THE PANAMA CANAL SLIDES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1696, 10 April 1917, Page 1

THE PANAMA CANAL SLIDES.

In an address before the New York Merchants’ Association recently, Major-General George AV. Gocthals touched on various matters relating to the Panama Canal. He went into considerable detail regarding the slides that have at times seriously interfered with the navigation of the canal. The slides, he says, are of three kinds: “One where the material slides down into the canal, due to the fact that the slopes are too sleep and the material cannot stand there and it natudally comes down the incline; the second is where the lop layer of material is soft and the material underneath is of a harder character.

“As the superimposed material cannot get a hold on the harder material underneath it slides down when it rains. This type of slides is over.

“The third type is where the underlying strata is compressed and squeezed out of shape by reason of the weight of the superimposed mass, and this is what has occurred at Culebra. Bo that at 5 o’clock on the afternoon of October 14th, 19.14, where we had 45 feet of water, at half-past live we had 9 inches of water, and this extended for a length of 2,000 feet along the axis of the canal.

“We immediately proceeded to dig this out, and the mass has gradually settled down. We have now cut through there a. channel and are able to pass through any ship that comes along up to a draught of 35 feet. The excavation is proceeding successfully, and the danger from the slides is over.

As regards tolls on vessels. Colonel Goethals says that an equitable tax should be pla.ced on all shipping passing through the canal. That owing lo our rules of measurements we are excluding the measurements of surface which

other ships have, with the result that the English ships using the canal are getting an advantage in

the matter of tolls. And that the difference in tolls collected under our registered tonnage policy amounts to about 3 per cent, less than it should be.

Whatever General Goethals may say concerning matters relating to the conduct of affairs at the Panama Canal should be given serious consideration. He brought this great undertaking to successful completion, and is familiar with every detail of its construction and its management. We have hU assurance 1 that the slides in the canal art 1 over and that henceforth it will he free from obstruction to navigation. This should allay a great deal of apprehension as to any serious interruption of traffic arising hereafter from these earth slides.