THE PANAMA CANAL.

Thames Star, Volume XV, Issue 4897, 19 September 1884, Page 2

THE PANAMA CANAL.

A very optimist report was submitted to the shareholders of the Panama Canal Company last week at the annual meeting' held in Paris; The engineers, instead of meeting with unforeseen difficulties, find the work easier of execution than supposed, and no doubt is entertained—or at any rate expressed—that the Canal will be opened for navigation in 1888, as originally intended, and probably on the i Ist January, instead of at the end of that year. The number of hands employed in May last was 19,000, against 6,200 only last year. Daring the first four months of the year 2,482,768 cubic metres of earth were extracted, which was within less than 300,000 metres as much as had been extracted since the works first commenced. The expenditure to the 30th June, 1883, amounted to 211 millions of francs. The company had then in hand a balance of 58 millions, and uncalled share capital amounting to 147 millions. An issue of. 300 millions in bonds, has since been made, but 129 millions of that sum has still to be received. It has been pointed out that a remarkable discrepancy exists between the official accounts of the position and prospects of the Panama Canal and those that come from private sources. Lieut. Brown's report to the United States Navy Department takes a decidedly gloomy view of the prospects of the work*-Anglo» New Zeaiander.