THROUGH PANAMA CANAL.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 70, 21 November 1914, Page 4

THROUGH PANAMA CANAL.

FIRST BOAT ARRIVES AT AUCKLAND. PURELY, FROM NEW YORK. AUCKLAND, Yesterday. A groat deal of interest- attaches to the arrival at Auckland this morning of the steamer Parley, which is the first vessel to come to New Zealand waters via Hie Panama Canal. The Purley has made a record voyage of thirty-seven steaming days. 3he left New York on October lith las' am' reached the canal eight days later. Unfortunately, she was then delayed 'by a fall of earth which had taken place in the Culebra Cut on October IS. Captain Welsford described the passage through the great canal as one of the most interesting experiences cf his life. By the first three colossal locks which the vessel traversed the Purley was raised seventy-one feet above sea-level, and then she commenced her downward journey to the Pacific Ocean. The time taken in traversing the canal was six and ahalf hours. As evidencing the great gain in time which the cansl enables steamers to make, it may be mentioned that the steamer Star of New Zealand, which left New York for New Zealand, via the old route, September 30 —that is, eleven days before the Purley—is not due at Auckland until the end of this month. Shippers and merchants have recognised the great prospects of the new route, and there are now some half-dozen steamers on the way to New Zealand, via the Panama Canal. The distance from New York to New Zeamiles, while by the uf eb-6mfiSHR land by the Cape route is 11.571 miles, white by the Panama route it is 8,500 miles, a saving of over 3000 miles. Under the old timetable the American cargo boats used to call at Australian ports before coming en to Nev? Zealand, but since the Panama Canal rente has been opened, the Dominion ports are the first touched at.