The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. MONDAY, JANUARY 24, 1910. THE PANAMA CANAL.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2717, 24 January 1910, Page 4

The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. MONDAY, JANUARY 24, 1910. THE PANAMA CANAL.

It is fortunate for civilisation that the task of piercing the Isthmus of Panama lias been taken up by a nation possessed not only of great determination, but also of almost limitless resources. Under the Lessons scheme some (£60,000,000 had been expended by 1888. AY hen the United States Government decided to undertake the construction of the canal the estimate of cost, including policing and sanitation. was £28,800,000. In 1906 the cost cf construction alone was estimated at £27,860,060, but the impossibility of even approximately estimating the cost of excavation is shown by the latest report of the Canal Commission. This report estimates that the total cost of construction will reach £59,400,000, and that with purchase price, sanitation, and civil government, the total bill will amount to £75,000,000. The work is understood to lie progressing rapidy and the Canal may be ready, as promised, by 1915, but it is certain the ipeople of the United States will have to wait a considerable period before so expensive an undertaking can be made to nav dividends.