PROGRESS ON THE PANAMA CANAL

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1862, 12 June 1884, Page 4

PROGRESS ON THE PANAMA CANAL

Thkre me many who yet doubt whether Dc Lessepa and his associates will eventnaily cucoeed in piercing the Isthmus of I'.iuatna with a practical canal. The woik has now l>ccn fait l.y commenced, ami some £5,000,000 Ins thus far been e\ ponded, not including the money paid foi the Panama Railroad, but it is plainly nppaient that tho magnitude of the undui taking lias been gieatly underestimated, as it is also that the canal cannot be completed by the year ISSB, the time announced by M do Lesseps for its opening. Lieut. Raymond P, 'Uokcis, of the U. S. Navy, has lately passed over the line of the canal, where every facility was afforded him of making a thorough inspection, and his repoit brings our information concerning the work up to date. The number of men now cmplojcd in all sections is probably at least ] t "),000, brought chiefly from Jamaica and Carthagena, and the amount of excavation has gradually increase until 700,000 cubic meters per month have been i cached. It was hoped that the month of Feburary would produce 1,000,000 cubic metets, and that later the amount of 2,r)00,000 meters would be removed each month. The rainy season begins in May and continues till December and it is estimated that the lams will reduce the e\ca\ation of the dry a ason by | about one-fifth, so that in is not unlikely tli.it fiom May I next an annual excavation of 23,000,000 cubic metres may be coui.ted upon. It is not impossible, with the requisite money, that the sections of the canal, exclusive of those of Obispo, Empire, Culebra, and P-uaisp, may be ready for service by the year 1888, but it does not seem possible that these most formidable sections, with their cuts of great depth and width, can be made ready, nor that the ports at the extremities can be completed for some years later. Consider the section of Culebra, with its great excavation of more that 25,000,000 of cubic meters, and suppose that the large amount of 300,000 cubic mctois be icinoved each month f loin it ; at this rate it would take seven yeais to complete this section. Theie is an immense amount of machinery and mateiial now on hand or contracted for, and it is probable that their lemains fatifliuient funds fiom the amount already subset ibed to meet promptly the cm rent expenses for two years to come. After that, with the enterpiise well begun and with a fair proportion of° the whole excavation already icmoNod it would &ecm plausible that the piestige of M. de Lcssops' name and the confidence which the investors of France have in his ability to carry tluouwh succesbfully this gie.it work, would piocme the tuither neccss.uy subseiiptious. Whether the estimated Slim _ C2-J-. 000,000 will prove snlficient, time alono ran decide ; but as one third of this amount has ahc.u'y been expended, it would seem insufficient to complete tins most foimidable undeitaking. The climate has thus far not proved so fatal in most of the sections as might have been anticipated. Of course, o\posuie to the sun, heat, and fatigue have produced fcvcisand ha\e occasioned mortality ; but, as a rule, tho employes of the company fcem in f.iir health, and tho Hinopeans have suffered more than the labouicis, natives of the tropics. But, while most of the sections ha\e not been very sickly, the neighbourhood of Panama has proved an exception to the geneial mle. Here during the past six months have appealed, in larger numbers than usual, pernicious fevers, and there haMj been several cases of yellow fever which have proved fatal.

Wiivt English Landowners Won't Swear By. —By Geoige ! Any dairymaid will inform you that the biavost cow will ofter turn pail. 1 It's a mere matter of form,' said the lady as she adjusted her corset. In California a considerable business is being clone in canned vegetables. Tut year 1890 has been announced by M. cle Lessees for the opening of the Panama Canal. A -or all mountain has been discovered in Mexico hollowed out into hundreds of small chambers. The walls are covered with hieioglvphica. Tun Nova Scotia Legislature has extended the franchise in the municipal elections to widows and unmarried women, Tiih profits accruing from the of the English edition of " The Letters of the Princess Alice," will be set a&ide by the Piincess Christian for the endowment of the Princess Alice Memorial Hospital in Darmstadt. Tun Athenreum is glad to hear that the merits of Dr Mui ray's dictionary are being cordially recognised by Continental scholars. The sale, too, of the work is is highly satisfactory. '• I'll k life ot Frederick the Great," by Colonel C. B. Brackcnbuiy, R. A., will be published very shortly by Messrs Chapman and Hall. A main point dealt with is the part played in the battles in the last century by tho various arms of the set vice. English translations, unabridged and enexpurgated, of M. Zola's most famous novels, arc announced in London. One of the novels ia in its ninety-seventh French edition and the other in its one hundred and twenty-seventh, It is known that the recent-published brochure, w ritten in the style of Gibbon, entitled, "The Decline and fall of the Biitibh Empiie," in which the Liberal Government and the present system of army organisation axe so cleverly siituised, is by Mr C. J. Stone, of the Inner Temple. Dr RicinitDhOX is rapidly pushing forward with tho " Autobiography of Cruikshank," and thte long-looked-for book will bo published with as little delay as possible. Sivit.ks yeais ago a law was parsed piovidmg for the gradual manumission of sl.ues in Cuba, of whom there wet catthat time about 383,3."i.3. So well has this law been administered, that planters in many cases showing a willingness to "act even in ant'eipation of its provisions, have alieady set free 285,000 slaves, and there are good grounds for hoping that dining the year slavery will be removed from that island. PiTTSisiiKc, according to the statements of one of the burglar fraternity, now makes tho best " safe cracking " tools in the world, sui passing those of Sheffield, whence they were formerly obtained. Tho as&oitmcnt inchnlus extension bars, hairspring saws, bits and drills, A saw, capable of going through a piece of merchant bar iron 1-J inches thick in a few I minutes, is descubed as "so small that you could about hide it under your thumb-nail." Four years ago the United States sent 7o per cent, of all the wheat nnd flour that England requited. This percentage has progressively decreased, till it has sunk to 46. The fact is not explicable by any decrease in the British demand, being greater than ever before. American writers explain the fact by saying that speculation has sent up prices in the States to a height which made exportation impossible. In this way is speculation, in the shape of corners and futures, injuring the interests of the United States. The importing country buys is the best market, and, when speculators send up American wheat to fancy prices, buyers decline to give those prices and pm chase elsewhere. — American paper. Rats and Mice.— lf you wish to de- J stroy them get a packet of HiLii's Kiij i'R in packets, Cd, 9d, and Is, to be obtained of all storekeepers, or from T. B. Hill by enclosing an extia stamp, , ; , i LIFK IN THE'BUSH— TIIEX AND NOW.— - It is generally supposed that in the bush we have to put up with, many discomforts arid privations in the shape ot food. F6rmcrly it was so, but now, thanks to T. B. Htix, who lias himself d welt in the bush, if food docs consist chiefly of tinned meats his Colonial Saucu gives; to them a most delectable flavour, making them as well of the plainest food most enjoyable, and instead as hard biscuits and indigestible damper his Improved Colonial Baking Fowpur makes thp very best bread, scones, cakes, and pastry far superior and, more, wholesome than yeast leaven. Sold by all storekeepers who can ob- ; tun it Uom any merchant in Auckjwd;