ISTHMUS OF PANAMA. ITEMS OF INTEREST CONCERNING THE GREAT CANAL.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 180, 27 November 1886, Page 7

ISTHMUS OF PANAMA. ITEMS OF INTEREST CONCERNING THE GREAT CANAL.

"The People or Panama Believe That It will be Practically Completed in 1892. Samuel Boyd, editor of the Panama "Star and Herald," while visiting San Francisco, gavogome interesting information about Pan *ma and the canal, concerning both of which 'Be saya there has been much misrepresent "tation. The canal, in bia opinion and in that of all the psople of Panama, will b e completed. The hardest pait of the "work has been finished, and now excava tions are going on along the whole line the Atlantic to the Pacific. All of the machinery necessary for the prosecution of the great enterprise is now on the ground and ready for work. About twelve thousand labourers are employed, and erery ■day their labours increase in efficiency. tFrom Colon to Gatun, about seven mile 3, 'the dredges of Slaven & Co. have dug a ■canal, and the trip can be made by water ; 'but this section of the canal is not yet -deep enough for large vessels, but will be made so shortly. Ten large dredges are •»t work here, and the company is making •every effort to speedily complete its contract. All of the other eections are now under contract, which will insure more "rapid and systematic work than hereto "fore, when the canal company had immediate charge. The Culebra section, the most difficult on the whole line, is under contract to the Anglo Dutch Company, Tfhich is backed by an immense amount of money and which is directed by some of the most able of European engineers. The Director-General of the company, a moat -able and energetic younej man, will personally superintend the work. Some of the tmttinga here will be several hundred feet -deep. The most powerful machinery has I»een constructed and sent to the Isthmus, <and the work of excavation is being pushed torward with great energy.

Money for Three Years. The canal company now has money -enough to last for three years, and during that time the principal efforts will be concentrated upon the Culebra section. When 'this money shall have been expended, the werk will be bo far advanced that the •amount necessary to complete the canal ■will be easily obtained. Already the visitor can see that the work done has been vast, and can discern the beginning of a canal. JB*rom Gatun one can look far inland and see the land cleared, the «arfch removed to near the water-line — in fact, a vast cut through the Isthmus reaching miles to the westward, read)' to be cut away below the water-line by the dredges, which are eating their way inland. On the Pacific side there has been considerable dredging at the western outlet, where a town has sprung up, as has been the case at the Atlantic terminus. That the work will be completed, there is no doubt in the minds of those who have thoroughly examined it. The trouble with many correspondents who have written ■concerning it is that they have devotad not more than a day or two to a survey of the work done, which is not sufficient to even begin to get an idea of what has been accomplished.

The Interior Sections. The interior sections where such heavy -work has been and muet ba done have scarcely ever been visited, although •very facility for examination is extended by the canal company to those who wieh to ascertain the condition of the great enterprise. In the opinion of Mr Boyd there is no doubt as to the fact that the canal will be dug to the water level by 1892, and that at that date the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific will meet through the great cut. He does not think that the canal will be deep enough for vee at that time, perhaps two years more being required to dredge to the necessary depth ; but it will be practically completed at that date.

The Health of Panama. The reports concerning the health of Panama and the Isthmus are asserted by Mr Boyd to be in the main false. There are no deaths in the streets, as has been reported, and no unusual mortality. Although Panama has no supply of water by aqueduct, and although the d-ainage is for the moet part on the surface, there is not much more illness than in northern cities, and the death rate compares favourably with that of to ore northern regions. Epidemics are unknown there, Although there is no qaarantine lave, and immigration from Jamaica and other West India Islands is unrestricted and vessels from cholera-infested Marseilles landed passengers without restriction, there have been only a few isolated cases of small-pox caused by infection brought from the island?, where it was raging, and not one case of cholera has existed, although communication with France was unrestricted. Croup, measles, typhoid and typhus fevers are of rare occurrence, and never take on an edidemic character. Although in the tropics, where the heat is considerable during the day, there is not that mortality among children that is found in the cities of thia country during July and August. A splendid road has been built to the Pacitic terrain u 8 of the canal, a sanitorium has been established on one of the islands in the harbour, and there are on all "ides evidences of prosperity and growth. Panama people not only hope, but believe that the canal will be completed, and their feeling of con6dence is so strong that they bftve been willing to stake much upon it. They, like De Leesepa, say that the canal will be built.- "S. F. Call."