THE PANAMA CANAL.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1936, 2 December 1884, Page 4

THE PANAMA CANAL.

(Anglo Nbw Zkvlandkr.) fTirui conflicting accounts which fiom time to time are given to the woild us to the progress and possibilities of the I'.vnam i Canal appear to amount in. inly toth'j expression of mere preliudice o predilection. Thete seems a fatuity in the peisutenje with winch English people dislike caiMl piojccts, at least wli.«n tlicso omanato from Fivnclnnm and appaiently we arc now hiving i epe.it xl •in relation to the coming highway in Ccutral Ameiiea, the blind and stupid picdjudices with which people set them selves to oppose by wish— though no way else— the progress of the cutting of the Sue dual. That the I'aiidin i dual ,is now tlio eve of becoming a gi'i'it fact, no one, unlesaa a man blinded by his own wilful <iot, can icasonably deny. Lesseps possesses the " Open sesame '" to the wallet of iho thrifty pi olctairo, the purse of the bourgeoisie and the banking accounts of the capitalists of his own people, and does not appear to care pat ticularly for English sovereigns so long as he cau got enough of French francs. That he can get this is absolutely clear ; and as nowadays engineering is meiely a matter of money, so there is nothing under the sun impossible to the modern eugineer who can put his hand on the funds lequired. There is every reason to believe that the great waterway that is to connect the Pacific with the Atlantic, and the vast areas of habitable lands of the South with the teeming populations and wealth of Europe, will be accomplished at the specified time, and that is within four years. . Already the people of the United States have realised the coming fact, and aie proceeding to cultivate political relations in Central America which point to the possibility of a desire to dominate the tratiic of the canal in some way. France, with full faith in the determination and ability of her talented citizen, has long ago made provision for the future requirements of her commerce and the maintenance of her influence by annexing almost all available islands and "coups of islands in the Eistein Pacific ; and when, by-and by, England wakes up to the fact that the way is actually open across the Isthmus, there will be universal dissatisfaction at the culpable negligence that omitted to make timely piovibion for the benefit of the vast commcicial intciests involved. Some way or another England manages ultimately to piofit by others' labonis in this direction, and, sow who may, she geneially leaps the haivcst; and no doubt when the necessity aii-os, and tiade is seen to l>e .ictu.illy taking the dnoetion of the Panama dn.i!, any difficulties or embatia&sments that may have sprung from ignoiing co.ning events, will br, quietly brushed aside in the future aj in the pist All the same, it does seem unwauantable tint while other nations aie fully ah\e to the fact that one of the greatest watoiw.iys of the futuie is about to be opene 1 to_ commerce, the nation w hich of all in the world has the largest interests imolved, should meiely with a slung of the .shouldeis let it pass. If doubts any longer ieniani"d on the subject, the (jiiestion might be defened; but surely now it is f.une that in the interests of ]J:itish trade and the enoi'iiously c\p inding ecinmciee of the colonies in the southern hemisphere, step* should bo taken to inqiine into the actual progiess of this meat work, and into the extent to which JJntish com in "ice may be affected by ie, or by the anangements, actual or in contemplation, of other nations, with tl.e evident intention of controlling the tr.ifhc of tins gitat gateway between the oceans.