The Cordova daily times., 1918-01-17
PANAMA CANAL
More Ships Using the Water. way and Fewer Slides are
 Noted in Annual Report.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 17.-Trarftc through the Panama canal last wear increased largely over the prevtons years, according to the annual renort of Colonel Chester Harding. governor of the canal A total of 1878 vessa,s or all ciaSSes passed through the ca nal from July 1, 1916. to Jnne 2o 1917, inclusive.
 Of these, 9O5 passed from the Al. lantic to the Pacific, and 971 from the Pacific to the Atlantic. In the fiscal year 1915, 1,O88 vessels passed through the canal and in 1916, 787. The total number of vessels transiting the canal since it opened for commercial traffic in August, 1914, is 3,751. The total net tonnage, canal measurement, for the several years is as follows: 1915, &,S49,oa5; 1916, 2,479,762; and 1917, GOODIES, The cargo tonnage trans. ported was, for 1915, 4969.792; 1916. 2119,oi5; and 1917 Z229,255.
 Less from Present Traffic Rules
 The traffic for the year yielded a revenue of $5,621.781.G6 from tolls The ruies for leyying tols have thrs far remained unchanged.
 If will be remembered. says the re- port, that under present law and raou- lation tolls are based on canal ton mage, at the rate of $12O per net ton. except when this product exceeds the registered net tonnage, United States rules, at rate of SIPS per ton. in which case the lesser amount is col lected. The confusion. lack of uni formity and loss in revenue to the canal resulting from the present ar. rangement have been fully discussed in previous reports, and remedian Ieg- islation is now pending in congress
 In this connection attention is in yited to the fact that the revenues from tolls for the past fiscal year would have been $6,668,247.32 if cana rules alone had governed, which i: $1,O36,4 ,46566 more than the amour actually collected.
 Dredging Work of the Year
 The years dredging chargeable |, construction, which includes all tn, excavation in the canal prism at lo cations where the full widths ant depths have not been once obtained is as follows: Gaillard cut, 183 ,o@t GU bic yards; between Gamboa and Pedro Miguel lock, 246,99S cubic yards; ant Pacific entrance, 221,138 cubic yards At the end of the year there remained l,40914O cubic yards of original ex caVation to be done within the limit of the canal prism.
 Cucaracha slide has given no fur ther trouble since the large move ment that blocked the canal in Aug ust. 1916, as described in the report of last year To reduce the chances of interruptions to traffic due to fu ture similar movements, if they occur, the material in the slide was removed for a distance of 100 feet outside the canal prism.
 It is believed that in the future the great slides of the canal will be of his toric interest only.
 Collections and Disbursements
 Disbursements were made by the paymaster to the amount of $2S,15O,- 61O.55 during the year, of which amount s9,&63 ,739.34 was on account of the Panama railroad. Employees on the gold roll of the canal were paid s6,2O6,95O.72, and those on the silver roll $5,914,259.72. Collections by payroll deductions were made from employees in the sum of $4,O2S,566.94; of this amount the sum of $3,S.2,21207