A RARE MIXTURE OF NATIONALITIES. Tlio “Saturday Evening Post” of Philadelphia contains tlie following report on tlio progress of the Panama Canal:— “The Canal Zone, or Swath, is 10 miles wide, 40 miles long, and the chief aim has been to make the conditions so sanitary as tb preserve the health of the residents; - ‘The total population of the Canal in' January, 1907, was 15,000. and the death rate was 27 per thousand. The greatest foe tlio doctors havo is malaria. The death rate in January, 1908, was 19 per thousand, and the population 61,000. Only one American died in January this year, tlio principle deaths being among the negroes. There are 69 steam shovels at work on tlio Canal; the largest of these shovels weighs 95 tons, and will scoop up five cubic yards at a- time. "When they are working well they can ecooj) it, load and get away, every 16 Seconds. No doubt steamer men will say they should be pushed faster than that, but they think every 16 seconds is good work. The writer adds that he watched one of ’the smaller shovels take up and scoop 21 cubic yards of dirt. Every 18 seconds that big claw grabbed about two horse waggon loads of dirt, and dropped it on to a flat car. . At 'the beginning of this year the United States had spout, exclusive of the ten millions sterling paid the original French company and the public of Panama for the Canal Zone, eleven and a half millions sterling. There is no adequate estimate of tlio ultimate cost, but ■the engineers are now estimating it at sixty millions sterling. Of the entire population, there were only 70 arrests in January for intoxication, and there are only 6,000 Americans out of the sixty odd thousand various nationalities in the Canal Zone. The Americans living along the lino are well paid and fed. and sent back to the United States £600,000 in 1907. There are 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 them. The American Government havo . erected two hotels, well managed, but expensive. “The Pauamaians resent the utrodnetion of sanitary conditions. They protest wildly against the Government establishing stores across tlio Canal Zone, and claim that the people who are digging the canal Should buy from them instead of the Government. They consider tlio innovation an outrage which consisted of the Government selling to the Canal people stores 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 to become a republic, and gave them twomillion sterling for the Zone, think they have done enough. The construction of the Canal is attracting natives of every country in Europe: Italians, Greeks, etc. In fact, looking over the list, every nationality is represented there except Australia and New .Zealand. The Jamaican negroes are the most interesting features of tlio Canal, ias there are several thousands there. He is not so good a laborer as the Greek on Italian. It takes aboutsix Jamaicans to carry a sleeper tint two Italians or “Sikhs would pick up and carry with ease. “The negro laborers are improvident. They are paid Old an hour and board, or lid and bo.ml themselves. If they board themselves, they generally feed on bananas, and cannot do a good day’s work. The Jamaican women form the 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 in in triumph, dragging a man between them who jumped on a car. He was bleeding and ■bruised, and clothes torn. On explanation being given, it was discovered that he was the guard ot the train, and had a right to jump on and off. ' “The negroes keep together pretty well, setting great store on the protection of the British flag, and pestering the life out of the British Minister. If a foreman is rude to him, he draws himself up and says, ‘Remember, tSir, 1 am a British subject.’ ”

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