FIRST SHIP THROUGH PANAMA.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1030, 23 November 1912, Page 4

FIRST SHIP THROUGH PANAMA.

lu spile of every sort of hindrance and difficulty impossible to foresee, says a special correspondent of The Times, the cost of the Panama Canal has so far been kept well within the estimates made in 1908. For this the chief credit is, of course, due to Colouel Goelhals, a born administrator, not the least of whose qualities is the good chess-player’s capacity for looking many moves ahead. He has, too, the invaluable power of communicating something of his own tireless zeal for the cause of others; so that, in a climate where the native instinct is to lie prone in the shade, there are no signs of shirking among the great army of canal workers. These working men are highly paid and have an eight hours day, but during the eight hours they work hard. It is the existence of this spirit that makes it possible to say with confidence that not only will the canal be finished, but that it will be finished, within a measureable distance of the date—September of next year—when it is hoped that the first ship will pass through.

The question of the passage of ttiis first ship, however, hi precisely that which is at present causing Colonel Goethals most anxiety. The issue is a simple one, and he talked to me very frankly about it. In 1915 the Government of the United Stales intend to have a great opening ceremon!al, part of which is to consist of a procession of warships of all nations through the canal. But what Power would trust a firstclass battleship or cruiser—and nothing less would be worthy of the occasion—lnto an intricate waterway and through a series of locks operated by complicated and delicate machinery unless it were

certain... that . these, were. iu r the hands of a competent and experienced staff ?, The question: then -is, ho.w is the Staff to: gain experience ? Only, as Colouel Go’ethals says, by the use of the canal by trading vessels as soon as it is available.' 'Experiments could be made with; Government tugs and oilier such emit; but nothing short of the passage,, say,, of a Pacific itniil steamer' would—to use the Colonel’s phrase-—make the; staff “pht their backs into ft” and f give them real experience, But the shipping companies trading iu thebe' parts, though willing and anxious to use the cabal as so,bn as possible, /naturally want from, eighteen months' to twb years’ : notice before changing , their sailing routes; and iFey. cannot begin to inake new arrangements mutii ' the question of the . canal tolls ’ is Settled- a-'-IS-JS essential, tobj--tbatj - to persuade owners'’ to, take the rislf of passing -the canal in Its early days,, /Congress should hurry forward’a ‘hill granting full compensation in case of accident. This then, is the situation here. The canal will, humanly speaking, be ready tor the passage of ships by, at least, January 1914, but it is doubtful whether there will be ships available or willing to use it. During the present and next year, too, the canal builders’ organisation will be gradually broken up and the staff scattered far and wide. It is precisely from among these men, intimately acquainted with the caual and grown accustomed to the climate, that the permanent staff should be selected. But here again nothing can be done without the action of Congress, and Congress, like our own venerable Parliament is too much occupied with the wordy war of party interests to pay quick attention to things that really matter.