THE PANAMA CANAL. Doubts About its Completion. MISCELLANEOUS.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 84, 10 January 1885, Page 6

THE PANAMA CANAL. Doubts About its Completion.

MISCELLANEOUS.

The American correspondent of the " Dunedin Star," in his letter by the last mail, says ;—" The Parisian public, gulled by the subsidised Parisian press, appear to be the only community that retain confidence in the plans of M. De Lesseps for the construction of the Panama Ganal. Success succeeds, and it is natural to believa that the man who in tho case of the Suez Canal overcame all the obstacles and all the predictions of his opponents knows what he is about in the Panama enterprise. But j the opinion of the best investigators is increasingly against M. De Lesseps's chances of success. The new loan j for which he applied recently to the Parisian capitalists was easily obtained— indoed, no one but De Leseeps (we are told by the London ' Times ') could, in the present depressed condition of French finances, have obtained a loan in that city. But if what is told by the American engineers and naval officers who have lately visited his work be true, the confidence of the French backers of De Lesseps is based on a suppression of the truth by their newspapers, and by the director of the project. "Rear- Admiral Shufeldt.of tho American wavy, has made an inspection of the progress ot the excavations, and has returned with the estimate that not less than £50,000,000 j ■will be required to carry out the scheme, and then it will be done only by the entire abandonment of the plans for a sea-level canal, and by the change to a canal with locks. Money enough will build the canal, he says, but the canal will never pay any profit on the enormous sums it will absorb. Testimony to the same effect, but with more fulness of detail, is given in an article published in the 'American Engineer' of Chicago, and written by a gentleman who has given several months to the caroful study of the Panama Canal on the ground, and with special facilities for seeing the inside of the thing. He reports that on May 1 last, after two years of excavation, there had been dug only 4,000,000 cubic metres out of a total of 130,000,000 needed. That which has been dono is the easy work. At least half of the excavation that re-

mains to be accomplished is through the hardest kind of rock, and, what is worse than rock, a tenacioug clay, which, when wet, is so sticky as to be almost impossible to handle. Another part j of the job which awaits the energies of the ! Company is the construction of a dam which must be built to turn the waters of the Chagres River at Gamboa. For this De Lesseps allowed £4,000,000. It is to bt of stone j is to be 130 ft. high at the greatest elevation, and two miles long. The writer in the ' American Engineer ' declares that, judging by the variances from the original j estimates already observable in the various j parts of the work, this dam will cost not i less than £12,000,000. "It is hard to resist the conclusion that' complete bankruptcy is the inevitable destiny of the De Lesseps Company, when we listen to the revelation of the cost of the little that has been done. The cost of the works already completed— and that part is only done in a shabby, half-and-half sortoi away— has been £18,840,000. The rocks, the clay, and the diversion of the waters of the Chagres remain to be attended to. De Lesaeps's original estimates of the cost was, and is, £30,000,000. The writer in the • American Engineer ' calculates that certainly not less than twice, and probably thrice, that sum will be necessary to complete the Canal. Admiral Shufeldt'a estimate of £80,000,000, quoted above, is a mean between their figures of £60,000,000 and £90,000,000. Even with this enlarged expenditure the completion of the Canal is an impossibility, unless there are radical changes made in the plans and in the manayement. " Against this melancholy exhibit of the Panama enterprise the advocates of the ' Nicaragua route put their surveys, which show that their canal could be built in five years, at a cost of not more than £15,000,000

