PANAMA CANAL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1006, 13 February 1912, Page 4

PANAMA CANAL.

AN ESTIMATE OF LOSS

It appears from a recent speech by President Taft that he does not share the belief of Colonel Goethals, the builder of the canal, that it can be made to pay interest on the cost of construction. He said that as soon as the canal is opened it will be possible to pass through it 50,000,000 tons of merchandise a year, but that “there is no probability we shall begin with more than 7,000,000 tons yearly.” He added : “And we must not expect for years and years that the canal will pay any adequate income on the 400,000,000 dollars that are really represented iu the investment.”

Mr Taft’s speech was further notable as containing a succinct description ot the canal and a method by which it will be worked that has yet been put into words. It has the merit of being understandable by reason of its freedom from technical jargon. The description is worth quotation, and here it is ;

“I want to give you a short description of what the canal is. It is 50 miles long from a point five miles out in Limon Bay, on the Atlantic side, to a point five miles out on the Pacific side. From shore to shore it is lorty miles long. From the point on the north—on the Atlantic side, iu the sea, five miles —there is a channel protected by a breakwater 500 U. wide, that runs eight miles five miles iu the sea and three miles iu the Gatun dam. The Gatun dam is 770 ft. long and xislt- high, its supports half a mile thick at the bottom. 400 ft, thick at tne water s edge, which is 85ft. above .the bottom and rises to 11511- high with a width ot loult, at the top. That encloses a lake 145 miles cquare iu surface, and furnishes a channel rooolt. wide for 16 miles. Booft. wide lor lour miles, 500 U.

wide for four miles, and until it reaches the Culebra cut. The Culebra cut is nine miles long, and the canal has a depth across the bottom through that cut of 300 ft, The canal is 45ft. deep through the lake as you get to the Gatun dam.

“ The vessel is raised by three steps of 28 *4 ft. each —three double sets of locks. The vessel is raised to the level of the lake, 85ft. ; it continues on that level until it reaches the end of the Culebra cut at Pedro Magill, where it is lowered again 30ft. to a small lake, through which there is a mile and a half of channel 500 ft. wide. Then at Miraflores it is lowered again to steps of 28 J^ft-, into a channel 500 ft. wide, that goes out into the Pacific Ocean five miles, and that is protected by a breakwater on that side. A vessel will take three hours to go up the steps and to go down again, and will consume in going through—according to how it steams with its own steam —from 10 to 12 hours in its passage.” So far as the excavation work is concerned, 79 per cent of the entire undertaking was completed on September last. President Taft told his hearers in some of the locks as much as 86 per cent of the concrete work is completed, but in others there is a greater percentage to be performed. If the undertaking is pushed forward at the rate at which it is now progressing it will be finished between January xst and July Ist, 1913, Mr Taft said. This is materially ahead of schedule time.