THE PANAMA CANAL.
Ad who are interested in the Panama Cana!—and the accomplishment of the great w- rk would be an unquestionable boon to the Antipodes—will be sorry to hear that it makes but poor progress. M. De Lesseps has proved himself a man of such vast energy and enterprise that he may be expected to triumph over most difficulties, But at Panama the struggle is less with engineering obstacles than with the lethal climate, an enemy too inpa'pablc to be easily overcome. Moreover tne cflovts made to grapple with it have apparently been small- No care is given to those employed on the works, or attempt to reduce the terribly insanitary condition of the marshy malarious spot. The percentage of sickness is in consequence extraordinary. Half the old number of laborers are always hois de co-mbtd. These workmen mostly French and Spaniards, have but a poor physique to start with. They are the sweepings of the large towns in the United States, and they are gathered together to be shipped off to Aspinwall by steamer, whence they are sent on by rail to Panama. They get seventeen dollars per month as wages and their board, which is invariably rice twice a day and salt fish without an ounce of fresh meat. The poor wretches soon succumb. The prevalent disease is a kind of wasting of the s\ stem, under which all strength and energy are drained away. Hundreds would leave but they have no money to pay the railway fare to Aspinwall, and they have no alternative but to drag out their wretched lives to the end. The place abounds with alligators, snakes and poisonous insects. Tiie bite of the latter is so noxious that loss of limb often follows. Medicines and all comforts are exoibitautly deal, liquors also, although the chief trouble of the place is an intolerable thirst and a growing craving for alcoholic stimulant. As the outcome of all this the number of hands at work is neve r more than a hundred, and all there is to show- is a certain amount of hoarding erected and a few yards of soils turned. At this rate some years must elapse before the American Continent is pierced.—Home News.
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Temuka Leader, Issue 607, 17 November 1881, Page 3
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371THE PANAMA CANAL. Temuka Leader, Issue 607, 17 November 1881, Page 3
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