A slow match— A long engagement. Song (in one flat)—*' Suite, suite home." Wheat has fallen a shilling in England. Figures that don't lie— The standing dummies in front of a clothing store. The gambler may be fond of his " ante," but he pays frequent visits to his " uncle." New York wholesale dealers now pay 7£d per doaen for making undershirts. Christchurch tender for 160,000 Savings Bank envelopes accepted by Government. Lore is blind, rery blind— when the girl i« rich. It costs Queen Victoria £700 a-year for her chief cook. The sweetest thing in walking-sticks— The sugar cane, A watch that has run down is a sort of miss-tick affair. On a lark— Feathers. The end of man— A foot above the sole. The Marquis of Normanby has been made a G.C.B. A young lady is like a whale when she's pouting. Last year 35 dead bodies, which have never been identified, were found in London. . Wellington lumpers are on strike for an advance of 3d a day. Governor Broome, of Western Australia, has arrived in London. i Food that makes one sick— The " chops " ! of the English Channel. ; Men who always go to the wall—Paperhangers. The pedigree of a Skye terrier could probably be traced up to the dog-star. Why is a dandy pickpocket like a heavy sea ? — Because he is a dangerous swell. How easy it is to be open-handed when it involves no self-denial. The champion wrestling match at Dunedin was won by W. Hudson, and the champion race, 220 yards, by Hulston. A Question — If a ventriloquist throws his voice away from him, how can he expect to carry on his profession ? Boy Frank Smith kicked on jaw by horse at St. Andrew's School teast. Cheek cut and several teeth out. Mr and Mrs ktheridge thrown from a buggy at Hokitika New Year's Day. Mrs Etherid^e's leg broken. Ths difference between a bell and a belle is that the tongue of the former is under control,"while that of the latter is not. Among the suggestions for books for the Free Library is Wilson's tails of the boarders. Many a woman who believes in female suffrage will not suffer her age to be made public. There has lately been published in London a list of over 3,000 Protestants who have become Catholics since the commencement of the nineteenth century. Be kind to the aged. They are not to blame for being old. They would be as young as you, probably, if they could have } their way. When Clara was asked what she would do if a nice young gentleman would ask her hand in marriage, she naively replied, " I I don't think I'd no." | Of 1 664 pictures exhibited in the Royal ■ Academy, London, last year, 203 have been sold at prices ranging from a guinea to £1,000. R. 8. Waterhouse, merchant, has disappeared from Wellington. His creditors have placed his affairs in the Bankruptcy Court. Many of the aristocratic ladies of Vienna have gone into mourning for Hans Mark.it, who seems to have enjoyed a great social popularity, Shylock ought to have known better than to go to law. A man is not likely to gain flesn when he has a lawsuit on his hands. Tho people of the United States, it is said, pay £180,000,000 annually for liquors. As Mr Weller would say, the people of the United States are a rum lot. The Dunedin Manufacturers' Association have asked Mr Graham Berry, the Victorian statesman, to visit New Zealand. He promises to do so if possible. A Boston bride, wishing to purchase a rump steak, asked for "a pound of the posterior portion of the animal." Her husband had to dine that day on ox -tail soup. A post-office opens at Duck Creek (Sugar Company's works), Mr Judd, the Customs officer, being appointed postmaster. The name Chelsea has been conferred upon the postal district. Experiments are now being made in Switzerland with a new firearm that is said to surpass all others now in use. Tho bullet has scarcely any deflection in its trajectory, but goes almost straight to the mark. A physician says: "If a child does not thrivo on fresh milk, boil it." He doesn't state how long the child should be boiled. We should think there would be danger of letting it boil too long. George— " Yes; I take up my violin for my own amusement occasionally, but I never play before company." Tom — " Thank you, my dear fellow, thank you, thank you !" The population of tho southern cities in Italy is found to be increasing a third faster than that in the northern cities bordering the Alps, caused ohiefly by emigration from the latter to South America. The grave of Richard Baxter has no stone to mark it in the chancel of Christ Church, London, and the vicar of t^ftii church askß for one hundred pounds ytitfi which to remedy the omission^

