THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, MAY 23, 1908. THE PANAMA CANAL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9096, 23 May 1908, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, MAY 23, 1908. THE PANAMA CANAL.

Mr Roosevelt stated recently that the Panama Canal will be completed in four years; this anticipation has now been confirmed, as far as the excavation is concarned. by the American Secretary of State for War. who has been visiting the Isthmus. Gigantic engineering works are not usually completed in the time originally set, because of the unforeseen difficulties which so commonly arise, but in the case of the Panama Canal the original programme has been greatly expedited. When the ruins of the ill-fated scheme of M. Lesseps passed into the powerful hands of the Washington Government, it was calculated that success would he attained by 101(5, as at least twelve years would be required for the enormous task. ' Even this calculation was heavily discounted by able engineers,

some experts insisting that another ten years tfould hardly see the Atlantic and the Pacific thus united. But both optimists and pessimists appear to have under-rated the potentialities of modern engineering when limitless money is available. When the United States determined to carry out the canalisation of the Panama Isthmu?, it brought to the work the assistance of the richest rational treasury in the world, and removed thn usually dominating factor of financing Irom the problem; or rather, it made that factor altogether favourable to the engineers to whom the work was entrusted. There was no longer any necessity for appealing to the money market for support, nor for arranging expenditure in such a manner as to make the best of limited annual provision. Millions of pounds were constantly availaule trom the practically inexhaustible purse of which congress had loosened the string, and the effect of this relief from financial difficulties is to be seen in the unprecedented progress which has been made. Excavating machinery of great power and effectivity has been invented and applied, while an army of labourers has not only been gathered co the Isthmus, but has been kept in comparative health by the American sanitary organisation. Yellow fever has practically been conquered, malaria has been greatly reduced, and the mortality rates are lower than ever known before under similar circumstances. The Panama Canal is being rushed into existence by an unlimited expenditure of national wealth which has secured for the work the machinery and superintendence of the white race and the physical strength of the coloured races. Instead of taking the anticipated twelve years to complete, it promises to be concluded in eight years, for under incessant pressure from Washington the building, wharfage, and other operations are being forced-tm as fast as the excavation. It is asserted that ships will pass through by the end of 1912, and at the current rate of progression this cannot be regarded as impossible.