A trying simmoN— Putting on a pair of new shoes that are too tight. A regular sell (—That at the lock-up. Straw hats show how the wind blows. Sir Julius Vbgel had to be lowered from the steamer by means of tackle at Waiwera. A high rent— A hole in the crown of your hat. Market report— Whisky is going down (people's throats !) Dr. Ginders is the new resident medical officer at Botorua. Proposal made to erect a beetroot sugar factory in Waikato. In Berlin the bakers have reduced the price of finest white bread to Id per Ib. R. S. Waterhouse,|Wellington, is bankrupt. Prices of grain falling in all the markets of the world ; bad look-out for farmers. Robertson, the Maori wrestler, intends challenging Hudson, who tookthe champion belt at Dunedin the other day. Wellington lumpers have all come to terms except the coalers, who want an advance of 3d per hour. The steamer Ruapehu arrived at Plymouth on 3rd inst., having made the voyage from New Zealand in 36 days 20 hours. A dreadful old bachelor defines a dowry as " a lump of sugar intended to nullify the dose." What ought you to do if you split your sides with laughter? — Run till you get a stitch in them. Walter Mclntosh, alias Price, is in custody at Wellington charged with stealing £47. Strong-minded — Very. — The motto of the Good Templar girls is—-" The lips that touch liquor shall never touch mine." The quantity of foreign wheat imported into Germany is over 15,000,000 quarters per year. Never return a borrowed umbrella. Lightning seldom strikes twice in the same place. Your friend, having ventured one umbrella upon your honesty, will be loth to repeat the risk. Big criminal calendar at Dunedin— three persons charged with murder, one with shooting with jntent to kill, two with wounding with intent, four with forgery, and five with theft. James Grant, who resides at Waimate, Otago, bad an alarming experience on Saturday, and escaped unhurt. He fell off. a railway train near Blueskin Cliffs while it was going at full speed, but was only bruised and shaken. Here is the latest economic discovery of the champion mean man. One penny a day for a newspaper isn't much j but in a year it amounts to considerably over £1, in 100 years to £100. You can save this £100 by a systematic borrowing of your neighbour s paper. John Laing, chief cook of the steamer Arawa, was on Saturday afternoon found in an insensible condition in the forehold of that vessel at Wellington. On examination it was found that he had sustained severa injuries to his head, apparently from a fall. No one on board appears to know how the man met with hie injuries. The Melbourne properties of the late Mr D. McKellar, producing an annual rental of £5,074, were sold at ahction yesterday, and realised £120,633. The site of Wolstenhalme's oaf 6, Collins-street, 36 feet of. frontage, realised £14,560. According to the London "Truth, 1 * a member oi the aristocratic family of Cavendish has opened a tea shop at Eastbourne in Kent, and is receiving a full share* of public support from the inhabitants end visitors. Mine Cailhava is dead. A few years agoshe created quite a sensation in France through her attempt to discover hidden treasures. She had come to believe, on the strength of a dream, that vast treasures were buried somewhere in the crypt of the ancient cathedral of Notre Dame, and she professed to be able to discover the exact spot by means of a magic wand in her possession. The excavations which she proposed were authorised by the French authorities. Mme. Cailhava went to work with a will, and in a short time she had seriously imperilled a portion of the foundation of the*. the building, without discovering anything*. The Dean of the chapter at length interfered, and the silly proceedings of the* sorceress were put an end to, but not tilll a great deal of money had been spent anck a great deal of mischief had been done..

West School is a half-time one, and also that the master has to con ten I against ■circumstances which would prevent am master, no matter how good, from beine: -successful, namely, the non-co-oporulion of the parents and the consequent had attendance of the children. It is soon apparent that the failure of the To Aroha West School was due to cause? which I have mentioned and to no fault of this master, when we compare ilie jsiv'fss of it and that of the school in conjunction with it on the half-time system — the Wai 'urn School— in which a very fair per centre of pn«s-'S was A) -i lined at the reee it examination. Bore I may remark, th«> ehildion attend ic^u laily, and as a consequence the slices of the school is insuiei. It woulii, therefore, be much \vi*«v «>n the part oi the School Committee if they would consider for a mcmeni the leal causes of •the failure of their school, and would .profit thereby in the futuie -1 am, etc., Fair Play.

(TO THK KDITOK.) g IR) _Will you kindly oUi^e by inserting the following balance sheet of receipts and oxpediuire in connceiion^v.th the children's picnic, held cm New Yew's ■Bay :—

E. and O.E. The surplus of the £2 4s 8d has been equally between the Sabbath School and B.md of Hope, the picnic having been cairied out entiiely by their representatives. The thanks of the Committee are due to Mr H. J. Hawkins for a liberal present of strawberries, and to all who, b; contributions and m other ways, helped to make the affair so successful. Jno. P. Vausk, Secretary, for Committee.

Receipts. £ s. ii Collected by Mrs Blencowe „ Miss Warren ... 7 4 0 U „ Miss Strange ... „ Mr Vause ales after picnic ... •1 8 Total ... 14 19

Expenditure. Paid T. Aitken 4 8 0 Wells ami iSoutter „ E. Peel ,f, f J. Lavory „ C. Biunn „ Hyde „ C. Balcke „ Cash Prizes ... „ Te Aroha Band Balance 0 3 6 o^6 0 13 0 1 0 0 0 2 6 1 4 3 1 rf 6 0 10 6 2 1-8 Total 14 19 5